Pafi

Modular Platform for Assisted Instrument Construction

Introduction

The PAFI project aspires to instigate an ambitious and completely new dynamic among research laboratories, a national pole of innovation for the music industry, and a group of instrument makers acting on behalf of professional associations of instrument makers, representative of the French small business culture.

Project Description & Goals

The goal of this project is to overcome the difficulties associated with the reproduction and optimization of superior musical instrument design, distinctive of French instrument making. PAFI aims to implement tools for characterization as well as mechanical and acoustic prediction for the analysis and creation of prototypes of virtual instruments.

This project will combine the expertise in wind instrument acoustics developed in parallel by IRCAM and by LAUM with the group "artisans pilotes vents" coordinated by the Pôle d'innovation (PIMM) at ITEMM in Le Mans.

• The team is responsible for implementing an experimental characterization system for the accuracy of instruments via a system that measures the input impedance, called the "impedance bridge" (hardware and software).
• The team is also responsible for the development of a tool that predicts accuracy, through the calculation of the input impedance using the internal geometry of the instrument (software).
• A doctoral student, supervised by both project partners, will put in place a methodology for control and innovation with the instrument-makers by using tools based on a model and by working to find new tools developed in laboratories (tests such as artificial mouths and simulations via physical models of instruments being played).

Project Details

Participants