Synesthesia Mandala Drums (original) (raw)

The Synesthesia Mandala Drum is a patented electronic drum pad developed by and drummer Danny Carey from Tool. It has 128 strike position detection rings from its center to its edge, along with 127 levels of velocity sensitivity. In its current iteration, mk2.9, both values are transmitted via USB MIDI to a computer, where they can be interpreted by any MIDI software. The Mandala also includes its own "Virtual Brain" software. The current USB/software system replaces a hardware brain that the version 1.0 Mandala system had employed. The pad can be struck with drum sticks or fingers and hands.