May 16, 2017 | By Tess
Steven Dourmashkin, an aerospace engineering graduate student at CU Boulder, has developed a fun and innovative product that lets users play notes and musical rhythms by simply touching different colors with a 3D printed, app-connected ring. Called “Specdrums,” the musical accessory is expected to hit Kickstarter soon.
Ever since he was young, Dourmashkin has had a passion for drumming that has extended beyond his drum-set into his everyday life, leading him to tap rhythms and beats with his fingers and hands on just about any flat surface. It was this that inspired the aerospace engineering student to found Specdrums.
Taking tabletop drumming to a whole new level, Specdrums allow wearers to play different tones and notes simply by touching different colors. Whether you are tapping on your jeans and t-shirt or on colorful pieces of paper, the 3D printed ring will produce a different type of sound for each color.
“The original goal was to make something I could use to drum anywhere,” explained Dourmashkin. “It’s a fun way to learn about notes and rhythm. It’s for anyone who wants to make music anywhere.”
How does the Specdrum ring work? Well, users can get started with the ring by connecting it to a mobile device and Specdrum app. This can be done by simply tapping the ring close to the phone while the app is open. According to Dourmashkin, many rings can be connected to the app at once.
With the app, users can assign different musical notes to certain colors so that when they touch the colors, a specific note plays through the mobile device being used. As the device can play up to 36 different colors at once, users can easily edit and change what notes correspond to what colors, or can choose to cycle through sounds when a new color is tapped.
If it didn’t sound cool enough already, Specdrums also boasts a big database of different types of sounds, including hand drums, piano keys, guitar chords, animal noises, and more. Users are also free to record and assign their own sounds, which means that you could feasibly tap a table and have your own singing voice play back at you!
The Specdrum app also has a looping feature called Sloops that lets users record and loop short rhythms that can easily be saved or shared.
Dourmashkin started developing Specdrums as an undergraduate student of Cornell University. Now, along with his team members—co-founder Matthew Skeels, music theory and education specialist Jenna Palensky, and Jack FitzGerrell, who is in charge of marketing and design—he is readying to bring Specdrums to market.
The musical rings are currently available for pre-order via the Specdrums website, and Dourmashkin says the innovative product will soon be the subject of a Kickstarter campaign. The rings are currently made from silicone, and 3D printed molds are being beta tested.
“At Specdrums, we believe that all people—not just musicians—have instincive rhythm and creativity. We are providing a means for anyone to tap into their creative potential and the powerful language of music,” reads the startup’s website.
Posted in Fun with 3D Printing
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