Klarinet Archive - Posting 001102.txt from 1999/12

From: "Dee D. Hays" <deehays@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] klarinet Digest 31 Dec 1999 09:15:00 -0000 Issue 1942
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 1999 14:09:12 -0500

----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Sears" <dsears@-----.net>
Subject: Re: [kl] klarinet Digest 31 Dec 1999 09:15:00 -0000 Issue 1942

> The reality is more complicated than either view. The mouthpiece/reed may
be
> merely a pink-noise generator in isolation, but as Arthur Benade (who I
think
> understood clt acoustics better than anyone) took pains to describe in
detail,
> all the parts work together. The multiple resonances in the bore and
resonances
> in the player's vocal tract work together (in combination with the blowing
> pressure and the reed's mass and springiness) to control exactly how the
reed
> opens and closes during each cycle of a tone. Which part is most
important?
> Well, that sounds to me like one of those teaching metaphors that Tony Pay
> writes about, rather than a verifiable assertion of fact.
>
> --Doug
> ----------------------------
> Doug Sears dsears@-----.org/~dsears
>
> Keith Bowen wrote:
> ><Rien Stein>
> >>One of the statements Mr Pino made - and I agree with him as to this
> >point -: The closer to the mouth, the more important. Implying that the
> >most
> >important part of any clarinet is the reed. That is also what I am always
> >telling people about th instrument, so there is nothing new to me.<
> >
> >This comes up quite often, but I have never seen any real evidence for
> >it. As it stands, it's just an assertion. I could make a perfectly good
> >argument for the contrary view: that the mouthpiece/reed is just a
> >pink noise generator (obvious if you play it without the clarinet!)
> >and it's the job of the clarinet to filter out the tones that we want.

Normally as an engineer I require proof of generalities, sweeping
statements, and "everyone knows." However one of the truths of life is
that a good beginning is important to anything. This is one of the very few
things that I will accept. Remember the old "stitch in time saves nine."

The farther from the beginning (time or distance) you are in an activity the
more effort is required to impact the outcome.

If a bridge's foundation is second rate, it will deteriorate much more
rapidly than one that is well built and require more frequent and more
costly maintenance.

In planning a project, the better the upfront planning, the greater the
probability of coming in on time and on budget.

In design, the better the upfront analysis and testing is the less likely
that there will be costly changes required the day before you go into
production. Changes made on paper (or CAD file) at the beginning of a
project are cheap. Changing the hardware once the production line is set up
is *VERY* expensive.

If your pink noise generator is not generating the right frequencies in the
right proportions, well your filter can only work on what is supplied to it.
The sound will be second rate with no way to make it first rate.

So I will accept that the mouthpiece is more important than the instrument.
By the same thought process, the player is thus more important than the
equipment.

Dee Hays
Canton, SD

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