DrumPants Puts Industrial-Strength MIDI Control In Your Pants December 9, 2013
Main
0 Comment
Facebook Twitter Email

http://i2.wp.com/www.synthtopia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/dumpants-illustration-e1386624786905.png

We featured a lot of creative MIDI controllers on Synthtopia recently, but DrumPants spank the competition in the ‘wear it in your pants’ department.

DrumPants have the advantage of being both inexpensive (pricing starts at $89) and being wearable (in your pants). DrumPants comes with 100+ built-in sounds, including drums, percussion, synthesizers, guitars and pianos. And it can also be used to send MIDI or OSC, turning your body into a mobile MIDI controller.

drumpants

While DrumPants were designed to be an ‘industrial quality wearable musical instrument’, fun is also a top priority.

“It’s a wearable music kit, so you can make sounds – in your pants!” notes Freeman.

And, if you’re worried about unsightly MIDI bulge, DrumPants don’t even have to be worn in your pants. They’re flexible and can can attach to your body or clothes in a variety of ways:

drumpants-attachment

Technical Specifications

  • Six velocity sensors in two wearable strips: four drum pad sensors and two foot pedal sensors.
  • Control box with 100+ built-in high-quality sounds.
  • Includes custom ultra-thin velcro stickies for attaching to clothes.
  • DrumPants app lets you connect DrumPants to a computer via USB.
  • DrumPants PRO also lets you connect to a smartphone or tablet with Bluetooth 4.0.

Here’s an example of DrumPants being used to control AniMoog to make super-trippy 80′s cop-show music:

The DrumPants software takes output data from the DrumPants or a connected Arduino and lets you manipulate it in real time. Just tell it what kind of sensor you’re using, calibrate it using the on-screen graphs, and choose actions to trigger.

Example actions:

  • Send MIDI notes to other music apps or instruments
  • Send OpenSoundControl (OSC) messages
  • Emulate keyboard keystrokes to control games, YouTube, PowerPoint, etc.
  • Advanced actions like auto-increment, parameter animation, even meta-control DrumPant App’s presets and settings with our open API.
  • Total phone automation with Tasker (Android only)
  • Receive MIDI/OSC messages from other programs or instruments and transform them into the above actions. This gives you advanced routing capabilities similar to Osculator or Max/MSP.

Full details are available at the project site.

Leave a comment and let us know what you think of DrumPants!

[Synthtopia]