Korg Wavedrum!

[kensuguro]

Just got the wavedrum... so far it fits under the "cool and sort of usable toy" category, with the major downpoint being that it doesn't output MIDI.

The thing is as straight forward as could be. It's a hand drum, and the sound from the head drives the DSP instruments. So, whether you beat it with a stick, or slap it with you hands makes a difference in the sound. Cool.

But, it doesn't output MIDI so you're stuck to the built in modules. Overall, the sounds center around very ethnic sounds.. mostly very droning and indian sounding. Lots of the patches sound like just a simple membrane drum with a sample or two thrown in to make it interesting.

I haven't quite figured out what it going on mechanically, but it does have these sensors:
1. membrane transmits audio to drive DSP
2. center of the membrane is pressure sensitive
3. rims also transmits audio to drive DSP

What puzzles me is how the membrane sound is used. For example, in a conga patch, even if play a real slap, or a mute slap, that sound doesn't really carry across into the result. (it's just a regular open hit) The strange thing is that the raw sound is fed to output too.. so when I heel toe, it hear the heel toe sound, but also a faint open hit sound too, which is coming from the dsp. So, while some techniques may carry through, most won't. And ultimately, it's built so you can get somewhat of a good tone even though you can't perform all the basic techniques. For the conga, hitting the middle part amounts to a open hit, and hitting the outer parts closer to the rim generates a slap.

Another thing that they forgot to take into account is the physical elasticity of the membrane. While the membrane can be struck with a drumstick, it's not tight enough to cause good bounce, and so rolls are almost impossible to do. Maybe I just need to "tune" it, as it has tuning screws and make the membrane tighter. But anyway, they have a pretty cool repinique instrument (I happen to play a bit of repinique), but the basic techniques were impossible to do because the stick wouldn't bounce enough.

Now, as far as overall coolness is concerned, this thing is the coolest instrument I've seen since the Nord Modular came out. (scope doesn't count since it's a card) The wavedrum blurs the line between analogue instrument and digital. It's sort of like an electric guitar.. it's got pickups, except the sound doesn't drive a speaker, it drives DSP patches. It even has strange percs that are specific to acoustic instruments, such as 2 instruments not sounding the same, or changing heads changes the sound.. etc. A lot of the detail in performance is lost, and is "rounded off" into the nearest good sounding dsp "mode" (slap, open, mute, etc) but the tone and variation caused by the analogue source is something that could shape the direction of digital sounds in the near future.

There are some nit picky issues though. The built in reverb is bad. Quite bad. The raw sound is pumped through the reverb in most of the patches, and the sharp transients causes a very metallic ring, or sounds like a room reverb with too much high end. (sort of like slap back echo) Maybe it's a cheap ER algo, I'm not sure. But nothing that can't be fixed by some patch editing. (meaning, total removal of irritating effect)

Another more realistic problem is that hitting the membrane is pretty loud. Which means, you need to turn your monitors way up, so you can hear the tabla or whatever patch you've loaded, over your membrane hitting sounds. This can end up being pretty loud, and so it seems like the only real way of using this thing without getting in trouble is to use audio in (for your tracks), and then monitor with headphones. But do keep in mind that the membrane makes sounds, and is not a silencing material like rubber drumheads.

It would have been nice if it output MIDI because it could be used to program beats, or use external sound sources. (like storm drum) Hey, but you know, the thing is portable, more reactive than any digital instrument, and it's extremely fun to play. As a whole, it's just a very attractive product, there's no denying that.

[braincell]

Why didn't you get Handsonic?

[kensuguro]

handsonic is just a pad controller. The pads just so happen to be laid out in a circular plane, which just so happens to makes it triggerable like a hand drum. (but you still strike the pads) wavedrum also has pretty nice patches that are sort of peudo physmod.

wavedrum and handsonic is mechanically very different.

[braincell]

You might want to check out this site:

http://larkinthemorning.com/

[kensuguro]

oh, wow.. that's an impressive collection of ethnic bits and pieces!

[braincell]

I just ordered the G minor pentatonic Tongue Drum!

[garyb]

that was the place to go even before the internet...

[iSiStOy]

I also bought the wavedrum, thanks to you Kensuguro.
This is exactly what I wanted as a percussion (and my neighbours as well).
It's a pity it's impossible to control its behaviour with midi though but that's quite understandable.
It's also a shame Thomann music shop can't deliver the thing before end of December...

[braincell]

They could of had computer control through USB. It was probably a cost consideration. Maybe in the next generation.

[kensuguro]

I think the old wavedrum had usb control, and a editor software. It would have been cool if they had an editor for this one too.. It would make it easy for me to go in and take out all the fx processing.

Also, the more I play the wavedrum, the more I feel that their "DSP algorithm" is pretty much a logic based rompler. I'm still not sure, but after initial wow factor, it's become more apparent that the wavedrum's output is rather static.

Here's what I think is happening:
1. head piezo, rim piezo, and pressure sensor picks up membrane signal
2. "algorithm" analyzes signal and passes it through logic ("if head piezo signal's amplitude is withing x range, true", or "if head piezo's signal fits x tonal characteristic (spectral, simple filter, etc) AND pressure sensor's signal is in y range, true"
3. logic determines what sample to trigger
4. sample is triggered using parameters gained through analysis. Mainly just volume of sample, and possibly a filter or some sort of tonal parameter controlled by the spectral characteristic of the impulse signal.
5. optionally, the piezo sounds are mixed back in
6. effects
7. out

So, ultimately, it might just be picking from a finite set of samples. It's hard to tell because if I do a muted slap, I will be applying pressure to the head, so I can't say whether it picks a muted slap sample because I am applying pressure and hitting hard, or because the head is delivering a sound that sounds like a muted slap, and the algo is picking up on that. (I think it's just pressure) Problem is, there' no way to test, because I can't do a muted slap without applying pressure.

Step 5 is probably the most important aspect that keeps the sounds interesting. When I do a heel toe, I can hear the heel toe, but also faintly hear whatever patch I have loaded. So, you can still do stuff that won't trigger any response from the "algorithm", but still get sound. This also helps create the illusion that the thing is "live".. or wait, it actually is live.. Step 4 also helps vary the sounds like when you hit it with a stick vs a mallet.

[braincell]

The specs say "samples". It's a good interface. Roland could make a better one if they wanted but they would charge more for it. The V-Drums is $7,000.

[Neutron]

You might want to check out this site:

http://larkinthemorning.com/

Lol i like the pre sale price of the sleigh bells.

they should put the price back up before i start hearing that iseccent horrible noise on TV and radio for 2 months. oops i think its too late.

[braincell]

I think this site is better:

http://www.africantreasures.com