Ph.D Thesis | |
Ph.D Student | Arbel Lior |
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Subject | Symbaline - an Active Wine Glass Musical Instrument |
Department | Department of Architecture and Town Planning | Supervisors | PROF. Yoav Schechner |
DR. Noam Amir | |
Full Thesis text | ![]() |
This work describes the research and development of
new musical instruments based on musical wine glasses. The novel instruments
were inspired by an acoustic phenomenon, sympathetic
resonance, occurring in sympathetic string instruments, as the sitar and sarod. These instruments consist of
two sets of strings: one set is played ordinarily by plucking or bowing, while
the second set is excited via vibrations transmitted from the first set. While
sympathetic resonance is commonly implemented using sympathetic strings,
implementations using non-string resonators are scarce. In this work we present
musical instruments implementing sympathetic vibrations using
wine
glasses. Mechanical and electromagnetic methods were developed to transmit
vibrations from a string to a wine glass. A mechanical method consisting of a
mechanical coupling component was developed using topology optimization and
shape optimization methods. An electromagnetic actuation method was customized
for wine glass sound production, by attaching a magnet to the glass surface and
exciting the magnet using an electromagnet. The electromagnet was driven by an
amplified signal produced by a string instrument. Several designs of mechanical
and electromagnetic musical instruments were suggested, and a fully functional
electromagnetic instrument, The Symbaline was
developed, designed and fabricated. The development of the Symbaline included
the development of custom digital signal processing methods for noise
prevention, the creation of custom complementary virtual instruments and an
exploration of the sound space using various input
signals
and audio effects. Additionally, an electromechanical vibrato mechanism based
on water sloshing was developed. The mechanism consists of a pendulum
oscillating inside a water filled wine glass. The sloshing movements, generated
by the pendulum, change the resonance frequencies of the wine glass, thus
introducing vibrato to the produced sound.