Recent investigations using an artificial player for brass instruments

Artificial players show great interest for scientific studies on musical instruments: they allow sound production mechanisms to be reproduced, while making it possible to monitor several variables of the system that are usually difficult to measure on human players. In brass instruments, where the reed consists of the lips of the players, several systems have been developed over the years in research laboratories. In order to build artificial lips, one crucial element of the system, different solutions were proposed, such as latex tubes filled with water or rubber sheets. Although very realistic sounds can be obtained with some systems, one difficulty remains to build an apparatus which is relatively easy to control, stable, and repeatable. In this presentation, we will introduce the latest version of the brass artificial player developed in Yamaha and recently at LMA, which is based on a quite efficient, yet relatively simple, solution for the lips. The system then provides ease of use, stability and repeatability, while generating very realistic sounds. We will present some studies conducted with this new apparatus, and also demonstrate a portable version of it, that can trigger some ideas for other applications than research.