Hear the future of synth music now, from this emerging powerhouse duo Robotic Drummer and HP Scanner! Little Drummer Boy comes alive with the office friendly sounds of Christmas, and makes you wonder “what are these two going to play next?”
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what other tunes they’ll be programmed to perform, but for now enjoy the song that’s sure to become the new Robanukah anthem!
–via Geekologie
Gil Weinberg and Scott Driscoll of Georgia Tech developed a robot that can improvise rhythms as it hears music:
Haile is a robotic percussionist that can listen to live players, analyze their music in real-time, and use the product of this analysis to play back in an improvisational manner. It is designed to combine the benefits of computational power and algorithmic music with the richness, visual interactivity, and expression of acoustic playing. We believe that when collaborating with live players, Haile can facilitate a musical experience that is not possible by any other means, inspiring players to interact with it in novel expressive manners, which leads to novel musical outcome.
Link via The Presurfer
Here’s your next rock star: Meet Sara, a 13-year-old kid who kicks butt playing Rush’s YYZ on the drums, complete with stick twirling theatrics and such.
VideoSift has the clip: Link [embedded YouTube] | Sara’s website (in Japanese)
If you like that, here’s Sara (11yo), playing Rush’s Freewill on the drums and singing too!

