from diy concept to stage ready instrument.
drumbeam started in dresden. limited by the fixed grids of drum pads and the size of edrum-kits, a new concept evolved. why not build a bar-shaped percussion controller and use it with what already exists in DAWs, hardware, modular, etc?
The first prototype was a strip of LEDs on a square tube of aluminum, a sensor glued to the top, lots of cables and a microcontroller tightly squeezed in that tube. it worked. it felt right and became the starting point of afk-audio.
three people.
one workshop.
afk-audio is a three-person audio-tech startup from Dresden, Germany. “afk” means “away from keyboard”. We build physical interfaces for the digital tools musicians already use.
Every drumbeam is assembled and tested by hand in our workshop. When you email support, you’re talking to one of us.
every drumbeam
built by us.
Final assembly, testing, and firmware flashing all happen in Dresden, by hand.
When you email support, you’re emailing the people who built your instrument. When firmware updates ship, they were tested on the same units we play ourselves.
three people. one instrument.
away from keyboard.
not away from what it made possible.
“afk” stands for away from keyboard. We don’t mean it as a rejection of digital music. We mean the opposite.
Software has unlocked creative possibilities that didn’t exist before: DAWs, sample libraries, plugin synths, modular software environments. All of it real, all of it useful. Our question was always: how do we interact with this in a more physical, immediate way? How do we play it instead of operating it?
drumbeam brings everything MIDI can do to your sticks. Never put them aside again.
add drumbeam
to your setup.
Free shipping on all drumbeam orders. Ships from Germany.
