Original friction plate

This is how our first prototype of the simple friction drum looked like:

SOURCE

It's a copper plate divided into five rectangular shapes, each one connected to MPR121 Capacitive Touch Sensor and then to Raspberry Pi.

The original friction drum in action

Traditional vs. American way of playing a friction drum.

We showed this video at Music Tech Fest and the audience found it quite funny I think. :)

New sounds

Strange Sounds:



Ode of Joy:



Fun:

All the friction 'bout that drum

This summer I've been given a nice opportunity to work on interesting musical project at my school's Laboratory of Computer Graphics and Multimedia. You probably heard or at least saw this instrument once in your life:

It's a friction drum, an instrument used most commonly in folk music. It consists of a membrane stretched over a sound box and the sound comes from vibration that is achieved by friction.

Here you can listen to the sound of friction bass I recorded.

Laboratory's idea was to create a similar but electrical instrument using cheap and simple electronics.

And this is the result!

I'm gonna post more project's details in the next days. Stay tuned. :)