MyScience.ie

A video of a musical instrument invented by a Queen’s University Belfast student has attracted over 1.1 million views on YouTube.
PhD student Peter Bennett (26) from Stevenage in England, made the video demo of the BeatBearing, which uses ball bearings to create different drum patterns.

The BeatBearing has a minimalist modern design and works as a rhythm sequencer. But unlike mainstream electronic sequencers, you use ball bearings to “program” the drum tracks.

A red line sweeps across a grid, on which you can place ball bearings. Each time the red line encounters a ball bearing on one of the grid’s four rows, it triggers a sound sample such as a hi-hat or a cowbell, depending on which row the ball is on.

Peter developed the machine as part of his research into the use of “tangible interfaces” for new musical instruments at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) in Queen’s.
“The BeatBearing project is being developed as part of my PhD,” he says. “It started out as a weekend project when one of my colleagues left ball bearings lying around the lab and I wondered how you could make music with them. I made the video and put it on YouTube initially as a way to show friends and family back home in England what I was up to. I was surprised that so many people started viewing it.”

Instead of patenting and marketing it, he has released it as “open source”, so anyone can make one. Peter has also written a “make your own” step-by-step guide for the American magazine “MAKE”.