MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS ACOUSTICS PAGE

Read some:

An image of my working desk using the Tune!it

You can download Tune!it (shareware) from :

http://www.tune-it.com.au/ 

 

 
The following image shows a note played on a bamboo saxophone, compared with its octave
Below,the compared spectrum of the same note played in two different bamboo saxophones

Dr John Coltman has given us several softs, including one to calculate frequency and modes in tubes with irregular geometries (stepcone.bat). It is useful to design bamboo saxophones.
Quena.bat is another soft designed by Coltman that calculates frequencies and stored energy on quenas. Bambures.bat calculates the admitance of horizontal bamboo resonators used in marimbas

An interesting interview with Dr Coltman about winds instruments click here

 

 

BAMBOO SAXOPHONES IN C3

 

These diagrams describe the parts of bamboo tenor saxophones
made by Angel and Mariana.
They have been analyzed by professor Jean Pierre Dalmont
in the Laboratoire d'Acoustique du Maine (Le Mans, France).
Usually, our bamboo saxes have recorder fingering, except the tenor,
on which you can obtain Eb and Bb with direct fingering.
For this we use a 9 toneholes fingering, two of which are covered by keys.

 



 

Since the beginning of our activity we had great curiosity to know how a simple breath into a tube could produce so pleasant a sound. Perhaps due to our scientific background (although in other areas like Geography and Geology) we decided that our search should start at the investigation of the resonant qualities of the material itself.
This point of view is not exclusive. The essence of a wind instrument is the sensation that it causes in the player and the listener.
Also, with these instruments one feels as if one has participated in a piece of the Humanity's History.
We felt that the formality and logic of science could explain things such as how the instruments work .
That knowledge would be good to improve their performance.
We searched in physics and music literature, but in fact little was
explained because the sound phenomenon is something quite more complex than what one supposes at first. We decided, then, to cross the frontiers of our own language, and we discovered several books that helped us formalize a more or less complete panorama of what happens when one blows into an instrument. Perhaps the
best and cheapest is Air Columns and Toneholes, by Bart Hopkin.
The conclusions of our search have been (and they continue being) many and varied, too long to include them in this webpage. We always give speeches and conferences to explain our ideas. But, if you are interested in these phenomena, contact us at:

 

Contactanos
For more information or prices, email us
info@unmundodebambu.com.ar