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Trackpad drumming

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Original poster
I just got a really good idea for some cool garageband plugin for all us notebook user out there, well basically i was just doing some work on my machine then i tapped my trackpad and it made that silly frog sounds to indicate an error, me being in a excitable just start randomly tapping it for fun to make some noise 😛

then it thought what is different sections of the trackpad made different noises when you tapped it, you could have a mini drum trackpad drumkit the idea is just a novelty nothing to be taking seriously or used my pros but i think it would be a really fun thing to be able to do. you know sitting that tapping all over your tackpad like a crazy nerd.

anyway, does anything like this exist ? is it possible? is the idea any good?

let me know.
 
Yeah, that sounds like it could be cool. So the trackpad senses where you are tapping, and that corresponds to a drum sound? Hard to implement maybe?
 
i think it would be cooler for tap tempo, drumming on trackpad i think would wear its sensor out reall fast
 
bobx2001 said:
anyway, does anything like this exist ? is it possible? is the idea any good?
Click to expand...
No, yes, and relatively.

I'm 99% sure nobody's done this yet, but based on how Sidetrack works, were you to write a custom trackpad driver you could definitely do something like this. It wouldn't be sensitive to how hard you hit the trackpad--just "on" or "off"--and I don't imagine there's much of a market for it, but you never know--I've see far more useless apps than that.
 
joshwest said:
i think it would be cooler for tap tempo, drumming on trackpad i think would wear its sensor out reall fast
Click to expand...

how weak can our trackpads be ? i thought they are meant to be able to cope with a bit of tapping.

Makosuke said:
No, yes, and relatively.

I'm 99% sure nobody's done this yet, but based on how Sidetrack works, were you to write a custom trackpad driver you could definitely do something like this. It wouldn't be sensitive to how hard you hit the trackpad--just "on" or "off"--and I don't imagine there's much of a market for it, but you never know--I've see far more useless apps than that.
Click to expand...

i couldn't write a trackpad driver, unless someone is wiling to give me lesson. I know it is not really a marketable product i was just thinking of some plugin that people could use for a bit of fun. i am sure it would be popular if it i was free cause i know very well that i wouldnt pay for something like it.
 
I don't think it would wear out the trackpad- you wouldn't be drumming it like a real drum. I think it's a really cool idea though
 
tibbon said:
Go 'head and drum for a few years to give that Applecare some use!
Click to expand...

i dont see how tapping your trackpad could break it, they are designed to be tapped for clicking and if that could break them then there is a serious design issues.
 
Agreed, would buy this in a second

The newest Macbook multi touch trackpad would be even better for this application. I would use the Battery 3 drumming application or something like Logic to build this... Perhaps Battery or Logic could implement this feature. Seeing as Logic is from Apple we'd probably see it there first.
 
you can do that on the keyboard already
its kinda useless without the velocity sensitivity.
also fader control with trackpad would be nice (direct) but its too clunky anyway 🙂
 
alot of music instruments and digital devices have similar functions and features...i remember the Korg Kaoss Pad had a durable touch/tracking pad.

i dont think it would be that hard to map a matrix to the trackpad for some small sampling applications or with logic....it could definitely be expandable and i think it would be very cool.

*esp if there were control settings when you entered that specific app; like logic, it iwll turn the trackpad into the sampling device and control parameters that way.
 
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