Objective identification of note-to-note transitory segments in clarinet playing

Abstract

Transients are generally identified according to a user dependent set of standards—for example, one could choose a threshold that is defined between 10% and 90% of the max mouthpiece pressure or 20%–80%. However, this choice is always at the researcher’s discretion. Presented here will be an objective option for identifying the transitory region between notes when studying clarinet playing tests by using the second derivative of the envelope of the mouthpiece pressure during clarinet playing tests. This work will offer the comparison of two methods of transition classification (1) ΔT, the interval between two extrema of the second derivative mentioned above, and (2) the interval of transition found with a threshold-based method, in order to then validate that the ΔT method relates to the tongue-reed-contact duration Tc (3) the interval between the maximum and minimum slope of the first derivative of a reed vibration signal surrounding a transition. We will then show that ΔT is a reliable and repeatable replacement for the arbitrary identification options that have been available thus far.