Presentation FILE 2023
Ignacio Viano
Drum.ino
Resume
The proposal of this talk is divided into two parts. On the one hand, we present the Drum.ino project and talk about its nature, design philosophy, technological components and possible applications in the field of musical practice and teaching.
On the other hand, we provide detailed instructions for making and using a Drum.ino.
Who is it for?
The workshop is aimed at anyone with an interest in projects that combine music and technology; musicians, teachers, composers, technicians and enthusiasts.
It is pertinent but not exclusive that the participants have some basic experience in connecting sound equipment and using audio software and rhythm machines.
What is Drum.ino?
Drum.ino is an Arduino-based lo-fi drum machine. It is an electronic drum with 8-bit samples and a 16-step sequencer fully operated by an obsolete and reused PC keyboard. Despite the technological limitations of an Arduino (amount of memory and speed of operation) this project offers a drum machine with six samples playable in real time or by means of the sequencer, storage of rhythms in permanent memory, effects, random rhythm generator, tap tempo, among other features.
Here is a demo video
Distinctive features
This project was born from the idea of hardware recycling. It was observed that the PS/2 keyboards are in the process of obsolescence despite generally having a good state of operation. It was also observed that the keyboards can be personalized with labels, thus modifying their logic oriented to writing by other oriented to “panel with buttons mappable for different purposes”. Also, PS/2 connectivity is especially easy to integrate with Arduino since it does not require additional hardware. This is how we came up with the idea of using a PC keyboard and an Arduino to build musical instruments.
Since the most complex piece of hardware in the project (PS/2 keyboard) comes from recycling, the work left to the users is rather simple: connections with minimal components, labeling, upload code to arduino and play the instrument.
Philosophy
As stated above Drum.ino is a musical instrument formed by combining an outdated PC keyboard with an Arduino. We believe that this is the original idea of the project and similar experiences have not been observed. A variety of different instruments can emerge from this depending on how the arduino is programmed and how the keyboard is labeled.
In this case it is a drum machine, and although the code is original and was developed especially for this project, it could not exist without the contribution of countless people who generously published their work under some type of license that allows its reuse and modification. For the software of this project, in addition to the Arduino platform, two additional libraries were used. Ps2keyadvanced was used to manage communication with the keyboard and Mozzi as an audio and synthesis engine.
In this way, complying with the licenses that so provide, but mainly motivated by the conviction of the value of collective and free work, the software of this project is published under the most open license possible. At the moment it is:Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Both the source code and the binary are available at github.
Drum.ino shield
We believe that an important part of the project is to make available to the community all the information necessary to build a Drum.ino using a minimum amount of components, tools and prior knowledge. So is offering support and encouraging users to replicate, modify, or incorporate Drum.ino into their projects.
However, it was observed that there is a portion of potential Drum.ino users that does not have what is necessary (tools, knowledge, time, interest) to build with their own hands an instrument of these characteristics. That is why together with VZtec we are developing a solution in the form of a complementary board (shield) that allows the user to assemble their own Drum.ino simply by connecting the board with an Arduino without the need for tools, just like a Lego.

3D rendering of the first Drum.ino Shield (currently in production).