Drum response area larger than the drum on the screen

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Ian1803
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Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2016 12:27 am

Drum response area larger than the drum on the screen

Post by Ian1803 » Tue Mar 22, 2016 12:37 am

Hi. I have set up my Aerodrums tonight (birthday present!) on my Macbook Pro running El Capitan and all seemed well until I re-started the software for a second session. This time, The sticks were causing the drum to sound when they were outside of the periphery of the drums. This meant that 'hitting' the highhat was tricky as if I didn't hit it centrally, but towards the right handf side, the snare would sound. I tried going through Setup again, but with no success. I had to leave things and wonder if anyone else has had this problem?
Cheers
Ian

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

Re: Drum response area larger than the drum on the screen

Post by Richard » Tue Mar 22, 2016 2:13 am

Hi Ian,

If drums are being triggered when the sticks aren't in view of the camera then it is likely that you have bright objects in the background that Aerodrums thinks could be the sticks. The setup process should detect this and highlight these regions for you in red on top of the greyscale camera image. The sure way to test if this is the problem is to turn off the lights/close the curtains and try again. If it works fine then there must be some bright spot that the camera can see.

It sounds like this might not be your problem though. Make sure that the lens of the Playstation camera is fully rotated clockwise (the blue dot setting) and make sure you have been reasonably accurate in positioning your seat relative to the camera. Also make sure that the foam pieces on your feet are angled in such a way that the camera can see them clearly. You should always be able to see coloured circles moving on the screen that correspond to your feet and sticks. If the circles are coming into and out of view or if they appear very small then there is an issue.

It may also help to avoid swinging your sticks back too far as this could trigger spurious hits. If you think the markers are being tracked correctly but you find that the preset drum kits are too "compact" it might also help to reposition the drums so that they are more spaced out.

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

Re: Drum response area larger than the drum on the screen

Post by Richard » Tue Mar 22, 2016 2:18 am

I should also add that the way Aerodrums works, if you make a hitting gesture with a stick, you will always trigger a sound. The sound triggered will correspond to the drum or cymbal nearest the stick when you made the hit. So you should be aware that you don't need to hit the hi-hat in the middle. You can hit it anywhere as long as where you hit it is closer to the hi-hat than any other drum. It might help to ignore what's displayed on the screen and see if you have more success that way.

Ian1803
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2016 12:27 am

Re: Drum response area larger than the drum on the screen

Post by Ian1803 » Wed Apr 20, 2016 3:05 pm

I did give on the Aerodrums for a while as the setup was just so frustrating. One of the biggest problems is the unwieldy pairing of the light ring and the camera. With just a small rubber coated area on which it sits, the two cables attached make it very unstable. I tried holding it down with a bit of Blutack (albeit a bit Heath Robinson), but it doesn't stick well to the rubberised surface. Siting the light/camera reliably and adjusting it is far too difficult and time consuming. (This looks to me like a classic case of incomplete detail design.)

The other major failing is that to use it successfully in any room with a window and/or mirror is pretty well impossible in my experience. Even with black out standard blinds, the edges caused light ingress plus any slightly reflective surface in front of the light really needed to be blacked out completely. Consequently, it was impossible to set it up so that there wasn't overlap between all of the striking areas. I did try ignoring the screen and simply imaging where the various parts of the drum set were, but still found it all rather unresponsive and clumsy.

Sorry if this is all a bit negative. When I saw this on 'Dragons' Den', I was immensely impressed and, like many viewers, I'm sure, was fascinated by the tension between the two inventors over whether to go into partnership with a Dragon(s). From my experience, I feel that had they accepted the input, these design flaws would almost certainly have been ironed out before launch.

Ian

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

Re: Drum response area larger than the drum on the screen

Post by Richard » Wed Apr 20, 2016 7:03 pm

Thanks for this feedback Ian. We have developed a solution for the camera positioning problem you described that will remove any guesswork from the setup procedure. This will be released later in the year. We're also very aware that the lighting constraints can be a big issue and are working on a new version of Aerodrums that will be a big improvement here. This is requiring a big effort in terms of R&D and is not something we could have done easily prior to the initial release of Aerodrums.

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