Active control applied to string instruments

Simon Benacchio , Adrien Mamou-Mani , Baptiste Chomette , René Caussé (1)

1 STMS - Sciences et Technologies de la Musique et du Son

This study aims to control the soundboard's vibrational eigenmodes in order to modify the timbre of string instruments. These structures are wooden plates of complex shapes, excited by strings through a bridge. In order to apply an efficient control on such systems, modal parameters are given by identification using classic algorithms on experimental measurements. Then it is possible to design a digital controller using these parameters and classic control methods. This controller is applied in a feedback loop. Quantity, dimensions and positions of sensors and actuators needed for the control are obtained from an intermediate optimisation step. At first, a simplified system is studied. The experiment is conducted on a rectangular spruce plate, boundary embedded and excited by an only string. The method described above is applied on this system. This simplified case and its results in term of changes in eigenmodes are presented here.

Mots clés: Active control; string instruments; modal

Domaines: Acoustique [physics.class-ph]

Simon Benacchio, Adrien Mamou-Mani, Baptiste Chomette, René Caussé. Active control applied to string instruments. Acoustics 2012, Apr 2012, Nantes, France. ⟨hal-00811037⟩