Analysis of the Sound of the Kompang for Computer Music Synthesis

This paper presents an analysis of the properties and the characteristics of sound made by a kompang for computer music synthesis. The kompang is a Malay traditional musical instrument with a circular membrane made from goatskin. It is classified as a membranophone. The sound samples used for analysis are the sound produced by the kompang as the instrument is played traditionally, by striking it with the palm near the centre of the membrane and striking it with the fingers near the boundary of the membrane. The sound samples are analyzed using time and frequency domain analysis. Time domain analysis uses waveform examination and amplitude envelope detection, while frequency domain analysis uses the fast Fourier transform analysis and the short time Fourier transform analysis. The sample waveforms, frequency content, and spectrogram are obtained. The results show that when the kompang is struck at the centre of the membrane, the sound has a longer attack and decay period and a larger amount of frequency content than when it is struck near the edge of the membrane. Like most membranophones, sound produced by the kompang does not have a pitch since the normal modes of the excited kompang do not have frequencies that are integral multiples of a number.