From Deve Loper

[Deve Loper]

Hello all forum people.

Now things are finally moving forward, I thought it was time to say hello. It's been a long time coming, but I hope you all enjoy (or will enjoy) our DrumIt Five drum system. I'm sure my colleague (who is currently on a well deserved holiday) would agree.

We started this project (my colleague doing the business side and drum hardware and myself doing the electronics and software) to make a very competitive drum system with a new look and feel plus a drum module with a unique open sound architecture. Although there have been many hurdles on the way (and it took longer than anticipated), I hope you all appreciate the result. I've followed the posts on the forum ever since the first release this summer and I'd like to give you some background on some issues.

Due to certain circumstances, we had to ship the first batch with OS 0.36. This was actually a pre-release version. Also, boot code 1.10 had known problems writing files over USB, which I after many weeks traced down to a processor flag not being updated correctly (yes, processors ain't perfect either). Anyway, in boot 1.30 and OS 1.02 this is all fixed. So for those of you who own a DrumIt with boot 1.10, please update to boot 1.30 before writing any new files to the unit (see http://www.2box.se/pages/updates.html). To make sure the file system is correct, run a disk check as well. After that, it's safe to update the OS and download new sounds.

I've seen the wish list and most of the (software) stuff is on my list too! However, I'm only human and need some time off as well. But be assured, OS 1.02 is just the beginning. Since the OS update is so easy, I'll try to make new versions available as frequently as possible.

There are many more issues I could comment on, but I think Scottie has done a real good job here already. I'm in contact with him regularly about things popping up, so you will get an answer by means of the forum.

Also a big thanks to our distributors.

Best wishes to you all.

Deve Loper

[puttenvr]

Is this you Rik, or don't you expose the disguise?

[nonoduweb]

Hi Deve

it's good to see that the OS developer listens to the wishes of the users  .

You have made a nice job with the last OS release.

Do you work on the software editor too?

[Dr.Wu]

any news on the mac updater?

[UC]

Hey Deve, thanks for dropping in...

Gotta say, I love your work...Not sure my family and neighbours do

[Deve Loper]

Hi.

The boot updater is a quick hack, as it was never supposed to exist :-)
It's a waste of time for me to put more work on it, it does exactly what it should do as it is. For those of you with Mac or 64 bit Windows, I'm sure you can find somebody with a 32 bit Windows version somewhere (a netbook will do fine). It needs only to be done once, after that Mac, Win, Linux whatever will work to transfer files over USB.

The editor is being worked on by a consultant firm. The first version (due out beginning next year) will have the kit editor (drag and drop sound files on drum pad icons). It looks quite cool actually...
The second version will have a sound editor to make your own sounds. This will take some more time I'm afraid. Particularly since I need to implement a lossless sound compression scheme, both the encoding part in the editor and the decoding part in DrumIt, to make space for more sounds and to make downloading quicker (compared to the same sound uncompressed).

Regards,

Deve.

[westerlu77]

I really appreciate your job, great! The only thing that's negative is that when you upload the new sounds you have to take away old stuff in the module..
When can we expect 12 gb instead of 4 as it is now?

[westerlu77]

I forget one thing. These new files who's begin with ._  ,what will that file do? They don't sound anything.

[boekhour]

When can we expect 12 gb instead of 4 as it is now?

I doubt it that with lossless compression we're getting 12gb. A compressionfactor of 1,5 is more realistic I think. So say 6-7gb for the sounds. But 7 gb is a lot of memory room to play with, its certaintly enough for me.

If we wanted real quick downloads/uploads you should have implemented usb 2.0.

[Baby Samus]

Only one thing really needs fixed - the way the hi-hat controls.

The problem seems to be when the pedal is depressed and the hi-hat pad moves away from the magnetic sensor.  The space in between being fully open and closed is too hard to control.

When I play, keeping them tightly closed is easy because your foot is resting on the pedal.  Fully open and your foot is off the pedal, and therefore its easily controlled.  In other words, the sensor distance from the pad is constant because of a constant pressure or a constant lack of pressure.

However when you want to have the hi-hat say, a quarter open, or half open, or three quarters open, it is very difficult to keep the sensor distance correct to keep that sound, because your foot is going to move a little as its not resting on anything.  In other words, the sensor pressure (naturally) does not stay the same.

Add to that, the sensor is saying the foot pedal is moving a little even though it is not, and I guess that might be the sensor detecting the wrong distance to the pad because the pad has been hit, and the distance or angle of it to the sensor has changed slightly.

I think that these two things basically mean your foot has a lot of trouble picking the right amount of pressure to give you a consistent  sound.  This is really hard to explain and I hope others know what I mean...

So I think of one way we could approach a fix - please be aware that this idea might be UTTER RUBBISH cos I have no idea about these things but here goes:

Instead of calibrating the hi-hat sensor for being closed ONLY (and I assume that it then just measures the distance away from the pad after that), why not set the sensor once for fully closed, then, choose how many 'progress squares' (the squares under the UNIT/HI-HAT/PEDAL INDICATOR that show it going from closed to fully open) you want it to move and set the right distance again on the hats.

For example, at the moment the 'progress squares' move far too quickly even though I only move the foot pedal a short way.  So I would be able to tell the module, 'ok, when I move the pedal a quarter inch, I want you to move to 4 'progress squares', but I don't want any more 'progress squares' until the pedal has moved another quarter inch.  Like a dead zone where slight movement is allowed and the sample will not change.

I don't know if this is possible or even sensible  but it might be a way for people to have a lot more control over how the hi-hat plays...

[wbrs]

I never take my foot off the hh pedal no matter what position it's in. How is it a good idea to design it that way?

[Baby Samus]

Well thats fine if you play that way, but the amount of pressure you place on the pedal changes correct?  My point is that it is very difficult to control the intervals between closed and fully open.  So lets say you need to have 4 bars on the pressure sensor before it sounds the half-open samples for the hi-hat (for example).  Its very hard to keep the sensor at 4 bars exactly (which is what you want if you are playing several bars with the hats in that position - you don't want the sample set to change).  I find that even with slight pedal movement, the amount of bars changes, and so sometimes the sample set changes when I do not wish it to do so.

A different calibration method may help customize that.  Hope that is clearer for you wbrs...

[patbat]

Yes, I agree with you, Baby Samus, I've got exactly the same problems
and I think you're totally right with the solution you put forward.

[wbrs]

Baby, I wasn't disagreeing with you. I remember in another post someone said they had to raise there leg to get the open hh and I thought you got to be kidding me. To me you should be able to do everything you need to do with your ankle.

[nonoduweb]

Hi, and happy new year to everybody here!

I think Baby Samus is right: we should have more control on the sensibility of the foot sensor of the hat. We could choose just two states (open and close) on the PEDAL bar in the TRIG menu, and add others steps between.

For Deve: I know that the sample editor is not planned before a few months, so in the meanwhile, is there a single possibility to use one of our samples in the kit (with no layers), by using for example a standard header of dsnd file, or anything like that?

Thanks