 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Tyler
Date: 2005-10-10 21:58
After much research, I found many others who believe that what is GENERALLY considered a "bright" sound is a tone which has stronger or more high overtones and not as strong of a fundamental frequency and lower overtones; and a "dark" but "rich" sound has very strong fundamental and lower overtones, and also has notable higher harmonics but they are not as strong (I mean strong in amplitude).
This had been my hypothesis for a while, and now I had found other people who ran scientific tests to verify it, but I wanted to see for myself. I searched until I found this site, http://www.nch.com.au/tonegen/ where I could download the Tone Generator program and play with combinations of tones resembling overtones. In this program, you can add more than 10 tones together to form a single tone, and you can adjust the pitch and the relative amplitudes (by negative db's) of each tone. So, I first selected the option of having about 10 tones at once. Then I adjusted the frequencies to follow the harmonic series (fundamental=x, harm#1=2x, harm#2=3x, etc.) Then, because the clarinet does not strongly produce the even-numbered harmonics, I lowered their relative amplitudes so they were not as apparent in the combined tone. I played the tone on my computer speakers after these changes, and not surprisingly, the tone became relatively dark and deep as a clarinet's tone is often described. Then it was time to try "dark" vs "bright". To darken the tone, I severely lowered the relative amplitudes of the higher harmonics and left the lower ones where they were. When I played the result, the tone, at least TO ME, sounded much darker. When I did the opposite, by resetting the amplitudes of the higher partials and lowering the amplitudes of the lower ones, the tone (again, in MY mind) sounded brighter.
Conclusion=higher amplitudes of the fundamental frequency and lower overtones contribute to a darker tone, whereas the presence of and higher amplitudes of higher overtones contribute to brighter tones.
Some other interesting statements on the influence of the harmonic series on tone are made by (I believe) some guitar makers at this site: http://www.bartlawrence.com/BartLawrenceTonalAnalysisPage.htm
I hope this has proved interesting; if not, then I wasted 2 or 3 hours of my teenage life. Maybe I should have been practicing....or....uh....socializing 
Now if only I could understand the effects of embouchure, as well as reed and mouthpiece design on the clarinet's harmonic series...
-Tyler
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-10-10 23:17
Congrats and TKS, Tyler, for providing new light on a long-standing question, I and others [I'm sure] have had. Looking at it from the viewpoint of a "semi-scientist" it has made good sense to me, and was borne out [to me] by playing oboe [hautbois, FR for high wood, to me, ABOVE the flute] confirmed by sound spectra showing more energy [amplitude] in its 2nd harmonic [octave] than in the fundemental, thus sounding like it was an octave higher than as played and written. I also heard [somewhere] recordings of various insts playing the same note, with progressive elimination of harmonics/overtones, until all insts made the same [fundemental] dull sound. I believe some grad.school music research is being carried on in the NZ/Aust. region, others please find and add here with your thots. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: William
Date: 2005-10-11 15:24
A related and interesting point was once made by the cellist from our UWs resident Pro Arte Quartet. He advocated playing closer to the fingerboard on his cello when playing in the quartet--where intonation with the upper stings is critical to the sound of the ensemble--because that technique eliminated overtones in his sound that would clash with those produced by the higher and brighter sounding viola and violins. When playing solo literatiure on his cello, he played more toward the "sweet" sounding area between the bridge and the fingerboard, thus producing a richer array of sounding overtones. But with the quartet--as well as with larger symphonic ensembles--he avocated eliminating those overtones to prevent their interference with the sounding particials of the upper voices and thus, improve the total ensemble sound.
The interference problem between sounding particials and desirable intonation is also why pianos use fewer bass strings per note than the treble strings, which all have three per note. Even at best, those "pesky" sounding particials, along with the practice of tempered tuning, neccessry to comphensate for chromatic harmonic relationships, are also why pianos--no matter how delicately tweaked by the most talentled tuner--are hopelessly out of tune instruments.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-10-11 18:05
A velly interesting point, Wm, I hadn't thot-of/considered the somewhat out of tune [or downright discordant with other insts.] partials [harmonics/overtones] that a full-spectrum cl sound might contain. Perhaps that is also a source of "brightness" as we know it?? I tried a couple of searches for the ?N Z research? on sound analysis, lots of posts retrieved, but not what I was looking for. Maybe our "down-unders" will help us, please, and I'll look further in my Favorite Places where I might have saved the references. Maybe our new "expert", Tony, and other Britishers, may know of this work. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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