Analysis of Sound Produced by a Traditional Malay Musical Instrument “Kompang”

This paper presents frequency analyses of sounds produced by traditional Malay musical instrument “kompang”. Kompang is used to produce exotic sound especially certain grand ceremony. In order to produce sound, different types of skins are used especially made from polymer (used x-ray film) and animal skins. However, the sound produced by a polymeric skin is not similar with the sound produced using an animal skin. Therefore, this present work investigated the effect of such skins on the sound produced and as a result affecting the sound quality. Appropriated software is used to conduct the frequency analyses in order to investigate whether the polymeric skin can be a replaceable skin in replacing an animal skin. It is found two different skin materials have their own sound characteristics and it is also indicated that lower peak sound frequency produced by animal skin compared with the polymeric skin.