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Stradivarius violins are renowned for their supposedly superior sound when compared to other instruments. This has resulted in numerous studies hunting for a scientific reason for why Strads sound so good. A number of these studies have focused on the chemical composition of the wood in violins made in Cremona by Antonio Stradivari in the 17th and 18th centuries. Others have considered the violins made by Stradivari's contemporary, Joseph Guarneri del Gesu, whose violins are widely considered to be just as good.
Research often looks at how the materials used in the construction of the instrument define its superior quality. For example, one study argued that a "little ice age" which affected Europe from 1645 to 1715, was responsible for the slow-growth wood used in the construction of the violins that gives them a particular quality. This type of wood would have been available to all violin makers in Europe so other work has looked at the particular varnish applied to Strads. But the most recent study on this showed that Stradivari finishes were also commonly used by other craftsmen and artists and were not particularly special.
Now a team of scientists from National Taiwan University have tried to uncover the secret of Stradivarius violins by analysing the chemistry of the wood they're made from. The researchers found that the aged and treated maple wood had very different properties from that used to make modern instruments. But is there really a secret to be found in the Stradivarius?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by number6 on Thursday December 22 2016, @01:18AM
These scientific studies of Stradivarius tone -- and accompanying articles in NewYorkTimes, NewYorker magazine, <insert-your-favorite-highbrow-publication-here> -- seem to pop up every couple of years.
Fuck all these 'experts' and their 'findings' -- Get out of the fucking way and let me hear this shit for myself...
I propose this listening experiment for myself and the general public (with audiophile gear):
EQUIPMENT:
- 1x Recording studio containing SCHOEPS Mk2 Microphones
- 1x Professional recording engineer
- 1x Professional violinist with a Stradivarius and another violin
METHOD:
Get the violinist to play these three works using both violins:
- ALBINONI : Adagio in G minor
- TCHAIKOVSKY : Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35
- BACH : Sonata for Solo Violin //one or two selections
Capture the recording to 32-bit floating point high resolution PCM wav files.
ZIP up the files and upload to your favorite Torrent site (PirateBay, etc).
Allow me and everyone else on planet earth to download and listen.
I am curious to see if I can tell the difference on my sound system.
---
FYI,
My personal listening setup is:
- 2x Fostex SM6600 Passive Studio Monitors //used at rearfield
- 2x ATC SCM19 Passive Monitors //used at nearfield
The speakers are hooked up to play in 2x2 stereo fashion using separate identical class-A amplifiers and a signal splitter box.
The speakers are placed to form a converging triangle towards one corner of a sound-proofed room with me sitting
at the apex of the triangle in the corner.
My personal playback setup is:
- A good Laptop computer
- A good external DAC (digital analog converter) piping the signal from the computer to the amplifiers.
- Windows XP operating system tweaked and stripped down to bare bones.
- foobar2000 audio player software, with Kernel Streaming plugin (foo_out_ks.dll), giving bit-exact playback bypassing the operating system kernel mixer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Thursday December 22 2016, @03:18AM
The best equipment in the world (mics being the most important as you know) won't capture it. We can hear that a sound is in front of us, or behind, or above, or below, and no world's most amazing mic pair will capture that. You have to hear it in person. I suppose you could build a cluster of 20 or so mics and somehow reproduce it. Or maybe put mics all around a room and record and play those tracks through 20 speakers all around a room. You just have to be there.
I trust the world-class violinist who plays all the various instruments. I have the privilege (no doing of my own) of working with golden-ears Grammy-winning recording engineers, producers, musicians, and they really actually do hear the subtle things I never believed people could hear. Seeing their reactions, both positive and negative, is something you can't package but you know it's real and it's really cool to be there. Somehow I'm still learning from all the experiences.
BTW, if you have enough $ I can arrange your experiment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 22 2016, @02:21PM
BTW, if you have enough $ I can arrange your experiment.
Kickstarter...
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Friday December 23 2016, @02:41AM
That's a great idea. People who donate to Kickstarters are so gullible that you could upload youtube rips of each of those songs and they'd never know the difference.