Physics-Based Analysis of Articulatory Player Actions in Single-Reed Woodwind Instruments
Vasileios Chatziioannou, Alex Hofmann · Acta acustica united with Acustica · 2015
Musicians use various articulation techniques during expressive performance. In the case of single-reed woodwind instruments these may involve tongue strokes to the reed or modulation of the blowing pressure. To analyse the emerging transient phenomena, a time-domain physical model of the player-instrument interaction is employed. In order to avoid adding new terms and complexity to the model, the effect of tonguing is simulated by allowing temporal variation of existing, physically meaningful parameters. Experimental measurements show differences between tones separated using the tongue or the blowing pressure and comparisons with numerical simulations are carried out. In particular the synthesised mouthpiece pressure and reed displacement are compared with data obtained under real playing conditions. In an attempt to understand how articulatory actions affect the excitation mechanism of the instrument, the physical model parameters that are required to resynthesise the recorded sounds are estimated. This allows tracking the evolution of parameters that evade direct measurement.