WHAT WE UNDERSTAND TODAY ON FORMANTS IN SAXOPHONE SOUNDS?

Jean Kergomard (1, 2) , Philippe Guillemain (1, 2) , Sami Karkar (1, 2) , Jean-Pierre Dalmont (3) , Bruno Gazengel (3)

1 LMA - Laboratoire de Mécanique et d'Acoustique [Marseille]
2 Sons
3 LAUM - Laboratoire d'Acoustique de l'Université du Mans

The question of the formants in saxophone sounds involves several paradoxes. The analogy with "cylindrical saxophones", i.e. cylindrical tubes excited at a given proportion of the length, is classical and can be extended to the bowed string. This analogy leads to an approximation of the spectrum of the pressure inside the mouthpiece valid only at low frequencies. Nevertheless it gives good results even at higher frequency, this paradox being now understood. The spectrum of the external pressure contains formants which are different from that of the internal spectrum. The question of what is the cause of the formants remains open.

Domaines: Physique Générale [physics.gen-ph]; Acoustique [physics.class-ph]

Jean Kergomard, Philippe Guillemain, Sami Karkar, Jean-Pierre Dalmont, Bruno Gazengel. WHAT WE UNDERSTAND TODAY ON FORMANTS IN SAXOPHONE SOUNDS?. 44º Congreso Español de Acústica Encuentro Ibérico de Acústica EAA European Symposium on Environmental Acoustics and Noise Mapping (TECNIACUSTICA 2013), Oct 2013, Valladolid, Spain. pp.1209-1216. ⟨hal-01309204⟩