Architectured materials and alternative structures for the building of cordophones – MAeStrAFone

The rarefaction of certain wood species traditionally used in the manufacture of musical instruments forces makers to change their practices. This problem now affects species such as spruce, which is the wood most often used to make the soundboards of cordophones. In view of this situation, the MAeStrAFone project proposes new strategies to meet both the ecological and technological challenges: making soundboards differently while guaranteeing equivalence for the musician. The aim of the project is to propose new structures for the soundboards of cordophones, made of an architectural material that encapsulates all of the structural and acoustic functions achieved by the traditional structure. The project also aims at developing a virtual prototyping method to optimize these new structures, by integrating the tonal characteristics of the finalized instrument into the process. To achieve these objectives, the project is structured in three tasks. The first task concerns the design of multi-layered architectural materials, adopting a multi-scale approach from the elementary cell to a structure composed of a spatial arrangement of cells. The experimental validation of these new materials and structures is based on broadband characterization methods. A second task is to develop a virtual prototyping method that allows the developer or maker to hear the sounds produced by the instrument, or to access sound descriptors, before it is built. This task includes perceptual tests to validate the virtual prototyping approach, but also to provide criteria to optimize the proposed new structures. The third task is devoted to technology transfer to the instrument making community.