Re: Loopable percussion (was: Tabla...)

[Matthias Grob <matthias@grob.org>]

James contributed infos more than 2c worth ;-):
>I'm not a tabla player, but do know a bit about the drums, so here's my 
>two
>cents:
>
>>Do you like the defined tonality in other situations or would you 
>actually
>>prefer a modified tabla which has "enough overtones to smooth over 
>obvious
>>harmonic clashes"? Could this be achieved by uneven tension of the skin 
>or
>>irregular form of the black mass (whats its name?) on it?
>>Do we disrespect the milenar indian culture?
>
>That "black mass" (sounds kind of Goth!) on the tabla is called "syahi" in
>Hindi, meaning roughly "blackness."
>This is usually made from rice flour, iron filings, etc. as is applied to
>the skin in many layers over time until it gives the right "ring" to the
>drum.  On the treble drum this is essential to tuning, since this drum is
>tuned to the tonic pitch of the vocalist or instrumentalist.  In
>non-traditional performance situations this can be very frustrating for 
>the
>"harmonic clash" mentioned above.

So, since the size of the treble drum is not a problem, could we say that
the syahi only serves for the pitched ring we might not want?

>>The indian technology with the weight on the skin seams to be the
>>solution to keep the instrument small and give it a nice sustain. Or 
>should
>>it be used just for the bass drum?
>
>On tabla this is used for both the treble as well as the bass drum.  An
>interesting footnote is that an older, deeper sounding drum called
>"pakhawaj" has this black patch only on the treble head, but that the 
>player
>uses a small lump of dough to make a similar "weight" for the bass drum
>head, then scrapes it off after the performance (or practice).  Believe it
>or not, the scraped-off dough is then often given to a street animal like 
>a
>dog or monkey as food.  Musical recycling.

Great!
I see the animals dance with all the dumdummm in their system ;-)

But serious: Why dont we try then to stick such a mass onto some small roto
tom (with a natural skin, probably)?
Out of center or with a non circular form it should ring less and might
aproach a bass drum sound?
In the mass there could be a movement sensitive pickup (not so much a
piezo, which is pressure sensitive).
Maybe a metal piece in it allowes to pick it up with a magnetic pickup
underneeth?