Acoustic input impedance measurements on brass instruments

Abstract

Measurement of the acoustic input impedance of a brass instrument can reveal something about the instrument’s intonation, its reasonable playing range, its tone color, and perhaps whether the mouthpiece used for the impedance measurement is appropriate for the instrument. Such measurements are made at sound-presssure levels much lower than those encountered under playing conditions. Thus, impedance measurements may offer the only feasible way to infer something about the playing characteristics of instruments, typically museum specimens, that are too rare or too fragile to be played. In this paper the effects of some of the available choices of sound source and stimulus signal on measurement accuracy will be explored. Driver–transducer nonlinearity, source impedance, signal-to-noise ratio, and any necessary signal processing will be discussed.