"For now, the team says the new virtual violin could be used in the initial stages of violin design. Luthiers can tweak certain parameters such as a violin’s wood type or the thickness of its body, and then listen to the sound that the instrument would make in response.

“These days, people try to improve designs little by little by building a violin, comparing the sound, then making a change to the next instrument,” says Yuming Liu, senior research scientist at MIT. “It’s very slow and expensive. Now they can make a change virtually and see what the sound would be.”"