Wednesday, December 07, 2016
3D-printing software reshapes musical instrument design
newatlas.com: When most of us think of a musical wind instrument, we generally picture what is essentially a tube with a mouthpiece at one end – something like a flute, recorder or saxophone. And while that's a tried and trusted design, the fact is that wind instruments can take almost any form. Weirdly-shaped instruments are more difficult to design, however, which is where a new computer program called Printone comes in.
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2 comments:
I would literally kill for this program. I love wind instruments and have been playing the flute since I was super young, am savvy on the harmonica, and also enjoy struggling to produce enough air to play a trumpet, so being able to craft my own wind instrument that could cater to my baby-sized lung capacity would be a dream come true. These designs are cute, but I can only imagine what infinitely more complicated possibilities there are for this program and how it could incorporate itself into stage performances. Not all actors are musically gifted, and this way when characters are called upon to play an instrument, one of these customs could be supplemented, and just like that, the actor looks like a star for being able to cover holes in the right order. I also like this idea for younger music education and how kids could learn to play on simple instruments before advancing, as I had trouble hitting all the buttons on my flute when I first started.
This is such an incredibly interesting program! From the title I thought I would be just some gig where you 3D-print something and punch some holes on it to make random sound. But after reading the introduction and watching the video, they are serious about making wind musical instruments! The fact that the program can uniform the scaling of the notes based on its shape is just mind-blowing. Everything can be designed and calculated with Printone. This would be such an exciting program for music lovers or even people who can’t play any instrument because it would be so easy to learn. I’m not really familiar with how advanced we are now at 3D-printing technology but my impression is that they can only be printed out of plastic. To the true classic music fans or players, or musical instrument makers, this may not be so appealing. It is fun, but not to be taken seriously, as the true art craft of making a musical instrument comes from years of learning and practicing.
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