Lieutenant Major Scott Carpenter (USN) wished "Godspeed" to friend and colleague Lieutenant Colonel John Glenn (USMC) as Friendship 7 launched from Cape Canaveral on February 20, 1962. It was the first U.S. manned orbital mission flight. Ever since, "Godspeed" has been the salutation to astronauts on the launch pad. And so today we wish Godspeed to our fellow Mandala Drum player, Captain Christopher Ferguson (USN), and his crew. Captain Ferguson will command the space shuttle Endeavour mission STS-126 targeted for launch on November 14, 2008.

Endeavour will carry a reusable logistics module that will hold supplies and equipment essential to sustain a crew of six on the International Space Station, including additional crew quarters, a regenerative life support system and a Resistive Exercise Device (RED). In Ferguson's words, "It's moving day." The module is in essence a new kitchen, bathroom and bunk room so that the International Space Station can support a larger crew. We here on earth can only speculate as to whether the new digs will have a recreation room complete with a Mandala setup. It's possible!

Captain Ferguson is the drummer for the all astronaut rock band, Max Q. In recent correspondence with Captain Ferguson, he had great things to say about his Mandala and added that his son is learning to play the drums using it. We'll do our best to get everybody a sound clip and a playing schedule for Max Q sometime after the Captain's return. Until then let's ALL focus on pushing the boundaries of what is possible.

Godspeed, Endeavour STS-126

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Here's a great email we got from Pat yesterday. Read on to learn what he is up to!...

Vince,

Exciting times for me and my Mandala - I have three gigs, on three continents, improvising with three different outfits, so it's a perfect time to go nuts with your drums!

First up: A week in Sweden with the IB Expo. It's a great experience. The Swedish band "Isilders Bane" imports guests and we spend about a week learning each others' tunes, then play a couple shows in the local Arts Building. It's a wonderful chance to improvise and experiment with great players. IB regularly works with two great drummers, Kjell Severinsson and Klas Assarsson, so I am really free to chase color more than beat.

Here's this year's guest list:

Mick Karn (from Japan, Polytown, Rain Tree Crow, wow!)

Pamelia Kurstin (Pamelia is a killer Theremin player and her and I have a new duet CD called "Tunisia" (link)

Jan Schaffer (Swedish session guitarist, living legend in his country, played with ABBA, Bob Marley and Zappa briefly to name a few)

Valgeir Sigurdsson (Icelandic producer who worked with Bjšrk, Kimmo & The Kronos Quartet, etc.)

Luca Calabrese (wonderful Italian trumpet player that I have had the pleasure to work with before)

Christian Saggese (Nostradamos of classical guitar)

Isilders Bane (link)

Then I go to Mexico to do two shows with TU, my duet with Trey Gunn. I expect lots of room for Mandala since we will be improvising in a huge outdoor space and as always we invite other duos to join us for some spontaneous composition.

Then off to Japan for a week with Terry Bozzio. Tony Levin joins us for all the shows and Alan Holdsworth will join us for the last three. I'm having fun building Mandala patches since these are total improv shows. (link)

...May the bootlegs be full of the Mandala!

p@

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Chances are good that even if you have never heard of the Mandala Drum, you have heard it played. The Mandala's presence across the media production industries is so vast that film composers, recording engineers, game developers, sound designers and other content creators are changing the world with it. The position sensor in the Mandala Drum has empowered the imaginations and creativity of artists in every media at every level.

It is well documented on our site mandaladrum.com that the Mandala was invented by Vince De Franco for Danny Carey of the rock band TOOL. Carey needed an electronic drum pad that could be durable and accurate in live and studio settings. It would have to translate each strike of his sticks into high definition sound and effects within milliseconds. For more than six years now Carey has incorporated 7 Mandala Drums into his kit on stage and in the studio. The Mandala played prominently in many songs on TOOL's recent multi platinum CD 10,000 Days, and Mandalas performed flawlessly on the road during TOOL's two year world tour to promote 10,000 Days.

Synesthesia Corporation is lucky to have another important endorsee in friend Ryeland Allison. Allison is a composer at Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions. "My musical roots are in percussion. Before the Mandala I needed more than the limited resolution electronic drums were offering, and when it came to drum programming, keyboards could only take me so far. The Mandala represents a progressive instrument that has broadened my creative reach," says Allison. Allison's music credits include such mega hits as The Dark Knight, Iron Man and Madagascar to name only a few. Even Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard jumped on the Mandala bandwagon performing with the Mandala on stage at the Dark Knight movie premiere in New York. Here's a great picture from that event. See more in our Forward Thinking section to the right.

Those are just a couple of examples of the pros at work. What about you? You are the content creator of your world. Are you creating? The latest think tank research on content creators holds that 62% of content viewed online is created by someone the viewer knows. More and more videos are constantly showing up on sites like YouTube and MySpace. We call the Mandala the "smartest thing you'll ever hit with a stick" but its turning out that the smartest thing about Mandalas is the people who use them. In the coming days and weeks we will tell you about where else you can hear the Mandala and who is playing it. For now think about how the Mandala can change your life and the way you create.

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It is becoming clear to us here at Synesthesia that Mandala owners are a unique segment of people made up of early adopters and innovators. All of you together are leading the way. You are pioneers exploring the frontiers of music and technology and our hats are off to you. We're all in this together and your confidence is helping blaze the trail. Here are some things we are learning along the way...

