Objective: Evaluation of violin tone quality
Norman C. Pickering · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1984
A method has been developed for comparing violins by computer processing of the long-term one-third octave spectrum obtained while bowing the instrument in a rigidly prescribed program. At the same time, the sound pressure level of each semitone for the lowest three octaves is recorded. All the data obtained are analyzed by a program which assigns a figure of merit, derived from correlation with subjective evaluation of many instruments over several years of data accumulation. Results will be shown for some old Italian instruments, nineteenth century French and German violins, and some contemporary work.