Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-02-15 11:54
Paul Wusow wrote:
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I must disagree with Ray. If you read any books pertaining to acoustics (of the clarinet, or any other instrument in which sections can be made of various materials...) you will find that wood, hard rubber, plastic, etc.. all vibrate differently. The vibrations are also affected by temperature, humidity, altitude... a number of factors
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Paul,
The Benade book on acoustics, arguably the premier book on woodwind acoustics, refutes that statement, along with a number of experiments that have been done (including a concrete flute and organ pipes surrounded by water). In these cases no audible differences were perceived. Measuring the wall vibration of a clarinet shows it to be less than 10^-6 (one millionth) the amplitude of the air column vibration, adding a negligible amount of audible energy.
There are a number of theories on interroughness and such affecting the air column vibrations. There have also been some songle blind studies done with the R-13 greenline where people have not been able to distinguish between the greenline and regular grenadilla wood. The greenline's density and stiffness orientstion is totally different than regular grenadilla wood and, according to Gibson, should have sounded different. Benade said they should have sounded the same. Benade's won that round so far.
I have not heard the Howarth PVC clarinet yet, but that should be interesting, too.
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