Directivity of the violin radiation

Abstract

The sound of a violin played by a person in an anechoic room was recorded simultaneously by 16 microphones lying in a circle with the violin in the middle (the angle among the microphone positions was 22.5 degrees). To create the sound radiation pattern for the individual frequencies, the levels of harmonics were specified in the spectrum obtained from the SPL recordings on the microphones in the given geometrical layout. Next, the violin was excited artificially, by the personal presence of the same player, in the same position as being played by a person. The manner of recording remains unchanged. The constant exciting independent of the frequency enabled the comparison of the directivities of the radiation for different frequencies. Consider the results obtained from both ways of violin exciting, a wide range of angles was searched in which the radiation is stable enough even in the sense of listening to tones recorded when the violin was played by a person.

Method for measuring violin sound radiation based on bowed glissandi and its application to sound synthesis

“…In this work, sound radiation is measured at different angles around the violin, making it possible to obtain radiation patterns (Weinreich and Arnold, 1980;Williams et al, 1980;Cook and Trueman, 1998;Otčenášek and Syrový, 1999;Wang and Burroughs, 2001;Bissinger, 2008a). Weinreich (1997) and Bissinger (2008b) have extensively studied the directional radiation from violins.…”

“…Violin sound synthesis based on a source plus filter approach is often used in the field of violin acoustics, but the final objective has not been highly realistic synthesis, as is the case in our work. For example, Otčenášek and Syrový (1999) report a perceptual analysis about directivity of the violin timbre, and Fritz et al (2006) carry out psychoacoustic experiments with virtual violins. Holm and Välimäki (2000) investigate modifications of the resonances of violin body modes and Smith (1983) applies filter design techniques to model violin body resonances.…”