[Trombone-l] Models was Re: Acoustics of brass instruments

[Jeff Albert]

Well, i think it all depends on what we are looking for.  For some of us,
the end result of the sound is the only concern, for others the intellectual
process of figuring out what does what and why is just as much fun.

Jeff

On 6/2/06, Daniel Pliskin <daniel_pliskin at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> >Model your sound with your ears.
> >
> >Much better than a machine.
> >
> >Seriously.
>
> Sam and all,
>
> I certainly understand the frustration of those who have to put up with a
> world that wants to slap numbers on everything, rather than trying to hear
> differences.  I basically wound up with an electrical engineering degree,
> while trying to figure out why sound synthesizers don't sound real.
>
> There are wonderful uses for models.  Let's say I decide to see whether a
> trombone will sound darker if the slide is longer and the tuning slide is
> appropriately shorter.  I can take a hacksaw to my trombone or I can alter
> my model.  If I like what the model shows me, I'll still take a hacksaw to
> my trombone, but just maybe my model is correct and I'll get what I'm
> after.
>   If my model isn't correct or if it isn't accurate enough, I then go back
> and change my model, until it starts being a better predictor of what does
> what to the sound.
>
> At that point, I'm free to check out all kinds of things.  How come a
> drilled-out mouthpiece takes on a whispery tone?  What should I first look
> for in the way of a new leadpipe?  The model directs me to where to can
> start looking.  And every time I use it, the model gets updated to make
> sure
> that it is as accurate as it can get it.
>
> Even if the model is scarcely a first order approximation of what a
> trombone
> sounds like, it still directs me towards several solutions.  At that
> point,
> I know where to look for the real, audible answer.
>
>
> If I thought I wanted a larger aperture in my mouthpiece but I didn't want
> to potentially screw up my favorite mouthpiece, I'd start with a
> model.  I'd
> try drilling out another mouthpiece, to see whether it did, to that
> mouthpiece, what I wanted to do to my favorite mouthpiece.  That would be
> using the second mouthpiece as a model.
>
> But I also sense a thread of anti-electronics, almost anti-technology,
> here.
>   Let all who are anti-technology, go back to using machine oil for slide
> oil.
>
> DanP
>
>
>
>
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