Microphone array measurements, high-speed camera recordings, and geometrical finite-differences physical modeling of the grand piano

Abstract

Microphone array measurements of a grand piano soundboard show similarities and differences between eigenmodes and forced oscillation patterns when playing notes on the instrument. During transients the driving point of the string shows enhanced energy radiation, still not as prominent as with the harpsichord. Lower frequencies are radiated stronger on the larger side of the soundboard wing shape, while higher frequencies are radiated stronger on the smaller side. A separate region at the larger part of the wing shape, caused by geometrical boundary conditions has a distinctly separate radiation behavior. High-speed camera recordings of the strings show energy transfer between strings of the same note. In physical models including hammer, strings, bridge, and soundboard the hammer movement is crucially necessary to produce a typical piano sound. Different bridge designs and bridge models are compared enhancing inharmonic sound components due to longitudinal-transversal coupling of the strings at the bridge.

Microphone and Loudspeaker Array Signal Processing Steps towards a “Radiation Keyboard” for Authentic Samplers

“…Details on the setup can be found in [32,33]. Alternatively, h(κ a , t) can be recorded optically, using a high speed camera and the setup described in [34,35], or it can be synthesized from a physical plectrum-string model [36]. The string recording represents the source signal that excites the harpsichord.…”

“…The radiation of numerous musical instruments has been measured using the described microphone array setup and the MEM, like grand piano [35,42], vihuela [23,43], guitars [43,44], drums [23,41,45], flutes [41,45], and the New Ireland kulepa-ganeg [46]. The method is so robust that the geometry of the instruments becomes visible, as depicted in Figure 9.…”

Microphone and Loudspeaker Array Signal Processing to Build a "Radiation Keyboard" for Authentic Samplers

“…The radiation of a number of musical instruments has been measured using the described microphone array setup and MEM, like grand piano [24,25], vihuela [20,26], guitars [26,27], drums [20,23,28], flutes [23,28], and the New Irland lounuet [29]. The method is so robust that the geometry of the instruments becomes visible, as demonstrated in Fig.…”

“…In contrast to a microphone recording, this gives a clean source sound for each note, which is independent of sound radiation characteristics. Alternatively, the vertical polarity can be recorded by means of a high speed camera recording as described in [25,30].…”