Conclusions:

What makes a sound good?
What makes a sound bad?


What makes a sound good? It appears from comparing the two characteristic tones to the poor tones that the instrumentalists made for me that the overtones are more predictable. In each of the characteristic tones there was a definite pattern to each of the generatied overtones. They tended to decrease in intensity in successive overtones without having any unexpected increasing in succeeding overtones.

So what makes a sound bad? If something deviates from the ideal tone described above, such as there being harmonics that are poorly tuned, a series of overtones that surround the expected harmonic, or other random sounds that interfere with the sound then you magically get a poor sound. This can be caused by any interfering vibration in the vibratory system, including the vibration producer. Thus if your lips vibrate at different rates of speed, or if your throat is making vibrations that interfere with the lip vibrations or the standing waves in the horn, then you get a poor sound coming out of the horn.

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