Using Artificial Intelligence in violin making

The following extract is from The Strad’s September 2021 issue feature ‘Violin Making and AI: Intelligent Design’. To read it in full, click here to subscribe and login. The September 2021 digital magazine and print edition are on sale now

The idea that the shape and thickness of a violin’s top and back plates can affect its sound is nothing new. Antonio Stradivari was undoubtedly aware of it 300 years ago, and the science behind it was scrutinised and written up at length by Carleen Hutchins in the 1950s. Since then, the phenomenon of violin ‘modes’ and resonances has been investigated by both violin makers and academics; indeed, for many luthiers, one of the first steps in making a new instrument will be to examine its ‘tap tones’, or speed of sound along the plates. But what if we could predict how an instrument will sound even before we build it? Could it be possible for modern technology to give an idea of the final plates’ vibrational behaviour, and even understand how a good violin could be made to sound ‘great’?