Klarinet Archive - Posting 000694.txt from 2004/07

From: "Karl Krelove" <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Sound character based on medium, and the subject of beating a dead h...
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 13:30:30 -0400

> -----Original Message-----
> From: GrabnerWG@-----.com]
> Should we just stop all experimentation just because you flatly maintain
> materials make no difference? I think not.
>
>

But what SOMEone should do (I'm not volunteering - I lack both the means and
the laboratory training even to know what means would be needed) is sit down
with whatever acoustic instrumentation is needed and make some sound
measurements. It seems as if some preliminary but valid results could be
gotten with two or three barrels made to identical specs in three different
materials, measuring the sound a player produced with each barrel using
whatever would show the overtone spectrum of the resulting tone. Those with
the scientific knowledge, fill in the blank for the measuring device.

To be really convincing, you'd need to show that the results are consistent
(reliable) over a broader range of specimens. Comparing complete instruments
might be difficult since you would be hard pressed to find two made of
different materials that were otherwise identical in construction, but
perhaps if the results with barrels, bells, and perhaps mouthpieces looked
convincing in the direction of material actually relating to sound
character, some instrument maker would put in the effort to supply specimens
just to put the question to rest.

With the results in hand, everyone can THEN go about the business of
explaining them, as well as any possible anomalies suggested by differences
between what people HEAR and what the instrumentation SHOWS.

I know I'm saying "let someone else do it," but it seems as if all the
arguing this topic generates revolves around the reliability or fallibility
of human hearing and the objectivity or bias of the listener. Perhaps I'm
misjudging things, but it doesn't seem to me that finding the scientific
"proof" one way or the other ought, if one has access to the equipment, to
be very difficult.

And, Dan, I suspect (without having actually spoken with any of them) that
the first people who questioned a "flat earth" did not do so on the basis of
"scientific" measurement - they noticed things with their own eyes that were
inconsistent with the theory. By the time anyone actually sailed around the
world to disprove that the earth is flat, they were already pretty damn
sure.

Karl

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