Membrane Drum demo by Robsteranium

I went to see Bassekou Kouyate on Thurs. Listen to the talking drum on I Speak Fula - vid from Jools Holland (if the deep link doesn't take you there, you'll find the drum at 2m20s). I want to recreate the sound of the drums rising pitch.

I found a drum membrane synthesiser that does the trick. I exchanged the mouse button trigger for a impulse with frequency modulation. This makes the beat get faster and slower in a regular period (from one to seven beats a second). The pitch is modelled with tension and loss parameters. As with the real drum more tension leads to a higher pitch (except I'm controlling this with my mouse pointer rather than squeezing the laptop into my armpit). The loss parameter makes the sound ring out for longer and is analogous to dampening the membrane with your hand.

Credit to Alex McLean for MembraneCircle.

I think I need to get my head round programming rhythms into SC3 now!