Arduino Controlled Digital Percussion Instrument Design

MERT CAN BASCOBAN

Dept. of Electrical-Electronics Engineering

Suleyman Demirel University

Faculty of Engineering

TURKEY

OZLEM COSKUN

Dept. of Electrical-Electronics Engineering

Suleyman Demirel University

Faculty of Engineering

TURKEY

Abstract: - In daily life, musicians and people who want to play instruments cannot find enough time

to practice and improve themselves. In addition, acoustic instruments, especially percussion

instruments, are very difficult to use at home and indoors. For this reason, a percussion instrument

design has been made to meet the needs of a person who aims to improve himself and learn new songs

at the beginner level in percussion instruments. As a result of controlling the strip LEDs placed on

each pad of the digital percussion instrument with the Arduino Uno, people can play the song they

want with smoother touch and minimizing metronome errors.

Key-Words: Percussion Instrument, Arduino Uno R3, Drum Kit (Yamaha DD-65)

Received: June 21, 2022. Revised: March 6, 2023. Accepted: April 4, 2023. Published: May 3, 2023.

1 Introduction

Percussion and percussion instruments are used to

establish a rhythm structure in music. Rhythm

means "flow" in ancient Greek. It creates sound

unity and serial rhythms that are revealed by varying

lengths and beats. Rhythm structures in modern

music are usually performed with percussion

instruments. Any object on which sound is obtained

by hitting, shaking or rubbing with hand or another

object is a percussion instrument. In Western

languages it is often referred to as the "percussion"

family. They are also called "percussion

instruments" in our language. The percussion family

includes a significant part of the oldest instruments

in history. Even the most primitive of these

instruments are among the percussions of

contemporary orchestras. These contribute not only

to the rhythm, color and dynamic power of the

music, but also to the melodic and harmonic

elements of the music. In the first group, there are

snare drums, drums, castanets, etc. has.

The second group includes vibraphone, xylophone,

marimba, etc. Timpani, on the other hand, differs

from the drum with its ability to be tuned.

Tympanicians can obtain different sounds on the

skin of this instrument, which can be stretched more

or less [3,4]. Nothing will replace the teacher-

student interaction in the traditional education

environment given in higher education institutions

providing music education in Turkey. However, it

should not be ignored that the resources offered by

technology will bring a different approach to music

teaching. Because technology offers us incredible

opportunities for a quality and effective education.

Depending on the progress in today's technology,

'Rhythm devices' (Drum Machines) have started to

be produced in this field, where we can receive all

sounds digitally. Yamaha DD-65, the device used in

the study, is an example of this [5,6,7].

The playstation game Guitar Hero, made by

Harmonix Music Systems and released by

RedOctane, can be shown as a model for this study.

The game is played with controllers similar to

various guitar models, drum models and

microphones. In addition, the Alesis DM Lite Kit

illuminated digital percussion device produced by

WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on ACOUSTICS and MUSIC

DOI: 10.37394/232019.2023.10.1

Mert Can Bascoban, Ozlem Coskun

P-ISSN: 1109-9577

Volume 10, 2023

the Alesis brand can be given as an example. The

main difference between the designed operation with

this device is that the leds controlled by the arduino

work in a pre-programmed way, whereas the Alesis

DM Lite Kit works sensitively to the beat of the

digital percussion [8,9]. Easy Guitar, which is

actively used at http://mychordbook.com/, can be

given as an example of the didactic aspect of the

study. Easy Guitar is a smart guitar that aims to

teach you how to play the guitar. Methods of

learning classical guitar are expensive, difficult and

time consuming. With Easy Guitar, users can learn

to play the guitar with their favorite tracks online

whenever they want [10].

Fig. 1. Easy guitar vision

Mychordbook is an online tuning book. It is a music

education platform developed by Do Major

company located in Bilkent University Cyberpark.

The platform, which is aimed at musicians and

beginners, teaches how to play the song with

different instruments while listening to the song

[11].

2 Material and Methods

Arduino Uno-controlled LED was used for the

design of percussion with a teaching instrument and

a training drum was designed accordingly. The

control units used are given below, respectively.

