posted by
janrinok
on Tuesday July 07 2015, @04:28PM
from the They-still-sound-like-nails-on-a-chalkboard dept.
from the They-still-sound-like-nails-on-a-chalkboard dept.
3D-printed flutes hit new notes | Researchers have found a way to 3D print instruments that produce notes unattainable through traditional instruments.
Hand-crafted instruments are all well and good, but the precision of 3D printing is starting to unlock new sounds.
Leading a team of researchers from the University of Wollongong in Australia, Dr Terumi Narushima took the existing mathematical models used to determine how various notes are produced by wind instruments, and created a 3D model of a flute that – due to its customised diameter, length, and hole placement – produced unique microtonal notes smaller than a semitone.
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(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @04:37PM
Leading a team of researchers from the University of Wollongong in Australia, Dr Terumi Narushima
Let's call him Bruce to avoid confusion
(Score: 3, Informative) by Fishscene on Tuesday July 07 2015, @06:01PM
This is all fine and dandy until you watch the video and you find out "Terumi Narushima" is female. :)
I know I am not God, because every time I pray to Him, it's because I'm not perfect and thankful for what He's done.
(Score: 5, Funny) by GlennC on Tuesday July 07 2015, @06:13PM
I fail to see the problem....
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Tuesday July 07 2015, @06:38PM
My daddy left home when I was three
And he didn't leave much to ma and me
Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze.
Now, I don't blame him cause he run and hid
But the meanest thing that he ever did
Was before he left, he went and named me "Sue."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday July 08 2015, @03:08AM
I watched it and all I got to find out is that he's no poofter [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday July 07 2015, @04:40PM
The pix in the article look like the recorder I printed:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:12862 [thingiverse.com]
I can't find the link to a scad file to create arbitrary flute / recorder / whistles but there is something like that out there, seemingly unrelated to the linked article. Stories like this would benefit by a link to the project's github account or thingiverse or whatever they use.
Comparing the printed recorder to a $8 Yamaha, its a lot harder to use, or doesn't sound as good for a given amount of effort. On the other hand it used a lot less than $8 worth of plastic. Yet on the other, other hand, it represented something like 16 hours of printing time.
Now there is a company that sells a little $20 piece of plastic for flutes that you rest your finger on to help hold the flute, and that is the kind of thing that would make sense to print.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday July 07 2015, @04:45PM
Skilled performers can in fact hit those notes using traditional flute-like instruments. For example, using the shakuhachi [wikipedia.org] somebody who knows what they're doing can hit any pitch they feel like. Same with European transverse flutes (the kind found in most bands and orchestras), penny whistles, and quite a few other varieties.
Also, string and trombone players can hit these notes with relative ease. Sitar music in particular uses a lot of notes that aren't on the Western 12-note scale.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @05:22PM
Pff, I scoff at you... I'm completely untrained and I can hit notes that no skilled musician would ever hit (or call 'notes' for that matter).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday July 07 2015, @07:02PM
Actually, my favorite musician for demonstrating the power of accidental microtonal music is the late great Wesley Willis [youtube.com].
And this is why autotune is a horrible invention.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by M. Baranczak on Tuesday July 07 2015, @09:31PM
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jcross on Tuesday July 07 2015, @05:50PM
Yeah from what they say in the video I think, you can make such a flute in any tuning system by traditional means as well, it's just a matter of the tube dimensions and where you put the holes. It's just that commercial instruments are only currently manufactured on the 12-tone equal temperament system. The 3D printing gives you a cheap(ish) plastic recorder in an alternative tuning system that would be difficult to make in that specific material any other way. That seems to be about the extent of the innovation here. From a musical perspective, I feel like the nicest alternative tuning would be one that's "sweeter" in the specific key of the recorder, like "just intonation" or the like. Actual perfect 5ths do sound really good to an extent that our ears have largely forgotten (except for some really good a cappella groups who can adjust intonation dynamically). Maybe for gamelan orchestras also, if they ever include recorders.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by TheLink on Tuesday July 07 2015, @07:22PM
Yeah I don't see why this is noteworthy.
You can make wind instruments that play all sorts of notes- just drill the holes accordingly. It's just that people are intentionally putting the holes in particular spots even if they can easily make them elsewhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5aUz9cDaCY [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrme04RIsE8 [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by jcross on Wednesday July 08 2015, @12:33AM
"Yeah I don't see why this is noteworthy."
I see what you did there. ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2015, @02:33AM
Modern wind instruments such as trumpets, cornets, French horns, baritone horns, trombones, etc. are manufactured in relation to the "just temperament" system, NOT the equal temperament system. This is why they have slides and need to adjust their slides according to the key they are playing in (if they want to sound in tune). The piano is usually manufactured using equal temperament. The harpsichord also uses just temperament.
(Score: 2) by TGV on Wednesday July 08 2015, @06:22AM
Pianos and harpsichords can and have to be tuned. Their pitches are far from constant.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @07:47PM
Flute virtuoso collected hard-to-get reeds and made flutes from them so that he got a range of tone qualities.
January 2014, he's flying through JFK and US Customs finds them in his baggage, calls them agricultural products, and destroys them.
Professional's handmade flutes destroyed by US.gov [classicfm.com]
Aren't gov't functionaries who could barely make it out of high school just the most fun?
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by darnkitten on Tuesday July 07 2015, @08:14PM
Science Friday recently had a story where an aquarium had to declare a live squid as sushi to get it through customs...
(Score: 2) by rts008 on Tuesday July 07 2015, @08:27PM
That would be really fresh sushi!
Hmmm...probably hard to swallow, with all those suckers on all those tentacles...I'll pass....
(Score: 2) by M. Baranczak on Tuesday July 07 2015, @09:29PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @10:12PM
this must be one of the imposter gewg_s because the real gewg_ would never blame the US gov; it's always those greedy capitalist pigs' fault
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @10:39PM
plutocracy [google.com]
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2015, @01:29AM
Last paragraph from the link
The musician has lost 11 ney and two kawalas flutes. A ney is a reed flute with six finger-holes in front and a thumb-hole, and the kawala is a cane flute - both are commonly used in Arabic music.
There's the problem.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Tuesday July 07 2015, @08:16PM
notes unattainable through traditional instruments.
Traditional only in the sense that they are tuned to the traditional scales. You could - if you so wished - construct a flute in the traditional manner that hit these "new" notes.
In short, 3D printing is not achieving anything that couldn't be achieved any other way.
unique microtonal notes smaller than a semitone.
A semitone is a gap between notes. A note doesn't have "size."
Incidentally, although these might technically be flutes, I think most people would call them recorders.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2015, @01:25AM
and Hipster Approved.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday July 08 2015, @07:38AM
> Traditional only in the sense that they are tuned to the traditional scales.
And "traditional scales" only in the sense that they are the *modern* scales that western musical cultures have agreed upon for most instruments in order to minimise the worst wolf tones no matter what key is played in.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2015, @02:58AM
I wonder if they missed a big opportunity with 3D printing? Recorder finger holes are round because that's what you get with a normal drill[1]. Maybe there are some advantages to square or rectangular (or other shape) for the finger holes?
Proportional hydraulic spool valves have rectangular holes that are uncovered by a piston (the spool) -- piston motion translates (nearly) directly into valve open area.
[1] There are special "drills" that can make triangular, rectangular and other polygon shaped holes, here's one type,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjckF0-VeGI [youtube.com]