| Sampled violins are created digitally, played via a keyboard or other MIDI device. Samples are a series of accurate recordings of the different component parts which make up the sound of the violin. Samples can replicate the sound of many instruments playing together (and a lot more cheaply!) but they've never been successful at reproducing the effect of someone playing one instrument - mainly because of the difficulty of controlling and reproducing the effect of bow positions, string pressures, bow speed and other variables which a skilful player uses to make the sound unique, organic and responsive from moment to moment
Digital Convolution is an advanced technique which adds the characteristic sound-signature of a violin body to the raw sound of a vibrating string - somewhat the equivalent of our horn violin on the left, except nicer-sounding! It requires a large amount of mathematical processing power to achieve in real time. It's used, for example, to see what a rare or priceless violin might sound like where we can't physically add strings and play the instrument |
laying dance music in noisy surroundings. The vibration of the strings is transmitted to the bridge, which vibrates a thin metal sheet. This moves the air back and forth inside a chamber and the sound is amplified by the horn - it works in a very similar way to the acoustic gramaphone. If you're sitting in the "line of fire" this is really quite loud! Because the horn would be pointed towards the audience (away from the player) there's another little horn which sticks out sideways and points towards the player's ear so they can hear what they're doing!
