MSF: Tom modeling

[Annabanna]

I'm revisiting Chandler's tutorial on Timpani modeling:



... but this time looking to do something similar by creating a physical modeled tom.

It's proving rather frustrating, but if I can get a working process here, there are quite a few other related things I'd like to do (mainly synthesizing other percussion), so I'll ask in general:

If you were trying to recreated a tom sample as exactly as possible via various synthesis techniques inside mSF, how would you do it?

It seems to me there are three separate challenges:

1) PITCH
Assuming the goal is to get the pitch to shift over time exactly like it does in the sample, is there a way to do this that's not just guessing at the movement over time? For instance, is there some way to track the actual pitch of a sample over time, then map that to a modulation to recreate that pitch shift in the modeled version? If not, what is the closest approximation?

2) AMPLITUDE
Essentially the same question: Is there a way to capture the amplitude envelope of a sample and apply it to the synthesized version? If not, what is the most accurate and automated way of coming as close to this as possible?

3) HARMONICS
AFAIK, the modal filter is just a static snapshot. The filter envelope of an actual tom shifts over time with different harmonics decaying at different rates, etc. Is there some way to capture this sense of motion in the harmonics? If not, what's the best way to emulate it? Adding an envelope to the filter? Morphing between two different static modal filters within the structure tab?