In our experiments, the linear predictive coding method was confirmed to be an
impressive method to find the formants of violins. With these formants, the violins were
compared to the singing voice. Moreover, the violin formants shifted with the different
musical notes.
The two early examples of Italian violins (1570 Andrea Amati and 1560 Gasparo
da Salo) both showed the four voice-like formants (F1-F4) below 5000 Hz. The F1 and
F2 values mapped to the central region on the international phonetic alphabet (IPA)
vowel diagram, and the calculated vocal tract lengths (VTL) were correspondent to the
basses/baritones. The results implied that the first acoustic landmark devised by the
violin inventors appeared to mimic the male singing voices.
The Stradivari violins had different acoustic characteristics from the other old
Italian violins. In the frequency response, the Stradivari showed two strong formants at
2766 and 3144 Hz, and showed two strong anti-formants at 1219 and 2344 Hz. In the
formant analysis, through the t-test, the Stradivari had significant differences from the
other old in F1 through F3. Besides, elevated F1 and F2 for the Stradivari led to
decreased vowel height and backness in the IPA vowel diagram, shifting toward
brighter and bigger sounding vowels. Shorter VTL gave the Stradivari’s notes greater
devised by Stradivari appeared to mimic the female singing voices. The unique vowel
and gender qualities associated with the Stradivari violins correlated well with
centuries-old observations about their unusual brilliance.
The tonal improvement going from Amati to Stradivari violins has been
historically attributed to the lower plate arching in the latter, but recent evidence also
suggested that chemical treatment of wood has altered its material properties. The
combined properties of arching and wood properties of the top plate may be the reason
for the higher formants in F1 through F3 for the Stradivari violins. We hope that our
finding and discussions in formant analysis could help the violin researchers connect
the material chemistry and the construction design to acoustic characteristics in the
future.
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Appendix
Appendix- 1. The coordinate values of sung vowels on the IPA vowel chart.
The symbol b is the vowel backness, and the symbol h is the vowel height.
Appendix- 3. The coordinate values of the Amati and the da Salo on the IPA vowel chart.
Appendix- 4. The F3 and F4 values of sung vowels.
Appendix- 6. The mean F1 to F4 values of the recoded antique violins.
Appendix- 7. The coordinate values of the recoded antique violins on the IPA vowel chart.
Appendix- 8. The F3 and F4 values of the recoded antique violins