Vibraphone Bars

DCS Code: 3B60.11 Last Updated: March 27, 2026
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Purpose

Demonstrates acoustic beats — the periodic rise and fall of loudness when two nearly identical frequencies sound together. Two vibraphone bars tuned to 440 Hz and 441 Hz produce clearly audible beats at exactly 1 Hz.

Two black metal vibraphone bars labeled A441 and A440, mounted vertically on a wooden base with orange felt pads at the nodes and red felt dampers on top, with a wooden mallet in front
Figure 1: Vibraphone bars tuned to 440 Hz and 441 Hz, mounted on a wooden base. Strike both simultaneously with the mallet to produce 1 Hz beats.