A Statistical Approach to the Acoustical Analysis of Harmonics and Timbre of Tabla Strokes

Indian twin drums mainly bayan and dayan (tabla) are the most important percussion instruments in India popularly used for keeping rhythm. It is a twin percussion/drum instrument of which the right-hand drum is called dayan and the left-hand drum is called bayan. Tabla strokes are commonly called as ‘bol’ and constitute a series of syllables. In this study we have studied the timbre characteristics of nine strokes from each of five different tablas. Timbre parameters were calculated from the LTAS of each stroke signals. The study of timbre characteristics is one of the most important deterministic approaches for analyzing tabla and its stroke characteristics. Statistical correlations among timbre parameters were measured and also through factor analysis we get to know about the parameters of timbre analysis which are closely related. Tabla strokes have unique harmonic and timbral characteristics at mid-frequency ranges and have no uniqueness at low-frequency ranges.