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New User, first impressions

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 6:44 am
by frankhopkinton
I was blown away by the "rebound" video and had to try this for myself. So I got the AD kit thinking I could use this to record drum parts after the kids are asleep.

First thoughts are, I worry about the durability of the footpedals and the sticks, either getting lost or wrecked somehow. It would be great if inexpensive replacements were available.

Next, trying to get my room set up, I'm seeing the 'having trouble tracking you' notice come on intermittently so I'm not sure where I'm going wrong as I've set it up and look exactly like the cartoon guy. My monitor is behind the camera and I see that is discouraged, so maybe that is the problem?

Some trouble with the bass drum in particular, can't get it to track the way that I'm hoping, playing heel up -- it would be amazing to get the responsiveness Richard shows in his bass drum video. Here's hoping!

Also the crash on the 'big rock kit', seems to have some trouble triggering. Hopeful that I can tweak the rig.

The sounds of the kits I think are good, the piccolo snare and toms from the percussion kit are nice and snappy.

Playing along with Rush "Hold Your Fire"as my first AD jam was diving into the deep end of the pool for sure. I got into it pretty well but the combination of poor air drumming and some hiccups with my set up and it wasn't all the way there. Moving to simpler stuff like "Exit the Dragon" by Urge Overkill seems to give better results for me :-)

Next step is to try and record some takes and see if I can import the MIDI into Sonar (X2) and actually make this work as a performance/recording instrument instead of just something to practice on...

Kudos to the team who made this, if I can learn to use this as well as Richard's demos I will be a very happy man.

Re: New User, first impressions

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 10:51 pm
by Richard
Thanks for the feedback. In the current version of Aerodrums, the foot pieces and the sticks are covered by the warranty. In the next version, damage to the balls at the ends of the sticks will not be covered. Instead we will sell ball replacement kits for no more than $10 and a replacement kit will be included in the box.

Many of the problems you mentioned - the tracking warning and the bass drum / crash problems - are all suggestive of a non-optimal positioning of camera and seat. Even if your seat is aligned to the sketch during setup, it is still very important that your camera is at an appropriate height off the floor and that your seat is the correct distance away from the camera and offset to the side as described in the manual.

Regarding the bass drum issue, you should make sure that the foot pieces you are wearing are oriented towards the camera. You can do this by either turning your foot so that it points more in the direction of the camera or rotating the foot piece itself on your shoe so that it is facing the camera more. If all is working well you should see the markers for each stick and foot that is being tracked drawn as coloured circles on the screen. These coloured circles should always be visible. If you notice them appearing or disappearing or drastically shrinking in size then there is a problem with your setup.

You can, by the way, reposition drums/cymbals wherever you want them if it helps solve the crash problem but I recommend that you try solve the problems by experimenting with the seat/camera positioning and foot piece orientation first.