On August 12, Tim Storms (right) broke both of his current Guinness world records for “the lowest note produced by a human” and “widest vocal range for a male.” Measurements taken at Citywalk Studio with engineer Mark Owen were performed using a Bruel & Kjaer Type 2270 sound analyzer with a Type 4189 mic with a LF extension adapter, which lowered the -1dB cut-off frequency of the mic from 7 Hz to 1.5 Hz. The data was saved to the analyzer’s SD memory card and sent to Bruel & Kjaer for analysis (performed by Jim Weir, a senior application engineer at the company).
For the low-frequency trials, the analyzer was set up to measure maximum and exponentially averaged FFT spectrum with a frequency span of 100 Hz and 400 lines of analysis. In addition, five ambient noise-level measurements were performed. The data collected showed that Storms can produce acoustic output below 1 Hz (the lowest frequency recorded was 0.7973 Hz) in repeatable trials.
During the widest-range trials, the analyzer was set up to measure the FFT spectrum in a maximum hold mode. A frequency span of 5 kHz was used with 6,400 lines of analysis. The highest pitch recorded was at a fundamental frequency of just over 800 Hz.
