Aerodrums 2

[Richard]

I don't think this will be an issue. We are not using any Google Play features such as cloud saves, leaderboards, etc. and that integration is supported in Unity as an optional plugin. So as I understand it, making an Android build in Unity will be degoogled by default.

Currently, we support MIDI output over USB. While it might be possible to add MIDI input support, it feels like it could be easier to route the MIDI messages from your pedals to your DAW and consolidate the signals there. By that I mean ignore the Aerodrums 2 pedal messages and use the messages from your physical pedals instead.

But regarding bass drum pedals, Aerodrums 2 will include reflective markers that can be attached to reversible beater heads and used in conjunction with reversible beater style practice pads such as the Drumeo QuietKick or Prologix Thunderkick.

[InTheWorks]

So as I understand it, making an Android build in Unity will be degoogled by default.

Truly music to my ears!

route the MIDI messages from your pedals to your DAW

The nice thing about Aerodrums 2 is not needing a computer. Introducing a DAW into the mix isn't the right direction.

If MIDI input over usb is a possibility in the future, then it would be possible to use a Teensy microcontroller board to build a small trigger interface. This is what edrumulus is:

https://github.com/corrados/edrumulus

There's also eDRUMin:

https://www.audiofront.net/eDRUMin.php

If the usb connector on Aerodrums 2 supports host mode, and can supply 5V, 100mA then either of the above options are easily viable for MIDI input sometime in the future.

But regarding bass drum pedals, Aerodrums 2 will include reflective markers that can be attached to reversible beater heads and used in conjunction with reversible beater style practice pads such as the Drumeo QuietKick or Prologix Thunderkick.

This is a pretty neat idea.

Unfortunately, this doesn't help the hihat. It would be nice to use a hihat pedal (like the Roland FD-9) which senses pressure that Aerodrums can't. Playing "air drums" is fine, but playing "air pedals" kinda sucks. I know it can be done, but it feels like a completely different skill to develop that doesn't translate to/from a real kit.

[Richard]

Thanks for these suggestions. You make a very good point about the hi-hat pedal. I will definitely look into how we could support electronic hi-hat (and kick) controllers.

[Richard]

We have now launched on Kickstarter!

You can back the project here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ae ... -the-stage

If you have any questions about Aerodrums 2, feel free to post them here and I'll answer them.

[InTheWorks]

The exchange rate is horrible, but I backed the kickstarter anyway. I also ordered the hard case, but I didn't see any pictures of the inside.

A soft EVA case like this:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005611404265.html

Would be my preference (round edges). That's what I used to make my own soft case for Aerodrums, IR camera, and stand. It was a tight fit because of the camera stand piece to accommodate the PS3 camera. Foam inserts in any kind of volume are cheap, but one offs are anything but. The inside of my case doesn't look nice because I cut the foam myself, but everything except the laptop is nicely stored.

It would be nice if there was some extra space in the hard case for an eventual battery pack, but it looks perhaps too small?

Some other comments/questions:

1. Stick orientation detection. I saw this earlier and was hoping this meant rim shot detection by stick orientation. But it seems to be only a useless VR feature.

2. While the new 'drumset' view looks 'nicer', I still prefer the top down view of the original Aerodrums. Will it be available as an option?

3. Can you expand upon what this means:

With support for the same file formats used by games such as Rock Band, Guitar Hero and Clone Hero, you can play along to thousands of freely available, community-made drum charts.

Will it show that typical "note lane" or will it show notation?

4. I'm concerned the leather foot straps are not going to be comfortable barefoot when it's hot.

5. Is the IR lamp on at full power all the time? That's not necessary at night time in a dark room with fully open pupils.

6. What's the power requirement? Voltage and running current?

7. There is a picture showing a power supply with a right angle plug connected the Aerodrums 2. That's obviously not good for a cord that's hanging straight down.

