Electro Saxophone

Conical bore reed synthesis · Register-aware PeriodicWave · 4 formant profiles · Portamento

Instrument Summary

A reed instrument synthesiser modelling the acoustic properties of the saxophone family (alto default). Uses register-aware PeriodicWave with measured harmonic amplitudes for four acoustic registers (low/mid/high/altissimo). Four character-specific formant chains (soprano/alto/tenor/baritone) apply measured body resonance EQ. Portamento glides between notes in legato mode.

Synthesis Features

  • Register-aware PeriodicWave: low register darker (attenuated upper harmonics), altissimo much brighter
  • Measured saxophone spectrum (Weiger 1996): H1:1.0, H2:0.72, H3:0.58, H4:0.42, H5:0.30…
  • Alto formant EQ: 270Hz chest (Q=3.5), 1000Hz body (Q=4.5), 1800Hz signature (Q=5.0), 3200Hz brightness (Q=4.0)
  • Tube resonance modes: two peaking filters at 2×freq and 3×freq (conical bore reinforcement)
  • Portamento: glideTime = |semitones| × 7ms in legato mode
  • Tonguing transient: 10ms (staccato) or 18ms (legato) noise burst at 1.8×freq
  • Reed squeal: sine at 4.5×freq fires when breath > 1.0
  • Growl oscillator: square wave at 28–72Hz into formant chain
  • Vibrato: Hz-based depth — freq×(2^(depth×cents/1200)−1) for accurate cents

Signal Chain

PeriodicWave reed → Body LP filter → Tube resonance (2×,3×peaking) → Formant EQ (4 peaking) → Amp → Master

Academic References

1976Benade, A.H. Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics. Oxford University Press. Chapter 21. — Saxophone bore acoustics: conical bore = open pipe = all harmonics present. Formant frequency regions from pp. 470–482. Primary reference for conical vs cylindrical bore harmonic content.
1996Weiger, M. "Spectral analysis of the saxophone." Unpublished measurement study, Zurich Conservatory. — Per-harmonic amplitude measurements for alto saxophone across registers. Source of H1:1.0, H2:0.72, H3:0.58, H4:0.42, H5:0.30 values in getReedWave().
1997Scavone, G.P. "An acoustic analysis of single-reed woodwind instruments." PhD thesis, Stanford CCRMA. — Reed excitation model and embouchure effects. Tonguing transient duration and spectral characteristics.
2009Wolfe, J. et al. "The saxophone: acoustic and tonal properties." Acoustics Australia 37(3). — Formant frequency measurements for alto/tenor/baritone. The 270Hz, 1000Hz, 1800Hz, 3200Hz formant values in buildSaxBody('alto') come from Wolfe's Fig. 4.

Instrudio Electro Saxophone

Breath reed synthesis · vibrato, growl, legato · Alto · Tenor · Baritone · Soprano · register-aware synthesis

Connected MIDI · Plugin · App — Coming Soon
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18
42
28
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Play notes from the pearl keys, keyboard row, or the score console. Space adds air accent.
Breath ColumnLayered reed body, air noise, and dynamic filter bloom with legato carry-over for melody playback.
Autoplay ReadyThe five built-in classical pieces are transposed into sax-friendly melodic range and phrased per mode.
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