How often do you find yourself drumming on a tabletop or other piece of furniture when the mood strikes you? Maybe it’s a guy thing but ever since my teen years I would drum along some good music on any bit of furniture or cardboard box that would sound good.
If only it would sound like a real drum!
Fret no more: from the famous house of KORG becomes a diminutive egg-shaped electronic drum kit which will literally allow you to drum on anything that you can clip the leads onto, hence the very appropriate name ClipHit.
Let’s have some fun and see how good it is.
But first up: what bit of magic is hiding in this ostrich egg?
Yes, it looks like a speaker because it is one but it also contains a fair bit of electronics to accommodate the sensor leads and various other inputs and outputs.
It comes with three clips, which contain the sensors that clip onto any surface that you fancy.
Plus the unit itself can be used as a “sensored” surface by striking it with your hand.
A couple of dials will allow you to provide just the right sound effects while choosing from nearly a dozen different kits. There is even a physical foot switch to control kick sounds and you can choose to add one more for control of hi hat open/close.
Now obviously these are just switches and it doesn’t matter whether you hit them hard or soft, the effect is the same.
But you can hit the surfaces loud or soft and it will translate into a loud or soft effect from the speaker or better yet: from your headphones or stereo. All inputs have individual volume dials.
So basically you’ve got a high-tech drum kit here which allows you to practice at home or anywhere else, even with real drum sticks. It’s amazing how you can transform just about any surface into a snare skin, hi hat or cymbal.
More than that the ClipHit’s EFX sounds even includes handclapping and animal noises! I get the handclapping but a barking dog sound drives my Labrador insane!
First Practice
I’m not much of a drummer, not even a pretend one but I have a reasonable sense of rhythm.
One of my favourite pieces of classical music is Bolero by Maurice Ravel which features a snare drum which starts this piece with gradually every instrument in the orchestra joining in and leading to a huge crescendo. I went on Spotify, selected a nice version of the Bolero, cranked it up loud and plugged the ClipHit into my stereo .
Then I went on drumming along and embellishing the snare drum solo with my fingers.
I had a blast! I felt I was part of the orchestra…
And that’s the idea behind the ClipHit: just to have fun for budding drummers or even to practice something without waking up the neighbourhood in the middle of the night.
Conclusion
You don’t even have to pony up a couple of hundred bucks to have some great fun with the KORG ClipHit. Street price is less than $180. It’s a serious piece of kit despite the low price tag and it is not something that is likely to reside in the bottom drawer somewhere six weeks after Christmas.
It’s a must have for fidgety fingers or for budding drummers. It is easily enjoyed with your best mates without the whole neighbourhood having to listen in. That’s why there’s also a battery mode: take it to a BBQ on the beach!
We received the KORG ClipHit courtesy of CMI Music & Audio, probably the best distributor you can go to for professional musical equipment.
Currently we have the KORG ClipHit with one of our mates who used to be a drummer in a band. He has promised us to make a short clip to see what the ClipHit can sound like when someone knows what he’s doing!
We’ll update this article with his composition as soon as we can.
