Wind instrument design still depends on art and intuition rather than computation

Evidence

Thus we see it matters where holes are placed relative to nodes and antinodes. Given that the spectrum of resonances is only approximately harmonic in real tubes, and given the complexities of holes that partially but not completely reflect sound, formidable challenges of hole placement and hole size emerge that complicate any attempt to make a musical instrument play naturally with good intonation. Detailed numerical simulations involving millions of air parcels interacting with realistic rigid instruments having variable bore, open and closed holes, and so on may be feasible in the not-too-distant future, but today art, experience, some empirical formulas, and intuition still hold sway. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 1596

Categorization

Category: Craft and Method

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in ‘Small acts of decorum’ reading focus — craft knowledge that survives despite formal theory.

Related

• Wind instrument resonances resist aligning into a harmonic series because of impedance-mismatch reflections. (similarity 0.80)
• An instrument’s playability depends on many cooperating, accurately tuned resonances (similarity 0.80)
• Instrument behavior emerges from a shared set of physical mechanisms (similarity 0.80)
• Good wind instruments align tube resonances onto each partial of the drive note (similarity 0.79)