Localisation of Sonic Sources on a Contemporary Violin Made on a Guarneri del Gesù Model

Violins are probably known among the most technically complex musical instruments. Their dynamics is usually studied through structural vibration methods. However, these methods present a few limitations. Therefore, this chapter focuses on the qualitative identification of violin sonic areas generating different musical notes. For such a purpose, a recently introduced tool by Siemens, the Simcenter Sound Camera, which is an array-based sound source localisation technique, was implemented. A contemporary violin, based on a Guarneri del Gesù model, was used as a test instrument. Stationary excitation was induced by an expert violin player to generate different notes. The locations of the sound sources were identified for several configurations and frequency bandwidths, inside an anechoic chamber, i.e. open-field conditions. The identified areas were qualitatively compared with the analysis of vibrations in global and local modes. The comparison confirmed the strong importance of “f” holes and lungs of the instrument, which were clearly identified as the main sound sources and signature vibration modes of the violin.