Beads extended actuated digital shaker

While there are a great variety of digital musical interfaces available to the working musician, few offer the level of immediate, nuanced and instinctive interaction that one finds in an acoustic shaker. bEADS is a prototype of a digital musical instrument that utilises the gestural vocabulary associated with shaken idiophones and expands on the techniques and sonic possibilities associated with them. By using a bespoke physically informed synthesis engine, in conjunction with accelerometer and pressure sensor data, an actuated handheld instrument has been built that allows for quickly switching between widely differing percussive sound textures. The prototype has been evaluated by three experts with different levels of involvement in professional music making.