Design of an active controller for the enhancement of the sound quality of a classical violin
Greg Pinte, P Deckers, Jan De Caigny, David Moens, Jan Swevers, Paul Sas · Lirias (KU Leuven) · 2005
The structural design of classical musical instruments has a century long tradition. The violin is a typical example of an instrument of which the mechanical construction is based on this tradition. However, even though nowadays all classical violins look almost identical, the sound quality among them varies strongly. This sound quality is the key-property in determining the value of a classical violin. The fact that the design of the classical violin has not evolved much over the past decades indicates that an optimum has been obtained within the reach of the classical mechanical construction with purely passive acoustical sound generation. The aim of this paper is to study the applicability of an active controller for the enhancement of the sound quality generated by the classical violin. More in particular, this study envisages a modular controller which does not affect the classical mechanical construction of the violin. The first section of the paper briefly discusses the typical design aspects infiuencing the acoustical properties of the violin, and an objective measurement technique for violin sound quality. Next, the design of the controller is discussed. A preliminary structural modal analysis on a classical violin forms the basis for the choice of the placement of the sensors and actuators on the structure. An optimal controller is defined based on a control objective function incorporating the objectively determined sound quality indicators. Finally, the actively controlled violin is validated experimentally.