Drumpants: Percussive piezo pantaloons

Drumpants are the invention of a hacker called Odbol, "a set of pants that enable the wearer to produce drum sounds by hitting various parts of the pants with his hands. The wearer thusly becomes a cyborg musician, his body assuming the roles of both player and instrument, allowing for spontaneous electric hambone solos or even collaborations with other musicians in a band setting." Check out the videos for percussive thigh-slapping goodness. Link (via Engadget)

[#1 posted by Tracee Sioux , September 7, 2007 6:16 PM]

In the hands of the wrong 11 year old boy those pants will make some parents homicidal.

[#2 posted by Mike K , September 7, 2007 7:30 PM]

Mick Fleetwood, of Fleetwood Mac, had a "Hotz Vest" in the early 90's and still uses it during his solo on tour.
http://www.jimmyhotz.com/

[#3 posted by Anonymous , September 7, 2007 7:35 PM]

When I was in college (mid-80s), the drummer for a band called Leo Swift had a flight suit (coveralls) outfitted with drum pads and he did his drum solo on himself. He told the audience that his grandma helped him sew the drum pads in. Apparently these drum pants are not a new idea.

[#4 posted by Anonymous , September 7, 2007 7:37 PM]

Does he have poor rhythm or are the pants just a bit unresponsive?

[#5 posted by Anonymous , September 7, 2007 8:48 PM]

Yeah Tyler! Go Electroslugs!

---Proud fellow product of the UC Santa Cruz Electronic Music program

[#6 posted by DGallardo , September 7, 2007 9:31 PM]

Not a new idea, but a cool one.

I saw Laurie Anderson perform in the mid-80s and she had her body wired up with piezoelectric drum triggers. Very cool show.

Sort of related, Future Man, the percussionist for Bela Fleck & the Flecktones played a homemade, handheld device--the Drumitar--which had a variety of drum triggers on the surface. (Not sure if they were piezo or some type of switch, though.)

While you can buy piezo drum triggers off-the-shelf--drummers use these attached to their regular drums to trigger midi devices, as Odbol does--you can also save some of money by using $2 piezo buzzers from radio shack.

I've been slowly building an electronic drum set by buying Remo practice pads (the kind with the removable head) and putting piezo elements extracted from buzzers inside them.

I usually glue the trigger to a cd and sandwich the cd between thin foam pads, cut to the shape of the drum head inside. Also, I like to drill into the side of the pad base and attach an RCA plug that I wire the trigger to, so everything is neatly contained, and use an RCA to phono plug cable to attach it to my drum box, an Alesis DM5.

(Sorry for the ramble...)

[#7 posted by Simon Greenwood , September 7, 2007 9:41 PM]

John Otway took the pads out of a Yamaha drum machine in the early 80s and sewed them into a jacket. He still couldn't play them but that's John Otway for you.

[#8 posted by Anonymous , September 7, 2007 11:51 PM]

This just in: Wearable electronics don't make you a cyborg.

He should have to install them surgically to get that title.

[#9 posted by Anonymous , September 8, 2007 3:08 AM]

Yeah - John Otway used it during his track 'Body Talk'. Happy hazy memories of very messy gigs!!

[#10 posted by Sorcerer Mickey , September 8, 2007 7:57 AM]

Now, playing Hambone need no longer be acoustic!

[#11 posted by Veghead , September 8, 2007 8:55 AM]

John Otway doing body talk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnmPkJvLhWs

Yep - he's been doing this for at least 25 years!

Veg

[#12 posted by Anonymous , September 9, 2007 3:27 AM]

Back in the early 80s they had a guest on a show called That's Incredible that did exactly the same demo. Except his included kick drum in his heels and pads in his torso and arms too.

[#13 posted by Adam , September 9, 2007 7:35 PM]

a brilliant hacker/mechanic does a brilliant percussionists not necessarily make.