After MakerFaire came through Austin in October, it seemed like everybody I know was excited and brimming with hot ideas. David Nunez proposed that we collaborate to design some kits for people to build… we decided on a simple criteria to follow; our hypothetical kits would be “subversively useful and make you more attractive”. That’s not so hard to do; sometimes all it takes is a few LEDs and a cheesy strategy to hit on nerds. As a longer-term kit design project, we decided that something more substantial might be in order: cloning the circuitry from classic drum machines (the Roland TR-808 for example), gearing it toward circuit-benders, and serving it up in a unique modular packaging system.

I’ll refer to it as the 808 Project until a better name surfaces.

Above is a sketch of how such a thing might look; each unit contains a circuit board dedicated to generating one drum sound, i.e. kick, snare, hats, etc. The enclosures are stackable side-by-side, so its possible to build a custom drum machine as small or large as you like (within limits).

A MIDI interface module sits on one end of the stack so the sounds can be played from a laptop, etc. Each module also has a trigger button. I am doing experiments now to see how easy it will be to include a trigger input for drum pads; then it becomes a source of accessory sounds for live drumming.

A mix-and-match approach is encouraged; want 2 kick drums and 2 snares? Cool. Build the modules and stack them together. Want 8 circuit-bent cowbells? Nobody’s stopping you. Over time, we plan on releasing modular versions of the guts from other classic machines like the TR-606, TR-909, etc.

As I mentioned, the kits are geared toward circuit-benders. This means establishing an online forum where folks can share their cool bends and take credit for it. Since the classic drum machines used all-analog circuitry to generate sounds, that means plenty of raw guts to experiment with, and none of those frustrating ‘black blob’ chips you find in cheap kiddie-toys from the dollar store. So in the end, every one of these drums has the potential to sound unique and cooler than the last one. Its really not about us taking credit, its about you. And as a bonus, you wont have to worry about blowing up a $2000 vintage Roland to get there.

We aim to have kits available in the first half of 2008.