First thing to mention is that Mandala technology has not changed since Danny Carey started using the original prototype seven (yes, seven!) years ago. The patented position-sensitive membrane switch is simply a musical controller, as it was always meant to be. It is in the form of a drum pad made up of 128 circular zones. The closest thing available to it on a similar electronic drum is just 3 zones. Now, in order to make use of any musical controller it must be connected to a sound source. Other electronic drum companies actually create their own 'brain' as this sound source. We ourselves used to take that very approach, however, now we have decided that the home computer is finally up to the task of being a competent drum 'brain'. Making this jump to home computer as electronic drum 'brain' is the source of the main issues I would like to discuss.

There are two things to have a handle on when it comes to operating a Mandala, or any computer input peripheral for that matter. One is its connection to the computer, and the other is the output of the system it interacts with. In the case of the Mandala, on one hand there is the pad's USB connection to the computer, and on the other hand the computer's capability to sufficiently output sound. Regarding the pad's connection to the computer, just like plugging a little 24 key musical keyboard or a digital camera into a USB port, first the connection must be established and then it must be verified. The Mandala is 'class compliant' which means Windows and OSX have built-in drivers that establish a connection with the Mandala by simply plugging it in. Looking in the Device Manager in Windows or in Audio MIDI Setup in OSX will then provide verification the connection has been made. Sounds easy, right? Well, the very few problems users have encountered in this department have been a result of their OS being corrupt because of something they'd done in the past or because they have forced XP onto a machine made for Vista. Keeping the home turf clean will make for a smooth connection with peripherals. This issue could also confuse someone if their system sees the Mandala but software such as the Virtual Brain does not list the Mandala as an input device. This would be a sign of the same corruption mentioned above. Restoring the OS to the way it belongs can fix the problem.

Now onto the realm of computer sound output. Everyone has a unique home computer configuration. Think of the possibilities...different manufacturers, operating systems, processors, peripherals, RAM, speed, software, etc. The sky's the limit. Pro audio software needs a pathway out of the computer for the sound it generates. That sound essentially originates in the pro audio software then goes through a software audio driver for the computer's built-in audio interface and then out its sound port to the speakers. A Macintosh out-of-the box provides a wide pipeline for that sound from the software to the speakers. A PC provides a wide pipeline too if one installs the free software audio driver called ASIO4ALL available at http://asio4all.com (unfortunately and for some odd reason the drivers included with Windows, called DirectSound and MME, are slow and not very powerful). Regarding speed, when a stick hits the Mandala the pad reports where and how hard it's been hit in less than one half of one thousandth of a second! After that the computer takes over and churns out sound through its audio pathway. On both platforms, Mac and PC, sound latency should be unnoticeable if the systems are configured correctly.

If users technically want an even smaller latency or a more professional audio port from their computer besides the little headphone jack they always have the option of purchasing a 3rd-party professional audio interface which will take over the tasks of their computer's built-in audio capabilities. These units connect through USB, firewire or internal slots and can cost as little as $79 or as much as $1000. They each come with their own special software audio driver and they all work very well, but they should not be necessary for the Mandala. Several problems users have dealt with in this department are when they are using a 3rd-party audio interface which they haven't configured properly and it causes software to crash. Please note there is much data flowing quickly between audio software and an audio interface. Appropriate settings in software and hardware driver windows as well as properly routed physical connections are essential in creating a stable environment. A breakdown in communication along those pathways can bring a computer to its knees. Users should have a good understanding of these points if they are using a 3rd-party professional audio interface and find themselves troubleshooting their Mandala's hardware or software operation.

The issues I've discussed affect the musical instrument industry as a whole. We are talking about controllers and pro audio software capabilities as they relate to operating platforms. Sales of music production software are growing at an unprecedented rate. The writing is on the wall. The future is increasingly powerful audio software for more powerful computers being played by more powerful controllers. Almost every question we answer is a derivative of one of the issues discussed above. Most importantly, as with anything new and mind expanding the further you dive in the more you will become enabled and realize infinite possibilities. You're taking your first step into a larger world!

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Welcome to the official Synesthesia blog. In the coming weeks Vince and Luke will fill you in on the challenges that face Synesthesia in the worlds of technology, the musical instrument market and the music industry. The goal of this blog is to introduce ourselves and our company in an effort to build a brand with our customers. Ultimately building a brand requires customer loyalty and it is our goal to earn that loyalty. We will do so by being open and honest with you about the decisions we make and the reasons we make them.

In this section we will discuss our company vision and goals one subject at a time. One week we will present the genesis for the Mandala drum technology. Sit in on the conversation between Danny Carey and Vince as they first conceived of the position sensitive drum. The following week we may tell you about the decision to go USB, or why we chose purple for version 2.0.

In the coming weeks we will post this blog on our site www.mandaladrum.com along with a news feed from sites to which we often refer to gather information on music, entertainment, science and business. It is the most dynamic aspect of this page, updating every day with new stories you can read further into.

Also, we will provide stories that are of special interest to us at Synesthesia. Periodically we will identify subjects we find especially forward thinking or thought provoking.

Overall, the design of our new page will be in keeping with our stated goal, to keep you coming back. Perhaps you will buy your third Mandala, but at least you will be reminded of the value of having your first one. Over time you will come to understand how we think and how we operate. In the end this page is not about us, it is about our relationship with everyone who is supporting us along the way.

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