Acoustical analysis of additively manufactured snare drums

Additive manufacturing (3D printing) has seen tremendous growth over the past decade and is finding many fields of application, including in musical acoustics. Klapel Instruments has recently developed multiple snare drum prototypes using additive manufacturing production for the shell and rims of the drum. For the past two years, two pairs of undergraduates at the University of Hartford have worked with faculty to assess the acoustical properties of these drums, specifically focused on determining any acoustic differences caused by the new manufacturing technique and materials. Several traditionally manufactured drums along with the additively manufactured drums were tested structurally, performed on, audio recorded, and subjectively assessed. Modal, spectral, and subjective analysis along with a comparison between the drums created using additive manufacturing and the traditionally manufactured drums will be presented.