Listener evaluations of violins made from composites

For centuries, wood, and more specifically spruce, has been the material of choice for violin top plates. Lately, carbon fiber instruments have entered the market. Some studies show that composite materials have potential advantages for making instruments [Damodaran, Lessard, and Babu, Acoust. Aust. 43, 117-122 (2015)]. However, no studies exist that evaluate violins made of different composite materials as judged by listeners. For this study, six prototype violins, differing only by the material of the top plate, were manufactured in a controlled laboratory setting. The six prototype violins were judged by experienced listeners in two double-blind experiments. In contrast to popular opinion that violins made from carbon have or lack a specific sound quality, the study provides insights in the diverse sounds and timbres violins from fiber-reinforced polymers can create. It allows an investigation of the links between the perception and the variations in material properties of the soundboards. Additionally, as neither players nor listeners are acquainted with these instruments, these results provide an interesting view on what type of qualities of violin-like sounds are preferred by listeners

Reliability of the input admittance of bowed-string instruments measured by the hammer method.

The input admittance at the bridge, measured by hammer testing, is often regarded as the most useful and convenient measurement of the vibrational behavior of a bowed string instrument. However, this method has been questioned, due especially to differences between human bowing and hammer impact. The goal of the research presented here is to investigate the reliability and accuracy of this classic hammer method. Experimental studies were carried out on cellos, with three different driving conditions and three different boundary conditions. Results suggest that there is nothing fundamentally different about the hammer method, compared to other kinds of excitation. The third series of experiments offers an opportunity to explore the difference between the input admittance measuring from one bridge corner to another and that of single strings. The classic measurement is found to give a reasonable approximation to that of all four strings. Some possible differences between the hammer method and normal bowing and implications of the acoustical results are also discussed.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from AIP via http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.490057

Acoustics of the banjo: measurements and sound synthesis

Measurements of vibrational response of an American 5-string banjo and of the sounds of played notes on the instrument are presented, and contrasted with corresponding results for a steel-string guitar. A synthesis model, fine-tuned using information from the measurements, has been used to investigate what acoustical features are necessary to produce recognisable banjo-like sound, and to explore the perceptual salience of a wide range of design modifications. Recognisable banjo sound seems to depend on the pattern of decay rates of “string modes”, the loudness magnitude and profile, and a transient contribution to each played note from the “body modes”. A formant-like feature, peaking around 500–800 Hz on the banjo tested, is found to play a key role. At higher frequencies the dynamic behaviour of the bridge produces additional formant-like features, reminiscent of the “bridge hill” of the violin, and these also produce clear perceptual effects

Musical Haptics

Haptic Musical Instruments; Haptic Psychophysics; Interface Design and Evaluation; User Experience; Musical Performanc

Discriminating music performers by timbre: On the relation between instrumental gesture, tone quality and perception in classical cello performance

Classical music performers use instruments to transform the symbolic notationof the score into sound which is ultimately perceived by a listener. For acoustic instruments, the timbre of the resulting sound is assumed to be strongly linked to the physical and acoustical properties of the instrument itself. However, rather little is known about how much influence the player has over the timbre of the sound — is it possible to discriminate music performers by timbre? This thesis explores player-dependent aspects of timbre, serving as an individual means of musical expression. With a research scope narrowed to analysis of solo cello recordings, the differences in tone quality of six performers who played the same musical excerpts on the same cello are investigated from three different perspectives: perceptual, acoustical and gestural. In order to understand how the physical actions that a performer exerts on an instrument affect spectro-temporal features of the sound produced, which then can be perceived as the player’s unique tone quality, a series of experiments are conducted, starting with the creation of dedicated multi-modal cello recordings extended by performance gesture information (bowing control parameters). In the first study, selected tone samples of six cellists are perceptually evaluated across various musical contexts via timbre dissimilarity and verbal attribute ratings. The spectro-temporal analysis follows in the second experiment, with the aim to identify acoustic features which best describe varying timbral characteristics of the players. Finally, in the third study, individual combinationsof bowing controls are examined in search for bowing patterns which might characterise each cellist regardless of the music being performed. The results show that the different players can be discriminated perceptually, by timbre, and that this perceptual discrimination can be projected back through the acoustical and gestural domains. By extending current understanding of human-instrument dependencies for qualitative tone production, this research may have further applications in computer-aided musical training and performer-informed instrumental sound synthesis.This work was supported by a UK EPSRC DTA studentship EP/P505054/1 and the EPSRC funded OMRAS2 project EP/E017614/1

