THO Game Calls Forums
The Art of Handcrafting Custom Game Calls => General Call Making Discussions => Topic started by: George Black on January 13, 2016, 01:35:47 PM
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Anyone ever do a spectrum analysis of how a call performs and at what frequencies are optimal? My engineering mind would like to have data
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I'm sure there are others in the forums, but here is an interesting test.
http://thogamecallsforums.com/index.php/topic,20063.0.html
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I have a friend (another NASA engineer) who did a PSD(power spectral density) analysis on his turkey calls. He recorded a bunch of live wild turkeys and ran the PSD analysis then tuned each of his calls to be right in the center of the frequency range. They sound real good! All that is required is a mic and the right computer software.
Fred
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There was a journal paper I came across once- "Acoustical comparison between decrescendo calls of female mallards and mimicry by humans using artificial duck calls." I also checked out the accompanying thesis. I wasn't very impressed with the methodology or level of discussion within either, however.
Seems to me like some sort of psychoacoustic metrics could be applied here as well to capture parts of the call sound that we consider "good."
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Before I was bitten by this call making bug, I had visited Fred Zink's shop it's not far from my home. His employee gave me the VIP tour. it is a cool place, Their tuning room was all sound proofed and everything that had exactly what you are describing. They grabbed a insert push it in a barrel ran it seen the scale on the screen made adjustments and repeat. it was really cool!
just a short story about what I had seen.
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This is an interesting concept. Did his calls perform better after the PSD test?
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This is an interesting concept. Did his calls perform better after the PSD test?
He already made a wonderful box call but when he ran the PSD he found that some of his calls were just outside the preferred (average) frequency range of wild turkeys. What we are talking about is a bell shaped curve where the preferred frequency range is near (+/-) the peak of the curve. What the analysis of each box call did was allow the call maker to produce a call that was more consistent and always within the preferred frequency range of wide turkeys. Did the PSD make a difference? He is a very skilled and successful turkey hunter!
I have one of his box calls and love to hunt with it. In 5 years I have called in and killed a total of one jake. But I still manage to call in and scare several turkeys each year! Says something about my skill level!
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This is an interesting concept. Did his calls perform better after the PSD test?
He already made a wonderful box call but when he ran the PSD he found that some of his calls were just outside the preferred (average) frequency range of wild turkeys. What we are talking about is a bell shaped curve where the preferred frequency range is near (+/-) the peak of the curve. What the analysis of each box call did was allow the call maker to produce a call that was more consistent and always within the preferred frequency range of wide turkeys. Did the PSD make a difference? He is a very skilled and successful turkey hunter!
I have one of his box calls and love to hunt with it. In 5 years I have called in and killed a total of one jake. But I still manage to call in and scare several turkeys each year! Says something about my skill level!
Lol it sounds like your on par with mine.
Very interesting stuff. I would be interested in the sounds we can't hear. If they exist. I read some interesting research on coyote howls. The research suggested that there were frequencies we could not hear in their howls. I would venture to guess that if the part of a howl that we do hear has a meaning than the part of a howl we don't hear has meaning too. As a call maker... How can I account for that in my calls without of bit of technology to aid my ear in analysis?
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Got a chance to discuss the turkey PSD with my call maker friend last night. Here is a summary of what he told me about the frequency range of wild turkeys he recorded:
1. Old turkey gobbler-- 8-900hz
2. Old turkey hen-- 1200hz
3. Young turkey hen-- 14-1500hz
Fred
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Thank you. This is really interesting information. It brings up a few questions in my mind. Is this information True across subspecies and region? It seems to stick to the age old wisdom that older hens care lower in tone.
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I have no idea about regional differences but since we do not make region specific turkey calls I would suspect that the differences among individual turkeys is as great as the regional differences. Just speculation on my part!
I was hunting in Wyoming one year and visiting with the rancher. There were turkeys all over the yard/barnyard some less than 3 feet away. I remarked how pretty they were and he stated that they were wild and showed up every year about that time and spent the winter with his livestock. They did not sound any different than our Alabama turkeys.
Fred
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Thanks, Fred. My curiosity was more about turkeys than call making.
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Got a chance to discuss the turkey PSD with my call maker friend last night. Here is a summary of what he told me about the frequency range of wild turkeys he recorded:
1. Old turkey gobbler-- 8-900hz
2. Old turkey hen-- 1200hz
3. Young turkey hen-- 14-1500hz
Fred
I think you left a 0 off of each of those numbers
Stump
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Those are the numbers I was given Stump. I did not perform the analysis.
I did find this on the net:
--The hearing range of birds is from below 50 Hz (infrasound) to around 12 kHz, with maximum sensitivity between 1 and 5 kHz. I would expect a Turkey to be at the low end of the frequency range.
--The average frequency range for human speech varies from 80 to 260 Hertz. The vocal speech frequency of an adult male ranges from 85 to 180 Hertz, while the frequency of an adult female ranges from 165 to 255 Hertz.
--The human hearing range is commonly given as 20 to 20,000 Hz
I am suppose to get a copy of the analysis software sometimes soon I hope.
Fred
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I had lunch with my retired engineer friend/ turkey call maker today. Here is the link to the analysis software he uses and the software is a free download!
http://www.audacityteam.org/
There is a free users manual available. If you are running Windows 10 you might have trouble with the software. Unfortunately my new computer is a Windows 10 machine so I will have to wait for the next update.
Fred
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See article below. Mississippi state student did a small study on this
http://msucares.com/news/print/fwnews/fw11/110728.html