Designing a Malay Gamelan Digital Musical Instrument: The <em>Air Bonang</em>

Virtualising traditional musical instruments is gaining popularity as a means to preserve musical cultures. Various technologies are leveraged to support learning traditional musical instruments, which are neither popular nor easy to access. Despite this, many virtual instruments are often simplified in their designs and interactions to make them more attractive and accessible, disregarding the authenticity and naturalness of instrumental techniques and playability. This study presents a Digital Musical Instrument (DMI) design process based on the Malay gamelan instrument the bonang. Named the Air Bonang, the DMI is designed using our NEX2MI framework, which underlines three dimensions of designing traditional musical interfaces: they should be natural, expressive and explorative. The Air Bonang design process involved user requirements, development and validation. Using the User-Centred Design (UCD) method, quantitative and qualitative data were gathered through interactional video and a questionnaire. Results revealed that the Air Bonang can be used to learn bonang instrumental techniques while providing flexibility by introducing new gestural interactions unrestrained by the physicality of the instrument. The design process discussed in this article laid the foundations for design criteria for the bonang DMI.