Assignment #1 EECE 300 Molecules to Mechanisms

Paper: On the Synthesis of Guitar Plucks [1]

The experiment consists in synthesise the pluck response from a guitar through several different
approaches, trying to match in as much detail as possible the measured behaviour of real guitars. The
study is based on the fundamental proprieties of the guitar strings, which are tension, mass per unit
length, bending stiffness and damping. These proprieties are used to model equations of angular
frequency, Q-factor, input admittance and any other relevant proprieties that are useful to synthesise
the vibrations.
The first class of synthesis method is the Modal Synthesis, that works by computing the coupled
string/body modes together with appropriate frequencies and damping factors, then using modal
superposition to construct the transient response. For this it was chosen a set of generalized
coordinates to describe the motion of the strings and body of the guitar. These coordinates consists of
the mode amplitudes of the body in the absence of strings, a set of Fourier series coefficients for the
string displacement, and one or two constraint modes, to allow the string to move at the end attached
to the body. Being able to model the proprieties of the mass, stiffness and dissipation into matrices, and
applying the first coordinates, it is possible to come to an equation for the free motion of the system.
Solving that equation and finding the eigenvalues and eigenvectors will give the complex vectors
associated with the natural string frequencies. This method gave very good results, but can be extremely
slow if all the degrees of freedom of the body manufacturing are considered.
Another method consist in making the synthesis in the frequency domain by applying an inverse
fast fourier transform on the strings and body to create the required time-varying transient response.
This method has a great conceptual simplicity, but in practice it is extremely slow.
A third method of time domain synthesis was also tested that work basically o use a finite
difference approach to integrate directly the differential equation governing string motion or using a
digital waveguide to make the calculations. This method unfortunately did not show accurate and
efficient synthesis method for guitar plucks, and it was not considered to go further with the
experiment.
Of the three methods, the modal and frequency domain synthesis gave predictions in accurate
agreement with one another, and the frequency domain was considered the best option because it
proved itself faster than the modal synthesis.
This study showed an application of vibration theory to synthesise plucks on guitar strings. It
was a macroscale application of the same laws that is shown in the study of MEMS resonators of Dr.
Phani[2]. As the study of Dr Phani shown, as we add degrees of freedom in the sensitive resonator, the
degree of sensitivity also increase. The same happen with the modal synthesis method used by Dr.
Woodhouse. Greater the accuracy of the synthesis is, slower the experiment become. The MEMS

resonators also have a similar tradeoff. It is not possible to have good sensivity and a large measurable
range.
It is interesting to see that the same eigenvalue/eigenvector modal calculations is used in both
studies, proving that the vibration theory is universal and functional in both macro and nano scale. If the
studies in the same area of vibration synthesis of Dr. Woodhouse and vibration sensitivity of Dr Phanis
go further, both MEMS and instrument manufacturing can help each other to improve.

References:
[1] Woodhouse, Jim. "On the synthesis of guitar plucks." Acta Acustica united with Acustica
90.5 (2004): 928-944.
[2] Phani, A. S. . Some Applications of Vibration Theory at Micro and Nanoscales Lecture.
March 10, 2015.