Pi Pico Lays Down the Groove
From the 60s to perhaps the mid-00s, the path to musical stardom was essentially straight with very few forks. As a teenager you’d round up a drummer and a few …read more Continue reading Pi Pico Lays Down the Groove
Category Archives: drum machine
A Parts Bin MIDI Controller in 24 Hours
Part of the reason MIDI has hung on as a standard in the musical world for so long is that it is incredibly versatile. Sure, standard instruments like pianos and …read more Continue reading A Parts Bin MIDI Controller in 24 Hours
Beat Backing Box for Bassists
The soul of a rock band is its rhythm section, usually consisting of a drummer and bass player. If you don’t believe that, try listening to a band where these …read more Continue reading Beat Backing Box for Bassists
Lego Plays Electronic Drums
The ability to quickly try out an idea, and then expand and develop it, is what rapid prototyping is all about. Although we tend to think of 3D printing when …read more Continue reading Lego Plays Electronic Drums
How The Roland 808 Cowbell Worked
Every generation has an instrument which defines its sound, and for those whose formative musical years lie in the 1980s, a very strong contender to the crown is the Roland …read more Continue reading How The Roland 808 Cowbell Worked
Antique Beat Box Showcases 1950’s Engineering Prowess
Before you could just put a drum machine app on your phone, or fire up Garage Band, there were breakthroughs like the Roland 808 drum machine. But that’s not where …read more Continue reading Antique Beat Box Showcases 1950’s Engineering Prowess
Electronic Drum Toy Built From Scratch
Drum kits used to be key to any serious band, however, these days, much of our music is created on computer or using a drum machine instead. [spanceac] has built …read more Continue reading Electronic Drum Toy Built From Scratch
Drumming a Beat on a Hundred-Year-Old Typewriter
We have seen a fair share of unusual items being turned into musical instruments. Luckily, with a little bit of hacking it is possible to turn almost anything into a MIDI controller. [William Sun Petrus] just converted a 1920s typewriter into a drum machine and delivers a hell of a …read more
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Shapeshifter – An Open Source Drum Machine
With microcontrollers growing ever more powerful each new generation, things that were mere pipedreams before are now readily possible. The Shapeshifter drum machine is a perfect example.
Shapeshifter’s design is open-source, with everything available on Github for the curious musical tinkerers out there. The device is built around a PCB …read more
Giving The Amstrad CPC A Voice And A Drum Kit
Back in the ’80s, home computers weren’t capable of much in terms of audio or multimedia as a whole. Arguably, it wasn’t until the advent of 16-bit computers such as the Amiga that musicians could make soundtrack-quality music without having to plug actual studio gear up to their machines. [Michael …read more
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