Abstract
This paper investigates the characteristics of piano sound using the waveforms of velocity of vibration of strings, the waveforms of driving force and velocity of vibration of the soundboard, and waveforms of sound pressure. The waveforms for the investigation were generated by using a analog simulator so that the separation of conditions is easy. A pulse generated by striking a string with a hammer propagates along the string and reflects against the soundboard. This drives the soundboard producing its vibration, and a part of vibration energy radiates from the soundboard producing piano sounds. The soundboard vibration contains both forced and free vibrations. The latter is influenced by the driving point admittance of the soundboard, and this plays an important role in determining the piano timbre. Still more the characteristics of piano sound are clarified using waveforms obtained by digital simulation and their spectra.
