Viola with Electronically Simulated Body Resonances
W. S. Gorrill · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1972
A viola, somewhat similar to Mathews' violin, has been built with electronic simulation of the body normal modes. Since subjective evaluation of the tone by musicians in actual performance is one of the major objectives, the appearance and apparent sound source location have been kept as close as possible to those of a normal instrument. A battery power supply is used. The effect of broad-band versus narrow-band filters for the higher frequency regions has been investigated. The instrument is rather easier to play than a normal 15-in. viola, but provides depth and power of tone more comparable to a 17-in. instrument. The viola will be demonstrated.