MODELING AND REAL-TIME SYNTHESIS OF THE KANTELE USING DISTRIBUTED TENSION MODULATION
Jyri Pakarinen, Matti Karjalainen · 2003
Nonlinear behavior of a vibrating string is responsible for acoustical features in some plucked-string instruments, resulting in a characteristic and easily recognizable tone. That is also the case for the Finnish kantele, a traditional plucked-string instrument used in folk music. Earlier works have analyzed the general acoustic properties of the kantele and discussed related sound synthesis techniques. In this study, a novel modeling and sound synthesis method for simulating nonlinear string vibrations with spatially distributed tension modulation is presented. The modeling is conducted through a Digital Waveguide (DWG) approach, using controllable fractional delay elements in implementing the distributed tension modulation nonlinearity. The elongation of the vibrating string is estimated and the result is used in tuning the fractional delay values accordingly. Because of the spatially distributed nature of the approach, control of the string model parameters and observation of its behavior can be implemented at any point along it, in contrast to prior digital waveguide string models. This new approach is applied in constructing a physical model of a five-string kantele. Real-time sound synthesis is implemented using an efficient, block-based modeling tool, the BlockCompiler.