For a first series of prototypes, the concept work has been focused on drum venting – which is a topic that leads still to intense questions in the drum building community.
From no air vent to rare “ported” drums, to many vents or huge cuts in the shells presenting many shapes, all having their influence on the sound, this subject has triggered some creativity.
The very idea of venting a drum is often answered by “this is done to allow the membrane to vibrate more freely, not being impeded by air compression inside the shell” – this leads in fact to a very complex subject of “Fluid/Structure interaction” to which the answer is most of the time provided in the “non acoustic” domain.
More in the Physics involved page.
Some of our prototypes :
