Drums
Mediocre drummer. Recording turns out to be much harder than playing.
Took my first drum lesson at Island LakeSummer camp in Pennsylvania. Other skills I learned include light mountain biking, the music from Newsies and Bat Boy, and how to play Warcraft III: Frozen Throneislandlake.com
Ignored a drum instructor who patiently tried to teach me rudimentsStandard sticking patterns — the vocabulary drum teachers start with.Percussive Arts Society for several months
Played Rock BandRhythm game series with plastic instrument controllers.What it looked like almost every day
Parents got me a Yamaha DTXplorerYamaha's entry-level electronic kit and one of the reasons I actually don't recommend getting a cheap electric kit for kids if they haven't decided whether they like playing the drums yet (they will learn to dislike playing the drums because many practice sessions start with a debugging session).Yamaha DTX which I practiced with sometimes
Parents got me a used acoustic kit which I still have!
Started playing with some folks in Sunnyside
Bought myself an Alesis DM10XA discontinued six-piece electronic drum kit with large pads and the DM10 module.Alesis
Sold my Alesis DM10X to Guitar Center
Got weirdly into custom electronic drums and converted my acoustic
kit to electronic using UFO Drums heads and sensorsMesh heads and trigger assemblies for converting acoustic drums to electronic.ufodrums.com, Jobeky cymbalsCustom electronic drums, cymbals, and conversion hardware.jobekydrums.co.uk, and a hodgepodge of modules including a MegaDrum moduleA DIY-friendly MIDI drum trigger module.megadrum.uk. Started playing with some embedded software to analyze piezo sensorsVibration-sensitive elements commonly used to detect drum hits and send trigger signals.how drum triggers work. Also became fascinated by SunhouseA music-technology company making tools for expressive electronic drumming.sunhou.se, the company behind Sensory PercussionA system that turns an acoustic drum into a controller for digital music.Sensory Percussion.
Nothing really has come out of any of this yet.
Bought myself an EFNote 5 (excellent decision).
Met a few folks I still play with (Justin and Sanket, mostly).
- EFNote 5Electronic drum kit that people look at and will be like "what are you talking about, that's an acoustic kit"efnotepro.com
- Alesis Strike MultiPadSample pad with built-in soundsalesis.com
- Tama Club-Jam Pancake kitCompact acoustic kit — 18" bass, small toms, still my main acoustic set.tama.com