Dancing to the Beat of a Different Drummer

Hyperallergic brings news about a new website that translates words into drum beats. Typedrummer, created by Kyle Stetz, features a basic, easy-to-use user interface that invites participants to type a word and to listen. What's the first word that you'll listen to? We plan to check out the sound of Shakespeare's sonnets. From Hyperallergic:

Have you ever wondered what your name, or the words “Anna Karenina,” would sound like as a sequence of beats? Finally, there’s a website to answer these burning questions: TypeDrummer, created by the Philadelphia-based developer Kyle Stetz, translates text into beats. (The name “LL Cool J” and “Dead Prez” do not disappoint.)

When users arrive at the TypeDrummer site, they’re prompted to enter words into the text box. “Each letter you enter is tied to a drum sample — 26 in total. The code runs through the letters one at a time at 120bpm, triggering each one in order and looping back around to the beginning when it reaches the end,” Stetz told Hyperallergic. The program also detects parentheses, which increase the tempo of the resultant beat.

Stetz said that he has “put a lot of time into thinking about how to represent music through text and code.” And, indeed, the project’s most interesting feature is that it links one medium of expression to another, translating tangible texts to the more intangible stuff of aural representation. [...]

Learn more at Hyperallergic.