First Gig with Aerodrums
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 6:37 pm
After a few weeks of practice and a couple of rehearsals with one of my bands, we played two sets yesterday using Aerodrums exclusively. That is, I did not bring any traps or congas. Worked great. A few people in the audience were quite perplexed watching me play. One musician in the audience (a bass player, actually) was poking everyone to her left, right, behind and in front of her and pointing at me and looking quite quizzical. Afterwards, many people approached me with questions. Interestingly, no one asked to try it!
After my initial nervousness, I found myself more relaxed and using lots less effort than I would with physical drums. At the end of the second set, I felt I could play on for hours.
The sound was great, there were no computer software or computer hardware problems. Wonderful fun!
A couple of minor performance issues I encountered:
In my initial setup, without the rest of the band there, wall sconce lighting behind me did not register in the Aerodrums setup, even when the sconce was turned up full.
During performance, our guitarist was seated pretty close to the camera/lights and said the lights were dazzling his eyes. I put a short piece of black electrical tape along the offending edge and he was happy. I placed the tape so it would only block the sideways light-splash. This did not affect my drumming until the lighting guy increased the sconce brightness. When the sconce was bright, my Aerodrums cymbals started sounding off randomly. I think what was happening was that the tape reduced the light reflected from the wall around the sconce, so it was now affecting Aerodrums. Once I realized what was happening, I just had the lighting guy turn back the sconce until it no longer registered on the Aerodrums screen, and then my drums responded fine again.
For side-splash of the light, something like what are called "barn doors" on video flood lights will be helpful. I might make something curved out of a thin piece of aluminum sheet metal and paint it black. Or maybe cut up a large black plastic funnel to wrap around the camera and light? That way, I can control the shading more carefully and allow the light cone its full width and height, while eliminating side-splash.
Or maybe there are lights available without so much side-splash? The light lost to the sides is of no use to Aerodrums anyway - only the light in front of the camera is needed.
Also, I don't want my sticks to get messed up, so I tavel with them in the original Aerodrums white box. But that is silly since they don't need to take up so much room. Something to protect the delicate reflective ball ends while in my backpack along with my laptop computer, cables and power supply will be helpful. I might make something from PVC caps and tube, slit down the center with a hinge on one side and a lock-clip - or maybe you have a 'stick-protector' idea already?
Richard - when you carry your 'Aerosticks' in your backpack, how do you protect them if the backpack gets squished?
Now that I'm more confident with performing, an on-stage YouTube video will be next....
After my initial nervousness, I found myself more relaxed and using lots less effort than I would with physical drums. At the end of the second set, I felt I could play on for hours.
The sound was great, there were no computer software or computer hardware problems. Wonderful fun!
A couple of minor performance issues I encountered:
In my initial setup, without the rest of the band there, wall sconce lighting behind me did not register in the Aerodrums setup, even when the sconce was turned up full.
During performance, our guitarist was seated pretty close to the camera/lights and said the lights were dazzling his eyes. I put a short piece of black electrical tape along the offending edge and he was happy. I placed the tape so it would only block the sideways light-splash. This did not affect my drumming until the lighting guy increased the sconce brightness. When the sconce was bright, my Aerodrums cymbals started sounding off randomly. I think what was happening was that the tape reduced the light reflected from the wall around the sconce, so it was now affecting Aerodrums. Once I realized what was happening, I just had the lighting guy turn back the sconce until it no longer registered on the Aerodrums screen, and then my drums responded fine again.
For side-splash of the light, something like what are called "barn doors" on video flood lights will be helpful. I might make something curved out of a thin piece of aluminum sheet metal and paint it black. Or maybe cut up a large black plastic funnel to wrap around the camera and light? That way, I can control the shading more carefully and allow the light cone its full width and height, while eliminating side-splash.
Or maybe there are lights available without so much side-splash? The light lost to the sides is of no use to Aerodrums anyway - only the light in front of the camera is needed.
Also, I don't want my sticks to get messed up, so I tavel with them in the original Aerodrums white box. But that is silly since they don't need to take up so much room. Something to protect the delicate reflective ball ends while in my backpack along with my laptop computer, cables and power supply will be helpful. I might make something from PVC caps and tube, slit down the center with a hinge on one side and a lock-clip - or maybe you have a 'stick-protector' idea already?
Richard - when you carry your 'Aerosticks' in your backpack, how do you protect them if the backpack gets squished?
Now that I'm more confident with performing, an on-stage YouTube video will be next....