Enthalpy

Could liquid crystal polymer make mouthpieces for single-reed instruments like the clarinets, the saxophones, the tárogató? Mouthpieces are widely made of ebonite up to now, sometimes of metal or "crystal" (a glass variant). LCP would keep ebonite's warm contact, resistance to saliva, mechanical damping, and multiply Young's modulus by 5, which might ease the emission of the altissimo register. Loading increases the modulus further, especially with graphite choppers. At least Vectra A950 is authorized for food contact by the FDA. LCP can be processed by injection to make cheaper mouthpieces. Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy

The kamélé n'goni (also kamelen n'goni or just n'goni) resembles the kora, but its possibilities differ a bit, and the music played on it more so. Here a demonstration at a luthier: Q4fbdVUzdRE music 0:10 and played by Lamine Koeta there EO0bFp4wlkw Vieux Kanté let evolve the instrument's technique and style nhaWmfXeDNU music 0:16

A piano almost 6m long has been built. This gives the lowest strings almost the proper length to propagate the sound as fast as air does. Listen especially the low notes here: 6PI8RYIeypM for instance 2:30 to 3:00 their attack and height is well-defined, better than on usual grand pianos and of course upright pianos. That's why I consider a 4.83m string for the Glockenklavier's E=41.4Hz, and a fast-propagating soundboard too. Radiation too needs area anyway.

The dulcitone is older than the celesta, with the last ones built a century ago wikipedia it has metal forks rather than steel plates, and the forks vibrate a soundboard over an elastic metal sheet, while the celesta has a resonating air tube for each note (originally for note pairs). The second resonator takes its time to reach full amplitude on the celesta, giving the soft attack typical of the celesta, marimba and vibraphone, while the attack is direct on the dulcitone, the biggest audible difference. The dulcitone lacks badly sound strength, probably what let abandon it, but I don't see any reason except bad design to be less loud than a piano. Hear it there: bbp3eYqE0bY music 0:38 - Q1WGk5IYCHk - nAYQ5sa51SY - _1bnA8pmNGo music 0:18 and few more.

Nice Monday everyone! The lithophone has resonating bars of stone, while the marimba uses wood and the vibraphone metal. It has tubes to amplify the sound, or a box, or nothing. Examples abound in the Net, with varied designs and results. This single one has a light-year advance iJJQFwkhyjQ notice the distinct stone sound, the long sustain, the uniform sound across the wide range. It results from tenacious and enlightened research steinmusik.ch explanations, more instruments, and sounds gi3vcun-Y0E (the language is Schwyzertütsch if you wonder) Nice sound too: 6DESaw8w1pA ========== The txalaparta has bars of wood, stone or metal struck with makilak (thick vertical sticks) often by two musicians, and it's typically Basque, good opportunity to hear the language too. wikipedia sound cX0Gg33GIuw from 0:16 the Maika and Sara Gomez twins are celebrities in Spain PLSng6Cyv-o (also stone and metal) and 505x6YgAgyc ========== The balafon has wooden resonators amplified by calabashes or sometimes a box. Record here: kUEmLcbBZ0s A different sound from an other country: kHaeTGph2Ow luthier baragnouma.com The scale can be pentatonic, diatonic... I heard in the Paris metro a fantastic musician whose scale wasn't a subset of the equal-tempered one. And here's even a chromatic design: --Alu0-t6Dc music begins at 1:35 Ciao!

A wind instrument with a mostly curved air column, as inspired by the Wagner tuba or the serpent for instance, is made easily by electroforming or by filament winding. Polymer injection would be conceivable for certain wall thicknesses. Intended for woodwind, this could apply to brass instruments too if desired. Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy

I suggested here on February 27, 2019 to use liquid crystal polymers (LCP), optionally loaded with graphite choppers, for parts of string instruments. This includes bow parts made of LCP, especially the frog. Whether LCP improves the manufacture or the play over Diospyros and Dalbergia remains to see, but at least it would preserve rare species and help the musicians to cross borders. Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy

Here on Nov 13, 2017 and Nov 26, 2017, I proposed the oval deformation of the wall around side holes to explain the material's influence. Curving the air column would stiffen the wall as it gets a curvature in two direction then. It can be significant with metal walls since they're thin usually. For instance a metal contrabass clarinet, a metal contrabassoon, a sarrusophone, a tubax... could be built with the air column curved all the way, like a Wagnertuba, some baritone saxhorns or a French horn are, rather than as straight sections connected by sharp turns. What makes little or no difference at brass instruments might improve woodwinds. Shall the flute be curved, a bit like the serpent was? That won't ease the keyworks, but it would shorten the alto flute and hopefully stiffen its wall, which is too thin and of bad alloy because of the weight. Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy

Elements of Glockenklavier mechanical design. The sounding part of the strings is better as drawn, for ease and for uniform thickness. The strings need thicker fastenings at the ends which could be forged or are welded. D=14mm tailor-made Maraging screws can stretch D=10mm strings. A usual thread achieves the 40mm strain of a 6m string over 23 turns, so a turnbuckle would help. Tuning to 0.1% needs 16° accuracy or 0.3m at a 1m wrench. Something must prevent the rotation of the string ends. At µ=0.14 friction, 102kN would need some uncomfortable 220N*m; I got µ~0.03 with a coating and MoS2 grease, it's corrosive but graphite grease is good too. ========== The tensile soundbooard needs end parts too. A contractor electrodeposited locally Ni then Sn on my cold-rolled X12-Cr17Ni7: the layers adhered even when curving the sheet, and SnPb soldered them easily. Sadly, I know no shear strength for the Ni layer nor SnAgCu solder, but at 10MPa, 2*10mm solder joint suffice. Inspect the solder joints by ultrasound. Maraging needs no Ni layer but I feel 100µm too sensitive to corrosion. Cu-Ni18Zn27 matches the expansion coefficient of X12-Cr17Ni7, while alpha steel would match a Maraging sheet. Available side milling cutter are too thick, so block(s) fill the groove and reduce the solder's creep. The assembly procedure would be: Block the groove's ends. Protect the threaded holes. Protect optionally the metal around the groove. Coat the end part, blocks and sheet end with flux. Heat the end part and blocks, for instance in an oven. Lay the hot end part with its groove on top. Melt solder in the groove. Coat optionally the block(s) with solder. Introduce the block(s) in the groove. Introduce the sheet in the groove. Cool. Clean. Ultrasound testing wouldn't hurt. Six M8 threaded rods suffice, for instance of 600MPa stainless steel stopped with glue. The nuts or turnbuckles can be of Cu-Ni18Zn27 too, as a music instrument is built for a century and more. ========== The 6m long frame must resist 0.5MN compression, half a railway engine weight. It shall have 3* margin so the strings or soundboard break first. A truss would be lighter, but two independent wide tubes, unsupported over 6m, would suffice in a first approach. With D=240mm e=10mm, they make bad use of AA6060 and weigh 240kg together. Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy

To add at most 300MPa bend stress to the Glockenklavier's 10mm thick strings, the mallets need 3.3m curvature at their head, hence be broad, for instance 200mm for 60mm deflection at the middle of a 4.83m string. This width weakens the harmonics above 1kHz roughly. A short impact on a 102kN 0.635kg/m string can be modelled (...at least prior to experiments) as a 254ohm resistor that brakes a 0.2kg mallet head in 0.8ms exponential decay, whose harmonics weaken roughly in the same range. A 0.6m shaft should then achieve a good velocity. The mass and length, together with the head hardness and the impact position on the string, influence the sound and must be experimented. The sketch shows on the left a wooden mallet meant to survive the playing style. Thin fibre composite could reinforce the impact face. Polymer could look similar, while aluminium would be milled thinner and with more ribs and make lighter mallets. An elastic stick would give a lighter head more speed, provided it's accurate enoug for music. Additional weight at midheight acelerates further, as in a spear-thrower wikipedia Playing with the feet would give guided hammers even more energy. For instance, four hand valves can direct to hammers the accumulated hydraulic energy produced by both feet. Plucking gives a warmer, purer, more direct sound. Leverage shall adapt human force to 5kN for 60mm at the string's centre. Two lever stages may overcome some limits and achieve a non-linearity that reduces the effort at maximum deviation. On the right, the sketch proposes principle ideas for one plucker per string, with no significant thicknesses. The jaws too must be rounded with 3.3m radius. If the lever comes back in 3s, the string's amplitude has decayed from 60mm to 8mm, which some material at the jaws must damp down silently: silicone, polyurethane, cork... The jaws can have interleaved teeth. The shown nonlinear grasping action is quick at big openings and strong to close the jaws. Something not displayed must define the jaws' inclination, for instance a rod at the axle tagged "Grip", whose other end's position would adjust the height of the jaws during their movement. The musician can stand in front of the instrument or sit below. A bicycle brake action could control the jaws. Playing in a seat with the feet would give more power, with a different jaw control. Can a percussionist play the plucked version, or does |: Ding-Dang-Deng-Dong :| demand a guitarist then? And is the tubist available at that time? Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy

