This project set out to be an exploration into the differences and similarities in music. I chose to focus on drums because of their integral nature to many of the popular genres and also because you can create a finite set amount of drums that is quite small as opposed to a keyboard that can have say 88 notes.

 

Connecting drums via midi and via the computer to an arduino with a motor and LEDs on it, everytime a drum was hit the corresponding LED was turned on then off. Rotating this LED arm over 20 seconds and taking a long exposure picture of it head on left me with "digital signatures" of the drum pattern that had just been played.

 

Red LEDS correspond to the kick and the snare, Yellow to the cymbals and green to the toms.

So that the comparison and viewing of these posters could be natural and efficient I set them up in a space so that multiple could be viewed at once.

Below is a look at the device and the day in which we did the actual drumming. Big thank you to Kirill for (Youtube channel) for destroying it on drums!