Few months ago I posted on this forum about the Drummer, a networked MIDI interface which enables multiple Nintendo DS to connect together to computer on which is running a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), such as Logic or Garageband. The idea was to have a collaborative musical instrument different from the usual table-based-interface collaborative paradigm, merging the benefit of collaboration with the need of mobility (on a stage for example). Users, using the Nintendo DS client can customize, play and record drums together. The Drummer was initially presented at the NIME 2009 (New Interfaces for Musical Expression Conference, in Carnegie Mellon).
The product of those efforts resulted in the Drummer software, made using also the PALib. Since then, it got quite a bit of popularity over the internet, in Digital Music forums such as Create Digital Music.
We are releasing these days the second and simplified version of the software, named Drummer Lite. The improvement of this version over the previous one is that there is no need anymore to have a DAW installed on a computer in order to play the Drummer with your friends: simple wav files (which can be changed by the users) are played, having no need to use a synthesizer to generate sound anymore.
The Drummer Lite, as well as the Drummer, is free, completely open source, for Mac and Windows. Instructions and video tutorial can be found on the Drummer Lite's website:
http://drummer.alsoplantsfly.com.
Any feedback is highly appreciated. If you find any good use for the Drummer, we would love to hear from you.
Thanks a lot and enjoy it!
Best,
Andrea Bianchi
http://drummer.alsoplantsfly.com