Physically-based synthesis of nonlinear circular membranes

This paper investigates the properties of a recently proposed physical model of nonlinear tension modulation effects in a struck circular membrane. The model simulates dynamic variations of tension (and consequently of partial frequencies) due to membrane stretching during oscillation, and is based on a more general theory of geometric nonlinearities in elastic plates. The ability of the nonlinear membrane model to simulate real-world acoustic phenomena is assessed here through resynthesis of recorded membrane (rototom) sounds. The effects of air loading and tension modulation in the recorded sounds are analyzed, and model parameters for resynthesis are consequently estimated. The example reported in the paper show that the model is able to accurately simulate the analyzed rototom sounds.