Methods for measuring the acoustic response of wind instruments
Alexander Buckiewicz-Smith · eScholarship@McGill (McGill) · 2008
This thesis studies methods to take acoustical measurements of wind instrument bodies and mouthpieces. Acoustic responses and existing measurement methods are reviewed. Multiple- and single-microphone measurement techniques are compared with a discussion of object-length limitations and frequency response. Impulse response measurements using a complex input signal are discussed and signals used for measuring room acoustics are reviewed. Construction and deconvolution methods for several types of signals are specified and the effects of signal degradation on measurements are discussed. A novel pulse reflectometry technique that can use these signals as stimulus is presented. The signals are used in a waveguide model which simulates adverse measurement scenarios and calculated impedances are compared. Model measurements are then compared with actual reflection function measurements of two fabricated test objects to show the limitations of pulse reflectometry when calculating the impedance of long objects. Viscothermal losses and open-end radiation characteristics measured using a pulse reflectometry setup are then compared with their theoretically predicted values. Finally, the input impedance calculated from several saxophone mouthpieces are presented and a novel method for measuring the reed resonance frequency of a mouthpiece is shown.