Wearable Third Arm Gives Drummers Extra Robotic Rhythm (gizmag.com) 77
Zothecula writes: Thumping out as many drum beats in 60 seconds may get you a podium spot at the annual World's Fastest Drummer competition, but we'll take the full kit virtuoso playing of Cozy Powell, Philthy Animal Taylor or Mitch Mitchell any day of the week. When trying to emulate the fastest or the greatest on your bedroom bin-bashers, though, you'd be forgiven for wishing you had a third arm. Georgia Tech Professor Gil Weinberg and his research team may have the answer to your prayers. They've developed a drumstick-wielding wearable robotic limb that's able to respond to both the music being played and the movements of the player.
I, for one... (Score:2, Redundant)
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They left Keith Moon out of the list.
When he wasn't passing out from animal tranquilizers at a concert...in his younger days he was amazingly fast.....
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Oh, whatever... double bass makes any song 2x as good and you know it...
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I always wondered why drummers spend years practicing and building up enough stamina to be able to do that.
Surely all you need is an Arduino, a foot switch and some sort of linear actuator to move the pedal.
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As a drummer, this is worst idea ever.
Fast is not talent. Fast is not musical, creative, or in good taste.
Fast is pretty much just cacophony, no different than a garbage truck emptying a dumpster.
It depends on the genre and band.
Someone like Dave Lombardo shows how speed is used to great effect.
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Without the ability for the wearer to guide the third arm using thought alone, this is little more than a gimmick. It could more easily be pulled off by separate drums and arms with the same motion capture and computational mechanisms.
And, as a drummer, I don't think I'd like a third arm even if I could guide it. Two hands and two feet are pretty much all I think my mind could handle, and be effective at playing.
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So, I don't know about paradiddling or the like, bu tit sounds like it's
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Right, and who is to say that performing a paradiddle should always match up with moving to an 8th note rhythm on the ride? Real drumming is much more complex than such arbitrary mapping rules.
Not to take away that this is a neat experiment and a lot of work was put into it. It's more of a showcase of what is possible than of a real technology that is useful.
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If we waited until we had fully complete technology which solved a very specific problem universally regarded as "useful" ... we'd never accomplish a fucking thing.
Nobody is saying this is going to replace drummers, but it is a new and novel application of robotics, with a degree of autonomy and smarts, and is more than just programming it into a drum machine.
If all you're going to do is whine and kvetch it's not as complex
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I can't imagine this has the sensitivity to play anything but regular hits, so there is no benefit to a physical strike of the drum.
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If it were good enough, why not let it replace you as well?
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Zaphod, is that you? (Score:1)
How's your ski-boxing coming along, frood?
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why hit a "drum" when you can simply program a computer and fully synthesize it?
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why hit a "drum" when you can simply program a computer and fully synthesize it?
Why program a computer to synthesize it when you can just sample it?
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why hit a "drum" when you can simply program a computer and fully synthesize it?
Why program a computer to synthesize it when you can just sample it?
Why bother sampling it when you can just claim it was yours in the first place, and issue a DMCA takedown request for it?
(Note: This may only work if you're Sony or one of the other three corporations remaining in the world.)
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Oh, there will always be more than 3 corporations .. how the hell do you think they'll play shell games with the money to claim they weren't profitable.
You can't do Hollywood accounting if you don't have shell corporations to juggle the money around.
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Amen Brother! [youtube.com]
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Because at that point, you remove all musical talent from the creation....and become a rapper.
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You have just gave me a perfect example how unique (and from my perspective: weird) Japanese culture is. Never heard of Hatsune Miku thing before. ... Thanks.
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That would make it sort of like this ??
http://www.rolandus.com/blog/2... [rolandus.com]
That is how the 'less' talented make up speed and flourishes and other bonus sounds are added to the traditional percussionists array.
Not to impugn anyone's' skills as I can't even manage the 2 arms I've got to produce a constant rhythm.
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Not to impugn anyone's' skills as I can't even manage the 2 arms I've got to produce a constant rhythm.
But with one hand you can? Yeah, thought so.
;)
(Sorry, but that was sooo much an open door, I couldn't resist
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Yep, I pat her on the back of the head with one hand to help keep time, but it doesn't seem to extend duration much.
BTW Don't apologize for a good joke, If the subject, in this case me can't take it, then I shouldn't be posting here in any case...
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Third Leg (Score:1)
I've got a natural third leg. Does that count?
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Me too, but it only works for drumming when my girlfriend parades nude in front of the stage.
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This is Slashdot. Nobody believes any of us has a girlfriend.
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Rick Allen (Score:5, Interesting)
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Damn, I knew someone was going to bring this up.
Armageddon it!
Wrong! (Score:2)
Rick Allen is a drummer, and a rather incredible story. Drummers, real drummers, see drumming as a pure body effort. This third "robot" arm is no different than using a drum machine. It's no longer the body doing the work, it's a machine.
Watch Mike Portnoy, Mike Mangini, Neil Peart, John Bohnam (videos obviously), etc.. etc.. they use both arms and both legs with incredible precision for an incredible effect. I don't think Rick was ever that caliber drummer (miracles are not that common) but before the
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Indeed
nice (Score:3)
A robotic third arm?
When can i get a robotic third leg?
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Get a sex change into a man.
Which department? (Score:3)
They've developed a drumstick-wielding wearable robotic limb that's able to respond to both the music being played and the movements of the player.
Shouldn't this be from the solving-problems-that-aren't-problems-department?
Not fair (Score:1)
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They already get more ass than the base player, now they get an extra arm??
What is a "base player"? A Ft. Hood Giggolo?
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Octopussy Riot! (Score:1)
nuf sed
Lulz (Score:1)
Strap-on.
The one-armed drummer from 1964 (Score:3)
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nah (Score:2)
It would be better if... (Score:2)
it could actually play in time.
All thes drummers.. (Score:2)
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Moties (Score:2)
Extra robotic rhythm? (Score:2)
Pantera already sung about this (Score:2)
Because.. (Score:2)
What? (Score:2)
Thumping out as many drum beats in 60 seconds may get you a podium spot at the annual World's Fastest Drummer competition
As many as what? 60? That's one a second. That's... not very fast.
Rick Allen (Score:2)
Expanding to wind instruments? (Score:2)
Is this expanding to other instruments like, say, the wind section? I wouldn't mind a third hand to help with my skin flute practice! Zing!
Not news (Score:2)
All the drummers I know had 3 arms, when girls were around even 5.