ECE 4760: Final Project

Taiko Trainer

Teaching and feedback device for drumming students

Adam Jelfo (asj42@cornell.edu)

Gabriel Soares (gs368@cornell.edu)

Lucas Nissenbaum (ln226@cornell.edu)

Adam Harris (awh49@cornell.edu)

"a teaching tool with real-time feedback for drumming beginners and experts alike"

project soundbyte

For our ECE 4760 final project, we designed and built a drum trainer that can be attached to most Japanese drum surface and will detect and wirelessly transmit different drum hit types to other players’ drum trainers. The trainer is able to determine whether the user makes a “Loud Beat”, a “Soft Beat”, or a “Rim Shot”, and provides feedback in the form of LED’s to tell the user what type of beat they just made. This setup allows the use of several different applications; three such applications we came up with are:

1) Follow the Leader - One drum player is designated as the “leader”, and as the “leader” plays, the timing of each drum hit get transmitted to all of the “followers” playing along with him. The “followers” are then notified through LED’s whether they are performing the correct hit type, and whether they are playing at the right tempo.

2) Metronome - A player can set any tempo that they would like by hitting the drum a few times at a certain speed. The trainer averages the times between hits and then provides the player with a blinking LED with a constant tempo the player can then perform at.

3) Repeat After Me - For this mode, a player first records a pattern or beat that he would like to repeat. Once they are satisfied with the pattern they created they can begin to repeat the pattern, and the trainer will tell him whether they are playing the same type of notes at the same time.

In addition, we definitely foresee other software applications that can be developed to work with our Taiko Drum Trainer. It was important to us to develop a final project that could be greatly expanded and made more useful over time if necessary.

groupShot

Group Shot (Left to Right): Adam J, Lucas, Gabriel, and Adam H