I understand what you are saying but it seems to me that the sound is not totally fresh. It's driven by the same energy but has been converted into something capable of moving more air. When you damp the string, the sound stops. So if it was totally new sound wouldn't it have a life of its own? Talking about this as if sound and energy were the same thing seems inaccurate. The energy exists, in this case, even if there is no sound (as it would be in a vacuum). It's only sound because it exists in a medium (air in this case) that reacts more to the mass and movement of the soundboard than the string. The effective output (measured amplitude in an air medium) of the converted energy increases when it is transferred to the soundboard, a more efficient mover of air. It gets louder. While from an electrical engineering viewpoint that is not amplification, i.e. the addition of new energy, from a colloquial standpoint, it certainly seems to be amplified. I do think we all agree on one thing, if it weren't for the soundboard, we wouldn't be hearing much. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com -----Original Message----- From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Delwin D Fandrich Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 11:42 AM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] Accujust and grunting fish bait David, The sound created by the strings is not made louder by the soundboard. The sound we hear coming from the soundboard is fresh new sound. Yes, the mechanical vibrations along the string do create a minute amount of sound--as can be expected given the string's minute surface area. You can hear this sound if you make a single-note model and strike a taut string (or a set of strings) pulled to some appropriate tension. But this sound created by the strings is very weak. It is not until the strings are coupled in some manner to a soundboard--typically through a bridge--and those mechanical vibrations are able to physically move soundboard that the bulk of the sound we hear coming from the piano is created. This sound is created by the soundboard. It is not the sound created by the string that has been amplified--it is all new sound. Technically one could say that the sound created by the soundboard is added to that created by the strings but the amount of sound created by the strings is so small it is usually ignored. ddf | -----Original Message----- | From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On | Behalf Of David Love | Sent: May 08, 2009 6:46 AM | To: caut at ptg.org | Subject: Re: [CAUT] Accujust and grunting fish bait | | OK agreed that people should understand the concepts and | express them clearly but while transducer does describe the | function of the soundboard assembly converting one form of | energy to another, it doesn't describe the phenomenon of that | the sound is made louder.
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