Guest Lecture: Development of expressive electronic percussion instruments / Sebastian Merchel
2026-01-28 16:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Vienna) | Tabakfabrik Linz, Tangible Music Lab und Online, Peter-Behrens-Platz 8-9, Linz, 4020, Österreich
Dr. Sebastian Merchel, born in 1980, is a researcher at the Chair of Acoustics and Haptics at TU Dresden. He studied electrical engineering and acoustics at TU Dresden and Aalborg University in Denmark. He wrote his doctoral thesis on “Auditory-Tactile Music Perception.” His main areas of interest are multimodal perception and spatial audio. He also works intensively with analog and digital musical instruments and the transfer of scientific knowledge into practical applications.
Guest Lecture: Development of expressive electronic percussion instruments
Compared to the long history of musical instruments, electronic instruments are still newcomers. Unfortunately, their musical expressiveness is sometimes very limited, as they allow for little sound variation. This lecture provides insights into the development of two expressive electronic percussion instruments: the DRUMBEAM and the SICK KICK. These are MIDI controllers that use touch sensors to detect not only a strike, but also its exact position, as well as multiple simultaneous touches and their force distribution. This creates new, expressive interaction possibilities for sound manipulation.
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