Playability issues

[eyeRaven25]

Hello All

I have had my Aerodrums for a while now, and definitely enjoying them. Richard provided a great amount of help to me with some of the issues i had in the beginning, and the newer added 'hit to place' function was just what I needed to get the kit set up in the same way as I have my 5-piece set up at home (a standard 2-up, 1-down 2 crashes and a china - very normal set up) and I've been playing the Aerodrums quite regularly while I'm here living abroad for a while.

I have 2 issues that continue to give me some bother though, and wondering if any of you might have some insight:

1) Even after the most recent firmware and version updates I still get the display stick switching where the right hand becomes left / left becomes right on the display. FWIW tends to happen most consistently when I am playing fills that involve me playing the cymbals within patterns that move between them and the toms. When I come back to the pocket playing the hi-hat or ride my hands are switched up on the display.

2) Rimshots - When I play uptempo or a lot of linear stuff where my left hand is moving away from the snare and returning to it at increased speed I at times get rimshots on the snare when I'm not intending to. Yes, I have tried adjusting the height of the snare drum, and quite extensively. The problem persists, and while it's not the hugest issue it is a little bothersome to be getting rimshots when you don't want them.

What's interesting to note is that when I DO want to play a rimshot I can get it fairly consistently by planing the barrel of the stick flatter and across the rim as I come down - much in the way that you would for an actual rimshot, right?. But I get rimshots when I am playing in the opposite fashion and with my stick coming down angled in the way the should make it so that the only tip of the stick is striking the head of the snare drum and the angle of the stick should suggest that the barrel of the stick is elevated and away from the rim.

FWIW this is from a 30-plus year rock drummer who can play rimshots really well on an acoustic kit and has been doing so for decades, so I don't think the issue is my technique here. But, maybe it is!

Any ideas, or anyone else experiencing this issue with rimshots being played when you're not playing them (or at least I THINK I'm not)

Pleased to be here in this forum now, and look forward to interacting with all Aerodrummers here.

[Richard]

Hi, welcome to the forum!

We're aware that the list of preset kits lacks a 5-piece kit in the standard layout so this has been added as part of the upcoming Aerodrums 2 software update.

Regarding your issues:

1) Is it possible that one or both of your drumstick tips are moving out of the Aerodrums 2 camera's view? (You can use the Configuration → Lighting panel to check this.) If so, that could explain the sticks swapping. In any case, we'd really like to understand this better so we can improve it. If it's possible to send us a video capture of the app screen while reproducing the problem, that would be useful.

2) Rimshots are triggered when you hit the snare sufficiently hard which generally means at a speed faster than 8 m/s. It has nothing to do with the height of the snare and nothing to do with the angle of the stick (which we can't measure, we can only infer it from the movement of the stick tip).

You can override the speed threshold for all the snare pieces by going to Settings → Hands and enabling 'Override Rimshot Threshold' and then adjusting the slider to set an appropriate threshold in m/s. If you increase it then you'll need to hit harder to trigger rimshots. (In case you prefer your snare to never trigger a rimshot you could also substitute the snare piece you're using for a piece that doesn't have rimshots - if you select your snare and look at the piece list in the drum kit editor you can see that many pieces have "_no_rimshot" or "_no_rms" in their name.)

[eyeRaven25]

Hi, welcome to the forum!

We're aware that the list of preset kits lacks a 5-piece kit in the standard layout so this has been added as part of the upcoming Aerodrums 2 software update.

Regarding your issues:

1) Is it possible that one or both of your drumstick tips are moving out of the Aerodrums 2 camera's view? (You can use the Configuration → Lighting panel to check this.) If so, that could explain the sticks swapping. In any case, we'd really like to understand this better so we can improve it. If it's possible to send us a video capture of the app screen while reproducing the problem, that would be useful.

2) Rimshots are triggered when you hit the snare sufficiently hard which generally means at a speed faster than 8 m/s. It has nothing to do with the height of the snare and nothing to do with the angle of the stick (which we can't measure, we can only infer it from the movement of the stick tip).

You can override the speed threshold for all the snare pieces by going to Settings → Hands and enabling 'Override Rimshot Threshold' and then adjusting the slider to set an appropriate threshold in m/s. If you increase it then you'll need to hit harder to trigger rimshots. (In case you prefer your snare to never trigger a rimshot you could also substitute the snare piece you're using for a piece that doesn't have rimshots - if you select your snare and look at the piece list in the drum kit editor you can see that many pieces have "_no_rimshot" or "_no_rms" in their name.)

Hi Richard!

Thanks, all of this is great information. Especially regarding the function of the snare with the rimshots. I will go to the 'override rimshot threshold' control as you've suggested.

And as for the stick-switching sometime soon I will take a video of the app screen as suggested and send it to you.

big thanks for the speedy reply, and appreciate the welcome too