Making a Foot Percussion Board

November 21st, 2010
contra, footboard, music
I made a board for doing foot percussion last weekend and tried it at the brandeis contra yesterday. It's a little "clacky", and I think if I were better at this I could make one with different sounds for the different parts of the board so I could do more of a "thump-clack-a" instead of "clack-clack-a", but I'm pretty happy with it.

I made it by hollowing out a board with a router, embedding a contact pickup, and gluing it back together. The paper shown in the first image I thought I was going to need to use to keep the pickup well embedded, but I ended up not needing it.



I probably didn't need that many clamps, but there are a lot of clamps in my parents' basement and I was curious how many I could fit on it. I also need to test it with different shoes and see how much of the sound is shoe dependent.
Referenced in: Designing a MIDI Footboard

Recent posts on blogs I like:

The Asking People Out Manifesto

Ask! People! Out

via Thing of Things January 20, 2025

2024-25 New Year review

This is an annual post reviewing the last year and setting intentions for next year. I look over different life areas (work, health, parenting, effectiveness, travel, etc) and analyze my life tracking data. Overall this was a pretty good year. Highlights …

via Victoria Krakovna January 15, 2025

The ugly sides of two approaches to charity

What's neglected by "magnificent" philanthropy, and by Singerian global poverty focus The post The ugly sides of two approaches to charity appeared first on Otherwise.

via Otherwise January 13, 2025

more     (via openring)