Regime change in the recorder: Using Navier–Stokes modeling to design a better instrument

Blowing a recorder at a low to moderate blowing speed with the toneholes all closed yields the lowest note in the range of the instrument. As the blowing speed is increased, the tone abruptly changes to the tone an octave higher. This “jump” in the frequency of the dominant spectral component of the tone is referred to as “regime change.” Interestingly, in conversations with recorder players, several have mentioned that regime change seems to occur at a significantly lower blowing speed for bass recorders than for instruments that sound an octave or more higher. In this paper we study regime change in the recorder and use Navier–Stokes modeling to confirm and study differences in the behavior of different instruments in the recorder family. We show, using modeling, how the regime change threshold in a model of the bass recorder can be increased by changing the geometry in the vicinity of the labium. These results are then confirmed through experimental studies of real recorders with designs inspired by the modeling results. The insights gained from these results suggest new recorder designs that may produce instruments that in some respects are more playable than current instruments.