The acoustics of the violin: a review.

To understand the design and function of the violin requires investigation of a range of scientific questions. This paper presents a review: the relevant physics covers the nonlinear vibration of a bowed string, the vibration of the instrument body, and the consequent sound radiation. Questions of discrimination and preference by listeners and players require additional studies using the techniques of experimental psychology, and these are also touched on in the paper. To address the concerns of players and makers of instruments requires study of the interaction of all these factors, coming together in the concept of 'playability' of an instrument.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IOP Science at http://iopscience.iop.org/0034-4885/77/11/115901

Wooden Musical Instruments - Different Forms of Knowledge: Book of End of WoodMusICK COST Action FP1302

International audienceMusical instrument are fundamental tools of human expression that reveal and reflect historical, technological, social and cultural aspects of times and people. These three-dimensional, polyma-teric objects-at times considered artworks, other times technical objects-are the most powerful way to communicate emotions and to connect people and communities with the surrounding world. The participants in WoodMusICK (WOODen MUSical Instrument Conservation and Knowledge) COST Action FP1302 have aimed to combine forces and to foster research on wooden musical instruments in order to preserve, develop and disseminate knowledge on musical instruments in Europe through inter-and transdisciplinary research. This four-year program, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), has involved a multidisciplinary and multinational research group composed of curators, conservators/restorers, wood, material and mechanical scientists, chemists, acousticians, organologists and instrument makers. The goal of the COST Action was to improve the knowledge and preservation of wooden musical instruments heritage by increasing the interaction and synergy between different disciplines

Musical Haptics

Haptic Musical Instruments; Haptic Psychophysics; Interface Design and Evaluation; User Experience; Musical Performanc

Variation of French horn timbre over the frequency and intensity range of the instrument

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 36).Timbre describes the perceptual difference between sounds with the same loudness and pitch generated from different sources such as different instruments. Each instrument has its own unique timbre making it distinguishable. Within each instrument however, this timbre changes slightly with respect to frequency and intensity of sound. This is perceived qualitatively by the use of words such as "bright", "mellow", "harsh" and many others to describe sounds of different intensity or frequency in a given instrument. However, this is only a subjective view and does not describe what changes in the acoustic properties produce these different timbres. This study quantitatively examined the change in timbre over the frequency and intensity range of the French horn. Two main acoustical properties were measured: number of frequency partials and shape of the spectral envelope, where "partials" refers to harmonics of the fundamental frequency. The parameter represented by the number of partials includes both the total number of partials as well as the number of partials with critical band overlap. The shape of the spectral envelope was characterized through its center frequency and width of the major peaks as well as the strength of the fundamental frequency. Each of these parameters was related to qualitative timbre descriptions such as "fullness" or "roughness". The results showed a significant change in timbre over the frequency and intensity range of the French horn. The extremes of French horn span from timbre that is "thin" and "smooth" to "rich" and "rough". Within this spectrum, low frequency notes and high intensity sounds lie at one end exhibiting "rich" and "rough" timbre. The high frequency and low intensity sounds lie at the other extreme exhibiting "thin" and "smooth" timbre. As frequency increases and intensity decreases the number of partials decreases and the spectral contour shifts from wide and flat to a strong narrow peak. This produces a timbre shift from sounds that seem "rough" and "rich" to those that seem "smooth" and "thin".by Kathryn E. Shroyer.S.B