The Woodstock Gamelan

This paper considers the spectral properties of the Woodstock Gamelan, a 3‐octave set of tubular chimes built by Woodstock Percussion in upstate New York. One of the main features of the instrument is expandability, and it includes 75 microtones in the middle octave. The justly tuned instruments of Harry Partch inspired the instrument. The Woodstock Gamelan has two types of aluminum tubes. Racks support the tubes down to Eb4, and these have a vibraphonelike timbre. The larger hanging tubes go down to G3, and have larger diameters than the rack tubes. The sound of the hanging tubes is similar to that of orchestral chimes. The Woodstock Gamelan has five exponentially decaying partials, and their frequency ratios are the same in the low and high registers. The frequency ratios measured were about 1, 2.69, 5.15, 8.38, and 12.08. The ratios are close to the just ratios of 1, 2.667, 5.333, 8.533, and 12. A Csound model for the Woodstock Gamelan has been developed. Listening tests show that the model produces tones nearly indistinguishable from the original. The model produces attractive related timbres by simple changes to the parameters.