Creating Sustained Tones with the Cicada's Rapid Sequential Buckling Mechanism

Tamara Smyth, and Julius O. Smith

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract:

The cicada uses a rapid sequence of buckling ribs to initiate and sustain vibrations in its tymbal plate (the primary mechanical resonator in the cicada's sound production system). The tymbalimba, a music controller based on this same mechanism, has a row of 4 convex aluminum ribs (ason the cicada's tymbal) arranged much like the keys on a calimba. Each rib is spring loaded and capable of snapping down into a V-shape (a motion referred to as buckling), under the downward force of the user's finger. This energy generated by the buckling motion is measured by an accelerometer located under each rib and used as the input to a physical model.

Citation:

Tamara Smyth, and Julius O. Smith. 2002. Creating Sustained Tones with the Cicada's Rapid Sequential Buckling Mechanism. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1176462

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{Smyth2002,
 abstract = {The cicada uses a rapid sequence of buckling ribs to initiate and sustain vibrations in its tymbal plate (the primary mechanical resonator in the cicada's sound production system). The tymbalimba, a music controller based on this same mechanism, has a row of 4 convex aluminum ribs (ason the cicada's tymbal) arranged much like the keys on a calimba. Each rib is spring loaded and capable of snapping down into a V-shape (a motion referred to as buckling), under the downward force of the user's finger. This energy generated by the buckling motion is measured by an accelerometer located under each rib and used as the input to a physical model.},
 address = {Dublin, Ireland},
 author = {Smyth, Tamara and Smith, Julius O.},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 date = {24-26 May, 2002},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1176462},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 keywords = {Bioacoustics, Physical Modeling, Controllers, Cicada, Buckling mechanism.},
 pages = {24--27},
 title = {Creating Sustained Tones with the Cicada's Rapid Sequential Buckling Mechanism},
 url = {http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2002/nime2002_161.pdf},
 year = {2002}
}