beaty-module

part of the JPMorgan Chase Kids Digital Movement and Sound Project

(c)2002 douglas irving repetto and Jason Freeman

Introduction:

This drum machine module uses disc positions to trigger sounds. The discs are mapped onto a grid that is four drums high by eight beats wide. A disc's position within a rectangle on the grid controls the volume and panning of the drum sound associated with that rectangle. The user can load new drum sounds and can control the overall tempo of the drum machine.

As a disc moves from left to right inside an individual rectangle, the drum sound associated with that rectangle will pan from left to right. As the disc moves from bottom to top, the volume of the drum sound will go from quiet to loud. The color of the rectangle reflects the color of the disc that it contains.

The name of each drum sound is displayed in the associated row of the grid. The red line moving across the screen indicates which beat is currently being played.

Controls:

load sound:
Press these buttons to load new sounds into the drum machine. Sound 1 is for the top row of the grid, sound 2 for the second-highest row, etc. Only mono (one channel) WAV or AIFF files will work.

tempo:
Use this slider to control the overall tempo of the drum machine.

volume:
Use this slider to control the volume of the drum machine.

mute:
Use this button to turn the sound off and on.

Activities:

• Try loading different sounds. How do the sounds used affect how a rhythm feels?
• See if you can create stable (unchanging) rhythms. How about rhythms that are mostly stable, but that have slightly changing details. (Think about using magnetism for this one...)
• Play with the tempo slider. How does your perception of a rhythm change as the tempo changes? What kinds of patterns do you notice at fast tempos that you don't notice at slow ones? What about the other way around?