Sound Power Level Measurement for Pipa—One of Chinese Traditional Instruments

Abstract:

Sound power level(SWL) measurements of the Pipa were performed in a reverberation chamber according to ISO standard and Chinese national standard.Two qualified musicians performed on two different Pipas in the chamber.While the sound pressure levels of 1/3 octave bands were recorded and analyzed by means of 4channel realtime analysis.Typical values of the radiated sound power levels of Pipa when 3 representative single notes A，a1and e3,a music scale and a folk song were performed at four dynamic levels (pp,mp,f and ff) were obtained through averaging.The forte sound power level of performing a scale is suggested as the most representative value of the sound power level of the Pipa instrument.