Electronic Dhol
A sensor-augmented instrument for musical interaction
An ongoing project exploring how acoustic performance gestures on a traditional dhol can control digital musical processes while preserving the instrument’s physical playing practice.
The musical motivation
An augmented instrument should offer expressive possibilities that make sense in the hands of a performer. This project investigates sensing and digital sound control in the context of the dhol, keeping the acoustic instrument and its gestures central to the design.
System direction
The hardware design centers on a Teensy 4.1, with infrared sensing, motion sensing, an internal microphone, switches, LEDs, and potentiometers. These inputs are intended to turn aspects of physical performance into musical control signals.
The software direction includes ChucK and Ableton Live, with ChAI experiments and audio features such as RMS, spectral centroid, spectral flux, and spectral rolloff. These describe the development direction, rather than a claim that all components have been integrated and tested.
Current development
As of October 2026, development is resuming. While away from the physical instrument at CMU, the focus is software development using captured sensor and audio data. The next hardware phase is planned for December: integration, calibration, testing, and demonstration recording.
The research is associated with the CalArts and KarmetiK ecosystem. Specific role titles and collaborator credits will be added after confirmation.
What needs to be demonstrated
The next stage is to document the prototype’s tested sensor responses, establish useful gesture-to-sound mappings, and evaluate the instrument through actual playing. Latency, robustness, calibration, and expressive control are questions for measurement, rather than established results.