Towards improving the acoustical consistency of manufactured musical instruments

世界上最好的乐器都是手工制作的，允许木制结构件 单独成形，使得整个乐器被调谐到特定频率。相比之下，制造的乐器缺乏声学一致性。这是因为木材本身固有地不均匀和不一致，因此将木制部件加工到尺寸公差并不能保证最终组装产品达到所需的频率。 这项研究计划的目标是确定一种方法，以提高声学的一致性， 制造的仪器，使他们匹配的手工制作的仪器。为了实现这一点，需要对结构/调谐部件进行单独的尺寸设计和切割，以匹配将与其配合的频率/振动部件，使得组合系统实现给定的频率。为了确定调谐元件应如何针对其他振动元件单独确定尺寸的实际问题，需要进行技术研究计划。这涉及到正向声学/振动建模问题，然后建立和解决特定的反向振动问题。 实现这些目标意味着， （i）我们对乐器模型和制造的理解将有所提高 (ii)逆振动问题的研究将取得进展，（iii）任何加拿大制造商， 乐器将能够采用这些结果来生产更高质量的乐器，所述更高质量的乐器能够以非常少的附加制造成本获得更高的销售价格。

The best musical instruments in the world are built by hand, permitting wooden structural pieces to be individually shaped so that the overall instrument is tuned to specific frequencies. In contrast, manufactured instruments suffer from a lack of acoustical consistency. This is because wood itself is inherently non-uniform and inconsistent and thus machining wooden parts to dimensional tolerances does not guarantee the achievement of desired frequencies for the final assembled product. The goal of this research program is to determine a methodology to improve the acoustical consistency of manufactured instruments so that they match that of a hand-built instrument. To achieve this, it is necessary for structural/tuning components to be individually dimensioned and cut to match the frequency/vibrating component it will be mated with so that the combined system achieves a given frequency. In order to determine the practical problem of how tuning components should be individually dimensioned to other vibrating components, a technical research program needs to be carried out. This involves both forward acoustical/vibrations modelling problems and then setting up and solving specific inverse vibrations problems. The achievement of these goals will imply that (i)our understanding of the modelling and manufacture of musical instruments will improve (ii) research on inverse vibrations problems will progress and (iii)any Canadian manufacturer of musical instruments will be able to adopt these results to produce higher quality instruments that can command a higher sales price for very little additional manufacturing cost.