Non-impulsive signal deconvolution for computation of violin impulse responses

Abstract

This work presents a method to compute violin body impulse responses (BIR) of acoustic violins that are adapted to the signal captured with an electric violin (a violin with a transducer measuring vibration). The computed BIRs correspond to the transfer function that maps the pickup signal of the electric violin to the radiated acoustic sound of the acoustic violins. By convolution of the pickup signal with the corresponding BIR, we pretend to simulate the radiated sound of the acoustic violin by playing the electric one. The method to obtain the BIRs is based on signal deconvolution between a recorded audio signal of an acoustic violin and the signal coming from an electric violin's pickup. The recorded signals consist of glissandi performed with a violin-playing machine enhanced with motion sensors that provide the bowing parameters (bowing position, velocity and force). By controlling the bowing parameters and analyzing the fundamental frequency of each frame we perform the deconvolution on equivalent frames and obtain the desired impulse response between the two instruments. A user survey consisting of violinists and non-violinists was performed to evaluate the obtained results with respect to the original pickup signal.