initial photos from my Drum Trigger workshop for the AES at AiPh

UPDATE:

I have subsequently found and uploaded video of this event HERE !

 

Hey Friends

I had the honor, privilege, and joy of presenting to the Art Institute of Philadelphia Audio Department‘s student-run group in the Philadelphia chapter of the Audio Engineering Society.

I presented on a topic very close to my heart, my brain, my drumming, and my solder bench.

…drum triggers…

You know, those lovely little sensors that let us drummers play into the world of electronics, MIDI, and other necessary evils. For the unacquainted, check out this wonderful introductory article from DRUM! magazine.

Here are some initial photos that students sent back to me. I noticed one or two students filing; I’ll see what I can scare up.

20150831_185825
set up and warm-up on my acoustic kit; a 4-piece set with Rocket Shells, a Tama Snare, DW hardware, and whatever cymbals still work (Paiste, Ziljian, Turkish, and Wuhan).
20150831_185030
After my was set up, I step back to let the students putting on mics to capture the acoustic sound.
20150831_190726
a close-up of the 2016 version of The PercussioNeuron slab; my electronic prosthesis to my acoustic drum kit: trigger interface, sound module, sequencer, and touch-ready effects.
20150831_185017
the workshop started at the Oscilloscope, to look at the electrical signature output by various parts of the acoustic/electronic drum scenario.

 

img_1657
…first, we looked at the electrical signals put off by dynamic microphones…

 

20150831_184159
The we looked at the output of piezo disks (the vibrational sensor inside most triggers). .
20150831_184436
Next, we had a brief comparison of different triggering tools including Dauz “bone” pads, Roland V-drum pads, and some on-head acoustic triggers by Ddrum and Roland. We also compared/contrasted their electronic signature on the oscilloscope.

 

img_1633
Next, we move onto some discussion of how electronics incorporate into one’s drum kit setup. In my case, I’m a staunch believer in ergonomics, and incorporate electronics into the normal setup with minimal compromise to how i’d set up the acoustic drums by themselves.

 

img_1653
Now comes the roll-call; testing the audio feed from the sampler, with each drum and pad feeding its sound from a discrete output into a separate channel. In order to line-check, I have a kit of custom sound-bytes hat announce (in my voice) their respective identity.
img_1636
Time to play. Proud to see so many students heeding my lessons to “practice safe sound”
img_1646
students pile into the Control Room to hear the artificial layer (of samples triggered by MIDI) of my playing, and to hear how this can mix against the acoustic sound picked up from mics.

 

 

VIDEO ?

see (subsequently found) video of this event HERE !

 

 

One thought on “initial photos from my Drum Trigger workshop for the AES at AiPh

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s