The simulation of piano string vibration: from physical models to finite difference schemes and digital waveguides

A model of transverse piano string vibration, second order in time, which models frequency-dependent loss and dispersion effects is presented here. This model has many desirable properties, in particular that it can be written as a well-posed initial-boundary value problem (permitting stable finite difference schemes) and that it may be directly related to a digital waveguide model, a digital filter-based algorithm which can be used for musical sound synthesis. Techniques for the extraction of model parameters from experimental data over the full range of the grand piano are discussed, as is the link between the model parameters and the filter responses in a digital waveguide. Simulations are performed. Finally, the waveguide model is extended to the case of several coupled strings.