culturalheritage.digital 3D Imaging of Sensitive Objects
Dr. phil. Niko Plath, M.A.
Since 2021:
Scientific Consultant (Acoustics and Data Analysis), Steinway & Sons, Hamburg
2018-2020:
Research fellow, BMWi-Forschungsprojekt “NeoAcousticWeave - Entwicklung eines neuartigen akustischen Verstärkungsgewebes für Geigen aus FVK”, Forschungsgruppe Sound Analysis and Design, Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg
2019:
Doctorate, Systematic Musicology, University of Hamburg
2018:
Participant, Fraunhofer FDays® business model development program, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Munich
Research fellow and PhD candidate, Institute for Systematic Musicology, University of Hamburg
2017:
Scholar in residence, Research group „A Creative Triangle of Mechanics, Acoustics and Aesthetics: The Early Pedal Harp (1780-1830) as a Symbol of Innovative Transformation“, Research Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Deutsches Museum, Munich
Visiting research fellow, Research group „Materiality of Musical Instruments: New Approaches to a Cultural History of Organology“, Research Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Deutsches Museum, Munich
2014-2016:
Research fellow, DFG-Forschungsprojekt „Real-Time FPGA and GUI-driven Auralization of Geometry and Material Variations of the Piano.“ in cooperation with the piano company Steinway & Sons
2014:
M.A. Systematic Musicology, University of Hamburg
Publications
Thesis
Plath, Niko, “From Workshop to Concert Hall: Acoustic Observations on a Grand Piano under Construction”, PhD Thesis (2019), pdf
Book Contributions
Plath, Niko, “3D Imaging of Musical Instruments: Methods and Applications”, In: Computational Phonogram Archiving, Book Series ‘Current Research in Systematic Musicology’, Springer (2019), DOI: /10.1007/978-3-030-02695-0_15
Plath, Niko and Preller, Katharina, “Early Development Process of the Steinway & Sons Grand Piano Duplex Scale”, In: Wooden Musical Instruments - Different Forms of Knowledge. Book of End of WoodMusICK COST Action FP1302, Cité de la Musique - Philharmonie de Paris (2018), pdf
Papers
Bader, Rolf and Plath, Niko, “Impact of Damping on Oscillation Patterns on the Plain Piano Soundboard”, Acoustics 2022, 4, 1013-1027. DOI: 10.3390/acoustics4040062
Plath, Niko and Linke, Simon and Mores, Robert, “On the angle-dependent vibrational behavior of fiber composite plates and its implications for musical instrument making”, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 151, 1956-1970 (2022) DOI: 10.1121/10.0009799
Plath, Niko and Bader, Rolf, “Piano Timbre Development Analysis using Machine Learning”, arXiv, (2021), DOI: 10.48550/ARXIV.2112.03214
Blaß, Michael and Fischer, Jost Leonhardt and Plath, Niko, “Computational phonogram archiving”, Physics Today, 2020, 73(12), 50-55, pdf
Ziemer, Tim and Plath, Niko, “Microphone and Loudspeaker Array Signal Processing Steps towards a ‘Radiation Keyboard’ for Authentic Samplers”, Applied Sciences 2020, Special Issue ‘Musical Instruments: Acoustics and Vibration’, 10(7), 2333, pdf
Plath, Niko, “Influence of playing on the tonal characteristics of a concert piano - an observational study”, Proceedings of the ISMA 2019 International Symposium on Music Acoustics, September 13-17, Detmold, Germany (2019), pdf
Plath, Niko and Kirsch, Sebastian, “Post-Processing of Musical Instrument 3D Computed Tomography Data for Conservational Applications”, Preservation of Wooden Musical Instruments - 4th Annual Conference COST FP1302 WoodMusICK, Brussels, Belgium (2017), pdf
Poulopoulos, Panagiotis and Pamplona, Marisa and Richter, Luise and Plath, Niko, “Conservation Issues on Historical Pedal Harps: Preserving Tangible and Intangible Properties”, Preservation of Wooden Musical Instruments - 4th Annual Conference COST FP1302 WoodMusICK, Brussels, Belgium (2017), pdf