The Glockenklavier's soundboard radiates the harmonics over one wavelength or less, so it's very little directional. The strings propagate the sound at 400m/s, emitting the highest components mainly at 31° from them. Reflectors would then extend a lot from the instrument. Orienting the instrumen's plane around 30° from the public seems better than a reflector. Experiment shall tell, as a concert hall brings many reflections anyway. Being about lambda/2 long, the soundbox combined with the soundboard could radiate the fundamental as a dipole, but this needs more thoughts. As a monopole, it's very little directional. Both cases are compatible with the sideways plane.

I had believed Dr Zubke used some Buffet-Crampon for his comparison with the Heckel system f6DgNBHPw9o but it's an Atelier Ducasse bassoon, with significant changes ateliersducasse.fr The bore is narrow, as traditionally on French bassoons. The boot got a wide smooth turn. I thought this was standard on recent French bassoons. Ducasse proposes the French system or the Heckel on their instruments. Zubke plays the Heckel system on both, no miracle. Ducasse uses heavy stiff wood combined with a plastic lining. German systems use maple with lining. The piece starting at 52:03 climbs to E in treble clef, Zubke too comments at 52:50 that high notes are much easier in the French bassoon due to the narrower bore, and gives examples to 54:06. I keep open the possible further cause that stiffer wood too helps the high notes, just like grenadilla eases the piccolo's high notes against metal. A smaller reed made exclusively for the narrower bore would ease the high notes further.

Many people know only saxophones that blare fortissimo all the time to be heard because so does the drummer behind them, so here's a classical saxophone quartet with a nice sound: music.mcgill.ca

It's not a bassoon, but an ancestor: the rackett or cervelas had a double reed on a conical bore, and the long bass tube was folded many times to fit in a single compact cylinder. Rackett The original instruments belong in museums. Those played today are often very approximate copies whose users had no professor and usually spent little time learning the instrument, just to play a few notes of ancient music re-enactment. Though, this record has a decent sound, proving that the instrument isn't to blame: JIy86HTy9oc The musician hopes to improve the sound after practising.

The young soprillo, a tiny saxophone pitched in Bb an octave above the soprano, has only one manufacturer eppelsheim.com but quite a few musicians play it already. Hear it there v0tFp2_H3R8 at 05:20-5:42 soprillo.com in tabs Media, Soprillogy, Planet Soprillo or just search elsewhere for "soprillo".

