Sound characteristics and sound prediction of the traditional musical instrument the three-rattle angklung

Abstract

The three-rattle angklung is a traditional musical instrument made of bamboo. The objective of this research is to observe the unique sound characteristics of the three-rattle angklung. The sound characteristics data can be used for defining digital sound of angklung to be played in a digital synthesizer. One set of angklung from the big size C5 to the small size C6 is recorded and analyzed in terms of the frequency contents. The sound characteristics of angklung are represented by four dominant frequency contents and the corresponding relative amplitudes of each rattle bamboo tube. This paper also introduces an equation model to predict the sound produced by the bamboo of the three-rattle angklung. This research reveals that bamboo rattles 2 and 3 produce the fundamental note, and bamboo rattle 1 generates a higher octave with the same note. Each bamboo rattle produces fundamental frequency note, its harmonics, and overtones. It is also found that three-rattle angklung can produce an accurate frequency almost in every note.