Korg's popular Volca line is getting larger and weirder with two additions: Modular and Drum.
The affordable and portable line of battery powered synths has covered a lot of ground since first being introduced in 2013. There's a drum machine, a pair...
Looking for the latest in fashion and technology? Check out these Electric Sexy Drum Pants. Their name is completely self explanatory, though the sexy part is questionable. This is a pair of pants with a drum controller pad in the crotch. Making music with these pants requires hitting yourself below the belt repeatedly.
They were created by Japanese multimedia artist and experimental pop music composer Kaoring Machine. This guy’s mom complains because he spends all day in his room, “playing the drums”. I guess he marches to the beat of a different drum.
Toward the end of the video he actually looks like he may be typing the great American novel on his nuts, rather than drumming, but who knows? Are you doing a drum solo or are you just happy to see… yeah, I don’t even want to know.
There are different gadgets that can turn bodies, steering wheels or food into musical instruments. Now you can turn pretty much any rigid solid object into an instrument using just one device: Mogees.
Mogees consists of a very sensitive contact microphone and an iOS app. You stick the mic on an object using the included reusable adhesive. Then you use the app to make taps, strikes, scratches and other gestures trigger notes, samples or sounds. The app will launch with a drum machine, a bass synth and a modeling synth.
You don’t have to be a musical outdoorsman either. Mogees has VST and Audio Unit plugins that you can use with audio editing software for Mac and Windows, allowing you to turn objects into MIDI controllers. Finally, you can use the sensor as a standalone microphone.
Pledge at least about $150 on Kickstarter to receive a Mogees sensor and the app as a reward.
Becoming a one man band is about to become way easier thanks to the DigiTech Trio, a guitar pedal that can automatically add drum and bass parts that match your guitar playing. It won’t fix your lyrics though.
To prime the Trio, you just have to press the footswitch, play your guitar then press the footswitch again. It has separate level controls for the bass and the drums, adjustable tempo and two time signatures. It also has seven different genres, each with 12 styles. The Trio can also save up to three different sets at a time, so you can for instance have different verse and chorus sets.
The Trio isn’t meant to replace bass players or drummers during recording or live performances. It’s not The Bad Plus in a box. As mentioned in the video below, it’s for practicing and kickstarting songwriting sessions.
The DigiTech Trio will be available this March for $225 (USD). Check out DigiTech’s website for more on the pedal.
Earlier this year we saw AirHarp, a virtual harp that uses the Leap gesture controller, letting the user make music by playing an imaginary harp. The developer behind the AirHarp recently introduced a similar program but for a more popular instrument. The AirBeats will actually make air drummers productive. Or at least expose them for the frauds they are.
The AirBeats is very intuitive to use. The instruments you’ve chosen are displayed on the screen. All you have to do is tap in midair as if those instruments were arranged in front of you. You can also record and replace instruments just by pointing and swiping in midair. It is incredibly responsive, whether you use your hands or a pair of drumsticks or even pencils.
Developer Handwavy said AirBeats will be available on Airspace – that’s Leap’s app store – on July 22, 2013. I love how it’s a more physical way of making digital music. Maybe artists can even use it live so their audience can “play” along with them.
Back in the 1980s, I always wanted a set of those Simmons electronic drums – not because I had any idea how to play percussion, but because they just looked cool and geeky. Of course, now I look back and think they were pretty silly looking. Still, I always enjoyed the sound of electronic drums. While I suppose I could go buy a fancy drum machine, but I rather like the way this kit looks instead.
Designed by Dr. Bleep, the Bleep Drum Kit is an Arduino-based electronic circuit that generates percussive sounds. It offers four different sounds, along with pitch control for two of them. You can also record and play back sequences with the Bleep, by simply tapping them out. Its sampled sounds are decidedly lo-fi, but that’s what I love about it. Here, check it out in action:
Since the code for the Bleep Drum is provided, you can hack in your own .WAV samples, or with a little bit of work, you could probably control it via MIDI too.
You can order the Bleep either in Kit form for $60(USD), or if soldering is above your pay grade, you can go for the pre-assembled version for $85. Both are available over on Bleep Labs website.
Do you love drumming your fingers on your car’s steering wheel while you drive? If Gregor “G-Man” Hanuschak has his way, soon you can actually make drum sounds when you tap on your steering wheel. G-Man invented Smack Attack, a steering wheel cover with 8 touch sensitive sensors.
The Smack Attack needs to be connected to an iOS device to work. From its mobile app you can set what samples will be triggered for each sensor. You can download more samples as they become available from the Smack Attack website or you can load your own sounds. You can play along with music, play solo or – get this – play together with other Smack Attack users.
While its maker suggests that using the Smack Attack could help you from falling asleep at the wheel, it could also just distract you from the task at hand – driving.
Ready to go on tour? Pledge at least $149 (USD) on Kickstarter and you’ll qualify for one of the first Smack Attack units if it gets funded.
Self-described maker of things Scott Garner made a drum machine out of beets and a Raspberry Pi. It works like most drum machines and synthesizers, except instead of buttons or pads, the user touches the root crop to trigger the drum samples.
As you can see Scott focused on hiding the electronic side of the BeetBox around and inside its wooden enclosure, which makes its function all the more surprising.
Check out Scott’s blog for more information on the BeetBox. These days we love to flaunt our gadgets and technological achievements, but as electronic components get smaller and better, I think we’ll see more and more of these explorations – and finally actual products – that return to a more natural aesthetic or form of interaction. I would love to live in a world where we highlight the beauty of nature and have electronics that blend seamlessly with our environment. Though in a way that’s kind of creepy as well.
Moritz Simon Geist has an unusual name. He’s also a electronic musician who has been getting bored with the production of electronic music, probably because the technology has reached a stage when you can call up practically any instrument with virtually no effort. So he decided to make a drum machine that plays samples in real-time, using actual drums. And robots.
Geist decided to emulate the legendary Roland TR-808, the drum machine that kickstarted the careers of many artists, despite – or is it because of? – the fact that it doesn’t sound like any real drum kit. The TR-808 uses analog circuits to create its sounds, but Geist’s installation replicates these sounds physically via percussion instruments, hence the name Mechanical Replica-808, or MR-808. The real kicker here is that Geist doesn’t play the instruments himself; he built robots that he triggers with the help of an Arduino microcontroller and Ableton, a music software. Then he housed the robots in an oversized case that resembles the TR-808.
Now that’s a high tech emulation of a low tech gadget. Check out Geist’s blog for more details on his creation.
Korg's popular Volca line is getting larger and weirder with two additions: Modular and Drum.
The affordable and portable line of battery powered synths has covered a lot of ground since first being introduced in 2013. There's a drum machine, a pair...
