Slice the (Polyrhythmic) Drum Machine
The Short Story
Slice the Drum Machine is a polyrythmic drum machine that I made in collaboration with Juliana Maitenaz and Bob Baleki.
Above is the first physical draft of Slice, made from only one motor (salvaged from a fan that appeared to have been thrown out of a window) with 3 speed settings. The shaft of the motor was extended with a wooden dowel and a different number of pipe-cleaner arms attached at varying heights. The hope was that even with only one motor, we could still create polyrhythms because of how the arm were placed. It sort of even worked although pipe-cleaners were not the best substitute for malots and the rhythm was a little too predictable.
The Long Story
This was the start of some of the most exciting projects I worked on during my time at Bard College. It all began when a drummer from the Conservatory, Juliana Maitenaz, asked me about my instruments. We were taking a MaxMSP class together but she only stayed for the first couple weeks to learn how to do this specific thing for her senior concert - she was driven and focused like that. At that same time, I was experimenting with fan motors, trying to reverse their flow to make wind generators and used one of them in a composition class to perform a 5 minute piece that my classmates lovingly termed the "school bell from hell." Essentially what it was was a pair of sticks, taped to the shaft of a 3-speed fan motor, that were hitting a very resonant metal bowl (courtesy of P&T's Surplus in Kingston by the marina). It was loud. It was fast. All the while I walked around the room ringing my own little bell in contrasting rhythms with the "school bell" and as time went on the tape started to slip and the rhythm changed and became more and more erratic until it finally collapse. (Accidental) timed obsolescence.
I must've been testing the hellish thing out in the hallway with Tom and John when Juliana walked by and we both agreed it was something to explore further. At first Juliana reached out to me about making an instrument for her to perform with at her senior recital but I was pleasantly surprised at how much of a collaborative effort it was from the both of us. We brainstormed, problem solved and spent long nights in the wood shop together. Another important collaborator on this project was none other than the fantastic and generous Bob Baleki who is an audio-electric genius with a heart of gold who has helped countless individuals realized their experimental musical contraptions.
When Juliana and I were hitting a wall with coding for Slices speed control, Bob welcomed us into his studio to hash things out. While we were there he not only helped us with the coding but the wiring as well. He gave us all the knobs and switches we needed to bring Slices control panel to the next level including these super cool chunky vintage radio dials.
In the end (a.k.a. "by the time of the concert" because when is it really truly the end? I still see slice as this sort of fresh out of puberty prototype that will someday grow some metaphorical beard and then go through all these different beard stylings as well... anyways... "In the end"), Slice was a series of 6 motors with controllable speeds and arms to hit objects and create irregular polyrhythms! Fun right?