As a brass contrabass, orchestras generally use a tuba. It's a long-wide-flared saxhorn with soft deep sound. In wind and brass bands, it blends in the saxhorn group, but not with the short-narrow-flared trumpets and trombones with brilliant sound. In symphonic orchestras, until they have a saxhorn group, the tuba is precious but it blends with nothing. Wagnertuben, already mentioned elsewhere, will be the contrabass and bass of the horn group when more composers eventually use them. At Berlioz' time existed low trombones with a longer slide and a handle to prolong the musician's arm, or with two slides side-by-side used simultaneously. Record: xM5s0l3sUwo 5:34-5:40 Nearly all present bass and contrabass trombones have the tenor's slide length, with wider bore to favour low notes, and they may have more valves to reach seamlessly the pedal notes and extend the low range. Records: vsl.co.at bass, vsl.co.at contrabass Precisely because the tuba doesn't blend with the trombones, Verdi and Puccini demanded a Cimbasso, which is presently a short-narrow-flared contrabass with valves rather than a slide. The nice sound differs a bit from a low trombone, the technical possibilities too. Records: vsl.co.at C2wvykZOwwM compared with a tuba, 0:42-0:58, 1:56-2:19, 3:42-4:43 the instrument is rather common in Italian orchestras but unusual elsewhere.

Apparently, existing systems inject some 100kW at the ISM frequency if 40.68MHz. They work like a microwave oven, just at a lower frequency than usual. Smaller is definitely possible, and easier than the big system. The electrodes (which I wouldn't call anode and cathode for AC here) can be nearly anything non-magnetic and resistant enough to corrosion, including copper, aluminium, and especially gold. 10µm evaporated gold suffice, or a wrap foil... A mesh might perhaps be possible but I feel a plate as easy and its losses are smaller. The apparatus must shield the users from the RF field. Almost certainly, it will be closed, possibly with long flat open entrance and exit. Call it "portable"? 100kW isn't necessary for smaller targets, put RF power is difficult for real. Buy, unless you have years of experience. Same story for the design of the electrodes. Only if you have the knowledge and experience for electromagnetism. Higher ISM frequencies exist: 433.92MHz, 2450MHz... But they would fit only very small targets, say <100mm. 40.68MHz is low for this use, so a decent efficiency will be difficult, but it's easier to shield. If the material to be dried is lossy for 40.68MHz RF, it will burn. That's not trivial, because water isn't so lossy at this frequency. And don't focus on the molecules' orientation blah blah, it's wrong: losses are by conduction, in water at this frequency, so they rely on the water's impurity.

One more baritone oboe record: jwu8WS5MAvA from 5:25 to 6:28

An other record: the prelude of Andrew Downes' "Five dramatic pieces for eight Wagner tubas" TcbjSMyDOzY most symphonic orchestras own a set of Wagnertuben to play Mahler and Wagner, so composers could use them more often. More varied than a set of horns, wider range.

The baritone oboe, also called bass oboe, is a tenor, playing an octave lower the oboe's written range - I suppose it could extend more the upper register. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_oboe While the instrument is rather common in museums, and several luthiers announce it in their catalogue, recent instruments and records are rare. One example here http://www.oboequartet.com/index.php?article_id=22 search for CD 1, click on Probehören, listen the solo from 0:05 to 0:13. Miriam Moser plays a tenor with bulb bell developed by Fossati and Rainer Egger. One other example, music from 1:48 to 1:54, from 2:32 to 2:46 and elsewhere https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rU_RiT-OXw Andreas Mendel plays a tenor with flare bell from Mönnig. The Heckelphone has some changes at the bulb bell and a broader bore, which here too, makes the sound deeper but not softer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckelphone one record has a nicer sound, by Katrin Stüble Gxj0OLftfFk 0:29-1:05, 2:29-3:02, 4:34-4:51 and 5:24-6:00 The most recent Lupophone, by Guntram Wolf and Benedikt Eppelsheim https://www.guntramwolf.de/instrumente/modern/oboen/bassoboe/lupophon has allegedly a narrower bore, nearer to the baritone oboe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupophon (wouldn't a final "e" fit naturally in English?) and it reaches the low F written by R. Strauss in his Alpensinfonie, by mistake I suppose. Big bulb bell. Record: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6gVdShhltg

I appreciate your feedback! Well, the useful part isn't my waffle, it's the hearing samples, anyway.

