Final Report Summary - REEDDESIGN (Sound Design of Reed Organ Pipes with Innovative Tools)
Executive Summary:
The aim of the project is to solve the practical problems of organ builder SMEs (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) by dimensioning and voicing reed organ pipes. This is reached by developing innovative methods, tools and software for facilitating sound design work and voicing adjustments of organ builder SMEs, and by developing new pipes. Since 8 SME from 7 countries participate in the project, which are very much interested in this research, there is a high degree of dissemination of results to countries with different technical and cultural tradition of organ building. 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 was achieved. Therefore innovative tools to support the design, dimensioning and voicing of the pipes have been developped. This goal was 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 were:
# 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 a rapid and more reliable design of reed pipes.
# 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 the tongue, which principally determines the quality of the sound.
These objectives have been achieved by targeted, collaborative research performed by the RTD partners of the project. The SME partners contributed to the work by providing tongues, shallots, resonators, 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 international market have been achieved.
Project Context and Objectives:
Concept and project objectives
Specific S&T problem and SME needs
Manufacturing of pipe organs is a traditional European industrial sector. The main factor influencing the competitiveness of organ builder SMEs is the quality of their pipe organs. Two quality aspects can be distinguished; the technical quality which is the quality of the organ as a technical product and the aesthetical quality which is mainly the sound quality. The sound quality is an essential factor because it is the signature of the organ builder and makes his reputation. It depends on the proper results of three procedures: scaling, voicing and tuning of the pipes. The most important procedure is the voicing adjustment of the pipes, which can ensure the required sound quality. The achievement of the required sound quality is a very time intensive empirical process, which is based on hundreds of years of tradition.
There are two different kinds of pipes in a pipe organ: flue pipes and reed pipes. The target of the present research project is the reed pipes.Reed pipe ranks are increasingly important for modern organ building. Their sound character can enrich the sound of the pipe organ with several beautiful timbres. Reed pipes had been very popular during the Romantic era of organ music in the 19th century, and then they have been rarely used due to the organ movement (Orgelbewegung) from about 1930 on. Recently a significant change of the musical taste can be observed; more and more reed pipe ranks are ordered and built in the new pipe organs. Unfortunately, reed pipes have been less studied than labial pipes. Thus, organ builders have definitely much more problems by the dimensioning, voicing and tuning of reed pipes, because even the way of functioning of reed pipes is not understood properly by organ builders. Therefore, unexpected troubles occur quite frequently by the manufacturing and voicing reed pipes. Moreover, it is difficult to achieve a good harmony between labial and lingual pipe ranks on a wind chest, because of their different mode of operation. This leads to the fact that organ builders spend a lot of time and often lose money in a trial and error process, because they do not have the necessary scientific/technological background and knowledge to understand the interdependency of the different geometrical parameters of the reed pipe on the sound quality.
Indeed, organ building is a traditional craftsmanship deeply rooted in Europe's history and culture, which entails valuable know-how transmitted generation after generation and which, therefore should be preserved. Nevertheless, innovative design methods and technologies can be applied in the daily practice in order to develop new types of reed pipes, to optimize the design and production of organs and, more importantly, without endangering the valuable traditions inherent to their fabrication. The organ builder SMEs have recognized that the quality and the effectiveness of their work can be considerably enhanced by adopting scientific and technological innovations in their craftmanship. Therefore, the SME group part of this project has decided to initiate the project titled “Sound Design of Reed Organ Pipes with Innovative Tools”.
Competitive threat and how the project helps to improve the competitive position
The rush development of the Asian economy has opened new markets for the European organ builders. However, there is a hard competition among European and American organ builders on the Asian market. Since pipe organs traditionally contain pipe ranks of sound character resembles of different musical instruments, competitive advantage could be achieved in the Asian countries if new pipe types with characters of special Asian reed instruments could also be offered. Therefore, the development of such new pipe ranks is extremely important.
In the international competition of organ builders the cost of the pipe organ is a critical issue. The price of the materials cannot be reduced, due to the fact that in order to achieve the necessary high sound quality likewise the best quality materials need to be used. In short, there is an indissoluble relationship among the quality of the materials employed and the resulting sound quality of the organ. Moreover, it can be expected that the prices of high quality woods and metals will further increase in the near future. Thus the only way for price reduction is to decrease the costs of the manual labour in organ building. Since the most expensive manual work in reed pipe production is the time consuming voicing of the pipes, innovations that reduce the time of voicing without endangering the quality of the sound would be very valuable for organ builders.
Necessity to outsource the research by the SMEs
The SME beneficiaries are convinced that it is very important for them to solve practical problems that render the dimensioning and voicing of reed organ pipes, and to develop innovative methods and tools for helping the voicing adjustments and sound design work in order to ensure high quality sound and to reduce the costs of pipe organs.
Due to the high degree of complexity inherent to correctly understand the influence of dimensioning and voicing on the attack and the timbre of reed organ pipes is that the SMEs part of the consortium have realised that a single company is not able to solve such problems. Therefore, they have established a consortium of 8 organ builders from 7 EU countries to outsource the research to 2 research institutes and 1 university from 2 EU countries for performing a research and development project with the financial support of the European Community. Consequently, the degree of dissemination to countries with different technical and cultural tradition of organ building is large.
The project fits also into the scope of the “Research for SMEs” funding scheme because
• the organ building companies are European SMEs requiring the support of RTD performers to develop new reed pipe types, to improve the quality of their products, and to reduce production costs by optimizing the production processes,
• organ building is a historically traditional industrial sector in Europe which should be preserved,
• the collaborative RTD project resulted in product innovation through higher quality, reliability and reduction of production time, which may entail an important competitive advantage for the participating building European organ SMEs against American and Asian producers,
• contacts between organ building companies have already been established on a European level (also former CRAFT projects, education, specialised workshops, conferences, etc.) and have been reinforced and consolidated along the project.
Realistic and verifiable objectives
The main scientific/technical objectives of the project are as follows:
1. New specific knowledge by targeted research experiments and computer simulations addressing specific scientific/technological problems and needs of the SME participants. A breakthrough has been achieved in the understanding of sound generation and radiation of reed pipes and the interaction between reed vibration and sound in shallot and resonator.
2. A breakthrough in computer modelling of reed pipes due to the application of the new knowledge.
3. New reed pipe types with sound character of Asian musical instruments.
4. New dimensioning methods based on the new knowledge for the design of reed pipes.
5. Design software for dimensioning reed pipes for better sound and rapid and more reliable design of reed pipes.
6. Development and optimization of demonstrators for in-situ quality control of the elasticity of brass materials of the tongues of reed pipes.
7. Development and optimization of a demonstrator for in-situ control of the curvature of tongue (which mostly determines the quality of the sound) during and after voicing
The industrial/economic objective of the research:
• Reduction of the working time by about 20% for pre-voicing of the pipes in the workshop and also at the main voicing work on the new instrument when assembled in the church or concert hall by innovative voicing methods and devices.
• Strengthen the market position of the partner SMEs (and also of the European organ builders) on the Asian and Latin American market with respect to the American organ building.
• Reduction of the production costs of reed pipes by about 15% by reducing the time of planning and voicing.
Research and demonstration activities of the SMEs to validate and exploit the results
These objectives were achieved by targeted research carried out by the RTD partners of the project. The SME partners contributed to the project by building the pipes for the investigations, by providing voicers for the laboratory experiments, and by validating the results in their workshops. The research was pre-competitive because dimensioning and voicing methods and industrial prototypes of reed pipes designed and voiced according to the new method and software were developed. Further work is necessary by the SME partners after the end of the project to optimally incorporate the new methods into their practice. A further period of one or two years is foreseen until the full exploitation of the results by the SME partners can be fully achieved.
The following results can be exploited by the SMEs:
1. Demonstrators for the organ builders for in-situ quality control of reed material in their workshop
2. Demonstrator for controlling the profile of the reed after curving
3. A data base of reeds, shallots and resonators that can be used with the new design method and software
4. New innovative design method of reed pipes and pipe ranks
5. New software for dimensioning reed pipes and pipe ranks
6. New reed pipe types
Dissemination activities for the benefit of SMEs outside of the consortium
The results of the project are being and will be disseminated on the following way:
• For the SME partners through an internal training workshop and by distributing the developed software tools and the manuals of the developed new methods,
• For the scientific community through publications in scientific and technical journals, without endangering the intellectual property rights of the SME partners,
• For the benefit of SMEs outside the consortium the new results will be disseminated - after a period of a few years - by special courses and workshops organized by IBP.
Project Results:
WP1: Laboratory experiments and computer modelling for obtaining new knowledge about functioning of the reed-shallot-resonator system
Description of work
Task 1.1: Development of a specific wind chest for laboratory experiments.
A specific wind chest was developed and built by Partners IBP and SME partners for the laboratory experiments with the following properties: large volume boot (~5 litre) with transparent walls; adjustable wind pressure (300-2000 Pa); adjustable rise time (~10 ms-200 ms) of the pressure in the boot, three exchangeable boots with small (~0.2 litre), medium (~1 litre) and large (~5 litre) volume, built-in pressure sensors and microphones.
