Hello, I hope you can offer some assistance. I am a disabled drummer who runs a website for other disabled drummers at www.handidrummed.com. I had a drummer email me today who has no use of his legs, and he's looking for some sort of mouth operated midi controller that he can hook to a module and trigger bass drum notes with. I suggested a breath controller, but he's looking for something that would fit in his mouth that he can bite on. Is there are such device? I know there are wind controllers with biteable mouthpieces, much like a reed, but I think that would be too complicated and expensive for what he's looking for.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

------------------
Disabled Drummers - www.handidrummed.com

Hi,

There may be various ways to accomplish this. Before going into something that won't be compatible with the equipment already in use, please tell us what drum module your friend has. Most drum modules have trigger inputs for pads. In this case, a trip to Radio Shack to purchase a small transducer would do the trick. It would take some ingenuity to come up with some sort of rubber mouth piece that the transducer can be place into so it would handle the bite force. But that should be very hard and it would cost all of a couple of dollars.

The again if he is using a synth module that has no trigger inputs, then he will need a trigger-to-MIDI converter (he could still use the transducer idea from above for the actual trigger device). These are getting hard to find, but they are still out there.

Best Regards,

Dave


------------------
Wm. David McMahan
Nat'l Product and Support Manager
Generalmusic USA
GEM Community Forums

Thanks. He doesn't have anything yet that I'm aware of, and he seems pretty unwilling to compromise as far as method of triggering. It has to be bite operated. He was thinking of something like a football mouthpiece type device.





------------------
Disabled Drummers - www.handidrummed.com

Well if he is just starting out I suggest he look into getting one of the drum modules that are used in electronic drum kits. There are various choices in size, capabilities and price range but they all will have trigger inputs.

I understand the request for a bite trigger and the transducer suggestion would do just that. The type of transducer I am referring to is a piezo type device like this;


Some more information on triggers can be found at
Drum Junction .

I am sure someone could come up with a way to fit the piezo transducer into a football mouthpiece or something similar.

Good luck,

Dave


------------------
Wm. David McMahan
Nat'l Product and Support Manager
Generalmusic USA
GEM Community Forums

[This message has been edited by WDMcM (edited 04-11-2006).]