Angklung Simulator
IDEN

One angklung,
one note

An angklung simulator you can play right here in the browser. The sound is synthesised from a physical model of a bamboo tube — no recordings at all.

So a song is not one instrument but a room of people, each holding one or two angklung, each waiting for their note to arrive. The instrument is distributed. Playing it is a coordination problem, and that is what this simulates.

See how it splits up

Eight angklung, drawn to scale: the longer the tube, the lower the note. Each is a complete instrument, and each can sound exactly one note. The number underneath is its identity — that is what the ensemble leader signals, not the name of the note.

Tap any angklung above — or press the button.

Sound can only start from your own tap — browsers require it, iOS especially.

Now play one song

—This song needs people
—distinct notes
—Bintang Kecil

Play the song and these fill themselves in.

A worked example you can follow to the end

Four notes, three distinct pitches. Every figure below is computed by the same solver the rest of the site uses — none of it is written by hand.

First, write down when each note sounds and for how long.

  • C40–1s2.5–3.5s
  • E40.5–1.5s
  • G42–3s

Distinct pitches: C4 · E4 · G4

Then compare each pair of pitches: is there any instant where both are sounding?

  • C4 and E4 collide at 0.5 seconds — two people
  • C4 and G4 collide at 2.5 seconds — two people
  • E4 and G4 are never together — one person can hold both

Pitches that ever collide need different people. Pitches that never collide can share one pair of hands.

So this phrase needs 2 people.

  • Player 1 · C4
  • Player 2 · E4 + G4

What if a note moved?

Drag G4 to the left until it sounds alongside C4 and E4. No note is added and none is removed — the only change is when one note begins — and the number of people needed changes with it. That is where the difficulty actually lives: not in how many notes there are, but in how many sound at once.

This example is deliberately as short as it can be, so it can be checked by hand. A real song has dozens of notes, but the rule is exactly the same one — no extra rule appears later.

How it works

  1. One angklung, one note

    Shake it and the bamboo tubes strike the frame. Only one note can come out — there is no second note inside it.

  2. One song, many hands

    So a song has to be shared out. Each person holds one or two angklung and waits for their note to arrive.

  3. One conductor

    The leader signals numbers by hand. That number is each angklung’s identity — not the name of its note.

Three techniques, one model

Almost every angklung app is a soundboard: tap a picture of bamboo, hear a note. That models the sound and misses the instrument. Here the sound is synthesised from a physical model of a bamboo tube — no recordings at all — and the way the notes spread across players is the point.

Kurulung

Getar — the shake. The frame is held and the tabung dasar swung side to side for as long as the note lasts. Recommended 2–3 shakes per second.

Centok

Sentak — the pull. The tabung dasar is pulled sharply into the palm. It sounds once: short, like pizzicato.

Tengkep

Like kurulung, but one tube is held with the little finger so it cannot vibrate. Softer, fewer partials.

2–3 Hz · kurulung

The interesting part: tengkep

Tengkep

On an angklung melodi, tengkep silences the octave tube, so you hear one pure note instead of the usual two. On a major angklung akompanimen it does something else: without tengkep four tubes sound a dominant seventh; hold one tube with the little finger and three remain, a major triad. The player’s little finger is a chord-quality switch.

Technique lab

Where to next

01RackAngklung hanging in order, tube lengths genuinely graduated by pitch. The numbers are the numbers a conductor signals by hand.02EnsembleOne melody spread across players. Watch the rests: for an angklung player, waiting is most of the job.03TechniqueOne angklung, isolated, with its strike pattern exposed. What you see is what the synthesis hears.04TuningThe same phrase, three tunings. The fastest way to hear why the 1938 innovation mattered — and why a set tuned one way cannot simply join an ensemble tuned another.05ArrangementEnter a melody, choose a set and a number of players, see the distribution — and see what cannot be played.

Why there is no Sundanese song here yet

Only public-domain or own-composition melodies ship, and so far none of them is Sundanese repertoire. Not for copyright reasons: Cing Cangkeling and Tokecang have no recorded composer. The reason is accuracy. Shipping a wrong melody under its real name misrepresents a living tradition, and copying cipher notation from a single unchecked source is not enough to rule that out. The gap is deliberate and ought to be filled — the requirements are written down in data/melodies/README.md.