[Tutorial] How to connect your Senstrokes to Hydrogen on Linux

Tutorials & Tips
#1

Tested on:

Operating System: Arch Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 5.19.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.75.0
Qt Version: 5.15.1
Kernel Version: 5.8.14-arch1-1
OS Type: 64-bit
Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i5-8250U CPU @ 1.60GHz
Memory: 7.7 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: Mesa Intel® UHD Graphics 620

User experience: intermediate.
Packages required (and their dependencies):
hydrogen qjackctl chromium (optional)

  1. Pre-requisites:
  1. Connecting and pairing the Senstrokes:
  1. Setting up the Senstrokes with JACK and connecting to Hydrogen.

You are all set! The default Hydrogen drumkit should work out of the box. If you change it, you should re-order the sounds (Kick, Snare, Hat…) to match with the default.

  1. How to disconnect the Senstroke: the only way I found is turn off the Bluetooth on your device and then turn off each Sentroke. If you find a simpler way, just let me know!

Enjoy!

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#2

Hi @senstefo !
Thanks for your tutorial, that’s awesome !
How is the latency with Hydrogen ?

Cheers

#3

Hi @Jerome, your welcome!

I was dealing with Windows trough Virtualbox to use my Senstrokes for a long time so I finally decided to give it a go on Linux and fortunately it worked!
I don’t know yet how to measure the latency here, but I would say the experience is even better than with my phone, where I have ~40ms of latency according to your App.

I also have been using it with Jamulus (https://github.com/corrados/jamulus) for live jamming sessions with other folks from the area and the results are decent enough; I could write an extension of this tutorial to connect them with Jamulus.
Cheers!

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#4

That’s would be awesome ! I’m sure that could help a lot of users.
By anychance, do you have some videos of your lives jamming? At Redison we really love see Senstroke in action, specially with a full band.
Thanks again!

#5

I’l try to record it next time!
And please let me know if you figure out a way to measure the latency…

#6

There is an easy way:
You have to record with an external mic (like your smartphone) a drumstik with your Senstroke sensor while hitting a surface and the sound from the computer.
Into the audio file you will have both the impact and the generated sound. Now, simply use a sound editor to mesure the time difference between the hit and the sound.
Does it help you?

#7

Great idea! I performed this measurements and now I can say the latency between the hit and the sound is ~15-20ms.
Thanks for your help Jerome!

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#8

Hi @senstefo !

You Linux tutorial is amazing :grinning:
Would you agree that we put it on Senstroke.com ? Of course we will credit you :slight_smile:

Oh and do you have some videos of you playing with Senstroke sensors ? We are eager to see that too :slight_smile:

#9

Hi @P-A, I’m glad you find the guide useful and I’m delighted you decided to put it on the webpage. Feel free to do it! Hope it will help other users.
I will ask my partner to record some video playing the sensors soon and I will share it with you.

Cheers!

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#10

Hi @senstefo ! Just posted your Linux Tutorial on Senstroke.com, both french and english version.
https://www.senstroke.com/tutorial-how-to-use-senstroke-sensors-with-hydrogen-on-linux/
You can access it from “tutorials” in the top barn like all of our others tutorials.

Thank you again :smiley:

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