Restoration of a 17th-century harpsichord to playable condition: A numerical and experimental study

Abstract

The Music Museum in Paris recently acquired a harpsichord made by Ioannes Couchet in Antwerp in 1652. This instrument is considered to be a masterpiece and is protected as a "National Treasure." It was restored with the aim to be played again in concert. An experimental and numerical study of the vibraoacoustic behavior of this harpsichord is presented. A numerical modal analysis was performed with a finite element model. For the experimental part, impact nearfield acoustical holography was used. Experimental eigenmodes are compared to literature and to the finite element results. An application of the model for restoration studies is also proposed.

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

“…However, this situation improves when a dense array of loudspeakers is moving in phase. This is typically happening in the given scenario; when excited with low frequencies, the sound board vibrates as a whole [51], so the loudspeaker signals for the wave field synthesis will be in phase. While truncation creates artifacts in most wave field synthesis setups, referred to as truncation error [8,39,48], no artifacts are expected in the described setup due to natural tapering: at the boundaries of the loudspeaker array, an acoustic short-circuit will occur.…”