In the past, I made several assumptions about the volume of a lute as it is plucked.
However, after making real measurements with a microphone, computer, and sound-card, they appear possibly false. Measurements are presented in this diagram http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~ward/structure.jpg The horizontal axis is time The vertical axis is sound volume. The music in the diagram is a series of one-voice phrases, played on the second and third courses of a double-strung lute. 1. The sound is _not_ loudest immediately after the pluck, as would seem a natural assumption. Rather, the peak volume occurs about 1/10 of a second after the pluck. See the F note in the diagram. 2. The decay of a note is not always a simple exponential. See the C note in the diagram, which has prominent structure superposed on the exponential decay. Even more remarkable is the unmarked note two notes after the A note. 3. The decay is not uniform from pluck to pluck. Observe the wide variety of decay shapes in the diagram. 4. The sound does not die suddenly when the string is touched by a finger. Rather, it dies in about 1/15 of a second. See the A note in the diagram. 5. "Legato" playing by a person of my technique level actually has sizable gaps between the notes. See the gap between the A note and the following note. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
