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Electric / mechanical amplification of acoustic instrument

Amplify an acoustic instrument through electrical or mechanical enhancement system
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An acoustical musical instrument such as a violin, a guitar, or a bell, or bagpipes, is a passive system in that the human input powers the system.

The human uses muscle power to input energy (in the form of scraping the bow, strumming the strings, swinging the bell, or squeezing the bagpipe)

Obviously the human uses Skill and Technique to somehow modulate or control the input energy, but we are taking that as given here.

The physical structure of the instrument acts as a kind of tuned oscillator / radiator system which converts the human input energy into audio output in the form of sound waves.

People want LOUD instruments to make a LOT of NOISE. Usually this is done by taking the resultant (quiet) output of the physical instrument, and using a microphone/pickup to convert the acoustical output of the instrument into electric signals, which can be electrically amplified and then used to drive a loudspeaker system.

However I don't want to listen to a loudspeaker, I want to listen to a LOUD musical instrument.

Now the idea here is that we can make the instrument louder by adding more mechanical energy downstream of the human input but upstream of the soundwave radiance.

Proposed is some kind of electro mechanical stimulation system that fits into a stock acoustical instrument. The wire comes out of a suitable orifice (of the instrument, do keep up) e.g. the violin f-hole and is plugged into mains power. The human user stimulates the input components of the instrument (e.g. scrapes the bow along the string). the instrument starts to convert this input energy and modulate it into sound vibrations, which somehow kicks the electro-mechanical input device into action, reinforcing and enhancing the vibrations and producing a LOUD SOUND from the instrument.

I suggested electrical but I see no reason why a direct mechanical system should not work instead, perhaps powered by a steam engine or falling weight.

pocmloc, Mar 02 2024

Stroviol https://en.wikipedi...g/wiki/Stroh_violin
mechanically amplified by a metal resonator and horn attached to its body [a1, Mar 02 2024]

Auxetophone http://www.douglas-...ophone/auxetoph.htm
"Have you heard the auxetophone? It is to be hoped not. All Mr. Parsons' turbines will be wanted to take long-suffering humanity out of earshot of his diabolical invention" [a1, Mar 03 2024]

from [a1]'s link. Auxetophone cello http://www.douglas-...tophone/cello-1.jpg
after c.1906 I think. However you can see that this setup extracts the sound from the instrument's bridge and puts it through the auxetophone amplifier and the big exponential horn. What I am proposing here is to extract the sound from the bridge, mechanically amplify it, and feed it back itno the bridge feet so that the amplified sound drives the wooden cello body in the usual way but louder. [pocmloc, Mar 05 2024]

[link]






       Is this the Starship Trooper Exoskeleton Marching Band?
pertinax, Mar 02 2024
  

       Well technically exoskeletons are a separate and different idea, you could have a musician wearing an exoskeleton playing an un-augmented acoustic instrument.   

       This is more like an insert which fits inside the instrument. An endo-blaster if you like.
pocmloc, Mar 02 2024
  

       [a1] - no - the stroh violin does not amplify, because there is no energy input except for the human hand drawing the bow over the strings. It is just a more efficient transducer of that input energy into sound energy.   

       This idea is specifically for a non-human injection of energy at some point in the acoustical pathway between human actuation and acoustic radiance
pocmloc, Mar 02 2024
  

       I presented the Stoviol only as an example of how you might get an acoustic instrument to make a much louder sound. That was not meant as a criticism but as prompt, a direction your idea might take. For while the Stroviol is well defined, many points of your idea are not:   

       // some kind of electro-mechanical stimulation device //   

       // somehow kicks the electro-mechanical input device into action //   

       // injection of energy at some point //   

       Leaving me curious how it's powered, how it's gets activated, where it injects its power. Fill in some of those blanks and we'll all have a better sense of what your idea is or isn't like.
a1, Mar 02 2024
  

       //how it's powered, how it's gets activated, where it injects its power//   

       Ah well you see those are the half of the idea that is missing.   

       I think that different instruments would require a different approach.   

       Consider the stroh violin because it is conceptually and mechanically very simple.   

       The energy input comes from the human arm scraping the bow across the string. The bow sticks and slips, forcing the string to vibrate at its fundamental frequency. The vibrating string forces the bridge to vibrate. The bridge foot forces the wee membrane to vibrate. The membrane forces air in and out of the horn, which is the sound output we hear.   

       Now it seems to me that a good place to inject energy would be in between the bridge foot and the membrane. So we lift the bridge foot a mm and insert our mechanical amplifier there.   

       It could be electronic, sensing the vibration of the bridge foot, and using a feedback circuit to send a much higher amplifiction to the membrane.   

       Or perhaps we could use compressed air and some kind of Auxetophone style valve. The bridge foot could operate the comb. I think it would be kind of cheating to send the output stream of compressed air straight down the horn, but it would be worth trying - I have never seen an Auxetophone-Stroh violin. To be stricter within the specifications of this idea we could use the output compressed air to drive the membrane through some kind of membrane-sided pressure chamber or piston kind of arrangement.
pocmloc, Mar 03 2024
  

       [+] Good explanation, thanks.
a1, Mar 03 2024
  

       Is there an advantage to this model over existing in-faucet heaters?
normzone, Mar 05 2024
  

       // ... extract the sound from the bridge, mechanically amplify it, and feed it back into the bridge feet so that the amplified sound drives the wooden cello body in the usual way but louder. //   

       But... the sound of a cello is partly dictated by the size, shape, and density of the materials. If you start driving more force into it - beyond what the most vigorous cellist might do - you'll affect the sound quality in more ways than just making it louder. Like a speaker with the volume turned up too loud it may sound distorted, or even blow out.   

       According to some sources, a cello can be as loud as 111dB. How much louder do you WANT it to be?
a1, Mar 05 2024
  

       Do you think Parsons asked that kind of question while trying to rig up the cello to the auxetophone horn?
pocmloc, Mar 05 2024
  

       // Do you think Parsons asked that kind of question ... //   

       Which question? The one about loudness, or the one about the advantage of this model over existing in-faucet heaters?
a1, Mar 05 2024
  

       Either
pocmloc, Mar 05 2024
  
      
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