Musical instrument design evolved as early product sound quality experimentation

Evidence

The concept of sound quality has a relatively long history of emergence. Probably the oldest sounds associated with a quality rating have been human speech and singing, then theatre and music-making, including musical instruments. The first quality rating factors were subjective and implicit, based on emerging a esthetic factors and how the sounds had a desired effect in practice. The centuries-long evolution of present-day acoustic musical instruments is an early example of ‘product sound quality’ development by gradual experimentation. The acoustics of concert halls and other performing spaces is another similar case, where, until the beginning of the 20th century, sound quality evaluation had little, if any, scientific basis. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 2317

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: luthiers as proto-audio-engineers — gradual experimentation centuries before formal sound quality science.