Contemporary approaches to modeling violin tone, dynamics, and response.
Frank Denaro · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2010
Long-time-average spectral graphs of violin tone reveal some important characteristics of excellent instruments. Included are good dynamic range and frequency response. Significantly there is a marked response in the 194–649 Hz range (high sonority), a lower response for 649–1296 Hz (nasal), good response for 1830–4342 Hz (brilliance), and low response in the 4340–6300 Hz (harsh) [H. Dunnwald, Catgut. Acoust. Soc. J. 1, 1–5 (1991)]. In this talk a working protocol on how to modify the frequency response in each of these areas is explained. Important insights obtained from the burnish/hydrate (B/H) method will be used to illustrate how this can be done in a systematic fashion. The B/H method produces reversible stiffness changes in the plate area of choice. As a result it is possible to evaluate the change in tone and response by listening or by acoustical measurements. If the change is a desired one, it can be made permanent by removing the wood. While the frequency ranges noted above display a degree of interdependence, addressing them independently has led to a general pattern on where the needed plate and corpus modifications should be placed for an excellent violin.