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Wood Density May Explain Stradivarius Secret
Whorhay writes "A Dutch doctor and a violin maker from Arkansas have compared five classical and eight modern violins in a computed tomography (CT) scanner. Apparently the 300-year-old violins are made of wood with a more consistent density than the modern violins. They aren't saying for sure that this is what gives the Stradivarius violins their unique sound, but it's the first scientific explanation I've heard for it that seems to have merit." Unfortunately science has yet to explain how how all three chords I know ROCK on my SG.
"Wood", "Stradivarius", and "Secret" made me think that the article must be about Dinosaur pr0n. :/
It might go a log way to preventing them from producing undesirable harmonics.
Anyone know of any studies which looked at the waveforms to find unique qualities?
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So.. you blame Global Warming?
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
I'd like to know how long they were trying to determine the differences without considering wood density. Other than the shape and size, what other differences could there be?
Uh...the motion of the ocean, baby.
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
Did anybody else hear the theme from Deliverance while reading that?
Q: What's the difference between a violin and a fiddle?
A: People actually like fiddle music!
There was a world class concert violinist (don't remember his name, it has been several years ago) who said he tried to learn to play the fiddle. "Turkey in the Straw is Mozart played real fast with extra notes!" he siad.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Who'd have thought that, way back in 2003, people whould have been smart enough to theorise that the sound of a wooden instrument might be affected by the quality of the wood?
I tell you, those ancients had astounding intellects.
Obviously we aren't there yet, not even close; but in principle the future(possibly even a future some of us will live to see) will hold nanolevel assembly techniques that will allow us to construct objects out of pretty much any material or mixture of materials that plays well with existence. I find it extraordinarily unlikely that the best possible violin is made of some sort of naturally occurring wood, finished with simple hand tools and crude chemistry. How long, though, will we resist such a conclusion?
The same could be asked of wine. In principle, a team of analytical chemists with the right equipment and no reverence for the past could characterize(and possibly, at some future time, economically duplicate) whatever vintage has the experts drooling this week.
Indeed, a very good analogy - but only on /. would you find someone using audio-compression as an analogy for musical instruments, and not the other way around!!