aENSTA-ParisTech
bLaboratory of Solid Mechanics, École Polytechnique
cInria
dUniv Lyon, INSA-Lyon, Laboratoire Vibrations Acoustique, LVA
eLogilab
Abstract :
The design of pianos is mainly based on empirical knowledge
due to the lack of a tool that could predict sound changes
induced by changes of the geometry and/or the mechanical
properties of the soundboard. We present the framework of a
program for the Computer-Aided Design of piano
soundboards that is intended to bridge that gap by giving
piano makers a tool to synthesize tones of virtual pianos.
The sound synthesis is solely based on physical models of
the instrument in playing situation. The calculation of the
sound is split in several modules: computation of the modal
basis of the stiffened soundboard, computation of the string
dynamics, simulation of the soundboard dynamics in reaction
to the string excitation, and calculation of the sound
radiation. Reference tests of sound synthesis of real pianos
as well as sound synthesis of modified pianos are used to
assess our main objective, namely to reflect faithfully
structural modifications in the produced sound, and thus to
make this tool helpful for both piano makers and researchers
of the musical acoustics community.