2.1 Arduino Uno R3

It is an Arduino board containing ATMega328

microcontroller. After the first model of Arduino

Uno, Arduino Uno R2, Arduino Uno SMD and

finally Arduino Uno R3 came out. It has exactly the

same features as the Genuino Uno board, which

carries the Genuino brand, which is the sister brand

of Arduino [12].

Fig. 2. Arduino Uno R3

2.2 Yamaha DD-65 Digital Drum Set

*8 percussion pads

*254 drum sounds

*2 foot pedals as kick and hi-hat *25 phrase

*32 note polyphony

*GM compatibility

*5 song recording possibility in internal memory

*Reverb effect

*Bagettes

*Headphone output

*The possibility of connecting any player (mp3 etc.)

thanks to the AUX input and playing drums on this

piece of music heard through the speakers of the

DD-65

*Midi in/out input and output

*2 x 5W amplifier

Fig. 3. Yamaha DD-65 digital drum set [13]

2.3 Three-Chip Silicon Strip Led

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DOI: 10.37394/232019.2023.10.1

Mert Can Bascoban, Ozlem Coskun

P-ISSN: 1109-9577

Volume 10, 2023

Fig. 4. Three-chip silicon strip led

2.4 Type31 Npn Transistor

The transistor is used to drive ten LEDs in the

circuit. For this, type 31c transistors with an Ic value

of 3 amperes are needed. The use of digital drums in

the design, especially in the Yamaha DD-65 model;

It has been chosen in terms of being a device that

can be easily changed on it.

3 Circuit Design

In accordance with the design, the hardware-

installed LED strips were mounted on the pads on

the Yamaha DD-65 digital drum and cable

connections were made. In order to control the

Arduino Uno outputs, the test kit was tested with 14

input-output pins, 6 of which are to be used as

PWM, and 7 LEDs installed on the 6 analog input

breadboard. To test on this test kit, a metronome

(100-120 Bpm) range was selected and the code was

written accordingly, and after outputs were taken at

different times for this test, the cable connections on

the hi-hat, snare drum and bass drum on the Yamaha

DD-65 model digital drum were soldered. LED

strips were installed.

Fig. 5. LED mounting design

The hardware materials of the desired design have

been made ready in general. A metronome program

algorithm was created to be used for all songs and

changes were made in its main lines to try on

different songs. With Arduino, a circuit designed to

drive the strip LEDs on the electronic drum was

selected and applied to the transistor. The circuit

design of the application is shown in Fig. 6.

Fig. 6. Circuit design

Depending on the visual application goal with the

video synchronization of the design, the Arduino

and the processing program are communicated

serially with the import processing serial library.

Fig. 7. Arduino and processing connection image

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DOI: 10.37394/232019.2023.10.1

Mert Can Bascoban, Ozlem Coskun

P-ISSN: 1109-9577

Volume 10, 2023

Fig. 8. Arduino and processing software connection

image

Blink code was written by using Arduino examples

to be used in Arduino. With this code, the data sent

using ASCII, which is the American Coding System

for Information Exchange, was observed through the

LED from the PWM output. All educational videos

have been added to the system with the Processing

link and have been made to work in sync with the

LED lights. In the design, the inside of the Yamaha

DD-65 Drum Kit was opened and hardware

information was obtained. Their order is given in

Fig. 9, Fig. 10 and Fig. 11.

Fig. 9. Control unit

Fig. 10. Power supply

All software data in the Yamaha DD-65 drum kit is

located in the control unit given in Fig. 9. Control

unit 254 drum sounds, 25 phrases, 32 notes

polyphony, GM compatibility, 5 songs recording

possibility in its internal memory, Reverb effect is

created with the support of this card software. All

power to the Yamaha DD-65 Drum Kit is provided

by the power supply given in Fig. 10. It provides the

opportunity to play drums on the piece of music

heard from the speakers of the DD-65 by connecting

any player thanks to 8 beat sensitive pads, 2 foot

pedals as Kick and Hi-hat, headphone output, AUX

in input. Midi in/out input and output are fed with

this card. All inputs and outputs are on the card.

