Researcher's drum kit can sing, strum, toot and tinkle . . Beat that!

Published on Friday 3 October 2008 09:46

THE 20-minute drum solo is generally seen as the nadir of the most self-indulgent rock gig.

But a city academic has worked out a way of giving frustrated drummers their hour of glory and still keep the fans happy.

Napier University researcher Bryden Stillie, 34, has invented an electronic drum kit that can do the work of an entire band.

Now drum solos – usually associated with the worst excesses of heavy metal and prog rock – can strum, tinkle and even sing.

Bryden can programme his drum kit so that, as well as a variety of drum beats, it can produce a guitar chord, piano note or even a voice singing lyrics.

Creating such as kit has been a dream of the former Musselburgh Grammar student turned wedding band drummer ever since he got his first toy drum pad as a boy.

He said: "My first drum pad was a little Yamaha thing and I was fascinated with it, and I eventually graduated to drumming in function bands at weddings and the like.

"There's only so many times you can play Brown Eyed Girl in your life before you start to look for something more challenging. I was lucky enough to get a job as lecturer at the Ian Tomlin School of Music at Napier where I could indulge myself with the latest technology."

For his early prototypes, Bryden went back to the very beginning, buying one of the original Yamaha kiddies' drum pads he had as a boy and taking it to pieces to find out how it worked.

He has now graduated to top-of-the-range Roland electronics and has wired up musical patches to his pads to create the range of musical notes every time he thumps a snare or stomps the kick drum.

The 4500 kit can potentially control 140 different sounds at any one time, boasting six bass pedals, one hi-hat pedal, three trigger modules containing numerous trigger pads, and a mixer.

The pedals are used to create drum and bass sounds, whilst the trigger pads play individual notes.

He added: "I've been focussing on creating a new style of dance music, and I've already played a gig at the Voodoo Rooms alongside DJ Solar Eye. When the crowd saw what I was doing their jaws dropped!

"They just couldn't believe I was making all those sounds using just my feet and sticks.

"I've been using it to create my own compositions, but the technology could also be used to create an accurate representation of, say, a tune by the Chemical Brothers or The Prodigy.

"Once I've got my act together, I hope to take the kit to some of these bands to offer them an extra dimension to their live act.

"It's clear that dance audiences really respond to elements of the music being played live, as opposed to a DJ standing playing records all night.

"My machine requires a lot more versatility than a normal drum kit, and I'm still getting to grips with it myself, but hopefully once it's all sussed out it will revolutionise the way bands make music."