Conference napalm::commusic_v1

       
       
       
       
       
       Cheapest MIDI output-only device I've seen is the Casio toy sax.
       Best was selling this item for $48 and change a couple of weeks
       ago.  Might be tough to blow a 5 stroke roll, though.  So what
       are you planning to do with whatever you get, anyway?
       
       
       
       
       

     The Yamaha DD-5 is pretty cheap also, has midi out and I believe (someone
  please correct me if i'm wrong) you can change the output channel, but it
  looses the information when power is turned off.

  Bill Powers

       >Might be tough to blow a 5 stroke roll, though.  So what
       >are you planning to do with whatever you get, anyway?
    
	I have a MIDI duo, myself and a female vocalist. She uses a
    tamorine and stuff, but I thought it would be nice if she could drive
    a MIDI rhythm track. For example, feed it into a snare drum and let her
    slap the backbeat, and that sort of thing. I can always program this,
    of course, but it adds to the live effect (and our feeling of
    involvement) if somebody is actually playing it. I could always buy a
    pad of some sort, but a) they're expensive and b) I think the visual
    effect of hitting something together is more exciting than beating on a
    pad.
    
    I suspect there's no better solution for this, but you never know what
    kind of weird ideas lurk in the minds of readers of COMMUSIC.
    
    - Ram

    

    
    Why not buy a DD5, rip the transducers apart and wire them to a set
    of drum sticks??? Whack the sticks on *anything*!!!
    
    Edd

    Daddy's in Nashua has a used Octapad for sale, with one broken pad.
    I don't remember the price, but you might be able to get it cheap.
    I think it had duct tape on it in places...

    You can plug cables into an external trigger jack on the octapad, and
    just tap the connector on the other end with your finger to get a MIDI
    on signal. Set the sensivity to maximum. (Or is that minimum? You know
    what I mean.)
    
    I used to do this with an Octapad and an AKAI S900.
    
    I also used to play a set of conga sounds with my hands, on the Octapad
    pads.
    
    More fun than playing on the MIDI keyboard, especially for drummers who
    can't relate to that...

	There's usually used Pad-5s laying around at Daddy's for ~$100.
	They have 5 pads, some pre-programmed rhythms, variable pad
	sensitiviy for hands or sticks, send note on/of w/velocity.
	MIDI OUT only, and fixed xmit on channel 10.

    You can get transducers at Radio Shack (about $1.19 each). I dont
    remember the part number off hand, I'll have to look when I get back
    home.  I think they were called Piezo transducers. Get a bunch of them
    and companies like Casio sell cheap trigger to midi converters. I've
    used these transducers plugged into my octapads and they work great. Of
    course if you really bash them they will die, but...
    Bruce Carroll
    

    First of all, the used Octopad at Daddy's in Nashua (mentioned in an
    earlier reply) is selling for $200.  Cheap for an octopad, I guess, but
    this unit looks really beat.
    
    Also, the previous reply mentioned that Casio sells cheap trigger to
    midi converters.  Can someone tell me more about that?
    
    	Willy

    Gee, there's more interest in this than I expected. I'd also be very
    interested in the Radio Shack transducer / Casio transducer->MIDI
    converter idea. I would assume those toy noise sticks I mentioned must
    have some kind of transducer in them. Might those be usable with the
    Casio thing? More details on how these things work would be welcome.
    I'd be game to try to put something together as an experiment.
    
    - ram

    	There was also a product called "Air Drums" that sounds like it
    will do exactly what you want.  They do not need to "strike" anything -
    they trigger by means ofequillibrium changes (did I say that right?). 
    You *can* strike them on a surface, or you can play imaginary drums in
    the air (thus "air drums").  They used to be advertised in Keyboard all
    the time but I don't know if they're still available.
    
    	If you're interested, I can look them up tonight.
    
    	Dan

    Air drums were *very* expensive.  They were not intended to hit
    anything, they're basically multi degree of freedom accelerometers.
    I think they're overkill for Ram's application.  I second (third?
    fourth?) the notion of putting a cheap transducer (even a $5 mic will
    work) on a stick and sending it to a "pulse to MIDI" converter.
    
    len.
    

If you replaced the pins that hold the cymbals in the tamborine together
with something that insulates, you could probabally manage to turn them
into little switches...

    re .1: Oooooo, and play arpeggios with just a flick of the wrist!
    Not to mention the potential for serious advant-garde banging!
    
    	Eirikur
    

    My nephew was telling me of a concert that he went to where the drummer
    was doing something totally wierd, that sounds like some of the ideas
    in this topic. He had a pair of drumsticks that he would hit on
    anything, *and* in addition, he has sensors in the heels of his shoes!
    	I guess it made for a really interesting performance as he "danced"
    around the stage, up and over the props, playing a drum solo with
    sticks, and steps all the while. Way cool!
    	If anyone can come up with the technical details of this please
    post it here. I know that the drummer in my band would be interested.
    
    	mark

       Gregory Hines had a rig something like this in the movie "Tap". 
       I don't recall if he had any input devices for his hands, but the
       heel and toe of each foot was wired.

       You could emulate something like this pretty easily by putting
       transducers where you needed them, connecting them to the brains
       of a Yamaha DD5, and sending the DD5's MIDI out to your SGUs via
       a Nady wireless MIDI link.  I don't know how big the board in a
       DD5 is, but if you want to do this badly enough you can buy the
       stuff off of the shelf to experiment with...  With the exception
       of the Nady bit, the rest of the stuff is cheap.

       

    Mick Fleetwood has a complete MIDI suit connected to a sampler. He does
    a drum solo by hitting himself.
    
    Whenever he grabs his crotch the sampler says "Help me..."
    
    Edd

        <<< Note 2460.17 by DCSVAX::COTE "To play, turn bottom up..." >>>
>    Whenever he grabs his crotch the sampler says "Help me..."
    
    Naah.  Joke, right ?
    
    karl

    Nope, serious as a heart-attack. I've got it on video-tape...
    
    Edd

    
    
      The drummer for Peter Gabriel (Jerry Marotta?) on the SO Tour
    used something resembling a broomstick, with thirty or so triggers
    on it hooked to an SGU. He only used it on one song (Excellent Birds)
    with Laurie Anderson.
    
    
    
    
    
    RichC