Synesthesia Mandala Drums

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The Synesthesia Mandala Drum is a patented electronic drum pad developed by Vince DeFranco and drummer Danny Carey from Tool. [1] It has 128 strike position detection rings from its center to its edge, along with 127 levels of velocity sensitivity. In its current iteration, mk2.9, both values are transmitted via USB MIDI to a computer, where they can be interpreted by any MIDI software. The Mandala also includes its own "Virtual Brain" software. The current USB/software system replaces a hardware brain that the version 1.0 Mandala system had employed. The pad can be struck with drum sticks or fingers and hands.

Electronic drum modern electronic musical instrument

An electronic drum, also known as electric drums, digital drums, or electronic percussion, is a modern electronic musical instrument, a special type of synthesizer or sampler, primarily designed to serve as an alternative to an acoustic drum kit or other percussion instruments. An electronic drum consists of an electronic or digital sound module which produces the synthesized or sampled percussion sounds and one or more electric sensors to trigger the sounds. Like regular drums, the sensors are struck by drum sticks or by the hands and they are played in a similar manner as an acoustic drum kit.

Drummer percussionist who creates and accompanies music using drums

A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums.

Danny Carey musician, songwriter

Daniel Edwin Carey is an American drummer and instrumentalist best known for his work in American Grammy Award-winning progressive metal band Tool. He has also contributed to albums by artists such as Zaum, Green Jellö, Pigface, Skinny Puppy, Adrian Belew of King Crimson, Carole King, Collide, Lusk, and the Melvins.

Contents

Danny Carey of Tool using 7 purple Mandala Drums Danny Carey.JPG
Danny Carey of Tool using 7 purple Mandala Drums

Technology

The Mandala pad represents patented membrane sensor technology that was developed over several years by Vince DeFranco and was released to the public in May 2006.

Because a Mandala surface is divided into 128 position rings and can detect 127 strike velocities (greater than 0) it can produce up to 16,256 (128 x 127) individual triggers. [2] For practical playing the pad can be concentrically divided into as little as one or as many as six playing zones via its Virtual Brain software. The individual zones, position rings, and velocity levels can be used to trigger different instruments, effects parameters, or volume changes.

The newest version of the Mandala, mk2.9, is a standard class-compliant USB MIDI controller (no special drivers required) which uses a computer as its sound source. When the pad is struck it sends a MIDI trigger note with velocity as well as a position value (in the form of a MIDI continuous controller) across a USB cable into a computer. A Virtual Brain program is included with mk2.9 and has a set of included instrument samples and multiple effects (filters, delay, distortion, etc.) which can be applied to individual zones or to the overall surface. Unlimited user samples can also be added to the included sound library. Any parameter of any effect can be controlled by the position (0-127) or velocity (0-127) of a surface strike, resulting in effects such as bending pitch, changing delay time, or increasing reverb as the pad is played from center to edge. The position controller and velocity controller can be scaled to the player's liking. [3] Factory preset sound configurations are included with the Virtual Brain as well as unlimited empty slots for user created presets. Drummers can also modify panning and note settings for each zone. The Virtual Brain program is not required to play the Mandala because the pad is a MIDI controller that can trigger any software that accepts MIDI input.

Pitch (music) perceptual property in music

Pitch is a perceptual property of sounds that allows their ordering on a frequency-related scale, or more commonly, pitch is the quality that makes it possible to judge sounds as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies. Pitch can be determined only in sounds that have a frequency that is clear and stable enough to distinguish from noise. Pitch is a major auditory attribute of musical tones, along with duration, loudness, and timbre.

Panning is the distribution of a sound signal into a new stereo or multi-channel sound field determined by a pan control setting. A typical physical recording console has a pan control for each incoming source channel. A pan control or pan pot is an analog control with a position indicator which can range continuously from the 7 o'clock when fully left to the 5 o'clock position fully right. Audio mixing software replaces pan pots with on-screen virtual knobs or sliders which function like their physical counterparts.

Mk2.9 demonstrates the resolution of its sensitivity by including a bonus of over 1500 position and velocity based samples of a single vintage snare drum which get laid out over the Mandala surface for an accurate playing representation.

Version 1.0 of the Mandala included a standalone hardware 'brain' with an onboard sound chip and effects. That version is no longer available.

Endorsers [4]

Pat Mastelotto American musician

Patrick Lee Mastelotto is an American rock drummer and record producer who has worked most notably with Mr. Mister and King Crimson, among many others.

Will Calhoun American musician

William "Will" Calhoun is an American drummer who is a member of the rock band Living Colour.

Matthew Chamberlain is an American musician, drummer, producer, songwriter and session player.

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References

  1. ↑ Modern Drummer Magazine, "Q&A Section - Danny Carey", November 2006
  2. ↑ Electronic Musician Magazine, "Quick Pick: Synesthesia Mandala 2.0 (Mac/Win)", July 2008
  3. ↑ Harmony Central: Synesthesia Presents The Mandala Drum, Designed With Danny Carey Of Tool
  4. ↑ Endorsee Page http://synesthesiacorp.com/players
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