8. I think this marketing blurb is a bit misleading:

With its advanced 3D tracking system, Aerodrums 2 captures every nuance of your playing, from the speed and intensity of your hits to the position of your drumsticks and feet. This level of precision and realism is unmatched by other drumming systems, and makes Aerodrums 2 an ideal tool for drummers of all skill levels.

When I see the word nuance, I'm immediately thinking snare drum. You can get good electronic drums that have dual zones (ie. real rimshots), positional sensing, are capable of multiple bounce/buzz strokes, and offer a rebound surface. Even then no one would call that electronic snare capable of capturing every nuance. And Aerodrums is far less capable in that regard. I think it's a bit dishonest to say "every nuance".

I know this post may seem critical, but I am super excited about Aerodrums 2!

[condordontsurf]

I see the early bird kickstarter thing was already sold out , when I woke up on Eastern Time. Can you explain the kickstarter thing? I would love to support it but not at a hundred dollars more then what 80 other people got. What does the ten dollar I paid for a few week ago entitle me to? Frustrating as a five or six year aerodrummer who has told anybody that would listen about this product over the years. Was cool to see some forum members in the video.

[Richard]

@InTheWorks

Great! Thanks for this useful feedback. About your comments:

1. Stick orientation is only mentioned in the context of VR. We're doing some clever stuff with hand tracking on the Meta Quest headsets that enables us to recover the orientation. It is useless from the audio point of view but it does make the VR experience far more immersive.

2. We don't currently plan to have a 2D view in the app because a lot of information is lost - how near or far your stick is to a drum. The accuracy of the 3D tracking is far better in Aerodrums 2 than Aerodrums 1 so we can do a very good job with the 3D view now.

3. There is a very big online community around those rhythm games. There are very good tools available to make "charts" for them and there are websites that host tens of thousands of these charts. Aerodrums 2 will be able to import these chart files and allow you to play along to them, either with a drum notation view or with a typical "note highway" view.

4. Fair point - we will discuss this.

5. No, the lamp strobes in sync with the camera - it is not on all the time.

6. 60W (12V, 5A) but this might come down a bit.

7. Agreed. The power adapter used in the photos is not the one Aerodrums 2 will ship with.

8. I can see why that would sound a bit salesy but we meant it in the context of air drumming. So we meant that the softest of hits are detected and the strength of these hits is accurately measured. "Other drumming systems" is alluding to other air drumming products that are out there.

[Richard]

@condordontsurf

I'm very sorry about that. Kickstarter doesn't offer a mechanism for creators to gate reward tiers to a group of people so, as was explained to those that reserved, pledging was always on a first come, first served basis. You should have received emails to inform you of the time that the Kickstarter project was due to go live and after it had gone live. At that point there was nearly 2 hours to avail of the 'Super Early Bird' offer.

The $10 you paid included some other perks:
- Priority shipping
- Your name on the credits page of the Aerodrums 2 app
- Exclusive access to bonus drum kits and playalongs
- Invitation to a Zoom call with the creators
We can refund you this $10 if you email support@aerodrums.com

[InTheWorks]

Stick orientation is only mentioned in the context of VR.

This feels like a missed opportunity to add another reflective location on the stick. Although tracking circles is already difficult enough and I can see why you might not want to.

But having the angle of the stick would potentially allow one to play the top of the hihats and rim shots (properly).

We don't currently plan to have a 2D view in the app

Uh oh. That means no drumstick menu either? I have to put my sticks down to start a song? I can't say I like that.

When I use a 'gps' app I always use top down. I prefer that mode regardless of what other information is in the other view.

either with a drum notation view or with a typical "note highway" view.

This is great to hear. Have you heard of Rocksmith? One of the nice features it has is riff repeater which is just a mechanism by which to loop a section and slow it down (pitch intact). If you don't have this feature yet, consider adding it.

Fair point - we will discuss this.

