Tschudi, the Harpsichord Maker

Perceiving individuality in harpsichord performance

Can listeners recognize the individual characteristics of unfamiliar performers playing two different musical pieces on the harpsichord? Six professional harpsichordists, three prize-winners and three non prize-winners, made two recordings of two pieces from the Baroque period (a variation on a Partita by Frescobaldi and a rondo by François Couperin) on an instrument equipped with a MIDI consol...

Model-based Sound Synthesis of the Harpsichord

We have developed a sound synthesis algorithm for the harpsichord by applying the principles of digital waveguide modeling. A short overview on the acoustics of the harpsichord is given, and signal-processing techniques for synthesizing harpsichord tones are suggested. In particular, a new loop filter for the digital waveguide model is introduced and analyzed. The implementation of the synthesi...

On the Dynamics of the Harpsichord and Its Synthesis

It is common knowledge that the piano was developed to produce a keyboard instrument with a larger dynamic range and higher sound radiation level than the harpsichord possesses. Also, the harpsichord is a plucked string instrument with a very controlled mechanism to excite the string. For these reasons it is often falsely understood that the harpsichord does not exhibit any dynamic variation. O...

The Maker Fables

This Science Fiction Prototype explores the idea that the current interest in maker space activities could continue to grow to the point where it causes a sea change in the manufacturing industry as it shifts from centralised production in factories, to a distributed production in people’s communities or homes. This move is a natural extension of a number of research trends, such as the increas...

The adaptive decision maker