Acoustical and psycho-acoustical differences between clarinets Seminar

Differences in designs of musical instruments generally lead to differences in their sound properties. In this study, five student level clarinets of different makes are compared. To begin with, their bore profiles and the sizes and locations of their tone holes are established. Input impedance measurements for four different note fingerings across the playing range are then carried out on each clarinet. The strengths and frequencies of the air column resonances of the instruments are extracted from the measured impedance curves and the centroid of each impedance curve is also calculated as part of an investigation into timbral brightness. Following these physical and acoustical measurements on the instruments, a series of psycho-acoustical tests are described. Listening tests are performed to compare differences between single notes played on the five clarinets. Each test either comprises notes produced by a human player or notes produced by an artificial mouth. Meanwhile playing tests designed to identify differences between the five clarinets are carried out by semi-professional and professional standard musicians. The listening and playing test results are analysed and discussed. Finally, an attempt is made to correlate the observed geometrical and acoustical differences between the clarinets with the perceived differences in their playing properties.