Study of the impact of material on clarinet-like instrument: Correlation between impedance measurement and musician tests
Louise Hovasse, Jonathan Cottier, Jerome Selmer, Vincent Gibiat · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2017
The acoustical effect of the material of woodwind instruments seems to be the favorite discussion subject between acoustician and instrument maker. Indeed in scientific literature, different hypothesis are demonstrated by musician tests or scientifically experimentation. This study, based on the acoustical input impedance measured on tubes and clarinets, as well as musician tests, tends to highlight material could have part of influence on the acoustic of woodwind instrument. Moreover, correlations between measurements and musician tests are found. Indeed, three clarinets have been tested by musicians, one as reference in African Blackwood, one half synthetic-half African Blackwood with the same density as the reference instrument and one in other species of wood with a lower density than the reference instrument. The correlation between measurement and musicians tests is that the instrument felt more brilliant is the one with the highest quality factors on the impedance peaks and reflection coefficients, whereas the instrument felt duller have the smallest quality factors and reflection coefficients. Since the quality factor and the reflection coefficient are linked to the visco-thermal losses, themselves depending on the surface condition, the acoustic of the clarinet-like instruments appears to be more impacted by the surface condition than the material itself.