Task 1.2: Analysis of beating and free reed vibration by laboratory experiments.
Reed vibration was investigated by laser vibrometry and high speed camera recordings. The reeds to be investigated were mounted on shallots equipped with reflection-free termination at their open end. The following problems have been cleared:
- the dependence of the steady vibration amplitude on boot pressure,
- the dependence of the steady vibration amplitude on reed curvature,
- the dependence of the onset time of reed vibration on the rise time of the boot pressure,
- the dependence of the onset time of reed vibration on the curvature of the reed,
- the effect of the boot volume on reed vibration.
The investigations was performed on standard reeds that correspond to the reed of an 8 feet C Trompette pipe. Both German and French curvatures were investigated. Curving was made in the laboratory by an experienced voicer of Partner MühLe. The specific shallots for beating and free reeds were provided by Partner MühLe. Reflection-free termination for the shallots were developed and built by IBP.
Task 1.3: Analysis of the reed-shallot interaction by laboratory experiments.
The physical mechanism of the reed-shallot interaction was investigated in the anechoic room of the IBP. Earlier study of IBP has shown that the vibrating reed excites an acoustic resonance of the shallot. The properties of the shallot sound and its dependence on different parameters were investigated for beating and free reeds. The following problems have been investigated:
- the dependence of the frequency of shallot sound on the length of the shallot,
- the dependence of the attenuation of the shallot sound on the diameter of the shallot,
- the dependence of the amplitude of the shallot sound on the diameter of the shallot,
- the dependence of the amplitude of the shallot sound on the boot pressure,
- the dependence of the amplitude of the shallot sound on the reed curvature.
The reeds and shallots for the investigations were provided by SME Partners. The reeds were curved in the laboratory by an experienced voicer of Partner MühLe.
Task 1.4: Analysis of the shallot-resonator interaction by laboratory experiments.
The acoustic properties of the shallot-resonator system and the physical mechanism of shallot-resonator interaction were investigated in the anechoic room of the IBP. Reed-shallot-resonator systems (complete reed pipes) were investigated by loudspeaker excitation (without reed vibration, i.e. with fixed reed position). Both periodic and pulsed excitation were applied. The effect of resonator shape and length were investigated for a specific reed-shallot system. The different resonators were provided by SME Partners.
Task 1.5: Computer modelling of the coupled acoustic system of shallot and resonator.
The acoustic properties of the shallot-resonator system used in Task 1.4 were investigated by finite element and boundary element methods. The simulation was optimized by comparing measurement and simulation results. The aim of this Task was to find an appropriate simulation method for a later development of a computer aided design method for reed pipe dimensioning.
As the SME partners showed further interest than planned in the project, more measurements have been carried out than planned.
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, BME, MühLe, Fle, Schu, Blanc, Ruff and Klais
WP2: Reed & material
Task 2.1: Development of specific devices for in-situ material testing
Sub-task 2.1.1: Device for testing the elastic properties of reed material.
Principle of operation: Decaying free vibration of a standard tongue was utilized. The frequency/thickness ratio and the Q-factor of the vibration characterized the elastic properties of the reed material. Implementation: The dimensions of the standard tongue were determined at the kick-off meeting. A standard tongue was cut from each band of the material to be investigated. One end of the sample tongue was clamped by an appropriate arrangement, the other end remains free. The sample was brought to vibration by a free falling ball that hits its free tip. The displacement was measured optically by a LED and a photodetector array. The frequency and attenuation were determined from the shape of the decaying displacement signal. First a laboratory setup was built for optimizing the excitation by free falling balls. On the basis of the optimized excitation and measurement methods a portable demonstrator was built and tested by measuring the elastic properties of several different tongues. This demonstrator was validated in WP6.
Sub-task 2.1.2: Development of a device for in-situ testing of the hardness of reed materials.
The goal of this Sub-task was to determine the feasibility of the Webster Hardness Tester W-B75 for in-situ testing of reed materials and to establish a correspondence between the readout of the Webster Hardness Tester and the “easiness” of curving of a standard tongue. This goal was achieved by a series of tests on different tongues of traditional reed pipes and on new tongues provided by the SME partners.
Task 2.2: Development of a specific device for controlling the curved reed’s shape was developed
Laboratory setup: An optical device, based on an USB microscope, was developed and tested. The shape of the reed is displayed enlarged on the screen of a laptop. Software allows the comparison of the actual curvature with a reference one. This feature facilitates the training of voicers in the workshops of the SME partners. Demonstrator: A portable demonstrator device was built and tested by IBP. The applicability of the demonstrator under workshop condition was validated in WP 6.
Task 2.3: Different reed materials were investigated by laboratory experiments.
Sub-task: 2.3.1: Investigation of the effect of different reed brass materials on pipe sound.
The elastic properties and hardness of reed brass materials were investigated at IBP by the demonstrators developed in Task 2.1. As a standard for the measurements an 8 feet C Trompette pipe was chosen. Reed materials from different vendors and different charges from the same vendor were compared. Historical reeds, lent from SME partners were also investigated. The different reeds were curved by an experienced voicer to the same curvature, controlled by the demonstrator developed in Task 2.2. Then, reeds were attached to the pipe and reed vibration and sound were analysed. The observed differences in the attack and stationary sound spectrum were regarded as characteristic effects of the elastic properties of the reed on pipe sound.
Sub-task 2.3.2: Investigation of alternative reed materials by laboratory experiments.
The results of Sub-task 2.3.1 were used for searching materials that have similar elastic properties as the reed brass. Other Cu alloys, stainless steel, glass fibre and carbon fibre composites were suitable for reeds. Reeds made by such materials were prepared by SME partners and measured by IBP. The same kind of measurements were carried out as in Sub-task 2.3.1. The aim was to find one or more alternative materials for the reeds of lingual organ pipes. In this sub-task only the material properties were considered, the technologies for the production and voicing of reeds made from the new materials is out of the scope of the present project and have to be developed by the SME partners.
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, MühLe, MuStra, Fle, Schu, Blanc, Ruff and Klais
WP3: Shallot & resonator
The properties of shallots and reed-shallot systems, of resonators and shallot-resonator systems were analysed.
Description of work:
Task 3.1: Analysis of the properties of shallots and reed-shallot systems
Six experimental systems with dimensions that correspond to the dimensions of the c-tones of a typical 8 feet Trompette pipe rank were investigated with different shallot shapes.
Sub-Task: 3.1.1: Laboratory experiments for determining the acoustic properties of shallots with different shapes and dimensions.
Acoustic properties of shallots with different shape (cylindrical, conical, French type, “Schiffchenkehle” etc.), and with different diameter and size and shape of the opening were determined by loudspeaker excitation. The reed was fixed during the measurements. Q-factors and eigenfrequencies were determined from the measured resonance profiles of each shallot. About 6-7 different shallots were investigated for each size groups. The results were stored in a data base. The shallots for the experiments were provided by Partners 4-10.
Sub-Task: 3.1.2: Laboratory experiments for determining the effect of shallot shape and dimensions on the sound of the reed-shallot system.
The reed-shallot systems used in Sub-Task 3.1.1 were driven by pressure. Sound signal in the shallot and the sound at ~ 5 cm distance from the open end of the shallot were recorded. The effect of shallot shape and size on the sound of the reed pipe without resonator was analysed. Sound pressure in the shallot for a single period of reed vibration, its spectrum and the spectrum of the radiated sound signal were stored in a data base for each shallot type and size. The shallots for the measurements were provided by Partners 4-10.
Task 3.2: Analysis of the properties of resonators and shallot-resonator systems.
Six experimental systems with dimensions of the c-tones of a typical 8 feet Trompette pipe rank were investigated with different resonator shapes and lengths.
Sub-Task: 3.2.1: Laboratory experiments for determining the acoustic properties of resonators with different shapes and dimensions.
Acoustic properties of resonators with different shape (cylindrical and conical) and with different lengths (short, half length, full length and double length) were determined by loudspeaker excitation. Altogether 10 resonators were investigated for each size groups. Eigenfrequencies and losses (Q-factors) were determined from the measured resonance profiles of each resonator. The results were stored in a data base. In the case of conical resonators the dependence of eigenresonance spacing on the cone angle was also investigated and the optimal angle for harmonically related eigenfrequencies was determined. The resonators for the experiments were provided by Partner Porg.
Sub-Task 3.2.2: Laboratory experiments for determining the acoustic properties of different shallot-resonator systems.
The resonators of Sub-Task 3.2.1 were attached to reed-shallot systems selected among the systems investigated in Sub-Task 3.1.2. Acoustic properties of the combined systems are investigated by loudspeaker excitation. Eigenfrequencies and losses (Q-factor) were determined from the measured eigenresonance profiles of each shallot-resonator combinations. Each combination was investigated in 3 versions: without cross section jump at the joint of shallot and resonator, with small jump (~ 50%) and with large jump (~ 100%). The results were stored in a data base. The shallot-resonator systems were provided by Partner Porg.
Sub-Task 3.2.3: Laboratory experiments for determining the effect of different reed-shallot-resonator systems on the sound.
The combined reed-shallot-resonator systems (complete reed pipes) of Sub-Task 3.2.2 were used as reed pipes. The attack and stationary spectrum of their sound were measured in the anechoic room of IBP. The effect of different shallots and resonators were determined by detailed analysis of the measurements. The evaluated attack transients and stationary spectra were stored in a data base. The reed-shallot-resonator systems were provided, and the pipes were voiced by Partner Klais
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, MühLe, MuStra, Blanc, Schu, Ruff, Porg and Klais
WP4: Dimensioning reed pipes
Description of work
The problem: According to the SME partners of the proposal the dimensioning (scaling) of reed pipes is very difficult and in many cases is unsuccessful. Although there are traditional rules for dimensioning the reeds and the diameter of the shallots, but dimensioning rules for shallot and resonator lengths are not available, and the knowledge about role of shallot is not enough for designing a desired sound character.
The results of WP1 and WP3 were used for developing design methods and software for facilitating the dimensioning reed pipes and pipe ranks.
In order to achieve these goals the following tasks were performed:
Task 4.1: Development of a method for selecting and dimensioning the shallot.
The functionality of the shallot was cleared in WP1, while the acoustic properties of different shallot types and the sound characters of reed-shallot systems (reed pipes without resonator) were collected and stored in a data base in WP3. These results were applied for selecting the optimal shallot type for different reed pipe ranks and for the development of a design method of dimensioning (scaling) the diameter and length of shallots. The method developed allows the matching of the shallot sound to the vibration period of the reed. The method allows also to select an optimal shape and to scale the shallot diameter for the required sound character of the reed pipe rank to be scaled.
For the development of the new method the data base of shallot properties, established in WP3 (Task 3.1) was used.
The results of the research performed in Task 4.1 were applied for preparing a Guide which helps the organ builder in the selection of shallot shape, length and inner diameter for the required sound character.
Task 4.2: Development of a method for selecting and dimensioning the resonator.
The functionality of the resonator was cleared in WP1, while the acoustic properties of different resonator types and the sound characters of reed-shallot-resonator systems (complete reed pipes) were collected and stored in a data base in WP3. These results were applied for selecting the optimal resonator type for different reed pipe ranks and for the development of a design method of dimensioning (scaling) the diameter and length of resonators. The method developed allows the matching of the selected resonance frequency of the resonator to the sound of the reed-shallot system.
For the development of the new method the data base of resonator properties, established in WP3 (Task 3.2) was used.
The results of the research performed in Task 4.1 were applied for preparing a Guide which helps the organ builder in the selection of the optimal resonator type, length and diameter adjusted to the shallot selected for the required sound character.
Task 4.3: Development of a design software for dimensioning reeds, shallots and resonators of different reed pipe ranks
The new methods developed in Tasks 4.1 and 4.2 and the data base of WP3 were applied for the development of a design software. This software allows the dimensioning of the most important reed pipe ranks.
The requirements of the software were determined by the SME partners of the project.
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, BME, MühLe
WP5: New reed pipes
Description of work
The problem: A pipe organ may substitute an orchestra due to its several pipe ranks (stops) with different sound characters. The sound of certain pipe ranks resembles the sound character of musical instruments. Those pipe ranks are usually named after the corresponding musical instruments. Thus, stop names like Oboe, Fagott (Bassoon), Clarinet; Cromorne, Flute, Serpent, etc. are used in contemporary organ building. Such new pipe ranks have been developed mostly in the 19th century parallel with the development of Romantic style orchestral pipe organs. Unfortunately, this rapid development was stopped in the thirties of the 20th century, and only a few new pipe ranks have been developed since then.
The new knowledge of WP1 about the functioning of beating and free reed pipes and the data base containing the results of the RTD work of WP3 allows the development of new reed pipe types for user defined sound character. These new pipe ranks enhance the quality of the pipe organ and improve the competitiveness of the partner organ builder SMEs.
Task 5.1: Development of a design method for user defined sound character. (IBP, STZ)
The results of WP1-WP4 were applied for developing a design method for user defined sound character. The envelope of the desired sound spectrum was used as starting point for the design. A shallot type, which could produce a similar envelope of the pipe spectrum, was selected from the data base of WP3. The similarity of the desired and designed spectra was improved by matching the length of the shallot to the first frequency maximum of the desired spectral envelope.
Task 5.2: New beating reed pipe designed for a desired sound character. (MuStra, Porg, IBP)
A new beating reed pipe was designed by STZ, BME and IBP for a sound character given by the SME partners. This pipe was built by Partners MuStra and Porg and were tested in the laboratory and validated in WP6.
Task 5.3: New free reed pipe designed for a desired sound character. (MuStra, Porg, IBP)
A new reed pipe was designed by STZ, BME and IBP for a sound character given by the SME partners. This pipe was built by Partner Porg and was tested in the laboratory and validated in WP6.
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, BME, MühLe, Porg
WP6: Validation
Task 6.1: Validation.
The demonstrator devices and new design methods developed and optimized in WP2-WP6 were validated by the SME partners in their own workshops. Reed materials were tested by the new devices and reeds made from that materials were voiced by the traditional methods in order to validate the quality control method and devices.
In the case of the demonstrator devices SME partners complained that the generation of the tongue vibration by means of the developed piezo-cristal method was not well reproducible. So they suggested changing the electrical method to a mechanical one.
According to the results of the validation the SME partners asked the RTD partners to change some of the indicated parameters in the display of the new device so that they are better understandable for organ builders. They suggested displaying instead of the material constants the parameters like frequency and decay time, which result in a better interpretation for the practical application.
Pipes were built, voiced and tuned by the SME partners to check the suitability of the new design methods in organ building practice. It was shown that using exclusively the different cylindrical shallot forms was not acceptable for the SME partners. They requested to work out also the possibility of the design of conical shallot forms. Also the possibility of the trapezoid tongue form was required. The results of the validation were discussed by the RTD partners who developed the new devices and methods.
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, BME, all SME partners
WP7: Optimization
Description of work
Task 7.1: Optimization. Problems identified during validation in WP6 were discussed among SME and RTD partners and the new methods and/or constructions that needed further optimizations were identified. Improvement and optimization were carried out by the RTD partners: In the case of the demonstrator devices the generation of the tongue vibration by means of the earlier developed piezo-cristal method was changed to a mechanical one.
The RTD partners also changed some of the indicated parameters in the display of the new device so that they are better understandable for organ builders. So instead of the material constants the parameters like frequency and decay time, which result in a better interpretation for the practical application, have been displayed. In the case of the new design methods in organ building practice the possibility of the design of conical shallot forms and also the possibility of the trapezoid tongue form have been worked out. The optimized methods and/or constructions were validated again by the SME partners.
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, BME, all SME partners
WP8: Training
Description of work
The RTD partners of the project presented the results of the RTD work performed in WP1-WP5 and gave a detailed explanation of the developed new devices and design methods.
Selected staff of the individual SME partners (organ builders, voicers, pipe makers and designers) participated on the training.
Task 8.1: Training of the use of new methods and devices.
New reed pipes planned, built and voiced according to the developed new methods were presented and compared to traditional pipes. The presentations were organized in the frame of a workshop at the IBP, where comparison measurements were also carried out and presented to the SME partners.
Specific devices developed in WP2 for reed material test and curvature control were presented and the participants were trained to the use of those devices. The participants of the training gained hands-on experience on the new methods and devices by testing reed materials and by voicing reeds by means of the developed new devices.
Task 8.2: Training of the use of the developed design software.
Software tools developed for dimensioning reed pipes and pipe ranks were presented, and the participants of the workshop were trained to the use of those tools by dimensioning different beating and free reed pipes and pipe ranks. Written material of the CBT training on DVD was created by the consortium (month 20, WP 8)
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, BME, all SME partners
All the Milestones and Deliverables have been successfully finalized
WP9: Dissemination
9.1.1 The dissemination of the results was and is being carried out in two phases:
1. For not participating organ builder SME-s and organists without revealing sensitive manufacturing information through: Papers published in journals of musical instruments and organ building;
Presentations on international conferences; Short courses and workshops organized by the IBP; Intensive courses of organ acoustics, organized yearly by the IBP; A dedicated webpage, on the webpage of the coordinator and with link to this page on the website of the other project partners.
2. Public results of the laboratory measurements were and are being published in journals of organ building and organology, in scientific journals and at conferences.
This dissemination strategy ensures the free access of everybody to the results without endangering sensitive manufacturing information and can maintain the competitive advantage of the participating SMEs for about 3 years after completing the project.
9.1.2 The following dissemination possibilities were and are being used:
- The consortium arranged at the end of the present project a demonstration concert on the “Research Pipe Organ and Demonstrator Instrument” being completed in the year 2013 at the Fraunhofer IBP in Stuttgart, Germany.
- The consortium prepared video clips to present REEDDESIGN on Internet.
Task 9.2: IPR Management
The combination of partners’ expertise and know-how was expected to produce new foreground IPR eventually leading within a few years of the end of the project to patented devices for reed quality control, design software for reed pipe ranks and new reed pipe constructions. The details are described in the Consortium Agreement. The principles are based on the following:
• The SME partners have royalty-free access rights to the RTD Performers' Background as far as needed for carrying out own project work; access to this Background needed for Foreground is granted on fair and reasonable conditions.
• Foreground arising from work carried out under the project is jointly owned by the SMEs after full payment of the 100 % remuneration for the RTD performers.
•
Task 9.3: Exploitation
Exploitation by the SME beneficiaries during the project: An Interim Plan for the Use and Dissemination of the Knowledge (PUDK) was prepared for the Interim Meeting, which identifies potential exploitation of the results of WP1-2 in the daily work of the SMEs. A decision (Milestone 2) was made about the immediate applicability of the results of WP1-2.
Exploitation after terminating the project: All SME partners use already the new methods, devices, software tools and new reed pipe types in their pipe organ products. To match the commercialisation activities of the SMEs with the technology pushes of the RTDs, the consortium decided that the new software tools and know-how can exclusively be bought 3 years after the end of the present project in combination with the participation to training workshops, in which the scientific methodology, the technological know-how and the use of the software is explained. The licence fees of software tools will be part of the participation fees. The SMEs will receive royalties from the licences sold during the training workshops. The commercialisation through training workshops represents a win-win situation and permits to combine the commercial interest of the SMEs and the technology pushes of RTD partners. Details are fixed in the Consortium Agreement.
Other European SMEs can benefit by licensing the know-how on fair conditions and by purchasing the software tools through the participation to the training workshops. The beginning of exploitation is foreseen about 3 years after the termination of the project.
A specific exploitation route is planned outside the EU, mostly in the USA and Asia. These flourishing markets are more open for buying new, innovative pipe organs than the traditional European market. Since some of the SME partners of the consortium are very active in those markets, the results of the research will be present there quite soon in their pipe organs built for the American and Asian countries. The exploitation policy resulting from the project is described in detail in the confidential Plan for the Use and Dissemination of the Knowledge (PUDK) which was presented at the end of the project at the final meeting.
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, BME, all SME partners
WP10: Management
Description of work:
The project management task covered all manpower needed for scientific, administrative and financial management and co-ordination of the project. This task interacted with all other tasks as it monitors progress across the whole project and provides the management and financial framework for the other tasks to operate successfully.
Task 10.1: Management and co-ordination.
Project coordination
The SME partners of the project entrusted the coordination to Partner 1 (IBP). The Institute of Building Physics belongs to the Fraunhofer Society (FhG). The Fraunhofer Society has a department in Munich for managing EU projects of the numerous research institutes of the Society. This department is specialised in professional project management, thus their involvement will facilitate the administrative and financial management of the project.
The project management consists of an administrative/financial part and a scientific/technical part. Scientific and technical issues were managed by the IBP with the assistance of Partner 4 (MühLe) in special issues that need knowledge and experience in organ building. Project Coordinator and president of the Chair Formal Consortium Committee (FCC) was Dr. Judit Angster, Leader of the Group of Musical Acoustics at the IBP.
Project management included following actions:
• Contract handling and management;
• Financial administration;
• Consortium co-ordination and facilitation of consortium activities,
• Monitoring of milestones and deliverables,
• Delivery of deliverables and milestones on time,
• Activity and financial reporting to EC;
• Financial management including production/submission of cost statements,
• Management of payments to partners;
• Preparation and reporting of the review meetings;
• Chair Formal Consortium Committee (FCC) meetings, and report on the meetings.
Methods for Monitoring and Reporting Progress
Each SME partner and RTD performer reported formally after the 9th month and after the 24th month to the Project Coordinator about the progress of the work, on the basis of a regularly updated detailed planning. The report included information about the technical progress, results obtained (e.g. deliverables) and compliance with the work programme. The progress status of the tasks was also reported in terms of percentage of completion, estimated time for completion, actual man-months spent and man-months needed to complete the tasks. The Co-ordinator summarised the overall project status and planning. To this end, he updated also regularly the bar-chart and the manpower matrix using the data he received from the partners.
The Project Coordinator managed the preparation of the project reviews and organized their distribution. This concerned especially the mid-term assessment review and the final review. After the 9th month and after the 24th month, the Project Coordinator prepared a consolidated overview of the budgetary situation of the project, on the basis of the cost statements she has received from the partners for submission to the Commission and of the payments that have been made.
Several tools, several reeds, reed organ pipes and pipe models were needed for the research work as it is described in the report by the individual tasks. The pipes and pipe models have been ordered from the partners by the Coordinator with the professional help of Partner 4 (MühLe) in special issues that needed knowledge and experience in organ building. The pipes and models were transported to the Fraunhofer IBP.
Special problems: No special problems occurred in the project work to the originally planned tasks. The project work could be carried out as foreseen.
All work packages have been executed well, all deliverables have been finalized. There were no changes in the consortium.
The training of new devices and new software (WP8) was executed at partner IBP in Stuttgart where all the partners participated. It was terminated on the 25th October 2013.
The organization of the kick-off meeting began already very early so that all the partners could take part. This work has been done by Prof. Augusztinovicz (Budapest, Hungary) and by the Fraunhofer IBP (Stuttgart, Germany) in a very good cooperation. The meeting took part from 20 to 22 October, 2011.
Organization of the interim technical review meeting began already very early so that all the partners could take part. This work has been done by Schumacher (Eupen, Belgium) and by the Fraunhofer IBP (Stuttgart, Germany) in a very good cooperation. The meeting took part from 11 to 13 October
2012 in Eupen. A detailed program is given in the Attachment to this report.
The final meeting took part in Stuttgart at Partner IBP on the 25th and 26th October 2013. This meeting had to be organized already in October because organ builders have a very busy time before Christmas and several partners could not have participated in November or December on a meeting. A detailed program is given in the Attachment to this report.
The project coordinator and most of the partners of this project had already experience in executing an EU project for SMEs and for this reason the management was easier. The project was running very well; all the tasks have been executed according to the plans.
The cost statements of the consortium have been prepared.
• No larger problems occurred in the 2nd phase of the project.
• No changes occurred in the consortium;
• A description of project meetings, dates and venues was given above;
• The Project work ran according to the plans.
Concerning the planned milestones and deliverables no deviations occurred. No changes to the legal status of any of the beneficiaries occurred. The project website is fully applicable:
http://www.ibp.fraunhofer.de/en/Expertise/Acoustics/Musical-Acoustics.html(si apre in una nuova finestra)
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, MühLe
More detailed scientific results see in the Deliverables.
Potential Impact:
Potential impacts and use
Improvement of SME competitiveness:
In the international competition of organ builders the cost of the pipe organ is a critical issue. The price of the materials cannot be reduced, due to the fact that in order to achieve the necessary high sound quality likewise the best quality materials need to be used. In short, there is an indissoluble relationship among the quality of the materials employed and the resulting sound quality of the organ. Moreover, it can be expected that the prices of high quality woods and metals will further increase in the near future. Thus the only way for price reduction is to decrease the costs of the manual labour in organ building. The improvement of the sound quality leads to a competitive advantage, because a high reputation of the sound quality of a completed pipe organ helps to receive new orders. The reduction of the production costs by better design and less working hours of voicing adjustments can be regarded also as a competitive advantage.
Improvement of the industrial competitiveness across the European Union:
Organ building is a historically traditional industrial sector in Europe which should be preserved. This is only possible if the costs can be maintained at a reasonable level compared to Asia and USA. The project REEDDESIGN will result in product innovation through higher quality, reliability, reduction of production time and new reed pipe types with Asian sounds, which may entail an important competitive advantage for the participating European organ building SMEs, but also outside the consortium against American and Asian producers. Indirect benefit may be expected in a few years after completing the project in licensing the know-how and in selling the design software.
Contribution to EU policies
The European social and economic cohesion will benefit from this project associating 13 partners from 8 Member States.
Since the organ building tradition belongs unambiguously to the European cultural heritage, the measurement and scientific analysis of traditional reed organ pipes, especially free reed stops from the Romantic period of organ building in the 19th century correspond to the policy of ”Protection and conservation of European cultural heritage.”
Quality of life
• Due to the better sound quality the organ music played on social events, such as church services and in concerts will be more enjoyable. It can result a better relaxation for the people, whose life is generally full of stress.
• Due to the reduction of costs of pipe organs more churches and concert halls can afford to build new pipe organ thus more people may have the possibility for a good relaxation.
Strategic impact
• Design and production costs of pipe organs -including working hours and material costs - will be decreased by about 20%,
• the aesthetic quality of the pipe organs -through the applied new voicing, tuning and scaling methods- will be improved,
• the leading position of the European organ builder SMEs on the world market will be strengthened,
• the employment situation of this industrial sector will be improved.
List of Websites:
http://www.ibp.fraunhofer.de/en/Expertise/Acoustics/Musical-Acoustics.html(si apre in una nuova finestra)
The aim of the project is to solve the practical problems of organ builder SMEs (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) by dimensioning and voicing reed organ pipes. This is reached by developing innovative methods, tools and software for facilitating sound design work and voicing adjustments of organ builder SMEs, and by developing new pipes. Since 8 SME from 7 countries participate in the project, which are very much interested in this research, there is a high degree of dissemination of results to countries with different technical and cultural tradition of organ building. 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 was achieved. Therefore innovative tools to support the design, dimensioning and voicing of the pipes have been developped. This goal was 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 were:
# 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 a rapid and more reliable design of reed pipes.
# 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 the tongue, which principally determines the quality of the sound.
These objectives have been achieved by targeted, collaborative research performed by the RTD partners of the project. The SME partners contributed to the work by providing tongues, shallots, resonators, 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 international market have been achieved.
Project Context and Objectives:
Concept and project objectives
Specific S&T problem and SME needs
Manufacturing of pipe organs is a traditional European industrial sector. The main factor influencing the competitiveness of organ builder SMEs is the quality of their pipe organs. Two quality aspects can be distinguished; the technical quality which is the quality of the organ as a technical product and the aesthetical quality which is mainly the sound quality. The sound quality is an essential factor because it is the signature of the organ builder and makes his reputation. It depends on the proper results of three procedures: scaling, voicing and tuning of the pipes. The most important procedure is the voicing adjustment of the pipes, which can ensure the required sound quality. The achievement of the required sound quality is a very time intensive empirical process, which is based on hundreds of years of tradition.
There are two different kinds of pipes in a pipe organ: flue pipes and reed pipes. The target of the present research project is the reed pipes.Reed pipe ranks are increasingly important for modern organ building. Their sound character can enrich the sound of the pipe organ with several beautiful timbres. Reed pipes had been very popular during the Romantic era of organ music in the 19th century, and then they have been rarely used due to the organ movement (Orgelbewegung) from about 1930 on. Recently a significant change of the musical taste can be observed; more and more reed pipe ranks are ordered and built in the new pipe organs. Unfortunately, reed pipes have been less studied than labial pipes. Thus, organ builders have definitely much more problems by the dimensioning, voicing and tuning of reed pipes, because even the way of functioning of reed pipes is not understood properly by organ builders. Therefore, unexpected troubles occur quite frequently by the manufacturing and voicing reed pipes. Moreover, it is difficult to achieve a good harmony between labial and lingual pipe ranks on a wind chest, because of their different mode of operation. This leads to the fact that organ builders spend a lot of time and often lose money in a trial and error process, because they do not have the necessary scientific/technological background and knowledge to understand the interdependency of the different geometrical parameters of the reed pipe on the sound quality.
Indeed, organ building is a traditional craftsmanship deeply rooted in Europe's history and culture, which entails valuable know-how transmitted generation after generation and which, therefore should be preserved. Nevertheless, innovative design methods and technologies can be applied in the daily practice in order to develop new types of reed pipes, to optimize the design and production of organs and, more importantly, without endangering the valuable traditions inherent to their fabrication. The organ builder SMEs have recognized that the quality and the effectiveness of their work can be considerably enhanced by adopting scientific and technological innovations in their craftmanship. Therefore, the SME group part of this project has decided to initiate the project titled “Sound Design of Reed Organ Pipes with Innovative Tools”.
Competitive threat and how the project helps to improve the competitive position
The rush development of the Asian economy has opened new markets for the European organ builders. However, there is a hard competition among European and American organ builders on the Asian market. Since pipe organs traditionally contain pipe ranks of sound character resembles of different musical instruments, competitive advantage could be achieved in the Asian countries if new pipe types with characters of special Asian reed instruments could also be offered. Therefore, the development of such new pipe ranks is extremely important.
In the international competition of organ builders the cost of the pipe organ is a critical issue. The price of the materials cannot be reduced, due to the fact that in order to achieve the necessary high sound quality likewise the best quality materials need to be used. In short, there is an indissoluble relationship among the quality of the materials employed and the resulting sound quality of the organ. Moreover, it can be expected that the prices of high quality woods and metals will further increase in the near future. Thus the only way for price reduction is to decrease the costs of the manual labour in organ building. Since the most expensive manual work in reed pipe production is the time consuming voicing of the pipes, innovations that reduce the time of voicing without endangering the quality of the sound would be very valuable for organ builders.
Necessity to outsource the research by the SMEs
The SME beneficiaries are convinced that it is very important for them to solve practical problems that render the dimensioning and voicing of reed organ pipes, and to develop innovative methods and tools for helping the voicing adjustments and sound design work in order to ensure high quality sound and to reduce the costs of pipe organs.
Due to the high degree of complexity inherent to correctly understand the influence of dimensioning and voicing on the attack and the timbre of reed organ pipes is that the SMEs part of the consortium have realised that a single company is not able to solve such problems. Therefore, they have established a consortium of 8 organ builders from 7 EU countries to outsource the research to 2 research institutes and 1 university from 2 EU countries for performing a research and development project with the financial support of the European Community. Consequently, the degree of dissemination to countries with different technical and cultural tradition of organ building is large.
The project fits also into the scope of the “Research for SMEs” funding scheme because
• the organ building companies are European SMEs requiring the support of RTD performers to develop new reed pipe types, to improve the quality of their products, and to reduce production costs by optimizing the production processes,
• organ building is a historically traditional industrial sector in Europe which should be preserved,
• the collaborative RTD project resulted in product innovation through higher quality, reliability and reduction of production time, which may entail an important competitive advantage for the participating building European organ SMEs against American and Asian producers,
• contacts between organ building companies have already been established on a European level (also former CRAFT projects, education, specialised workshops, conferences, etc.) and have been reinforced and consolidated along the project.
Realistic and verifiable objectives
The main scientific/technical objectives of the project are as follows:
1. New specific knowledge by targeted research experiments and computer simulations addressing specific scientific/technological problems and needs of the SME participants. A breakthrough has been achieved in the understanding of sound generation and radiation of reed pipes and the interaction between reed vibration and sound in shallot and resonator.
2. A breakthrough in computer modelling of reed pipes due to the application of the new knowledge.
3. New reed pipe types with sound character of Asian musical instruments.
4. New dimensioning methods based on the new knowledge for the design of reed pipes.
5. Design software for dimensioning reed pipes for better sound and rapid and more reliable design of reed pipes.
6. Development and optimization of demonstrators for in-situ quality control of the elasticity of brass materials of the tongues of reed pipes.
7. Development and optimization of a demonstrator for in-situ control of the curvature of tongue (which mostly determines the quality of the sound) during and after voicing
The industrial/economic objective of the research:
• Reduction of the working time by about 20% for pre-voicing of the pipes in the workshop and also at the main voicing work on the new instrument when assembled in the church or concert hall by innovative voicing methods and devices.
• Strengthen the market position of the partner SMEs (and also of the European organ builders) on the Asian and Latin American market with respect to the American organ building.
• Reduction of the production costs of reed pipes by about 15% by reducing the time of planning and voicing.
Research and demonstration activities of the SMEs to validate and exploit the results
These objectives were achieved by targeted research carried out by the RTD partners of the project. The SME partners contributed to the project by building the pipes for the investigations, by providing voicers for the laboratory experiments, and by validating the results in their workshops. The research was pre-competitive because dimensioning and voicing methods and industrial prototypes of reed pipes designed and voiced according to the new method and software were developed. Further work is necessary by the SME partners after the end of the project to optimally incorporate the new methods into their practice. A further period of one or two years is foreseen until the full exploitation of the results by the SME partners can be fully achieved.
The following results can be exploited by the SMEs:
1. Demonstrators for the organ builders for in-situ quality control of reed material in their workshop
2. Demonstrator for controlling the profile of the reed after curving
3. A data base of reeds, shallots and resonators that can be used with the new design method and software
4. New innovative design method of reed pipes and pipe ranks
5. New software for dimensioning reed pipes and pipe ranks
6. New reed pipe types
Dissemination activities for the benefit of SMEs outside of the consortium
The results of the project are being and will be disseminated on the following way:
• For the SME partners through an internal training workshop and by distributing the developed software tools and the manuals of the developed new methods,
• For the scientific community through publications in scientific and technical journals, without endangering the intellectual property rights of the SME partners,
• For the benefit of SMEs outside the consortium the new results will be disseminated - after a period of a few years - by special courses and workshops organized by IBP.
Project Results:
WP1: Laboratory experiments and computer modelling for obtaining new knowledge about functioning of the reed-shallot-resonator system
Description of work
Task 1.1: Development of a specific wind chest for laboratory experiments.
A specific wind chest was developed and built by Partners IBP and SME partners for the laboratory experiments with the following properties: large volume boot (~5 litre) with transparent walls; adjustable wind pressure (300-2000 Pa); adjustable rise time (~10 ms-200 ms) of the pressure in the boot, three exchangeable boots with small (~0.2 litre), medium (~1 litre) and large (~5 litre) volume, built-in pressure sensors and microphones.
Task 1.2: Analysis of beating and free reed vibration by laboratory experiments.
Reed vibration was investigated by laser vibrometry and high speed camera recordings. The reeds to be investigated were mounted on shallots equipped with reflection-free termination at their open end. The following problems have been cleared:
- the dependence of the steady vibration amplitude on boot pressure,
- the dependence of the steady vibration amplitude on reed curvature,
- the dependence of the onset time of reed vibration on the rise time of the boot pressure,
- the dependence of the onset time of reed vibration on the curvature of the reed,
- the effect of the boot volume on reed vibration.
The investigations was performed on standard reeds that correspond to the reed of an 8 feet C Trompette pipe. Both German and French curvatures were investigated. Curving was made in the laboratory by an experienced voicer of Partner MühLe. The specific shallots for beating and free reeds were provided by Partner MühLe. Reflection-free termination for the shallots were developed and built by IBP.
Task 1.3: Analysis of the reed-shallot interaction by laboratory experiments.
The physical mechanism of the reed-shallot interaction was investigated in the anechoic room of the IBP. Earlier study of IBP has shown that the vibrating reed excites an acoustic resonance of the shallot. The properties of the shallot sound and its dependence on different parameters were investigated for beating and free reeds. The following problems have been investigated:
- the dependence of the frequency of shallot sound on the length of the shallot,
- the dependence of the attenuation of the shallot sound on the diameter of the shallot,
- the dependence of the amplitude of the shallot sound on the diameter of the shallot,
- the dependence of the amplitude of the shallot sound on the boot pressure,
- the dependence of the amplitude of the shallot sound on the reed curvature.
The reeds and shallots for the investigations were provided by SME Partners. The reeds were curved in the laboratory by an experienced voicer of Partner MühLe.
Task 1.4: Analysis of the shallot-resonator interaction by laboratory experiments.
The acoustic properties of the shallot-resonator system and the physical mechanism of shallot-resonator interaction were investigated in the anechoic room of the IBP. Reed-shallot-resonator systems (complete reed pipes) were investigated by loudspeaker excitation (without reed vibration, i.e. with fixed reed position). Both periodic and pulsed excitation were applied. The effect of resonator shape and length were investigated for a specific reed-shallot system. The different resonators were provided by SME Partners.
Task 1.5: Computer modelling of the coupled acoustic system of shallot and resonator.
The acoustic properties of the shallot-resonator system used in Task 1.4 were investigated by finite element and boundary element methods. The simulation was optimized by comparing measurement and simulation results. The aim of this Task was to find an appropriate simulation method for a later development of a computer aided design method for reed pipe dimensioning.
As the SME partners showed further interest than planned in the project, more measurements have been carried out than planned.
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, BME, MühLe, Fle, Schu, Blanc, Ruff and Klais
WP2: Reed & material
Task 2.1: Development of specific devices for in-situ material testing
Sub-task 2.1.1: Device for testing the elastic properties of reed material.
Principle of operation: Decaying free vibration of a standard tongue was utilized. The frequency/thickness ratio and the Q-factor of the vibration characterized the elastic properties of the reed material. Implementation: The dimensions of the standard tongue were determined at the kick-off meeting. A standard tongue was cut from each band of the material to be investigated. One end of the sample tongue was clamped by an appropriate arrangement, the other end remains free. The sample was brought to vibration by a free falling ball that hits its free tip. The displacement was measured optically by a LED and a photodetector array. The frequency and attenuation were determined from the shape of the decaying displacement signal. First a laboratory setup was built for optimizing the excitation by free falling balls. On the basis of the optimized excitation and measurement methods a portable demonstrator was built and tested by measuring the elastic properties of several different tongues. This demonstrator was validated in WP6.
Sub-task 2.1.2: Development of a device for in-situ testing of the hardness of reed materials.
The goal of this Sub-task was to determine the feasibility of the Webster Hardness Tester W-B75 for in-situ testing of reed materials and to establish a correspondence between the readout of the Webster Hardness Tester and the “easiness” of curving of a standard tongue. This goal was achieved by a series of tests on different tongues of traditional reed pipes and on new tongues provided by the SME partners.
Task 2.2: Development of a specific device for controlling the curved reed’s shape was developed
Laboratory setup: An optical device, based on an USB microscope, was developed and tested. The shape of the reed is displayed enlarged on the screen of a laptop. Software allows the comparison of the actual curvature with a reference one. This feature facilitates the training of voicers in the workshops of the SME partners. Demonstrator: A portable demonstrator device was built and tested by IBP. The applicability of the demonstrator under workshop condition was validated in WP 6.
Task 2.3: Different reed materials were investigated by laboratory experiments.
Sub-task: 2.3.1: Investigation of the effect of different reed brass materials on pipe sound.
The elastic properties and hardness of reed brass materials were investigated at IBP by the demonstrators developed in Task 2.1. As a standard for the measurements an 8 feet C Trompette pipe was chosen. Reed materials from different vendors and different charges from the same vendor were compared. Historical reeds, lent from SME partners were also investigated. The different reeds were curved by an experienced voicer to the same curvature, controlled by the demonstrator developed in Task 2.2. Then, reeds were attached to the pipe and reed vibration and sound were analysed. The observed differences in the attack and stationary sound spectrum were regarded as characteristic effects of the elastic properties of the reed on pipe sound.
Sub-task 2.3.2: Investigation of alternative reed materials by laboratory experiments.
The results of Sub-task 2.3.1 were used for searching materials that have similar elastic properties as the reed brass. Other Cu alloys, stainless steel, glass fibre and carbon fibre composites were suitable for reeds. Reeds made by such materials were prepared by SME partners and measured by IBP. The same kind of measurements were carried out as in Sub-task 2.3.1. The aim was to find one or more alternative materials for the reeds of lingual organ pipes. In this sub-task only the material properties were considered, the technologies for the production and voicing of reeds made from the new materials is out of the scope of the present project and have to be developed by the SME partners.
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, MühLe, MuStra, Fle, Schu, Blanc, Ruff and Klais
WP3: Shallot & resonator
The properties of shallots and reed-shallot systems, of resonators and shallot-resonator systems were analysed.
Description of work:
Task 3.1: Analysis of the properties of shallots and reed-shallot systems
Six experimental systems with dimensions that correspond to the dimensions of the c-tones of a typical 8 feet Trompette pipe rank were investigated with different shallot shapes.
Sub-Task: 3.1.1: Laboratory experiments for determining the acoustic properties of shallots with different shapes and dimensions.
Acoustic properties of shallots with different shape (cylindrical, conical, French type, “Schiffchenkehle” etc.), and with different diameter and size and shape of the opening were determined by loudspeaker excitation. The reed was fixed during the measurements. Q-factors and eigenfrequencies were determined from the measured resonance profiles of each shallot. About 6-7 different shallots were investigated for each size groups. The results were stored in a data base. The shallots for the experiments were provided by Partners 4-10.
Sub-Task: 3.1.2: Laboratory experiments for determining the effect of shallot shape and dimensions on the sound of the reed-shallot system.
The reed-shallot systems used in Sub-Task 3.1.1 were driven by pressure. Sound signal in the shallot and the sound at ~ 5 cm distance from the open end of the shallot were recorded. The effect of shallot shape and size on the sound of the reed pipe without resonator was analysed. Sound pressure in the shallot for a single period of reed vibration, its spectrum and the spectrum of the radiated sound signal were stored in a data base for each shallot type and size. The shallots for the measurements were provided by Partners 4-10.
Task 3.2: Analysis of the properties of resonators and shallot-resonator systems.
Six experimental systems with dimensions of the c-tones of a typical 8 feet Trompette pipe rank were investigated with different resonator shapes and lengths.
Sub-Task: 3.2.1: Laboratory experiments for determining the acoustic properties of resonators with different shapes and dimensions.
Acoustic properties of resonators with different shape (cylindrical and conical) and with different lengths (short, half length, full length and double length) were determined by loudspeaker excitation. Altogether 10 resonators were investigated for each size groups. Eigenfrequencies and losses (Q-factors) were determined from the measured resonance profiles of each resonator. The results were stored in a data base. In the case of conical resonators the dependence of eigenresonance spacing on the cone angle was also investigated and the optimal angle for harmonically related eigenfrequencies was determined. The resonators for the experiments were provided by Partner Porg.
Sub-Task 3.2.2: Laboratory experiments for determining the acoustic properties of different shallot-resonator systems.
The resonators of Sub-Task 3.2.1 were attached to reed-shallot systems selected among the systems investigated in Sub-Task 3.1.2. Acoustic properties of the combined systems are investigated by loudspeaker excitation. Eigenfrequencies and losses (Q-factor) were determined from the measured eigenresonance profiles of each shallot-resonator combinations. Each combination was investigated in 3 versions: without cross section jump at the joint of shallot and resonator, with small jump (~ 50%) and with large jump (~ 100%). The results were stored in a data base. The shallot-resonator systems were provided by Partner Porg.
Sub-Task 3.2.3: Laboratory experiments for determining the effect of different reed-shallot-resonator systems on the sound.
The combined reed-shallot-resonator systems (complete reed pipes) of Sub-Task 3.2.2 were used as reed pipes. The attack and stationary spectrum of their sound were measured in the anechoic room of IBP. The effect of different shallots and resonators were determined by detailed analysis of the measurements. The evaluated attack transients and stationary spectra were stored in a data base. The reed-shallot-resonator systems were provided, and the pipes were voiced by Partner Klais
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, MühLe, MuStra, Blanc, Schu, Ruff, Porg and Klais
WP4: Dimensioning reed pipes
Description of work
The problem: According to the SME partners of the proposal the dimensioning (scaling) of reed pipes is very difficult and in many cases is unsuccessful. Although there are traditional rules for dimensioning the reeds and the diameter of the shallots, but dimensioning rules for shallot and resonator lengths are not available, and the knowledge about role of shallot is not enough for designing a desired sound character.
The results of WP1 and WP3 were used for developing design methods and software for facilitating the dimensioning reed pipes and pipe ranks.
In order to achieve these goals the following tasks were performed:
Task 4.1: Development of a method for selecting and dimensioning the shallot.
The functionality of the shallot was cleared in WP1, while the acoustic properties of different shallot types and the sound characters of reed-shallot systems (reed pipes without resonator) were collected and stored in a data base in WP3. These results were applied for selecting the optimal shallot type for different reed pipe ranks and for the development of a design method of dimensioning (scaling) the diameter and length of shallots. The method developed allows the matching of the shallot sound to the vibration period of the reed. The method allows also to select an optimal shape and to scale the shallot diameter for the required sound character of the reed pipe rank to be scaled.
For the development of the new method the data base of shallot properties, established in WP3 (Task 3.1) was used.
The results of the research performed in Task 4.1 were applied for preparing a Guide which helps the organ builder in the selection of shallot shape, length and inner diameter for the required sound character.
Task 4.2: Development of a method for selecting and dimensioning the resonator.
The functionality of the resonator was cleared in WP1, while the acoustic properties of different resonator types and the sound characters of reed-shallot-resonator systems (complete reed pipes) were collected and stored in a data base in WP3. These results were applied for selecting the optimal resonator type for different reed pipe ranks and for the development of a design method of dimensioning (scaling) the diameter and length of resonators. The method developed allows the matching of the selected resonance frequency of the resonator to the sound of the reed-shallot system.
For the development of the new method the data base of resonator properties, established in WP3 (Task 3.2) was used.
The results of the research performed in Task 4.1 were applied for preparing a Guide which helps the organ builder in the selection of the optimal resonator type, length and diameter adjusted to the shallot selected for the required sound character.
Task 4.3: Development of a design software for dimensioning reeds, shallots and resonators of different reed pipe ranks
The new methods developed in Tasks 4.1 and 4.2 and the data base of WP3 were applied for the development of a design software. This software allows the dimensioning of the most important reed pipe ranks.
The requirements of the software were determined by the SME partners of the project.
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, BME, MühLe
WP5: New reed pipes
Description of work
The problem: A pipe organ may substitute an orchestra due to its several pipe ranks (stops) with different sound characters. The sound of certain pipe ranks resembles the sound character of musical instruments. Those pipe ranks are usually named after the corresponding musical instruments. Thus, stop names like Oboe, Fagott (Bassoon), Clarinet; Cromorne, Flute, Serpent, etc. are used in contemporary organ building. Such new pipe ranks have been developed mostly in the 19th century parallel with the development of Romantic style orchestral pipe organs. Unfortunately, this rapid development was stopped in the thirties of the 20th century, and only a few new pipe ranks have been developed since then.
The new knowledge of WP1 about the functioning of beating and free reed pipes and the data base containing the results of the RTD work of WP3 allows the development of new reed pipe types for user defined sound character. These new pipe ranks enhance the quality of the pipe organ and improve the competitiveness of the partner organ builder SMEs.
Task 5.1: Development of a design method for user defined sound character. (IBP, STZ)
The results of WP1-WP4 were applied for developing a design method for user defined sound character. The envelope of the desired sound spectrum was used as starting point for the design. A shallot type, which could produce a similar envelope of the pipe spectrum, was selected from the data base of WP3. The similarity of the desired and designed spectra was improved by matching the length of the shallot to the first frequency maximum of the desired spectral envelope.
Task 5.2: New beating reed pipe designed for a desired sound character. (MuStra, Porg, IBP)
A new beating reed pipe was designed by STZ, BME and IBP for a sound character given by the SME partners. This pipe was built by Partners MuStra and Porg and were tested in the laboratory and validated in WP6.
Task 5.3: New free reed pipe designed for a desired sound character. (MuStra, Porg, IBP)
A new reed pipe was designed by STZ, BME and IBP for a sound character given by the SME partners. This pipe was built by Partner Porg and was tested in the laboratory and validated in WP6.
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, BME, MühLe, Porg
WP6: Validation
Task 6.1: Validation.
The demonstrator devices and new design methods developed and optimized in WP2-WP6 were validated by the SME partners in their own workshops. Reed materials were tested by the new devices and reeds made from that materials were voiced by the traditional methods in order to validate the quality control method and devices.
In the case of the demonstrator devices SME partners complained that the generation of the tongue vibration by means of the developed piezo-cristal method was not well reproducible. So they suggested changing the electrical method to a mechanical one.
According to the results of the validation the SME partners asked the RTD partners to change some of the indicated parameters in the display of the new device so that they are better understandable for organ builders. They suggested displaying instead of the material constants the parameters like frequency and decay time, which result in a better interpretation for the practical application.
Pipes were built, voiced and tuned by the SME partners to check the suitability of the new design methods in organ building practice. It was shown that using exclusively the different cylindrical shallot forms was not acceptable for the SME partners. They requested to work out also the possibility of the design of conical shallot forms. Also the possibility of the trapezoid tongue form was required. The results of the validation were discussed by the RTD partners who developed the new devices and methods.
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, BME, all SME partners
WP7: Optimization
Description of work
Task 7.1: Optimization. Problems identified during validation in WP6 were discussed among SME and RTD partners and the new methods and/or constructions that needed further optimizations were identified. Improvement and optimization were carried out by the RTD partners: In the case of the demonstrator devices the generation of the tongue vibration by means of the earlier developed piezo-cristal method was changed to a mechanical one.
The RTD partners also changed some of the indicated parameters in the display of the new device so that they are better understandable for organ builders. So instead of the material constants the parameters like frequency and decay time, which result in a better interpretation for the practical application, have been displayed. In the case of the new design methods in organ building practice the possibility of the design of conical shallot forms and also the possibility of the trapezoid tongue form have been worked out. The optimized methods and/or constructions were validated again by the SME partners.
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, BME, all SME partners
WP8: Training
Description of work
The RTD partners of the project presented the results of the RTD work performed in WP1-WP5 and gave a detailed explanation of the developed new devices and design methods.
Selected staff of the individual SME partners (organ builders, voicers, pipe makers and designers) participated on the training.
Task 8.1: Training of the use of new methods and devices.
New reed pipes planned, built and voiced according to the developed new methods were presented and compared to traditional pipes. The presentations were organized in the frame of a workshop at the IBP, where comparison measurements were also carried out and presented to the SME partners.
Specific devices developed in WP2 for reed material test and curvature control were presented and the participants were trained to the use of those devices. The participants of the training gained hands-on experience on the new methods and devices by testing reed materials and by voicing reeds by means of the developed new devices.
Task 8.2: Training of the use of the developed design software.
Software tools developed for dimensioning reed pipes and pipe ranks were presented, and the participants of the workshop were trained to the use of those tools by dimensioning different beating and free reed pipes and pipe ranks. Written material of the CBT training on DVD was created by the consortium (month 20, WP 8)
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, BME, all SME partners
All the Milestones and Deliverables have been successfully finalized
WP9: Dissemination
9.1.1 The dissemination of the results was and is being carried out in two phases:
1. For not participating organ builder SME-s and organists without revealing sensitive manufacturing information through: Papers published in journals of musical instruments and organ building;
Presentations on international conferences; Short courses and workshops organized by the IBP; Intensive courses of organ acoustics, organized yearly by the IBP; A dedicated webpage, on the webpage of the coordinator and with link to this page on the website of the other project partners.
2. Public results of the laboratory measurements were and are being published in journals of organ building and organology, in scientific journals and at conferences.
This dissemination strategy ensures the free access of everybody to the results without endangering sensitive manufacturing information and can maintain the competitive advantage of the participating SMEs for about 3 years after completing the project.
9.1.2 The following dissemination possibilities were and are being used:
- The consortium arranged at the end of the present project a demonstration concert on the “Research Pipe Organ and Demonstrator Instrument” being completed in the year 2013 at the Fraunhofer IBP in Stuttgart, Germany.
- The consortium prepared video clips to present REEDDESIGN on Internet.
Task 9.2: IPR Management
The combination of partners’ expertise and know-how was expected to produce new foreground IPR eventually leading within a few years of the end of the project to patented devices for reed quality control, design software for reed pipe ranks and new reed pipe constructions. The details are described in the Consortium Agreement. The principles are based on the following:
• The SME partners have royalty-free access rights to the RTD Performers' Background as far as needed for carrying out own project work; access to this Background needed for Foreground is granted on fair and reasonable conditions.
• Foreground arising from work carried out under the project is jointly owned by the SMEs after full payment of the 100 % remuneration for the RTD performers.
•
Task 9.3: Exploitation
Exploitation by the SME beneficiaries during the project: An Interim Plan for the Use and Dissemination of the Knowledge (PUDK) was prepared for the Interim Meeting, which identifies potential exploitation of the results of WP1-2 in the daily work of the SMEs. A decision (Milestone 2) was made about the immediate applicability of the results of WP1-2.
Exploitation after terminating the project: All SME partners use already the new methods, devices, software tools and new reed pipe types in their pipe organ products. To match the commercialisation activities of the SMEs with the technology pushes of the RTDs, the consortium decided that the new software tools and know-how can exclusively be bought 3 years after the end of the present project in combination with the participation to training workshops, in which the scientific methodology, the technological know-how and the use of the software is explained. The licence fees of software tools will be part of the participation fees. The SMEs will receive royalties from the licences sold during the training workshops. The commercialisation through training workshops represents a win-win situation and permits to combine the commercial interest of the SMEs and the technology pushes of RTD partners. Details are fixed in the Consortium Agreement.
Other European SMEs can benefit by licensing the know-how on fair conditions and by purchasing the software tools through the participation to the training workshops. The beginning of exploitation is foreseen about 3 years after the termination of the project.
A specific exploitation route is planned outside the EU, mostly in the USA and Asia. These flourishing markets are more open for buying new, innovative pipe organs than the traditional European market. Since some of the SME partners of the consortium are very active in those markets, the results of the research will be present there quite soon in their pipe organs built for the American and Asian countries. The exploitation policy resulting from the project is described in detail in the confidential Plan for the Use and Dissemination of the Knowledge (PUDK) which was presented at the end of the project at the final meeting.
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, BME, all SME partners
WP10: Management
Description of work:
The project management task covered all manpower needed for scientific, administrative and financial management and co-ordination of the project. This task interacted with all other tasks as it monitors progress across the whole project and provides the management and financial framework for the other tasks to operate successfully.
Task 10.1: Management and co-ordination.
Project coordination
The SME partners of the project entrusted the coordination to Partner 1 (IBP). The Institute of Building Physics belongs to the Fraunhofer Society (FhG). The Fraunhofer Society has a department in Munich for managing EU projects of the numerous research institutes of the Society. This department is specialised in professional project management, thus their involvement will facilitate the administrative and financial management of the project.
The project management consists of an administrative/financial part and a scientific/technical part. Scientific and technical issues were managed by the IBP with the assistance of Partner 4 (MühLe) in special issues that need knowledge and experience in organ building. Project Coordinator and president of the Chair Formal Consortium Committee (FCC) was Dr. Judit Angster, Leader of the Group of Musical Acoustics at the IBP.
Project management included following actions:
• Contract handling and management;
• Financial administration;
• Consortium co-ordination and facilitation of consortium activities,
• Monitoring of milestones and deliverables,
• Delivery of deliverables and milestones on time,
• Activity and financial reporting to EC;
• Financial management including production/submission of cost statements,
• Management of payments to partners;
• Preparation and reporting of the review meetings;
• Chair Formal Consortium Committee (FCC) meetings, and report on the meetings.
Methods for Monitoring and Reporting Progress
Each SME partner and RTD performer reported formally after the 9th month and after the 24th month to the Project Coordinator about the progress of the work, on the basis of a regularly updated detailed planning. The report included information about the technical progress, results obtained (e.g. deliverables) and compliance with the work programme. The progress status of the tasks was also reported in terms of percentage of completion, estimated time for completion, actual man-months spent and man-months needed to complete the tasks. The Co-ordinator summarised the overall project status and planning. To this end, he updated also regularly the bar-chart and the manpower matrix using the data he received from the partners.
The Project Coordinator managed the preparation of the project reviews and organized their distribution. This concerned especially the mid-term assessment review and the final review. After the 9th month and after the 24th month, the Project Coordinator prepared a consolidated overview of the budgetary situation of the project, on the basis of the cost statements she has received from the partners for submission to the Commission and of the payments that have been made.
Several tools, several reeds, reed organ pipes and pipe models were needed for the research work as it is described in the report by the individual tasks. The pipes and pipe models have been ordered from the partners by the Coordinator with the professional help of Partner 4 (MühLe) in special issues that needed knowledge and experience in organ building. The pipes and models were transported to the Fraunhofer IBP.
Special problems: No special problems occurred in the project work to the originally planned tasks. The project work could be carried out as foreseen.
All work packages have been executed well, all deliverables have been finalized. There were no changes in the consortium.
The training of new devices and new software (WP8) was executed at partner IBP in Stuttgart where all the partners participated. It was terminated on the 25th October 2013.
The organization of the kick-off meeting began already very early so that all the partners could take part. This work has been done by Prof. Augusztinovicz (Budapest, Hungary) and by the Fraunhofer IBP (Stuttgart, Germany) in a very good cooperation. The meeting took part from 20 to 22 October, 2011.
Organization of the interim technical review meeting began already very early so that all the partners could take part. This work has been done by Schumacher (Eupen, Belgium) and by the Fraunhofer IBP (Stuttgart, Germany) in a very good cooperation. The meeting took part from 11 to 13 October
2012 in Eupen. A detailed program is given in the Attachment to this report.
The final meeting took part in Stuttgart at Partner IBP on the 25th and 26th October 2013. This meeting had to be organized already in October because organ builders have a very busy time before Christmas and several partners could not have participated in November or December on a meeting. A detailed program is given in the Attachment to this report.
The project coordinator and most of the partners of this project had already experience in executing an EU project for SMEs and for this reason the management was easier. The project was running very well; all the tasks have been executed according to the plans.
The cost statements of the consortium have been prepared.
• No larger problems occurred in the 2nd phase of the project.
• No changes occurred in the consortium;
• A description of project meetings, dates and venues was given above;
• The Project work ran according to the plans.
Concerning the planned milestones and deliverables no deviations occurred. No changes to the legal status of any of the beneficiaries occurred. The project website is fully applicable:
http://www.ibp.fraunhofer.de/en/Expertise/Acoustics/Musical-Acoustics.html(si apre in una nuova finestra)
The following partners took part in the works: IBP, STZ, MühLe
More detailed scientific results see in the Deliverables.
Potential Impact:
Potential impacts and use
Improvement of SME competitiveness:
In the international competition of organ builders the cost of the pipe organ is a critical issue. The price of the materials cannot be reduced, due to the fact that in order to achieve the necessary high sound quality likewise the best quality materials need to be used. In short, there is an indissoluble relationship among the quality of the materials employed and the resulting sound quality of the organ. Moreover, it can be expected that the prices of high quality woods and metals will further increase in the near future. Thus the only way for price reduction is to decrease the costs of the manual labour in organ building. The improvement of the sound quality leads to a competitive advantage, because a high reputation of the sound quality of a completed pipe organ helps to receive new orders. The reduction of the production costs by better design and less working hours of voicing adjustments can be regarded also as a competitive advantage.
Improvement of the industrial competitiveness across the European Union:
Organ building is a historically traditional industrial sector in Europe which should be preserved. This is only possible if the costs can be maintained at a reasonable level compared to Asia and USA. The project REEDDESIGN will result in product innovation through higher quality, reliability, reduction of production time and new reed pipe types with Asian sounds, which may entail an important competitive advantage for the participating European organ building SMEs, but also outside the consortium against American and Asian producers. Indirect benefit may be expected in a few years after completing the project in licensing the know-how and in selling the design software.
Contribution to EU policies
The European social and economic cohesion will benefit from this project associating 13 partners from 8 Member States.
Since the organ building tradition belongs unambiguously to the European cultural heritage, the measurement and scientific analysis of traditional reed organ pipes, especially free reed stops from the Romantic period of organ building in the 19th century correspond to the policy of ”Protection and conservation of European cultural heritage.”
Quality of life
• Due to the better sound quality the organ music played on social events, such as church services and in concerts will be more enjoyable. It can result a better relaxation for the people, whose life is generally full of stress.
• Due to the reduction of costs of pipe organs more churches and concert halls can afford to build new pipe organ thus more people may have the possibility for a good relaxation.
Strategic impact
• Design and production costs of pipe organs -including working hours and material costs - will be decreased by about 20%,
• the aesthetic quality of the pipe organs -through the applied new voicing, tuning and scaling methods- will be improved,
• the leading position of the European organ builder SMEs on the world market will be strengthened,
• the employment situation of this industrial sector will be improved.
List of Websites:
http://www.ibp.fraunhofer.de/en/Expertise/Acoustics/Musical-Acoustics.html(si apre in una nuova finestra)