Acoustic characterization of chichin bass-drum

Abstract

The objective of this work is to present an acoustic characterization of the chinchín, a bass drum type instrument native of Chile. The instrument is played by the chinchinero, an urban street performer in Chile, who dances acrobatically and plays the instrument simultaneously. Carried like to a backpack, the musician play the instrument with long drumsticks, which also involves a rope tied around the performer's foot to play the hi-hat cymbals. The string that drives the hi-hat cymbals passes through two holes in the cylindrical drum shell, modifying the expected sound of this type of instruments. We present detailed vibro-acoustic characterization in frequency and spatial domain using the Finite Element Method (FEM). Natural frequencies are compared with a usual bass-drum layout of similar dimensions as a baseline. Our preliminary results show differences in the fundamental frequency and the overtones of the chinchín bass drum are different from the normal one.