Meet the Maker – Open Source Drum Kit

Mike Hibbett – Open Source Drum Kit

Although this is his first Dublin Maker, Mike is no stranger to the Trinity College campus – he virtually lives in the Science Gallery Cafe at the weekends, where he finds inspiration for writing his column on microprocessor design in the magazine Everyday Practical Electronics.  “I was moved to design this drumkit when my daughter announced one evening that she wanted to take up the drums. A real drumkit would have been impractical, and I’d just finished a CD quality sound generator design for the magazine. I am a novice at large mechanical builds, so integrating  the sound generator with sensor pads and a mechanical structure was a real learning experience. It’s was great fun though, and very rewarding. There are some complex software algorithms involved in mixing multiple sounds together – the drumkit supports 16 channel stereo polyphonic sound playback – so there is something for everything in this build.”  Some technical challenges remain to be solved, in particular reflects on the surface of the sensor pads causing some notes to be missed. Mike’s hoping that someone who actually knows how to play the drums will be able to try it and give some feedback!