A psychoacoustical investigation into the effect of wall material on the sound produced by lip-reed instruments

Abstract

Does a lip-reed instrument's material of manufacture play a significant role in determining the timbre of the notes it produces? Tests have been conducted on five post horns of identical geometry but manufactured from different copper alloys. Using a laser Doppler vibrometer, the structural resonances of each instrument have been established and the wall vibrations induced in each instrument when artificially blown have been measured. In this paper, these measurements are compared with findings from a series of blindfold playing tests carried out on professional musicians