3D Printing of Musical Instruments: Radical Technologies

Bil Smith recently posted a recording on SoundCloud (attached below) which was inspired by his research into 3D printing of musical instruments. A visit to MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts was a trigger to allow him to investigate the possibilities of incorporating such instruments into a recent commission.

A concept design from MIT Media Lab, to illustrate the possibilities with 3d printing.

The 3D Printed Flute was a research project in the MIT Media Lab. The goal was to create a flute using 3D printing technologies – a flute that is compatible with a traditional concert flute, both acoustically and ergonomically. This flute is composed from several materials - a rigid material was selected for the flute’s body, a different one for the mouthpiece, and a soft material for sealing the air properly. Only springs were added manually later. This project was fabricated with the Objet Connex machine, which can print multiple materials in a single build. The overall process took around 15 hours, creating 4 separate parts that then were assembled to a working instrument. This printed flute isn’t a perfect instrument. Also, some keys didn’t close properly, constraining the hands of the player from moving freely ups and downs the keys.

PDF from Arvid Jense at the University of Twente which provides an excellent overview to this nascent, radical technology.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/569292/Possibilities%20for%203d%20Printing%20Musical%20Instruments%20-%20Arvid%20Jense%2012-12-2012.pdf

My Recording on SoundCloud: “Equivalent Ideation & Lost Gill-Slits” (2013)

Bil Smith Composer

For Two String Quartets and Two Jazz Quintets featuring:

Quatuor Diotima (::discourse::) Radikant; Oliver Lake (Saxophones); Roscoe Mitchell (Woodwinds. Ideated Instruments); Bil Smith (Pocket Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Percussion); William Parker (Bass); Amina Claudine Myers (Piano); Milford Graves (Drums, Percussion, Ideated Instruments)

T’Ang Quartette; Evan Parker (Saxophones); Manfred Schoof (Trumpet); Maarten van Regteren Altena (Bass); Alt Koom (Percussion)
Han Bennink (Drums, Percussion)

Recording: Funkhaus Nalepastrasse, Berlin. March 12, 2013

The genesis of this composition emanates from my early music experiences as a free jazz trumpet player. Ornette Coleman’s Double Quartet and the seminal recording “Free Jazz”; Horatiu Radulescu’s musical treatise “Sound Plasma” and artist Mark Rothko all have a profound influence in the evolution of this work.