Acoustical Modeling of Mutes for Brass Instruments

Abstract

Mutes for brass instruments are placed in the bell and change the instrument resonance characteristics. Since the pitch, loudness, and timbre are then affected, brass mutes are important for musical expression. Our main focus is on the acoustical modeling of the straight mute for the French horn and the cup mute for the trumpet. The validity of our numerical analysis is confirmed by the results on the hand stopping and the stopping mute for the horn. An application of our modeling method to other trumpet mutes is furthermore demonstrated.