Towards 3D printed saxophone mouthpiece personalization: Acoustical analysis of design variations

Abstract

Saxophonists have different expectations from the saxophone mouthpiece, as it significantly affects the playability and the sound of the instrument. A mass personalization paradigm provides unique products to cater to their needs, using the flexibility of additive manufacturing. The lack of quantitative knowledge on mouthpiece design hinders the personalization attempts. This study aims to lay out how design parameters affect mouthpiece characteristics. Twenty-seven 3D-printed mouthpieces with varying design parameters are used in conjunction with an artificial blowing machine, to determine the acoustical relevance of the various mouthpiece designs on four selected mouthpiece features. The influence of the design parameters is evaluated statistically and via a case study with five saxophonists. The analysis shows that seven out of nine parameters tested affect the mouthpiece characteristics by relatively different amounts. A user study demonstrates that saxophonists confirm the results in 7 of 10 cases, and they prefer personalized mouthpieces in 4 of 5 cases. The results present a key contribution to the understanding of mouthpiece design. The findings provide valuable insights for new mouthpiece design and mouthpiece personalization.

Influence of lip position, lip force and blowing pressure on the tuning and playability of an alto saxophone mouthpiece

“…Although not all aspects of a natural mouth can be exactly reproduced, the advantage is that measurements can be automated under exactly repeatable conditions. The approach of artificial mouth setups was used in other studies as well (Bergeot et al, 2014;Chatziioannou et al, 2019;Idogawa et al, 1993;Kobata and Idogawa, 1993;Ozdemir et al, 2021). By fully automating the settings of lip force, lip position, blowing pressure and tone hole configuration, the current setup allows to gather detailed data within a relatively short time frame (about 20 hours).…”

“…The use of an artificial mouth to study systematically the response of reed instruments was first introduced by Backus (Backus, 1963), further developed by J. Gilbert (Gilbert, J, 1991) and inspired other authors for their work (Bergeot et al, 2014;Chatziioannou et al, 2019;Kobata and Idogawa, 1993;Ozdemir et al, 2021).…”

Effects of the Bore Diameter on Oscillation Threshold Pressure and Tone Quality of Clarinet Mouthpieces

“…In addition, he investigated the effects of material properties, like density and hardness, on the tone quality by utilizing polymer casting. Ozdemir et al, [5][6] parametrically changed the mouthpiece geometry using rapid prototyping, and playing characteristics were investigated by the artificial blowing machine as well as a user's case study.…”