Instrument Build Journal 2

There are 2 design decisions I have made that I feel will make this instrument more performance friendly than the Harrison/Colvig instrument. The first is to use 1/4 wave resonators on all keys. The Harrison/Colvig instrument used volumetric resonators up to around the 9th partial or so. The second is to make all of the keys from the 9 to the 16th partial have their own frame and resonator that can be arranged anywhere in its case. The same will be done for partials 17 to 32. Here are my initial sketches for that design.

For each decision, there is some empirical testing involved. A test key was made to determine a number of factors about the upper partials. Here is an abandoned idea of having them on a trough resonator resting on foam.

For comparison to the previous video, here is a string suspended key. We decided to give with string suspension.