All my points are fair. The customer is never wrong ;p

I think if you include a plain elastic band (like Aerodrums 1 uses) with an attachment for the reflector, that would be just fine and pretty cheap. Or just include the attachments or tell me where to get them and I can make my own.

No, the lamp strobes in sync with the camera - it is not on all the time.

Let me rephrase the question. Does the current to the LEDs vary based on how much background IR the camera sees? Or maybe the current is the same, but the strobe time varies? I'm just concerned about being bathed in infrared light at maximum intensity when it's not necessary for the environment. Ideally the required intensity would be a function of my pupil diameter, however unachievable that is.

6. 60W (12V, 5A) but this might come down a bit.

That's gonna be a big battery for any length of time. A 12V 18650 lithium pack is 3 or 4 cells and 2Ah. That's good for 24 minutes (ideally). For a solid hour you'd need 12 18650 cells. That's a big pack. For a 3 hour run time you need a car battery. That means taking this thing camping is a no. I guess I'll be holding on to my Aerodrums 1, I think.

Earlier in this thread you said

it will be better in nearly every way

Maybe this isn't so true either. Certainly not being tied to a laptop (and a particular OS) is a great improvement, but at the same time the portability suffers by needing a power socket within reach. Yeah this could be solved with a long enough extension cord in some cases (is there room in the case for one?), but I often use Aerodrums on my laptop's battery.

Speaking of 60W and given that there doesn't appear to be fan cooling, how hot does the enclosure get? It sounds like it's going to be hot enough to burn.

I can see why that would sound a bit salesy but we meant it in the context of air drumming. So we meant that the softest of hits are detected and the strength of these hits is accurately measured. "Other drumming systems" is alluding to other air drumming products that are out there.

Uh, maybe you meant it that way, but I doubt anyone is reading that way. Instead of "Other drumming systems" say "Air drumming systems" if that's what you mean. To me, "Other drumming systems" means electronic drums with pads too.

In any case, nowhere in your marketing spiel is it mentioned that buzz strokes are not possible. I didn't even think about that until a song I wanted to play featured them.

The fact is that an electronic kit is only limited by the number of zones. If you have the money you can buy multiple zone cymbals, hihats, pads, etc. There is software to utilise that. Aerodrums is missing things available to electronic drums like edge, bow, bell on ride or the edge and top of hihats. It's probably not impossible to detect some of that stuff with stick angle, but I don't see that coming.

What Aerodrums does much better than most electronic kits is not playing repetitive samples. It's fantastic in that way, but it has absolutely nothing to do with how well Aerodrums detects a drum hit. Midi only has 127 levels anyway.

What your marketing is trying to say is that Aerodrums 2 is as good as a 'decent' electronic kit given similar pricing. But this is not necessarily true. What Aerodrums 2 can do, that an electronic kit can't do is silence and portability. But that portability and silence comes with sacrifice. There's no reason not to be candid about this.

The last thing I want to ask is if certain improvements will make it back to Aerodrums 1. Particularly that "advanced hihat model" that I suggested some time ago. I'd like to try it now if it works...

[condordontsurf]

@condordontsurf

I'm very sorry about that. Kickstarter doesn't offer a mechanism for creators to gate reward tiers to a group of people so, as was explained to those that reserved, pledging was always on a first come, first served basis. You should have received emails to inform you of the time that the Kickstarter project was due to go live and after it had gone live. At that point there was nearly 2 hours to avail of the 'Super Early Bird' offer.

The $10 you paid included some other perks:
- Priority shipping
- Your name on the credits page of the Aerodrums 2 app
- Exclusive access to bonus drum kits and playalongs
- Invitation to a Zoom call with the creators
We can refund you this $10 if you email support@aerodrums.com

I understand. I know what ever you do you are going to be make everybody happy. Personally, just leaves a bad taste in my mouth to check the kickstarter and see I have to pay more just because I was an hour late. I would have done a preorder when you first started sending emails a few weeks ago, because I am a loyal user of the brand.