Alternative Cajon design ideas for DMI

David Creasey has pointed out that perhaps the Cajon in its well known "box that you sit on" form is slightly awkward to play. I think that this is perhaps true especially considering that players will typically lean back and balance on the instrument in order to better reach the playing surface, which still requires bending down some what. This also certainly confirms some worries I had regarding the placement of any transducers I should choose to include, which I would likely place on the front playing surface (the really any of the surfaces would be about as awkward). The problem is I think that reaching down in order to strike an area of the tapa is OK but reaching down to perform a gesture on say, a linear position sensor, would be much more awkward especially if one was trying to achieve really fine control. Of course an important advantage often cited regarding DMIs is that we are not necessarily obligated to certain designs when constructing the instrument. Specifically, the seperation of control interface and sound production mechanism inherent in DMIs means that the sound production mechanism does not dictate the physical properties of the controller. For example an acoustic stringed instrument needs to be of a specific length in order to hold strings of the correct length to achieve their desired pitch (more correctly it is a balance between string length, thickness and tension). With DMIs there are no such obligations, we can produce any sound from any thing. (although actually I'm beginning to think we are not necessarily completely free of obligation since for example inclusion of one or several loudspeakers immediately requires an object of a certain size, the same for housing internal electronics and for providing transducers of a certain shape, length, size. It seems to me that obligations are perhaps reintroduced when thinking about designing GOOD or EFFECTIVE or EXPRESSIVE DMIs given the results of research. That's another argument for another post though.)

Keeping with the original inspiration for a Cajon-inspired controller (easy construction, loudspeaker placement etc) David has suggested I might try looking into other types of drum with the same family. Specifically the Cajinto. From the same website however I have found a section called "Cajon Compact" under which are the Cajon Comparsa and the Cajonito. Both of these drums closely follow the design of the Cajon in that they are both boxes with a hole in them but they are much smaller and are shown held between the legs like a bongo. The Cajonito is the smallest of the two. I think I would opt for one of these two over the Cajinto since I like the way they encourage a lot of bodily contact with the instrument, which I think would really allow the vibrotactile feedback element to do its job well. I'm not sure which of the two I would choose however. The Comparsa is nice because there's plenty of room for all the electronics on the inside and plenty of room to play on the top but the Cajonito, with its smaller size, is perhaps comfier to hold and easier to play.

All of these instruments are listed on the percussion website shlagwerk.com. This is a brilliant website for my needs since it has an extensive selection of instruments from the Cajon family, it has video demonstrations of all of them and it gives their dimensions which is one less concern when it comes it building!

There are two other options which come from the percussion company Meinl. The first is the Bongo Cajon. This is a smaller rectangular Cajon designed to be played either between the legs or on the lap. The bottom side is left open for sound output and interestingly the inside of the drum is split into two sections with a piece of wood, one being bigger than the other. This allows the player to get a low and a high sound out of the tapa. I think this could be quite a nice playing style to emulate in my DMI by some one measuring playing position from left to right. This could not only affect pitch but also some aspects of timbre which would give a nice one-to-many mapping associated with the best DMIs. Would also be interesting to think about the y-axis position.

The second option from Meinl is the Palito. This instrument seems similar to the Schlagwerk Cajonito, though seems to give a different sound. Also the Cajonito seems to be larger. I think I would probably opt for one of the above Schlagwerk designs above the Palito since I need to think about practical space considerations regarding the internal electronics, particularly the loudspeaker (not to mention amplifier and power supply which are another worry all together).

Listed below are some basic resources i've found so far:

This is a project page made by a guy who built his own approximation of a Bongo Cajon. There's some basic instructions along with construction pictures and a demonstration video. I don't really like the finished article. It seems rather big and awkward to play. Also the method of producing two seperate tones from the drum does not seem as effective as the more usual technique mentioned above.
Demonstration video of the Meinl Bongo Cajon
A second very similar demonstration of the same instrument by the same guy
Demonstration video of the Meinl Palito