Haptic Carillon - Analysis & Design of the Carillon Mechanism

The carillon is one of the few instruments that elicit sophisticated haptic interaction from amateur and professional players alike. Like the piano keyboard, the velocity of a player’s impact on each carillon key, or baton, affects the quality of the resultant tone; unlike the piano, each carillon baton returns a different forcefeedback. Force-feedback varies widely from one baton to the next across the entire range of the instrument and with further idiosyncratic variation from one instrument to another. This makes the carillon an ideal candidate for haptic simulation. The application of synthesized forcefeedback based on an analysis of forces operating in a typical carillon mechanism offers a blueprint for the design of an electronic practice clavier and with it the solution to a problem that has vexed carillonists for centuries, namely the inability to rehearse repertoire in private. This paper will focus on design and implementation of a haptic carillon clavier derived from an analysis of the Australian National Carillon in Canberra.