#midiinstrument

[diy-e-percussion]

Sample Testing - Marimba Prototype

I did another test run with the MIDI Marimba prototype - this time with some foam in between the piezo pickups and the marimba keys - it performed a lot better and I barely noticed any accidental key triggering at all!

In this video I’m mainly demonstrating using it to trigger different types of samples to show the possibilities of the instrument and see how playing it works.

I try out some marimba samples, a vibes, a zither as well as some drum kit and Afro-Latin percussion instruments and some bells - it’s really very flexible!

The sound you were hearing is straight out of the marimba, recorded from the stereo mix on my computer.

Some of these samples are single velocity layered samples and some are multi-velocity layered samples - something I go more into back in this post.

The basics explanation though is that you can either have samples that get louder and softer according to how hard you hit, but is the same sound file being played - OR you can have it setup so that different sound files are played for different hit strengths - this allows you to add lots of detail to the virtual instrument, as all physical instruments respond this way - their sound changes a lot according to how you are playing them, not just getting softer and louder.

[diy-e-percussion]

Midi Marimba Prototype Test

I made a new prototype marimba to test out my design - this time screwing the marimba keys into the frame, instead of using nails as I did in the first very basic test. 

If you haven’t seen my other posts, all the wood parts are pieces of a Venetian door that I salvaged from hard rubbish - the keys are the slats and the other parts are part of the frame, and the rubber is from the soles of my old ugg boots!

I screwed the frame together, spaced the two keys 15mm apart (a bit closer together this time so that I can ideally fit more keys on the final marimba), and fastened the keys into the rubber and then into the frame.

I pre-drilled 4mm holes, used 38mm screws to fasten the keys and rubber to the frame, and 50mm screws to connect the frame pieces. Shoutout to Oli for lending me the drill and impact driver!

Uggboot rubber between the key and the frame, trying to reduce vibrations travelling to the other keys.

For the software part of the playing part of the test, I attached piezo pickups to the underside of the keys using bluetack and cloth tape, so that I could adjust them as needed. I then plugged the peizos into my drum module using 1/4″ cables.

Using the ReaControlMIDI lugin within Reaper, I could see exactly what midi signals were being sent to the program from each piezo - coming through as different midi notes based on the drum module midi defaults.

Here’s the video of me testing it all out. I also try out some rolls, soft and loud hits, and triggering different sounds. Latency also appeared to be pretty minimal for this test which is really great!

I set the sample rate to 96khz and used the ASIO4All driver after reading a few posts suggesting that this would reduce latency, seems to be working :)

First of all - shout out to big time movie boy B-Rex from We Made That for encouraging me to make youtube videos - it was a lot of fun!

So overall the MIDI tests went OK, the feeling of playing the marimba was great and it had a good range of soft to loud hits although couldn’t do the really soft hits. The main problem though, is that the pickups on each key are picking up the vibrations when the other key is hit, resulting in triggering multiple notes accidentally (green lines in the image below).

I definitely need to solve this to make it playable, so I have to work on way of isolating the keys better from each other and from vibrations. I tried screwing the keys directly into the wood, which was worse, and with double thickness of rubber, which was slightly better but not much.

After that I tried adding some foam between the piezos and the keys, this definitely helped, and I got better results with the triggering, but still not enough isolation.

I got several hits of a velocity over 100 without triggering the other key, so definitely an improvement - even one at 122 which almost maximum velocity (127)

Next challenge is better key and or pickup isolation!

My ideas so far is trying out different rubber for underneath the keys, trying out using felts like in a drum cymbal, using machine screws / bolts and nuts to secure the keys, but I’m going to do some research.

The other problem is that my new design actually would involve cutting the keys smaller, which means there might be more vibration travelling through the fixtures seeing as the keys will be shorter. Hit me up if you’ve got a good idea for any of this! 

[diy-e-percussion]

THE BEGINNINGS: 

I haven’t had much experienced with playing marimbas, balafon, xylophones etc. but I love their sound. Unfortunately they’re often very large and expensive so they’re not an instrument I would have ever thought of owning!

The idea to build a midi marimba / balafon initially came from playing around with a sample pad ( a digital drum with 9 pads that can ‘trigger’ any sound you put in it, be it percussion sounds, bits of songs, sound effects, anything... ) and starting to make my own samples. I was lucky enough to get some old electronic drum kit parts from friends who had them lying around, and then started connecting these with the sample pad also.

I then had the idea to make a set of electronic Batá drums ( see the full post here ) The real instruments are hard to come by in Australia, so an electronic set was a great way to be able to start to learn them! Here’s a photo of the real instrument.

I was able to build a prototype set but a friend of mine with experience in these drums (Uncle Bobby of Uncle Bobby’s hot sauce fame) pointed out that to get the true character of the drum, I needed to be able to trigger different samples based on how hard I was hitting (aka velocity), to get all the tones of the instrument. He suggested looking into MIDI for this. - You can read all about that in this post -  I’m still experimenting with it - but here’s a quick photo of the progress!

Anyway - when I realised that I could make anything into a midi trigger using a piezo pickup, I started thinking of all the cool instruments I could make that I wouldn’t usually buy.  My partner, the gorgeous and hilarious Delta, mentioned how much she enjoyed playing marimba in school, and I thought that was a great idea for - they’re really cool instruments with a great sound, and they’re usually super big and heavy and expensive, so I’ve never had the chance of playing them and would never buy one.  The more I thought about it, the more I loved the idea of a MIDI version. Being able to trigger any sample with it, basically just gives me an instrument with lots of notes, that I can play percussively  with sticks - but could be playing bass, or organ, or anything. Plus there are so many great instruments of the same family - the original African marimbas and balafon, the vibraphone, the xylophone, glockenspiel, Latin American versions - giant bass ones etc.

The best part about making a MIDI version is it takes away the hardest part of building a marimba like instrument - shaping the wooden bars to the notes you want, and having huge resonating pipes or gourds.  All it would need is a series of bars (or tone plates), with piezos underneath.  Shortly afterwards I saw a Venetian door out in hard rubbish on my street - the slats of the door would make perfect keys, and there were plenty of them! I took the door home and tapped out all the slats, and the process begun!

Laying the slats out on some old garden stakes, I became really excited about the project.

I made a prototype with two keys and it sounded great, it’s such a fun way of playing an instrument and with MIDI sampling, the possibilities are endless, not to mention running live effects such as delay, reverb, tremolo etc. 

So I had my keys. Initially I was going to use a large piece of wood that I had lying around the house as the bits for the frame, until I realised that the other pieces of the door frame were pretty much what I wanted. I showed the wood to a friend of mine who’s a cabinet maker, (part time muscle machine, full-time great guy, Aaron) who said the wood was in fine condition, and was kind enough to cut the first pieces up and start the sanding with his belt sander. So now I had the bits for my frame. Next step - learning how to put it together ( I have no prior woodworking experience) and getting into the electronics side of things how I was going to trigger all the different keys.

[danrobinson30]

This is the best sounding virtual cello plugin I've heard. Listen to that legato. #tinaguo #cello #logicprox #midiinstrument #producer #mididata #kontakt #komolete10 #mixingskills #cinesamples