drumbeam (innovative MIDI drumpad) by afk-audio - survey & feedback

[afk-audio]

Dear KVR Audio community,

I'm Simon, part of afk-audio, and audio technology start-up from Dresden, Germany.

We're currently finishing the development of our innovative MIDI drum pad, drumbeam. We're planning to ship the device in early 2025 - see next image:



It is customizable according to your needs and offers and a realistic playing feel. You can change the no. and size of pads displayed by the LEDs at the click of a button.

Opposed to most available devices, the sensors detect both the strength of a hit as well as its position on the drumming surface. Thus, you can modulate CC values such as filter cutoff, decay or reverb by hitting different areas within a pad.

As we'd like to implement wishes and needs of the community into the development, we've created a little survey with more info on drumbeam.
It would be great if you could take 5 min to fill it out:

https://forms.gle/mS12uYdMLV1xbaPv7

If you want to stay tuned on all features and know first about the launch date and price, feel free to follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/afk.audio/

And if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Best,
Simon

[pugilistas]

Very visually interesting instrument. Looks solid in build too. I prefer pads, but this drumbeam looks to have a nice control set up.

Best of luck with your development!

[afk-audio]

Very visually interesting instrument. Looks solid in build too. I prefer pads, but this drumbeam looks to have a nice control set up.

Best of luck with your development!

Thanks for the feedback! Yup, it's made out of a single piece of aluminum to be extra sturdy.

It's a bit unusual, but as you see the pads currently active through the LED strip and the drumming surface feels similar to other drum pads, it's very easy to get used to playing on drumbeam.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask here!

[ElVincente]

Would it be suited to be played by hand ?

[afk-audio]

Would it be suited to be played by hand ?

Thanks for asking! We're working on different sensitivies which you'll be able to choose from, so you should be able to play it with either sticks or your hands

[pugilistas]

Would it be suited to be played by hand ?

Thanks for asking! We're working on different sensitivies which you'll be able to choose from, so you should be able to play it with either sticks or your hands

Strong temptation! Congas are my main percussion instrument, so yeah.

[afk-audio]

Would it be suited to be played by hand ?

Thanks for asking! We're working on different sensitivies which you'll be able to choose from, so you should be able to play it with either sticks or your hands

Strong temptation! Congas are my main percussion instrument, so yeah.

Glad to hear that!

Thanks for sharing your opinions through the form! We're still open to more feedback.

We'll be sharing the launch date, price, and lots of footage of drumbeam soon, so feel free to follow us on instagram if you want to stay tuned

https://www.instagram.com/afk.audio/

Cheers!

[Spitfire31]

We'll be sharing the launch date, price, and lots of footage of drumbeam soon, so feel free to follow us on instagram if you want to stay tuned

https://www.instagram.com/afk.audio/

Cheers!

Please also consider updating this thread at KVR!

I don't use Instagram, nor any other asocial media, but I'm interested in this clever gadget!
Cheers!

[afk-audio]

We'll be sharing the launch date, price, and lots of footage of drumbeam soon, so feel free to follow us on instagram if you want to stay tuned

https://www.instagram.com/afk.audio/

Cheers!

Please also consider updating this thread at KVR!

I don't use Instagram, nor any other asocial media, but I'm interested in this clever gadget!
Cheers!

Thanks for your interest! I'll definitely do that. We're currently preparing a more detailed walkthrough video which I'll share, too.

Cheers!

[afk-audio]

Hey everyone,

time for a little update: we're starting our crowdfunding campaign on November 5th, and the first reviews, walkthroughs and artist features are going online now smile.png

Here's a review & jam by Floyd Steinberg:


Have a great start into the week!

[serge]

This is really cool! I can see this making drumming accessible to non-drummers. I'll probably grab this as an alternate MIDI controller for synths. Hoping this can be locked to scale. Will this have an option to add a sustain pedal for some feet-based modulation??

[pugilistas]

Do a very good pitch, if you are going the crowdsourcing route. My latest Kickstarter support cratered (Aodyo), and previous musical instrument support has yielded about 50/50 for good deliveries.

Your design is awesome, and looks it, too.

[afk-audio]

Do a very good pitch, if you are going the crowdsourcing route. My latest Kickstarter support cratered (Aodyo), and previous musical instrument support has yielded about 50/50 for good deliveries.

Your design is awesome, and looks it, too.

Thank you very much for the feedback, we appreciate it! We've got a professional crowdfunding video and several reviews and performances by cool drummers coming up in the next days

[afk-audio]

This is really cool! I can see this making drumming accessible to non-drummers. I'll probably grab this as an alternate MIDI controller for synths. Hoping this can be locked to scale. Will this have an option to add a sustain pedal for some feet-based modulation??

Thanks for the feedback! It would be amazing to turn some non-drummers who produce / perform live into drummers!

If your pedal has a midi out, you can connect it to drumbeam's midi in and connect drumbeam with USB-C or midi out to your computer or other devices. Creating our own pedals is also a point on our agenda

[afk-audio]

We're starting our kickstarter campaign on November 5, 5 PM CET. There'll be an extra discount in the first 24 hours, so you can grab your drumbeam for just 349 €!

Here's another review, this time by The Hybrid Drummer, focusing on positional sensing and MIDI-CC modulation for awesome live effects: