Fatigue testing of woodwind reeds****

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Legere reeds, located in Barrie, Ontario, is a world leader in the development and manufacturing of synthetic reeds for musical instruments. Their products include saxophone, clarinet, bassoon and oboe reeds of various strengths and designs. Synthetic reeds exhibit improved durability relative to traditional natural cane reeds and no sensitivity to ambient conditions, resulting in a product that is more consistent to the musician. That said, Legere does not have a way to precisely measure and quantify the performance of their reeds in comparison to natural cane reeds. The company is interested in developing a methodology for highly reliable and well-calibrated characterisation of reeds. This would allow Legere to better understand the fatigue behaviour of their synthetic reeds and to develop new reeds that last even longer, which would help improve the cost-benefit ratio of their synthetic products versus cane reeds.****Recent work in my lab has focused on the mechanical characterisation of natural cane reeds and previous work has included the perception of reed quality. The proposed research project will involve the development of a system to allow analysis of long-term dynamic reed behaviour, as well as initial tests with the system of both synthetic and natural cane reeds. The approach will include calibrations between output sound power and reed displacement for specific reed stiffness-mouthpiece combinations, such that accurate measurements can be made for long-term reed degradation.