Aerodrums press pitch

There’s no denying it. Drums are large, loud and expensive. But we love them! Acoustic drums are great and so are electronic kits. There are countless set ups and finishes to choose from, the possibilities are endless. There are always new bells and whistles (literally!) to add to your kit.

The drummer’s sacrifice

You sacrifice a lot to be a drummer, and chances are people around you sacrifice too. Not only do you sacrifice the amount of time it takes to learn to play the drums, but also you sacrifice a lot of money to invest in a good kit with hardware, cymbals and pedals. Then you sacrifice the space you need to house your kit – whether it’s in your home, or in a rehearsal space. The people around you also make sacrifices regarding noise intrusions so you can continue to play. Every drummer has endured countless hours of negotiating, soundproofing, compromising and making decisions on everything from where you live, to what car you drive all in an effort to keep playing the drums.

The perfect solution to all the “What ifs?”

• What if you’re just starting out and aren’t sure if you want to make the investment in a full acoustic or electronic drum kit?
• What if you just don’t have the extra money to have a rehearsal space to practice in and you want to keep your chops up?
• What if you live somewhere that makes transporting drums to shows and rehearsals costly and difficult?
• What if you just can’t practice because the noise disturbs your friends, family or neighbors?

No more compromises

Imagine a life without all of these needless compromises? Wouldn’t it be awesome to just throw your drums into your backpack and head off to a gig? Or, how would it be to practice any time of the day or night without worrying that you are inconveniencing or upsetting someone? How would you like to have at least 8 square feet more space in your home or apartment? How much time and money would you save if you didn’t have to drive to a rehearsal space? How would you like to be the last one to arrive at a gig, and the first one off stage? Finally! The drummer would get to enjoy a cold beer in the dressing room!

The Best Drum Set You’ve Never Seen

Aerodrums are a patented, revolutionary development in tools for drummers. Conceived by hobby drummer and videogame developer Richard Lee and computer science researcher Yann Morvan, Aerodrums utilizes the same motion tracking technology used in Hollywood to allow you to literally drum on air. Aerodrums merges the worlds of drumming and technology to create a virtual drum kit that fits in your backpack, is virtually silent, and yet delivers a responsive, musically expressive experience that is nothing short of mind-blowing.

What do you need to use Aerodrums?

The Aerodrums sticks with reflective tips, the elastic reflectors for your feet and a high speed motion tracking camera which are all included in the Aerodrums box. You also need a computer that runs Windows Vista or newer, or Mac OS X 10.6 or newer. Then let the drumming begin!

What you don’t need to use Aerodrums?

• Soundproofing
• Cymbals
• Pedals
• Hardware
• Drum cases
• Drum keys
• Lots of extra space
• Tolerant neighbors and family
• A big car
• A drum tech
• A drum set

Aerodrums Technology

Aerodrums is based on motion capture technology. A bright light illuminates retro-reflective markers on your sticks and feet and a high speed camera tracks the motion of these markers and determines when sounds should be triggered in response to their movement.

Aerodrums comes with a selection of preset kits that use the Aerodrums audio samples but you are free to make your own kits or use your own samples. You can configure which pieces your kit contains and position each piece by hitting the air at the desired location.

The Aerodrums Experience

A lot of people want to know what it “feels” like to play Aerodrums.

Aerodrums can understand the kind of air-drumming non drummers do, it’s that intuitive. Drummers can play Aerodrums with the same finesse and speed they can on a drum kit. Some hand techniques are better suited to effective air-drumming than others. For example, letting the butt of the stick collide with the palm of your hand will provide a sensation similar to hitting a physical surface.

Aerodrums can measure the speed of your sticks/feet to a high degree of accuracy allowing for soft ghost notes to heavily accented notes. The full range of MIDI note velocities and continuous controller data is utilized. In the case of the included samples, 16 levels of openness are provided for the hi-hat with up to 58 different samples for each degree of openness and for each hand.

Unlike electronic drums, Aerodrums is able to tell which hand you are hitting with and will trigger different samples for each hand.

In short, does it work? The answer is, “Yes!” Aerodrums has been #1 seller in Amazon.com’s Drum Gear category in both the U.K. and the U.S. Read our incredible verified user reviews!

Helpful Hints for reviewers

• Depending on your surroundings, you’ll want to experiment a little with the best placement for you. Just like you have to adjust a kit, you’ll have to adjust Aerodrums for maximum awesomeness.
• Place the laptop/computer screen on a stool or chair, slightly to your left (if right handed) and just close enough to you that it doesn’t hide your foot markers from the camera (and that you don’t hit it by mistake). Secure the camera’s cable to the table so you can move the laptop around without moving the camera/lamp for best placement.
• The room doesn’t have to be dark to play Aerodrums. You only need to make sure there aren’t bright things in view of the camera, like lit lamps or daytime sky.
• Yes, there is a bright light that helps Aerodrums track your hand/foot motion. That is the technology that makes Aerodrums work so well and be so responsive! A large majority of people will find adjusting the the room lighting and the placement of the computer screen sufficient. Other can wear sunglasses after dark! Yes, we’re giving you permission to look cool while playing Aerodrums, paper sunglasses included…