eBay of the day: Strange DIY Electric Drums, $10,000

as long as i haven't heard it,balloon juice.
 

I'm leaning towards the "most brilliant freakin' idea ever".

I mean come on....it's drum but not really, but it is...kinda
 

I call shenanigans. No way would this design work. As Adrian said, the feedback would be unmanageable.

Plus, look at the pictures- if someone was actually trying to sell something for $10,000, I think they'd take better pictures (and use better grammar). At least I would would...
 

Notice that the snare is "across the top". Which means the drum is upside down to demonstrate the speakers. So the sound DOESN'T come out the top. WTF you'd want a snare across your speakers for is a mystery.

The speakers also appear to be set in wood. Triggers *could* be set to a high enough threshold that these things don't feed back (but you'd have to beat the hell out of the set).

Regardless of all that, it's still probably balloon juice. Needs some MP3s to sell it right :-)
 

What if the goal is to have the loudspeakers affect how the the vibrations from "the electronic tone from any source" hit the actual snare band? His goal is apparently keep the sound of an actual snare drum but warp the vibrations of the stick hit with electronic tones.

But I agree: MP3s are required.

Balloon juice? Ah....I'm from America and I'm a bit slow....hot air. That's a good one. Nice dry British wit.
 

Buyer is responsible for supplying amps and MIDI equipment? Wha? Speakers built-in, but an outboard amp?

If these need some sort of external amp and MIDI controller then I can't begin to imagine what they're supposed to do.
 

my friend J. (myspace site) plays a subwoofer as a hand drum, though i don't think that's exactly how this thing on ebay is supposed to work... you can use any speaker as a microphone, provided you wire it up with the appropriate output cable.
 

someone ask the seller a question: "mp3 or stfu"
 

I bet if i asked the seller to donate it to me for free then I burned it ya'll would LOVE it!

hehe
 

Full patent here...
 

"And I would be honored to autograph your kit."
hah!
i think this guy is just a little bit ahead of himself.
 

I don't buy it either - but I also think there may be some confustion. From what _I_ understand (and I could be wrong) you aren't supposed to hit these things at all. There should be no mention of triggers or mics at all. I THINK what he's proposing is just sending the sound from any synth/sampler module through these speakers which will then vibrate the heads of the drums and then you mic and record the result. I don't think you are supposed to be hitting these drums at all.

Or maybei'm totally wrong and they have triggers in them and you are supposed to hit them, trigger a MIDI sound moudule, which THEN sends the signal back to the speaker, resonating the drums.

Balloooooon Juice.
 

I don't buy it either - but I also think there may be some confustion. From what _I_ understand (and I could be wrong) you aren't supposed to hit these things at all. There should be no mention of triggers or mics at all. I THINK what he's proposing is just sending the sound from any synth/sampler module through these speakers which will then vibrate the heads of the drums and then you mic and record the result. I don't think you are supposed to be hitting these drums at all.

Or maybei'm totally wrong and they have triggers in them and you are supposed to hit them, trigger a MIDI sound moudule, which THEN sends the signal back to the speaker, resonating the drums.

Balloooooon Juice.
 

Well his patent number checks out.
 

Like it's that hard to read...

This is a mesh head drum with the electronics and amplification built in. It is an Electronic drum that has the sound actually coming from the drum, using the shell for acoustic properties. It can be hooked to external MIDI equipment and amplification if so desired.

"it is a principal object of the invention to provide a real drum trigger monitor and amplified tone module having an acoustic drum shell containing an electronic trigger and at least one speaker, thereby generating audible sound directly from the instrument triggering the electronic tones."

Silent mesh head = no feedback.

The only problem with his thinking is that this is like Fernandes claiming their "Nomad" is the first truly electric guitar because it has the amp and speaker built in.

And seriously, who has ever had problems with an Accoustic drum not being loud enough??

However, here's a quick summary of what this is:

A mesh head is mounted atop a foam damper. A Pintech RS-5 trigger is mounted. Signals are sent to any tone processor, and then fed back to two speakers (woofer and tweeter) as analog sound. The amplified sound is projected through the speakers with the presumed added benefit of the Drum shell adding resonance.

A small self contained MIDI module may also be added to the kit for onboard sound processing. I get the impression he left this off so as to leave the drummer with the option of what drum sounds to use.

There is distortion from the speaker being mounted in the shell. A variable sensitivity control has been added to try and combat this.

People laughed at Leo Fender and Les Paul's first "Log" guitars too. I guess one of the defining charachteristics of genius is that it is commonly derided by idiots. I'll agree the idea seems a bit strange, and as a non-drummer I don't really get what it's good for. I don't however think the device's inventor needs to get the Playa Hater treatment.

Now, $10,000?? "I was gonna sell my drums, but then I got high..."
 

From a players' perspective, having the sound actually come out of the drums is *good*. Masking the crosstalk generated by the speakers is gonna limit the sensitivity of the kit, which is *bad*.

The need for a module with separate audio outs for each instrument eliminates most of the common Edrum brains, which is also bad.

Plus you still need sidewash monitoring to hear any cymbals you're triggering, which is actually two more 'bads': equipment wise ("aw crap, I still need to haul around my wedges"), and from a 'feeling really connected to your instrument' standpoint ("Huh, what the hell did I just hit?").

Plus, to get alla the special audio effects he's citing (the snarewire permabuzz thing would be annoying, personally) you'd have to mic up the kit and run it through the PA.

All the downsides of both types of drums IN ONE REVOLOOOOTIONARY PRODUCT!!

Sheesh...
 

So, these are electric drums that work like acoustic drums, are the size of acoustic drums, and are supposed to sound as much like acoustic drums as possible. So why not just use acoustic drums?
 

ummm. i have to ask, where's the cow bell?

would they put a pizzo buzzer in the cow bell?
 

geez you can just get an Alesis SR-16 for $150, who needs acoustic drums?
 

geez, you can just get a CD for $10, who needs an Alesis SR-16?
 

You people are funny but not very imaginative. And completely wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCrnnx9jTqs
www.youtube.com/electricdrums