Critical information about server maintenance, activation, other issues Drum Machine FAQ:


Requirements:

Q: Can I use the d-touch drum machine without an internet connection?

Currently it is unfortunately not possible to use the drum-machine without an internet connection. We are working on ways to make offline use compatible with our research, but finding a solution make take a while.

Having said that, for specific uses such as performances or for educational purposes, we would be happy to find ad-hoc arrangements.

Could you please contact us by email (info at d-touch.org) giving us more details of what you would like to do, including where and when?


Q: Is there a way to use the d-touch drum machine with American 8-1/2x11 paper?

A: Yes! The drum machine works on any size of paper which has around the same size as A4. However if you print it on American sized paper, be careful to use the fit to page feature of the printer otherwise it may result in a cropped image.

Q: What kind of webcam do I need?

A: The webcam should be at least VGA (640x480) with at least 5 frame per second (fps). The system may run also with a lower resolution webcam (320x240), but this is not advised. The cheapest webcams have usually a bad lens which may affect the performance of the system. The system works also with DV cameras. The choice of the webcam really depends on your OS. Not all webcams for example work on OS X.

Q: Is it possible to make the markers smaller?

A: In principle it may be possible, however the markers we are currently using were carefully designed to be easily detected in using a variety of lighting conditions and cameras. On http://www.d-touch.org/design you can find more information about the design of d-touch markers, which can take almost any size and shape.

Q: How much accuracy is needed in building the d-touch blocks and camera stand?

A: Not much accuracy at all! We hope you like the blocks and stand design, they were published to make it very easy to create a clean setup. However, for the stand you can use anything as a stand (desk lamp, computer screen, tripod,...) as long at it is steady and it lets the camera be at a good distance from the paper. "Good distance" means such that the d-touch board fills almost the entire camera view.
Regarding the blocks, rather than using the folded boxes filled with lentils you can transform any objects of comparable size (walnuts, hazelnuts, chocolates.. ) into interactive objects by attaching to them the printed d-touch markers! Please send us photo- and video-reports of your constuctions and we'll publish them on the site!

Q: What are the required lighting conditions? In my settings markers are flickering a lot.

A: The d-touch works best in a uniform ambient lighting condition. Avoid placing a lamp just on top of it. Avoid trying to play in total darkness too.


Technical

Q: I have no sound!

A: Please check your audio API in the configurator. If multiple Apis are present, try to switch to another.

Q: The drum machine does not sound as well as on the video you released. How comes?

A: Unfortunately we realized that there is a bug in the release 0.1 of the drum machine. Please update to the latest version of the software. This should solve the problem.

Q: I have several camera, how can I choose the right one? (MS Windows only)

From version 0.3.2, this can be selected in the configurator.

Q: Activation problems on OS X

A: Please install the d-touch drum machine on your local drive, rather than starting it from the disk image. You can install by dragging the d-touch drum machine icon to the applications folder.

Q: Activation problems on Vista

A: Please try disabling User Access Control and the firewall.

Q: BSOD with logitech webcams

A: We have been investigating the BSOD issue and here are a few pointers. From scavenging other forums it looks like the quickcam software may give problems also with other applications (skype, yahoo, etc..)

From people reports it seems that upgrading the driver may help (latest quickcam version is 11.90.x from http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/support_downloads/&cl=us,en )

Other fixes we found (but not tested) include:

1- Uninstall logitech webcam 2- Go to microsoft.com 3- Under popular downloads 4- Select DirectX (should be 9.0c) 5- Download program (dxwebsetup.exe) 6 - Reboot 7- Install logitech webcam software

Another solution: Install the webcam in UVC mode (without the logitech drivers, Usb Video Class device)

1) Uninstall QuickCam. 2) Reboot. 3) Plug in the camera. 4) Windows will automatically install the generic Microsoft UVC drivers. • For Vista, do not alllow the PC to use Windows Update to search for drivers.

If someone has a chance to give these methods a try, please let us know by posting on the forum. Thanks!


Q: Can I change the resolution?

A: On Mac you can choose between 640x480 (VGA) and 320x240. On Windows and Linux the default is VGA. VGA gives the best result in term of detection of the markers. The application will try to get the maximum frame rate of your webcam, typically 30 fps.

USAGE:

Q: What is the difference between the two types of markers? What are those suppose to represent anyway?

A: The markers are supposed to represent: (1) a hand hitting a surface and producing a little music note! and (2) two hands hitting a surface. One hand = normal hit, two hands = louder hit.

FUTURE:

Q: Linux version coming anytime soon?

We are working on it! We will spread the word as soon as we have news, please stay tuned!

Q: Alternative sample bank ?

Right now it is not possible. We will provide this possibility in a future update and most important on our future project which will be soon released, the audio sequencer.

Q: VST, midi output ?

The d-touch drum machine does not support that. You may use libdtouch to develop your own VST or midi controller. More information on d-touch.org/libdtouch