Experimentally-tuned synthesis of a thin plate

Accuracy is one of the main goals in the field of physical modelling sound synthesis, particularly when trying to emulate the acoustics behaviour of a target musical instruments. Knowledge of the elastic constants for a specific tonewood is thus required for a realistic sound replica of the final instrument. The purpose of the presented research is to propose a procedure allowing for the efficient and faithful sound synthesis of a real wooden plate. To this end, by following a recent study, an experimental procedure is used and revised. Finite differences are here exploited instead of commercial FEM software to collect the quantised wavenumbers of a thin wooden plate via least-squares, allowing for a more accessible and open-source procedure. A non-invasive experimental measurement set-up is introduced to acquire the eigenfrequencies of the plate. The difference between computed and observed data is minimized and the elastic features of the plate are determined through a second least-squares optimisation. A physical model of the plate based on finite differences is informed and tuned by using the above-mentioned information. The numerical eigen-value problem is then used to compute the experimentally-informed modal basis of the sound engine.