There has been very little research done with regard to the physical modelling synthesis of the Indian classical instrument the Sitar. This dissertation intends on expanding on what little research has been done on the subject and attempts to model the instrument with modern modelling techniques such as bi-directional digital waveguides, fractional delay filtering and sympathetic vibrations. It also presents a new and unique implementation of a dynamically changing delay line for a non-linear system such as the sitar string that has not been attempted before. It does this by making use of the Karplus-Strong algorithm to control the dynamic delay line. The Karplus-Strong was chosen because of how naturally it represents the decay of a string. This dissertation also attempts to model the sympathetic strings and the resonator of the sitar.

non-peer-reviewed Three files accompany the PDF of this thesis - Sitar.mid; Main.maxpat; poly.sitar.maxpat. Sitar.mid is available here. Main.maxpat and poly.sitar.maxpat can be made available to you upon request. Please contact ULIR administration: ir@ul.ie