Schlagwort: Robotic Drums

  • This robotic tongue drummer bangs out all the ambient hits

    This robotic tongue drummer bangs out all the ambient hits

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    If you like to listen to those “deep focus” soundtracks that are all ambient and relaxing, then you’ve heard a tongue drum in action. A tongue drum, or tank drum, is a unique percussion instrument traditionally made from an empty propane cylinder — though purpose-built models are now common. Several tongues are cut into one end cap and weighted to produce specific notes when struck. As with all instruments, playing a tongue drum is an art. To simplify that, Jeremy Cook built a robot capable of playing a small tongue drum.

    When robotizing a percussion instrument, it is common to use solenoids and that is what Cook did here. Solenoid actuators like these move linearly and can strike with pretty decent force, which makes them a good choice. Cook’s drum has eight tongues, so his robot has eight solenoids held by flexible friction arms mounted onto a C-shaped laser-cut MDF frame. PVC pipes actual as the vertical structural supports on that frame.

    An Arduino Opta Lite micro PLC sends power to the solenoids through an Arduino Pro Opta Ext D1608S solid-state relay expansion module, which contains eight SSRs that can each handle 24VDC at 2A.

    To tell the robot what tunes to play, Cook added a MIDI input that comes through an Opta-compatible I2C and serial adapter of his own design. That adapter is available for sale on Tindie if you want one. 

    The MIDI input can come from a something like a keyboard for real-time manual control, or it can come from a PC for playing pre-written (or algorithm-generated) ambient hits. If you attended the Orlando Maker Faire last year, you may have had a chance to try this robotic tongue drummer for yourself.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK5F8mKTI4w?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post This robotic tongue drummer bangs out all the ambient hits appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Controlling a drum machine with the Arduino Opta

    Controlling a drum machine with the Arduino Opta

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Makers have long asked the question “why bother with an expensive PLC when I can just use an Arduino?” The answer comes down to the priorities and needs of industrial clients. In a factory automation setting, the client will prioritize durability, reliability, and serviceability over the one-time purchase price of the device itself. But to prove that Arduino’s professional turnkey solutions are just as easy to use as their developer-focused educational counterparts, Jeremy Cook leveraged an Arduino Opta micro PLC to build a drum machine.

    This isn’t any old drum machine that plays sound samples or synthesized notes, but rather a robotic drum machine that makes noise by banging on stuff like a true percussion instrument. Cook could have built this with any Arduino board and a few relays, but instead chose to implement the Opta and new Opta Digital Expansion. That is robust enough for serious commercial and industrial applications, but is still simple to program with the familiar Arduino IDE. Programmers can also use conventional PLC languages if they prefer.

    In this case, Cook made noise with relays and solenoids. The Opta has four built-in relays and Cook’s sketch flips one of them to make a sound analogous to a hi-hat. Cook added an Arduino Pro Opta Ext D1608S module with its solid-state relays for the other two “drums.” One of those fires a solenoid that taps a small hand drum (the kick drum sound), while the other controls a solenoid that hits a power supply enclosure (the snare sound).

    Together, those three sounds can cover the basics of a drum track. Cook’s sketch is a drum sequencer program that stores each sound sequence as array, looping through them until turned off. 

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok2tLkR7pcM?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    An Opta may be overkill for a project like this one, but this does a great job of demonstrating the ease at which an Arduino user can transition to professional PLC work. 

    The post Controlling a drum machine with the Arduino Opta appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Watch this guitarist perform an acoustic set with his own robotic drummer

    Watch this guitarist perform an acoustic set with his own robotic drummer

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Watch this guitarist perform an acoustic set with his own robotic drummer

    Arduino Team — October 11th, 2019

    As shown in the video below, Tristan Calderbank is a very talented singer and guitar player, but what’s perhaps most interesting about his performance is the percussion section. Instead of a person (or an entire band) standing beside him, a robotic shaker, tambourine, snare drum and bass drum all play together under MIDI control.

    Each device is activated by an HS-311 servo—or two in the case of the snare—powered by an Arduino Uno and MIDI shield. Signals are sent to the Arduino by a laptop running Ableton Live, and servo velocity can be varied to further control sound. 

    A write-up on Calderbank’s build process can be found here, including what didn’t work, plus info on sound isolation from the servos. Arduino code is available on GitHub.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu26OUg4D1I?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkNWcZZPlKg?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

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