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2005
Conference Paper
Title
Acoustical investigations on the ears of flue organ pipes
Abstract
The application of ears is one of the voicing techniques for flue organ pipes. The ears are the projections on both sides of the pipe mouth and have been used since the Renaissance period. They are frequently used to narrow scaled and low pitched pipes. By the structure around the mouth not only the radiation characteristics of the pipe but also the jet, the source of the pipe sound, will be influenced. Since the ears are attached to the mouth, their effect must be seen both in the sound and the jet. The aim of this research is to find out in details what kind of effect the ears have on the pipe sound and on the jet. According to the opinion of organ builders, the pipe sound will be lower and darker, and the build-up of the sound smoother and faster by attaching the ears. By our measurements, these recognitions were approved. The sound becomes more fundamental and the number of the harmonics is increased by adding the ears. Looking the growth of the harmonics in the attack transient, the attack time tends to be shorter and the attack becomes stable with the ears. In addition the previous investigations indicated an increase in the inharmonicity of the eigenmodes of the resonator due to the ears, and the existence of a proper value for the height of the ears was confirmed.
Conference