ReedDesign - Sound Design of Reed Organ Pipes

The main objectives are to solve practical problems of the dimensioning and voicing of reed organ pipes, to develop innovative methods, tools and software for helping the voicing adjustments and sound design work of organ builder SMEs, to develop new pipe types with sound character of Asian musical instruments. As 8 SMEs from 7 countries participate in the project who have a very large interest on this research the degree of dissemination to countries with different technical and cultural tradition of organ building is large. A better understanding of the role of the shallot and resonator and of the voicing steps on the attack and the timbre of reed pipes is necessary to develop innovative tools for helping the design, dimensioning and voicing of the pipes. This goal could be achieved by targeted research experiments and computer simulations of the effects of the different parts of the pipe and of the different voicing steps on the sound. The main objectives are as follows:- New dimensioning methods based on the new knowledge for the design of reed pipes - Design software for dimensioning reed pipes for a better sound and rapid and more reliable design of reed pipes- New reed pipe types with sound character of Asian musical instruments - Development of demonstrators for in-situ quality control of the elasticity and hardness of reed materials - Development of a demonstrator for in-situ control of the curvature of tongue (which mostly determines the quality of the sound) during and after voicing.

These objectives will be achieved by targeted research carried out by the RTD partners. The SME partners will contribute to the work by providing tongues, shallots, resonators and complete reed pipes, and voicers for the laboratory experiments, and by validating the results in their workshops. Competitive advantage due to a cost reduction of about 15%, a better quality of the sound of the pipe organs and a better position in the Asian market may be expected.