Klarinet Archive - Posting 000439.txt from 1995/03

From: Steve Prescott <MIPRESC@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Tone quality; Tone color
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 1995 15:05:47 -0500

Jonathan,

Maybe I'm all wet here and somewhat out of my league (not being an
acoustician) but upon reading - and I'll paraphrase a little - it has
been shown that instruments that instruments we musicians say have a
"bright" timbre are those with high cutoff frequencies. The cutoff
frequency of an instrument can be raised by increasing the diameter of
the toneholes so...instruments with larger toneholes have a "brighter"
timbre. (Benade 1976 from Campbell and Greated 1987).

I have taken some liberty as the above was written primarily in
reference to clarinet.

Steve Prescott
Instrument Rep. Tech/Clarinetist
Indiana State University
mipresc@-----.edu