Regular hand drums are nice and portable and expressive, but somewhat limited in terms of sound. Take a drum body, replace the head with an electronic drum trigger (which doesn't produce sound when hit), and put a synthesizer and speaker in it. (And some batteries for power, of course.) You can even use the acoustic properties of the drum body for some amplification or other shaping of the sound.

Of course, the old crusty hippies playing in drum circles down at the beach might not go for it, but there are possibilities.
-- krevis, Apr 28 2000

BODY PADS M-Pro Electronics http://www.drumtrigger.com
Body Pads & Triggers [baddmonkey, Apr 28 2000, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Korg Wavedrum http://www.soundons...4/korgwavedrum.html
as reviewed in Sound On Sound when released [BunsenHoneydew, Mar 28 2005]

What's most important is to make it (a) REAL LOUD, and (b) put in lots of pre- programmed hip-hoppy rythms and riffs. And make it shiny. Real shiny. Kids go for that shiny stuf
-- land, Jun 29 2000


As a drum playing Hippy, I'm pressed to ask...WHAT WOULD THIS ADD to the percussion world? Isn't the drum pretty much good? I mean...this invention would be like breeding a watermelon which is red on the outside and green on the in-. Confusing...
-- WRDRMR, Jul 06 2000


Hmmmm... how is this different from a drum machine, say a Boss DR-660? (Okay, the Boss isn't really portable, but other than that.)(This crusty old Hippy *has* a drum machine... dude.)
-- pitch, Jul 08 2000


What would this add: different timbres than you could get from an acoustic drum. When you say "Isn't the drum pretty much good?", I think of a guy who is used to banging two rocks together, reacting to the invention of drums with skins.

How is it different from a drum machine: it's an all-in-one package, complete with power supply and amplification, in a form factor that drummers like. I very much like the idea of LEAVING OUT preset rhythms; it should never make a sound that you didn't trigger by striking it.

Also note that I really have nothing against crusty old hippies. I hope to be one someday, myself.
-- krevis, Jul 10 2000


Hmm.. drum triggers are sold alone already; so you could conceivably build a nice drum-esque body for the trigger. But something in me definitely is repulsed by building in the speaker and amplifier. First of all, it would have to be very big, very heavy, and have a ton of batteries to make it near as loud as a real hand drum. Even if you plugged it in, it would still have to be quite heavy.

I'd go for a trigger in drum shape with a custom synthesizer of some type that you could hook to it and outputs to whatever amplifier you wanted to use. Otherwise, I'll stick to my djembe.
-- mcfrank, Aug 02 2000


All for the world to see. A percussionist on the road, a businessman in a hotel room, a truck driver even a crusty hippie its the M-Pro Body Pad, and its been out for 7 years. The mystery has been solved. www.drumtrigger.com
-- baddmonkey, Apr 09 2001


It's all about the interface.

A hand drum has an infanit amout of twekability on sevral axis. You can bang, grab, rub, tap etc at any volume at any part of the head.

An electronic hand drum won't have the infanit amout of input data but a good engin can have an infanit way of responding to the data, modeling somthing more or less real if you want, or somthing never heard before.

What it adds to the percusion world is a familiar and dynamic interface on to some new and relativly static tools.

and what it all comes down to is the player and their imagination and exicution.

not a sales pitch, just some observations: The ROLAND hand drum controler is smart enough to let you mute sounds with resting one hand on the drum and pitch bend by pushing down. It does a reasonable good job of playing like an actual drum. It has 3 knobs to adjust the charioristics of the 600 different sounds, 2 ribbon controlers and an eletric eye for a theremin like interface to tweak other paramers. It also has midi out to trigger/ control what ever.

I plan to get this for my solo stuff and make new noises in a familar way, It will never replace my collection of real hand drums, just suplament it....

Futureman AKA Roy-el has some well put thoughts on interface and sound.

http://www.evolutiondamour.com/
-- GiantRobot, May 14 2001


How about implanting the sensors actually into your hands? You could attach the speakers somewhere else conveniently high up (say, your shoulders), pick your own orifice for the batteries, and hey presto - instant drums just by banging your hands on a table top.

You could wire it so that as well as triggers for sensitivity, you have different combinations of fingers for different drum sounds.
-- gardnose, May 14 2001


I remember seeing Bill Bruford give a demo of the then-new Simmons drums, and I was horrified to learn that they couldn't respond differently to brushes or mallets. It was strictly a triggering device to make another device play a pre-made sound. Yuk. Today's stuff is still just a variation on that basic principle. A few more triggers, that's all. Now, there is a composition out there for gong and contact microphone. You play the gong, and manipulate the microphone to alter that sound.That's a musical use of electronics. And I would suspect someone could do a lot with one of those and a dumbek or other hand drum. Hmmm....
-- BigDaddy, Feb 26 2003


Baked, and nicely baked too..

Been around for a while.. Roland make a VERY nice pad called the Handsonic. 600 sounds- tablas, congas, World percussion, and everything.. all tuneable, and very touch responsive. you can combine 15 of those sounds SIMULTANEOUSLY across zones of the pad..

if you like the idea of an electronic drum pad, they dont get much better//
-- TadPoleVaulter, Mar 22 2005


Korg made one called the Wavedrum a few years back, which is closer to the post than the Roland model. (See link) Still, both lack an integrated amp and speaker.

I'm building one with all of the above based on a Simmons analogue circuit, a standard drum skin and a piezo pickup.
-- BunsenHoneydew, Mar 28 2005


I admit I didn't get this idea at first, but after rereading it a few times I really really dig it and would like to repropose it (with reference to krevis's idea here) with a few big changes. Put it back in the oven for a minute. I'm pretty new to the halfbakery, is that cool or not cool?
-- gomer, Jul 31 2008



random, halfbakery