# Does the "drum transcriber" in the Drumline movie exist?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-drum-transcriber-in-the-drumline-movie-exist/144093>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 20, 2002, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-drum-transcriber-in-the-drumline-movie-exist/144093 "2002-12-20T19:54:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-drum-transcriber-in-the-drumline-movie-exist/144093/1 "2002-12-20T19:54:20Z")

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No spoilers here.

In this movie, they have a scene where someone in the band is playing a snare drum that has a little device attached to the rim and touching the drumhead. It’s wired over to a computer, and they show it automatically recording the live drumming as sheet music. This is taking place in a college-level rehearsal space.

So, does this thing actually exist or was it just a fabrication for story-telling purposes?

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**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-drum-transcriber-in-the-drumline-movie-exist/144093/2 "2002-12-20T21:30:12Z")

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It’s not unreasonable. There’s software for home PCs which can transcribe sheet music from any number of sources via a microphone, though a person just humming into the mic is said to work best. Not much of a leap from there to transcribing drum beats.

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**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-drum-transcriber-in-the-drumline-movie-exist/144093/3 "2002-12-21T02:25:35Z")

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Would have been damn-all useful to me about 20 years ago.

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**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-drum-transcriber-in-the-drumline-movie-exist/144093/4 "2002-12-21T17:24:36Z")

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After further research, I did find these [Roland PD-120 V-Pads](http://www.roland.co.jp/worldwide/products/MI/electronic_drum_systems/PD-120_100.html), which output MIDI (I think). They don’t make any noise when they play though, so maybe that was a movie fabrication.