Putting the drummer in front

In our old air drumming proof of concept the drum kit was fixed in space, like you’d expect a real drum kit to be. But we quickly realized that the motion capture studio made it very simple to attach the kit to the drummer (think multi-tenor marching band drummer).

We just had to make the system track a few markers on Richard’s belt to recover its position and orientation. Then we could place the drum kit relative to the belt.

Here’s a video of Richard doing some crab-like moves while drumming.

We think it would be fun for bands to use this to let the drummer perform like the other members, rather than stay seated, hidden behind a pile of hardware. Imagine AC/DC like stage antics where it’s the drummer having the fun.

That’s an idea for later though. Aerodrums isn’t going to let you jump around like this, but that’s a price we’re happy to pay to let you carry it in your backpack and set it up quickly in a small space.

At least if you use Aerodrums for a gig there won’t be a drum kit between you and the audience.