Haag, Volker and Plath, Niko, “Influence of Different Bridge Timbers on the Resonance Behavior of Acoustic Guitars in the Traditional Maccaferri Design”, Proceedings of the 3rd Annual COST FP1302WoodMusICK Conference, Barcelona, Spain (2016), 109-116, pdf
Plath, Niko and Pfeifle, Florian and Koehn, Christian and Bader, Rolf, “Driving Point Mobilities of a Concert Grand Piano Soundboard in Different Stages of Production”, Proceedings of the 3rd Annual COST FP1302 WoodMusICK Conference, Barcelona, Spain (2016), 117-123, pdf
Plath, Niko and Pfeifle, Florian and Koehn, Christian and Bader, Rolf, “Microphone array measurements of the grand piano”, Musikalische Akustik zwischen Empirie und Theorie, Fachausschuss Musikalische Akustik in der DEGA, Hamburg, Germany (2016), 9:10, pdf
Plath, Niko, “Acoustical Analysis of the Mexican Vihuela”, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Musical Acoustics (ISMA), Le Mans, France (2014), 493:497, pdf
Plath, Niko (2013), “High-speed camera displacement measurement (HCDM) technique of string vibrations”, Proceedings of the Stockholm Music Acoustics Conference (SMAC), Stockholm, Sweden (2013), 188:192, pdf
Conference Abstracts
Bader, Rolf and Plath, Niko and Pfeifle, Florian, “Impact of internal damping on forced vibrations of piano soundboards”, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 143 (2018), no. 3, 1908-1908, DOI: /10.1121/1.5036217
Kirsch, Sebastian and Plath, Niko, “Post-Processing Methods for 3D-Computed Tomography Data of Musical Instruments”, 3D Imaging of Cultural Heritage, British Museum, London, Great Britain (2017)
Plath, Niko and Pfeifle, Florian and Koehn, Christian and Bader, Rolf, “Radiation Characteristics of Grand Piano Soundboards in Different Stages of Production”, Proceedings of the 2017 International Symposium on Musical Acoustics (ISMA), 18–22 June, Montreal, Canada (2017), pdf
Plath, Niko and Pfeifle, Florian and Koehn, Christian and Bader, Rolf (2016), “Vibrational behaviour of concert grand piano soundboards in different stages of production”, 5th Joint meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Acoustical Society of Japan - Honolulu, Hawaii (2016), DOI: 10.1121/1.4970565
Plath, Niko and Pfeifle, Florian and Koehn, Christian and Bader, Rolf, “Microphone array measurements of the grand piano”, Proceedings of the Third Vienna Talk on Music Acoustics, Vienna, Austria (2015), p.161, pdf
Bader, Rolf and Pfeifle, Florian and Plath, Niko and Koehn, Christian (2015), “Measurements of friction instruments with high-speed camera and subpixel tracking”, Acoustical Society of America, 170th Meeting - Jacksonville, Florida (2015), DOI: /10.1121/1.4933927
Bader, Rolf and Pfeifle, Florian and Plath, Niko (2014), “Microphone array measurements, high-speed camera recordings, and geometrical finite-differences physical modeling of the grand piano”, The 168th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Indianapolis, Indiana (2014), DOI: /10.1121/1.4899691
Published Data
Plath, Niko, Linke, Simon, & Mores, Robert. (2021). Velocity-based Impulse Response Functions of Rectangular Carbon Composite Plates with Weave Angle Variations (Version 1) [Data set]. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3989857
Plath, Niko, Linke, Simon, & Mores, Robert. (2021). Velocity-based Frequency Response Functions of Rectangular Carbon Composite Plates with Weave Angle Variations (Version 1) [Data set]. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3970506
Plath, Niko (2019). Influence of Playing on the Tonal Characteristics of a Concert Piano - Dataset (Version 1.0.1) [Data set]. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3274772
Mores, Robert and Plath, Niko (2018), “Optically measured torsional waves on cello string bowed at varying bow force” [Data set], Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1302895