Ponytrap - How to Build a Drum with Arduino

Ponytrap - How to Build a Drum with Arduino

Ponytrap will demonstrate their performing drums and discuss how to create your own version of these machines - this talk will highlight Ponytrap's project as featured on the Makezine website and in Make: magazine.

What inspired you to begin investigating your topic or inspired you to make your project?:
We tried for years to build this music project around human participants and could never quite find the right fit... after a particularly frustrating performance at the SXSW music festival, which ended in a 30 minute free form improvisation (hey, that's cool if that's your thing, but it glitched Quentin out so bad that he spent most of the time banging an empty bottle on a glockenspiel) we decided that we could figure out some way, somehow to build drum playing machines to help us realize the sound and style that was in our mind. The small army of robotic drum machines that we now perform with are the result of hours upon hours of trial and error and conversations with smart friends - the robots are a maker solution to a real world problem.

Project Website