Over the past few weeks, I was thinking.. What would be a small portable & cool interface for the Drum Kit Kit AI.
If you have yet to see this really cool (Arduino based) Product of ours, it is a mashup of an Arduino, and our original Drum Kit Kit.
Here is a quick YouTube video, of an Acrylic Hand Drummer interface for both of the Drum Kit Kit’s. The key to getting it to work, (an the part that I spent the most time developing) is the sliver or rubber hose that is pinched between tapped acrylic pieces. This creates a vibration reducing hinge that stops the other piezo sensors from picking up a ‘false hit’. Within the sketch, I trimmed the sensitivity to be optimal. Since the original code for the Drum Kit allows for individual piezo sensitivity, this works incredibly well.
Another thing that I learned was that the ‘shorter throw’ digits, both thumbs & pinky actually needed to be a little more sensitive, as the shorter amount of ‘throw’ yields a smaller signal.
Lastly, it was revealed that being a total Rockband Ace on my PS3, doesn’t mean that I can tap out beats that impress. I’ve shown this to a few musician clients at the Labs, and yes, with musical talent, this sounds much more impressive. Enjoy the video.