Physically-based sound synthesis software for Computer-Aided-Design of piano soundboards

The design of pianos is mainly based on empirical knowledge due to the lack of a simple tool that could predict sound changes induced by modifications of the geometry and/or the mechanical properties of the soundboard. We introduce the concept of Sound Computer-Aided Design through the framework of a program that is intended to simulate the acoustic results of virtual pianos. The calculation of the sound is split into four modules that compute respectively the modal basis of the stiffened soundboard, the string dynamics excited by the hammer, the soundboard dynamics excited by the string vibration, and the sound radiation. The exact resemblance between synthesis and natural sounds is not the primary purpose of the software. However, sound synthesis of real and modified pianos are used as reference tests to assess our main objective, namely to reflect faithfully structural modifications in the produced sound, and thus to make this tool helpful for both instrument makers and researchers of the musical acoustics community.