David Politzer, “The Physics of Banjos” (Open Agenda, 2021)
Ideas Roadshow Podcast
00:00
The Clarinet and the Obo - The Difference Between Themselves
The flute has a very pure tone, and there are very few of them. You don't have higher and higher frequencies mixed in with any appreciable strength. What a good microphone and a good computer can pick up and identify as a tiny piece of the signal is different from what we hear. I wanted a demonstration play out of real music with a real obo and a real clarinet to see if you could tell which one was better. And i nearly fainted because no reeds, no bell at the bottom, no pitch holes, no fine choice of wood. It's just a computer with a bunch of frequencies in it, and then the other one with half of them missing
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