Digital / acoustic percussion instruments

Roberto Aimi

For more in-depth information, please see my thesis

Simplest possible physical instantiation: PVDF contact mic + Sharpie.
Output over headphones

By itself it sounds like:

But in the headphones it sounded like this:

Pad controller

Concert bass drum and Bodhran resonances

Frame drum controller

Damped frame drum; natural hide head, two audio transducers (center and rim)

With the system off, it sounds like this:

dual audio pickups let the rim and center have different sounds, enabling more complex hand drum sounds like the djembe:

More unusual sounds are possible, for example using a distant Jackhammer sound effect on the rim sensor:

Using deconvolution to remove probematic resonances in common between the physical and virtual systems:

In the first clip, there is some clipping because one mode is overly strong. The second example shows the result of inverse filtering the stored resonance with a typical hit on the pad:

Cymbal controller

Damped real cymbal, single PVDF transducer, 60Hz touch sensing, optional pitch knob

Processing off:

pitch control on the cymbal:

Damping the cymbal by grabbing it (sensing 60 Hz hum from the hand):

ride cymbal+FM synthesizer resonances coupled nonlinearly:

Emulation of nonlinear cymbal effects to approximate the transition from ride to crash sounds:

Cymbal and snare sounds played together, a mini drumset example, note the rimshots.

tibetan bowl resonance:

Brush controller:

wireless, wired

Floor tom resonance with the wireless brush:

Cymbal resonance:

Bodhran resonance:

More unusual FM synthesizer resonance + wired brush controller alone.
In this example pitch is controlled by a footpedal:

Bass drum controller

Mesh head, large (18") speaker built into the drum shell

Concert bass drum resonance:

Snare drum roll:

Snare drum roll + rimshots:

Snare + Pocket change!

Beyond musical applications to Human computer interfaces.

Augmenting James Patten's pico system to provide audio feedback: