Slaperoo Percussion, creators of the Slaperoo Electric Tuned Percussion Instrument, released this video demo of the Electric Spring Doorstop.
The Electric Spring Doorstop is built around a standard spring doorstop, modified with a custom SlapStick S-100 pickup. At this point, it’s an experiement, but Slaperoo says that they may turn it into a product, if there’s a demand.
Here’s another video demo:
Think there’s a place for an electric percussion instrument like this? Leave a comment and let us know what you think!
Hand sized didgeridoo? I would buy it!
We have several doorstop springs mounted to a board for our toddler. he loves noise/sound. I would buy one for him in a heartbeat. He is a budding percussionist.
Very beatiful.
Probably, with the same technology, we can build a semi-stage piano; something of similar a
fender rhodes piano.
On the demo sounds like didgeridoo true… But on the vid it doesnt…
Cue the Door-Step phase!
Perk up your next DJ set by affixing one of these to each nipple. Voila, your tits automagically become musical instruments.
Ouch – sounds painful!
Don’t those door stop springs have a giant screw on the end that attaches to the wall?
Is the body (the black part) the same size as a standard mic stand clip? If would be great if it could somehow be mounted to a stand so you can operate it with one hand, and then use it as an effects processor while playing a synth/keyboard with the other hand. For example, have the vibration of the doorstop modulate an effect on the keyboard instrument you are playing. (distortion, chorus, envelope, etc).
Or if you could somehow affect its pitch in real time so you could ‘play’ it. I wonder if you could you run it into a modulation sequence which steps the pitch, and just keep hitting it in time…
…Either way I guess I want one!
It sounds nothing like a didgeridoo.
There is real didge in the track though.
How did they do the racecar effect?
It’s nice but I wish they would launch a poly version with at least 2 doorstops/voice and a decent VCA.Now that I would buy !
Has it got a M ONE D ONE output for modular snysesizers?
not long ago i sampled the heck out of my doorstop.. some days i just get obsessed with a sound. then i put it in reason and kept stretching the sample playback rate until it sounded like peeling metal. was pretty amazing with reverb actually!
this product excited me!
This is awesome to see so much response to this experiment so fast! To answer some questions:
The pickup is just a coil with a magnetic core that sticks into the spring about 1/2-inch (cant see the magnet in the video).
The effects unit is the Digitech RP1000 guitar effects processor. The ‘Space’ effect is called ‘Undone’ in the unit. The Racecar effect is with a patch called ‘Whammy’.
At the end of the ‘Space Jam’, I fade in a composition I just wrote last week called ‘Rebound’. This song has no Doorstop in it. Didgeridoo/drums/SlapStick (Slaperoo)/synth.
-Andy Graham, CEO Slaperoo Percussion
Oh, and most importantly, The base (black part) of the unit needs to be firmly touching something solid to get the BOOOIIINGGGG sound. If you hold it in your hand only, your hand will absorb all the vibration and it’s quite boring.
Here’s another video of a rhythm created by slamming it on a hard surface. Played to a drum loop and using a metal rod too:
http://youtu.be/YBYEq_AR0xU
Put it in a Eurorack enclosure.
Now my cats can join the band (besides treading up and down the keys!) Everyone in the neighborhood can come to hate them at three in the morning, not just me. But, really, anyone who incessantly tapped on everything as a kid discovered that a suspended spring, such as one of those cheap curtain rods, would exactly recreate the “oh my gosh this is scary big’ sound of V’ger from Star Trek:The motion picture.
as someone who has heard of contact mics, and has a zoom h4n, this video is hilarious. you can make this and many more things yourself, for pretty damn cheap… or just sample them if you have high enough quality methods for your needs. just saying
who do I give my money to? 😉
It’s so dumb.
But it sounds so good.
I’m sure that if psychedelic bands found this stuff out in the 60s, they would have been kicking themselves for not having found it sooner!
Here’s Corey Glover and Doug Wimbish of Living Colour fooling around with the Electric Spring Doorstop during sound check. Sounds crazy through Doug’s massive pedal arrangement and Trace Elliot double stack: http://youtu.be/BOWk88y0k7E
f’shizzle
Upgrade it to a garage door spring and you’re in biznez..