Physical Modeling of Musical Instruments - Violin

First prototype of a physical model of a violin using finite differences on a FPGA.

The geometry of the pictured violin is modeled using Finite Difference approach (FDM) and implemented on the pictured XILINX Virtex-6 FPGA ML605 board. The whole model consisting of the strings, body and the included air is calculated in real-time. At this stage of the development one is able to change the bow pressure, velocity and the string length in real-time via push buttons. The resulting sound is transmitted via an I2S protocol to the pictured Virtex-2 board and made audible through a AC97 DA-Converter. One of the features of this model is the possibility to get a sound from every discretized point on the geometry as can be heard below.

Realtime sounds from FPGA board - MODEL  A:

Model  A - stable bowed sound taken near the bridge

Model  A - change of string length while playing

Model  A - change of bow pressure and velocity while playing

Model  A - vibrato high string - sound from top plate

Model  A - vibrato - sound from the backside of the instrument

Model  A - jump to the first harmonic while changing bow pressure

Realtime sounds from FPGA board - MODEL B:

Model  B -  jump to first harmonics

Model  B - scale

Model  B - sound from the backside of the instrument

Model  B - changing the thickness of the front plate while playing

Model  B - increasing the bow pressure

Model  B - stable sound

Model  B - stable sound

Model  B - pizzicato notes

Model  B - changing the bowing posistion on the string

Model  B - sub harmonics

download the presentation belonging to the sounds above:

Pfeifle, F.: ASA Meeting, San Diego 2011: Real-time finite-difference string-bow interaction FPGA model coupled to a violin body

download papers:

Bader, Rolf; 2005: Whole geometry Finite-Difference modeling of the violin. Forum Acusticum.

download model:

Bader, Rolf; 2011: Finite-Difference Simulation of a Violin Bow-String interaction