Bells and Whistles: 3D printing boosts experiments in music and sounds

 

CREATIVE FRUSTRATION, 2014: You have a particular tune composed in your head, but your flute is still in the printer. Oh, well, at least you're not waiting on a guitar. And on the upside, you're in the vanguard of people experimenting with musical innovation through 3-D printing.

For the past two summers, that has been the ambience of a workshop offered by Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. The one-week class, 3-D Printing for Acoustics, was created at the behest of professor and CCRMA director Chris Chafe, DMA '83. A full course is possible somewhere down the road because, as Chafe notes, "we're not only taking the pulse of such innovations by trying them out in the summer, but compiling materials which can be expanded on."

Implemented as a joint effort of CCRMA and Stanford's Product Realization Lab, the workshop blends computer science and mechanical engineering with research on the nuances of sound. In simplified terms, an instrument is designed with help of software, and a prototype is made with a 3-D printing machine, using technology known as additive manufacturing. An object is formed layer by layer as the printer uses a moldable plastic to replicate the dimensions and details of what was modeled on a computer.

 

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