Desktop application Experimental
Interactive Video
Overview · selected highlights

Modal2D

Build a musical instrument from its mechanics. Shape, material and supports define a finite-element response; a strike, bow or rub selects its audible modes; then careful manual design or constrained geometry search turns that response into a playable instrument.

Geometry → modes → sound → music
ShapeModesSoundMusic
Brochure →
  1. ◇

    Shape and support

    Mesh an object and choose its material and boundary conditions.

  2. φ

    Solve the modes

    Recover vibration patterns and frequencies from stiffness and mass matrices.

  3. ♪

    Play and tune

    Excite a modal mixture, then tune geometry toward a target pitch and a useful sound.

  4. ♬

    Perform the set

    Arrange tuned instruments in a score and hear them play together.

Geometry, numerical vibration and audible music remain parts of one inspectable design process.

System schematic: geometry and supports determine vibration modes; a strike excites their amplitudes, and tuning turns physical bodies into playable instruments. The curves illustrate the pipeline rather than measured output.
System schematic: geometry and supports determine vibration modes; a strike excites their amplitudes, and tuning turns physical bodies into playable instruments. The curves illustrate the pipeline rather than measured output.
Music mode connects three tuned instrument bodies to the score, note pads and output spectrum. This native capture comes from the three-instrument performance.
Music mode connects three tuned instrument bodies to the score, note pads and output spectrum. This native capture comes from the three-instrument performance.
Three physical instruments share a score: follow the contact links from each played note to the body that produces it. Play with sound.
Struck test instrument with a spectral waterfall, material controls and tuning history.
Struck test instrument with a spectral waterfall, material controls and tuning history.
Interactive schematic

Plate modes and the sand that finds them

Plate modes and the sand that finds them

Open separately ↗

Wheel over the scene may zoom; move outside it to scroll the page.

Preview of Plate modes and the sand that finds them

Suspended · activate to run; playback pauses after the full panel leaves the vertical viewport.