Hi guys,

Here is the rest of the quote from Fletcher and Rossing about mpc volume:

"This mouthpiece cavity has an important effect on the spectrum of the saxophone (Benade and Lutgen, 1988), which differs in important aspects from the form illustrated in Fig. 15.10 [which I can't reproduce but shows the relationship between radiated power plotted against frequency relative to tonehole lattice cutoff in a loudly-played instrument]. The cavity acts rather like the mouthcup of a brass instrument...and imparts an extra rise of 6 dB/octave below its resonance and a fall of -6 dB/octave above. The mouthpiece resonance frequency is typicaly comparable with the tonehole cutoff frequency omega-c, so these extra slopes contribute simply to the behavior above and below omega-c, which is typically about 850 Hz for an alto saxophone. A normalized spectral envelope for the radiated power P(omega), derived from Eq. (15.30) ...."

If anyone is interested I can transcribe the whole earlier section which is a mathematical derivation of the generalized equation for deriving the "limiting spectrum" of woodwind instruments--basically a way to predict how they will sound depending on bore, tonehole layout and reed behavior.

It around this point that I close the book and turn on the TV...

Toby