Flute acoustics: measurement, modelling and design - School of ...

1.3. ‘FLUTECAD’: TAKING THE GUESSWORK OUT OF FLUTE DESIGN 3
Figure 1.1: Australian flute maker Terry McGee at work.
and finding fingerings for microtonics and multiphonics. The front page of The Virtual Flute is
shown in Figure 1.2. The Virtual Flute currently resides at .
The success of The Virtual Flute has led to requests for similar services for other instruments
(such as the clarinet, oboe and bassoon) and has also suggested development in a parallel
direction. Could we make a software model for the flute that would be accurate for arbitrary
geometries, and able to model both the classical and modern flute and any designs in
between? Makers such as Terry could use such a program to design new flutes, and museum
curators such as Michael could examine old instruments with the program. Indeed, such is
their interest that this project is co-sponsored by Terry McGee and the Powerhouse Museum.
1.3 ‘FluteCAD’: TAKING THE GUESSWORK OUT OF FLUTE DESIGN
The practical aim of this project is to make a versatile, accurate but user-friendly computer
program to provide flute makers with useful predictions about the musical properties of a proposed
instrument with a given geometrical design. Flute makers want answers to questions
such as ‘Will this instrument be in tune?’ and ‘How difficult will this note be to play?’ If many
of these questions can be answered before the production of a prototype, the time-to-market
of new designs will be reduced markedly.
The program ‘FluteCAD’ needs to be accurate enough for music (a semitone corresponds
to a 6% difference in frequency, and players are sometimes sensitive to differences of 5 or 10
cents, i.e. 0.3 or 0.6%), fast enough to calculate the pitch and playing qualities of a flute for