The instrument  was built in a collaboration between luthier Pete Schmid of the Guitar Shoppe and sound designer Richard Wixner of Another Plane Records. Pete designed and constructed the instrument and Richard researched the initial functioning and developed the electronics.

The DRI  functions as follows; vibrating strings are sensed by a magnetic guitar pick up. It is connected to a power amplifier in the far resonator globe and from there to a speaker which faces the hollow metallic neck. The speaker is capable of driving the  system into sustained acoustic feedback.  A specially developed bridge causes the two lowest strings to rasp against it in a fashion similar to the bridges used on some Indian string instruments.

The system can be adjusted to generate long feedback drones which produce slowly evolving ethereal timbres. The feedback tones can be modified by adjusting the rasping bridge position or the amplifier gain and polarity. The natural physics of simple processes combine to produce complex and evolving audio textures. The instrument can also be played using a slide in a manner similar to a steel guitar.

A description of the DRI CD reads; The haunting drones of the Driven Resonator Instrument merge in complex patterns that mystify the senses.  A symphony of feedback and metallic resonances. Granular synthesis is used to further process the acoustic vibrations.