Experiment to evaluate musical qualities of violin strings
Maxime Baelde, Jessica De Saedeleer, Jean-Pierre Hermand · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2014
Most of violin strings on the market are made of different materials and size. They have different musical qualities: full, mellow, warm, and round, for example. Nevertheless, this description is subjective and related to string manufacturers. The aim of this study is to provide an experiment which gives an evaluation of the musical qualities of strings. This study is based on “musical descriptors,” which gives information about a musical sound and psychoacoustics in order to match the musician point of view. “Musical descriptors” are also used for music classification. We use two sets of top-end strings model from two different brands. These strings are mounted on two similar violins and the strings are excited on their normal modes with harpsichord damper mechanism like and other means. The sound radiated is recorded with a microphone and the vibration of the string with a coil-magnet device so as to have intrinsic and extrinsic string properties. Some musicians tried these strings and expressed what they thought about it. These acoustical and psychoacoustical analyzes will give information to the luthiers to know what string property allow one adjustment, in order to provide better advice aside from string manufacturers descriptions.