Help after initial purchase - setup of equipment

Post Reply
yafimski
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Mar 10, 2018 9:10 am

Help after initial purchase - setup of equipment

Post by yafimski » Sat Mar 10, 2018 10:21 pm

Hello,

I was having problems (And tried to post but my post didn't register) regarding a few things after purchasing the aerodrum kit:

1) how to connect bluetooth headphones?
2) why doesn't audio from internet (youtube) work if the program is open?
3) volume of feet very low and no indication how to change that...


The contact page isn't really functional and the email for support@aerdrums.com doesn't seem to work.

Did anyone contact the company successfully... ?

Any help would be appreciated.

Richard
Posts: 1014
Joined: Wed Feb 26, 2014 1:45 am

Re: Help after initial purchase - setup of equipment

Post by Richard » Mon Mar 12, 2018 12:13 am

Hi, welcome to the forums. As a spam counter-measure, first time posters need approval from a moderator. This can sometimes take a day or two. Apologies for the delay. The contact form on our website seems to be working and we reply to all support queries as soon as possible during normal business hours (Monday to Friday). By the way, not sure if you only made a typo above but the email address is support@aerodrums.com, not support@aerdrums.com

To answer your questions:

1) We strongly recommend you use wired headphones when playing with Aerodrums as Bluetooth headphones will introduce a noticeable amount of latency which will impact how it feels to drum. (If you want to try it anyway you should be able to choose your Bluetooth headphones as the output device by clicking the 'Latency' button after running Aerodrums, then clicking the 'Change' button and selecting your headphones from the list.)

2) The recommended audio output device on Windows is Exclusive WASAPI as this gives the lowest latency. This is the option that is currently selected on the Latency screen. The downside is that Aerodrums has exclusive access to the soundcard and this prevents other programs (such as your internet browser) from being able to output audio while Aerodrums is running. To get around this you can either use the playlist feature built into Aerodrums which will let you play music (e.g. mp3 files) while you drum, without compromising latency. The other option is to switch from Exclusive WASAPI to Shared WASAPI on the Latency screen. This will let you play youtube videos, etc. while drumming but the latency will be worse.

3) You can change the volume of any drum by entering the Menu on the main drumming screen, then hitting the 'Adjust Drums' button followed by the 'Volumes & Sensitivities' button. This will bring you to a screen where you can select any drum or pedal and adjust its volumes using a slider. (Note that you can't edit the preset drum kits so you will need to clone a preset kit or create your own before you can change the volumes of the pieces.)

I hope that helps. Let us know if you have any further questions.

yafimski
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Mar 10, 2018 9:10 am

Re: Help after initial purchase - setup of equipment

Post by yafimski » Mon Mar 12, 2018 6:53 pm

Dear Richard,

Thanks for the reply and the explanations. These weren't clear from the leaflet in the kit or from the website.


1) You're correct, the latency is quite bad. Are there any efforts to improve this in an update to the software? Part of what makes it fun is not having a cord in the middle of the drum set..

2) Thanks, it works. I think it is quite crucial for new drummers especially, since self-learning involves a constant youtube-on mode, to be able to smoothly switch back and forth between audio from videos to the aerodrums program.

3) Thanks. I configured it. (the 'adjust drums' menu follows the 'drum kits' menu, not the 'main menu')


I also want to ask about your promotional videos. A lot of times they are in extremely well lit and public spaces or recording studios. This really doesn't fit with the sensitivity that I see as a user to the light conditions. Even a small brightness somewhere in the back of the room brings a notification on the screen... Can you explain how you achieve perfect control of the play quality in those videos?


Thanks

Richard
Posts: 1014
Joined: Wed Feb 26, 2014 1:45 am

Re: Help after initial purchase - setup of equipment

Post by Richard » Mon Mar 12, 2018 11:31 pm

The instructions that come in the box only provide the information you need to get up and running. For more detailed explanations you'll need to consult the full manual: http://aerodrums.com/manual/

I can see how it would be very frustrating if your headphone cable isn't long enough and it dangles in mid air. The best solution for now would be to buy an extension cable (if you don't already have one lying around) that will lengthen the cord on your wired headphones and let you run the cord on the floor in between your feet and up to your ears, or behind your back. Unfortunately, the latency you experience when using wireless headphones is an inherent issue with Bluetooth and not something that we can fix in software.

Regarding the brightness of the environments in our promotional videos, really this is just something you learn how to handle with experience. In these cases we do need to be careful about choosing where to position the camera and removing objects from the background that could be an issue. The most extreme case would be our booth at the NAMM trade show - here we need to hang a light fabric roof to shade our booth from the very intense floodlights they use to light the halls.

The "light compensation" feature we added a while back is also very useful for avoiding lighting issues in many cases. If you haven't explored this yet, it's worth doing. Basically, it can be used to tell Aerodrums to ignore bright regions of the background so that it doesn't confuse them for your sticks or feet (of course if the bright regions overlap your drumkit then you will still have difficulty drumming). But really there is nothing special we are doing and we run into all the same issues as other users. At some point in the near future we plan to make a video detailing various lighting issues that can cause a problem and the best ways to overcome them.

Post Reply