Klarinet Archive - Posting 000661.txt from 2004/07

From: "Mark Charette" <charette@-----.org>
Subj: RE: [kl] Material influence on sound...one more time
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 14:03:14 -0400


> From: dnleeson [mailto:dnleeson@-----.net]
>
> Metal, glass, rubber, wood, you name it. Given any clarinet
> properly manufactured and using any of these media, I suggest
> that it is impossible to distinguish between them on the basis of
> quality of sound.

I do know of one (unfortunately unpublished) experiment, and it's relatively
simple to do.

10 tubes of 5 dissimilar materials were produced, with equal lengths, equal
wall thicknesses, interior dimensions and finish quality as similar as
possible, interior diameters the same (and sized to accept a mouthpiece).
All dimensions were kept as exact as possible on modern machinery. No keys
or toneholes. The tubes were not cheap to produce, I remember (at least a
couple of hundred dollars each in machinist's time).

The same mouthpiece & player was used to create a tone on each.

If material doesn't make any difference then the sound produced should be
statistically the same.

Unfortunately, I don't know the results of this experiment ...

This experiment really should be done again with more tubes / material.

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