Here are acoustics elements and a possible aspect of the evolved Glockenklavier. The lower strings are about as high as the musician's head for good mallet length. With excellent ear protection and a mirror, the musician faces the strings that face the public and conductor. Maraging 18Ni-12Co-5Mo-1Ti seems the best string alloy: yield=2344MPa in good diameter, weldable and solderable at full strength. 1293MPa tension achieve 400m/s with 1.8* margin. Over 4.83m for E=41.4Hz, the strain is 32mm. A D=10mm string, stretched with 102kN, stores 1.6kJ: some resilient net must catch the debris at the ends if a string or the soundboard breaks. The musician can inject 150J in a string for fortissimo: as much as a 1kg stick thrown 30m far. 1.6kJ stretch energy shall let the string resonate decently. If the fundamental's displacement decays as exp(-t/1.5s), the mostly radiated power is 100W, or more since the harmonics decay faster: the percussive sound passes well above a symphonic orchestra, and 40dB decay take 7s, good for one note per second and 4s repetition period. If the deformation were a symmetric triangle, 150J would displace by 60mm the middle of the E string. For 300MPa added stress, the D=10mm string takes 81mm length to turn by these 60mm/2.4m, but the string tension alone would achieve a sharper turn. The mallets must be wide with a domed contact, but the bridge and saddles thin enough to let the strings yaw freely, and they shouldn't bend the strings. Stainless steel 17Cr-7Ni can make the tensile soundboard. Cold rolling provides yield>2000MPa with good resilience. 1141MPa tension achieve 380m/s with 1.7* margin. Alternately, Maraging may be available as wider sheet and is easier to weld or braze. 100µm*1m need 114kN stretch. To radiate 100W, the soundboard moves at 1m/srms by 5.4mmpk at 41.4Hz sine, distributed as a constant over 0.8m width and a sine over 6m. The half-string shakes 4kNpk for 60mmpk displacement, so the stiffness goal is 781kN/m. As the strings and soundboard extend 1m beyond the bridge, their tension contribute 522kN/m, leaving 259kN/m to the bridge. Simple shapes suspending the bridge at the frame achieve the stiffness and deformation. Neither the strings nor the soundboard deviate at the bridge, so to transmit traction, the strings are clamped, a pre-stressed beam runs between the frame sides to press the soundboard right under the bridge, and the bridge's suspension can have the opposite pre-stress. These forces must be eased or released before tuning, sorry. To resonate at 35Hz a 100µm*6m2 soundboard without tension, the soundbox should contain 22m3, or 6m*2m*1.8m, bigger than drawn. This stiffness combines with the soundboard's tension, so even more capacity would be needed. Though, efficient radiation limits Q to ~4 only, and the bridge controls the transmitted power, so the box can probably be smaller. 5% conduction losses would need only 1m3. The long box has some resonances. Because the soundboard moves much, sufficient clearance to the frame would leak too much, so the soundboard's sides hold to the frame. The bridge moves most width uniformly, and the sidemost 0.1m taper the amplitude to zero, advantageously under the bridge's suspension. The lengthwise tension is to propagate this shape far from the bridge, or transverse stiffeners may help, like small metal sheet omegas soldered on the soundboard, or glued light wood bars. No transverse tension up to now, but how does that sound? Limited tension is possible, if a transverse half-wave resonates much lower than 41Hz. Resisting the 0.5MN tension, more than a grand piano, is difficult and may bring adjustments to the sketch above. Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy

Glockenklavier.

The full conference about French vs Heckel system bassoons, with exciting commentaries: f6DgNBHPw9o music begins at 52:10 I'm pretty sure the musician uses for both the same reed, which is too big for the narrower bore of the French system, so the comparison is a bit biassed.

Just in case someone doesn't know what a tromba marina is (ok, nearly everybody should ignore that, as the instrument was abandoned before the baroque era): the bowed string instrument has a special bridge called guidon, just in equilibrium so one foot hits the soundboard at each vibration cycle to produce a loud strident sound resembling a trumpet. Tromba_marina and Schnarrsteg on Wiki Being a historic curiosity, it's mostly played by people who invested little time to learn it without a professor, but here's one good audio record. Yes, that's a string instrument. wlBolbo24Rc on Youtube. Enjoy this rare sound!