Dear Hornlisters,
I am very excited about the news I will convey to you here and now!
Bruce Lawson and I have been working on this for some time and finally,
today, made a major breakthrough in the acoustic analysis of the horn!
Bruce has written new software, called SoundStill, that can analyze the
sound at any point in the tubing of the instrument. Using our prototype
"digital-microphonic input-output pickup," we can literally "make sound stand
still"
right on the computer screen! The program shows a clear graphic picture of
what the tubing is doing to the sound at that particular moment that it
travels past the selected point. Far beyond mere Fourier transform sound wave
spectrum analysis, which only analyzes what we can hear, this actually shows
the
exact correlation between the diameter of the tubing, material of its
construction, weight (thickness) of the material, hardness/softness of the
material,
acoustical parameters in relation to the length of tubing, relationships
generated by different dynamic (decibel) levels and both acoustic and
psycho-acoustic relationships between harmonics generated at any frequency
relative to
the nodal point being analyzed or, in the case of analyzing a non-nodal
point, the acoustic-reference harmonic nearest to that point.
For example, I played a third space C on both the F and B sides of a 300,000
series Elkhart Conn 28D with an original NY Giardinelli C8 mouthpiece. We
sampled the sound at .0314159 increments throughout the length of the
instrument. What we found was that the sound was drastically different for
each
sample. For instance, at .0314159" in the mouthpiece just past the
embouchure,
the sound "picture" was a vibrant blood red! At 3.14159" in the leadpipe
(yellow brass w/nickel silver cap) the sound "picture" was a sort of desert
taupe where at 12.56636" (yellow brass) the sound picture was a deep, Egyptian
brown! Further down the pike in the nickel silver valve section, the picture
was a brilliant Romanesque yellow! At 138.22996" (where my hand rests in the
yellow brass bell flare) the picture was a cloudy, clammy gray on both sides
of the horn! We had no idea that this old piece of junk had such colorful
sounds and I can't wait to test a new horn!
I will keep you appraised of further developments and any musical or
non-musical findings that might surface.
Thank you!
Kendall
**************Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? Make dinner for $10 or
less. (http://food.aol.com/frugal-feasts?ncid=emlcntusfood00000001)
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