Atomic

Performance Artist Tim Kaiser Thumpa Thumpa Thumpa

Percussion

The BataTremor is a commission piece for Gustavo in Brazil- part of his harsh noise arsenal. You wear it like a guitar, but play it more like a drum.

I chopped the PeacePad Drum off of a toy keyboard. The samples aren't too bad actually. Very portable techno sounds! At Pogo Studios.

The Galaxie

The Galaxie is the latest version of my Triggerrig drum brains. Three individual trigger inputs (each with six different voices) that generate various gongs and crashes and chimes.

These are some of the triggers I use.

The Galaxie

Front View of the Galaxie case.

TankPodDrum

The TankPodDrum (or was it PodTankDrum) is made out of an aluminum steam pressure tank with lots of various lengths of things bolted to it. Dozens of different tones can be produced with the right set of mallets. Sounds way fantastic through reverb. Somewhere on the secondary market...

The Box Piano is a straightforward tine-percussion instrument. You can play it with your fingers like a kalimba or use mallets. Owned by Mark in Champaign.

The JuJuBe (Jeu-Jeu-Bay) is named after the Crown-of-Thorns plant. Originally it was the base to a candle holder. I pluck the tines with my thumb or use a small damper mallet to play it.

TankPodDrum#3

The 3rd version of the TankPodDrum. This is the one I use in my own shows. Someone told be that it looks like the tank from an espresso machine....

Bungee Drums

The Bungee Drums are made from concrete post forms. I cut a piece of plywood to make a plug for the bottom end and laminated rubber and piezos inside. Bounce in off the floor from the bungee and it makes a great acoustic sound as well. I put an overhead garage door spring in one and it nearly took my arm off at one bounce! This is a pic from a live performance of "Knowing the Name of Things."

Pico Piano

The Pico Piano is a couple of music box mechanisms and the tines from two other music boxes all assembled into a metal box with a pick-up. Wind the two side units up and let it go! Now in Ultronia Underwing's arsenal.

ToneBox

The ToneBox is a basic beat box with different umbilical attachments (push buttons or trigger pads). Owned by a hiphop dude in Chicago.

The ShoeBox Kalimba is built out of an old shoeshine box. The tines are from an umbrella. Owned by Mark in Champaign.

Bonkulator

The Bonkulator is a circuit-bent toddler electronic drum. The ride cymbal sounds like alien sonar. Living in Kansas.

This is a vintage Multivox Rhythm Ace drum machine that I circuit bent. I remoted some of the trim pots for the individual voices and changed the values. Also sounds good through a ring modulator.

TankPodDrum#2

This is the 2nd verson of the TankPodDrum- a commission for Mr. Leung in HongKong. Features different elements bolted to it- including a miniature spring-suspension gong and some kind of tail fin piece off of a late 50's Mercury. This one mounts on a mic stand and also has dozens of percussion/tone variables.

Misc. Chimes

This is a portion of my "chime" collection.

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	This is one of a few different Strap Drum sets I have built over the years. Piezo transducers are laminated in neoprene and sandwiched inside a rubber cog from a snowmobile drive-track I made this particular set with a hinge to fold in half for travel- I used this in a performance in Sweden.Works with most drum brain trig inputs.
I call this the Crank Box. Two "musical" hand crank toys (similar to a jack-in-the-box mechanism) are bolted to a resonating box with a pick-up inside. Creates a kind of goofy random plink tone.	The Automatic Cacophonizer is similar to the Pico Piano in that I used old music box mechanisms bolted to a metal resonating box with a pick-up element. The big difference is that it contains six different escapements- this thing is really raucous when you wind all six up and let it go!

The Umbilical Drum is a lobotomized Roland 626 Rhythm Composer with a fried memory segment. Since it couldn't be programmed to do patterns anymore, I turned it into a tap only device. The triggers are doorbell buttons. Now living at Pogo Studios.

Bass Kalimba

The Bass Kalimba is an over-sized thumb piano. Yes, those are paint sticks. The enclosure is an old dresser drawer. I put guitar electronics in it and it has a very pleasant, mellow tone. Easily tuned by sliding the keys up or down the bridge. Can be played by hand or with felt mallets.