Fig. 11. Yamaha DD-65 electronic components

The general appearance of the system is given in

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DOI: 10.37394/232019.2023.10.1

Mert Can Bascoban, Ozlem Coskun

P-ISSN: 1109-9577

Volume 10, 2023

Fig. 11. All the cable connections of the strip LEDs

are passed through here and controlled by one input

and one output. The input consists of outputs to the

positive input of the adapter, and the output consists

of outputs to provide control of all the pads located

on the electronic drum. All information to the

system is provided from the output output with

arduino. The input only provides the energy that

makes the system work.

4 Research Findings

The design works visually with video support and in

the video, Hi-Hat, Snare, Bassdrum and Crash used

by the tutorial are visually visualized with LED strip

in sync. First, when the tutorial hits the Hi-hat, the

user will be able to see it synchronized with the

green LED on the Yamaha DD-65 digital drum in

front of him.

Fig. 12. Hi-hat video sync

The snare signals will appear as shown in Fig. 13.

Each time the trainer hits the snare drum, the user

can visually see the note value data from the LED to

which the snare signal is connected. Led data is

received in the same way as the Hi-hat system.

Fig. 13. Snare video sync

The Crash sync shown in Fig. 14 is the part that is

less active than the other parts. It is usually active at

the end of each measure in the song. All data

transfer, like other parts, is realized by visualizing

the recorded note information in processing with the

help of arduino.

Fig. 14. Crash video sync

Finally, different connection options are presented in

the bassdrum section in Fig. 15. First, the LED

connection is made for the pedal that provides

bassdrum control. However, since no visual

feedback can be received, it was decided to mount

the electronic drum in the most visible part of the

body.

Fig. 15. Bassdrum video sync

5 Conclusions

Many musicians play in different metronome ranges

at every opportunity [Largo (40-69 Bpm), Larghetto

(72-96 Bpm), Adagio (100-120 Bpm), Andante

(126-152 Bpm), Allegro (160-176 Bpm), Presto)

(184-208 Bpm)] need to improve themselves by

practice. Every beginner musician tries to learn

different transition combinations in the fastest way

possible.

In this design, a percussion instrument is designed

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DOI: 10.37394/232019.2023.10.1

Mert Can Bascoban, Ozlem Coskun

P-ISSN: 1109-9577

Volume 10, 2023

for beginners to develop their sense of rhythm and to

understand different rhythm combinations more

easily. This tutorial percussion instrument is also

designed using Arduino Uno controlled LEDs.

People who are interested in percussion instruments

of this design; it is aimed to develop themselves in

different methods in an easy way without dealing

with supportive and note analysis in this field. In

line with the studies carried out in this field, the

hardware structure of the system was created as a

basis and the studies on the software were completed

with up-to-date information. Today, visual materials

such as LED are generally used for visual show

purposes in the music industry. In this design, the

idea of using these materials for education has been

developed.

As a result, in this design, it is aimed for all

percussion musicians to master the touch and

metronome of the song, to follow the song traffic

and to practice by making the work more visually

enjoyable. For those who are new to percussion

instruments, it is aimed to develop the sense of

rhythm, to control the hit-hat, crash, ride, snare

drum, tom1, tom2, floor tom, bass drum, to practice

by making the work more visually enjoyable and to

understand the different rhythm combinations

between these equipments more easily.

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[9]Robertson, A., Decoding tempo and timing

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[10]E-seed (Ed: Giray Songul), Easy Guitar –

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y-guitar-mychordbook, (Access Date: 2023).

[11] Valley of leaders, “It is Very Easy to Learn

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[12]Ince, H., Ardunio Uno. www.

arduinoturkiye.com, (Access Date: 2023).

[13]Yamaha Corporation of America,

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Contribution of Individual Authors to the

Creation of a Scientific Article (Ghostwriting

Policy)

The authors equally contributed in the present

research, at all stages from the formulation of the

problem to the final findings and solution.

Sources of Funding for Research Presented in a

Scientific Article or Scientific Article Itself

No funding was received for conducting this study.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare

that are relevant to the content of this article.

Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

(Attribution 4.0 International, CC BY 4.0)

This article is published under the terms of the

Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en

_US

WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on ACOUSTICS and MUSIC

DOI: 10.37394/232019.2023.10.1

Mert Can Bascoban, Ozlem Coskun

P-ISSN: 1109-9577

Volume 10, 2023