S1: Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition, available from
S1: April the 22nd, 2025. I'm Stephen Jolly, great to have
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S1: Vision Australia radio talking tech podcast. Vision Australia radio talking
S1: tech podcast with me. Vision Australia's national access technology manager.
S1: Damo McMorrow. Hey, Damo.
S2: G'day, Stephen. How are you?
S1: I'm good. You must be pretty excited. You've got a
S1: new toy.
S2: I do indeed, yes.
S1: Tell us about.
S2: It. So my wife has often joked that I should
S2: have been a drummer rather than a guitarist because I'm forever,
S2: you know, tapping rhythms on things like my desk. You know,
S2: when I'm thinking or trying to work something out or whatever. And, uh,
S2: the other week I was looking around on the web
S2: and I came across a device called a Yamaha FG
S2: 30 finger drum pad. As soon as I said to
S2: mentioned it to Marian, she said, well, you've got to
S2: have one of those. So I now have one. And uh,
S2: the idea of it is it's essentially a drum machine,
S2: but it has a bunch of touch sensitive pads that
S2: represent each of the different types of drums in a
S2: conventional drum kit, and you operate those by tapping them
S2: with your fingers. So the device is the same sort
S2: of footprint as a small iPad, you know, iPad mini,
S2: something like that. But obviously it's quite a bit thicker.
S2: It's about two centimetres thick on the the sides and
S2: the back of the device. There isn't much on the back.
S2: You've got a headphone out and an input jack. You've
S2: got a USB micro for charging. All of the other
S2: controls are on the top of the device, and I'll
S2: sort of talk through what they look like in a moment.
S2: But the thing that really grabbed me about this thing
S2: and as I said, I'm not a drummer. I, you know,
S2: I'm a guitarist, really. But, uh, you know, I'm one
S2: of those people that, uh, you know, the old saying,
S2: when I was a kid, I wanted to play the
S2: guitar really badly, and now I can play the guitar
S2: really badly. Um, so I'm certainly not an accomplished musician
S2: by any means, so I'm still learning. But the thing
S2: that really grabbed me about this was the fact that
S2: it has no screen. So out of the box, everything
S2: on the device speaks. So if I was to navigate,
S2: for example, it has there's a number of different types
S2: of drum kits that you can select. And as I
S2: cycle through those.
S3: Four house rows five R&B six dubstep son.
S2: So these are all different types of drum kits, and
S2: they all obviously have different sounds and that kind of thing.
S1: No screen. So it's designed to be listened to?
S2: Absolutely, yes. And all of the menus and settings and
S2: everything are all spoken out by that same voice. So
S2: it's not even a situation where you have to enable
S2: the voice guidance. It's just there because there's no other
S2: way to really drive it.
S1: Did you have much of a challenge to set it up?
S2: No. The power button was kind of obvious because it's
S2: in the top left hand corner and it's slightly recessed.
S2: So I sort of thought, hmm, that's obviously the power button.
S2: And then I just tapped on the various pads and
S2: things and, um, experimented with the buttons until I, uh,
S2: figured it out.
S1: So tell me about these pads and buttons. How physical
S1: are they?
S2: The pads, they're raised sort of rubber surface, if you like.
S2: And so across the bottom of the device, you've got, uh,
S2: one long rectangular pad, um, which you operate with your thumb.
S2: It kind of feels a bit like a, like a
S2: spacebar on a keyboard is sort of what it reminds
S2: me of, I get it. And you can operate that
S2: normally with your kick drum with either either of your thumbs.
S2: So if I tap that. And the harder I tap it,
S2: the louder the the drum sound. So if I'm, if
S2: I'm tapping it softly if I. So the pad is,
S2: is touch sensitive, then we've got above that. We've got, um,
S2: a row of smaller pads that represent, um, our Tom
S2: type drums. And then so there you've got, um, seven, uh,
S2: pads in that row, and then we've got another row
S2: above that. We've got two smaller squares which are our symbols.
S2: And then we have our snare drum above that. And
S2: that's a long pad like the, like the kick drum.
S2: And then, um, we've got another row of five, um,
S2: pads that are other different, uh, symbols and things. So.
S2: Then above that we've got, um, the power button on
S2: the left, which is slightly recessed, and we've got, uh,
S2: a couple of rows of small oval buttons which are
S2: for navigating your menu, um, adjusting the volume, um, selecting
S2: the type of drum kit you want, um, setting up
S2: your metronome so you can have, like, um, what they
S2: call a click track. And then on the top right is, um,
S2: a square with, um, little holes, which is the built
S2: in speaker. So you can have it coming out of
S2: the built in speaker if you just want to sit
S2: there and drum with it on your lap, or you
S2: can plug it into your mixer, which is what I've
S2: done today, so that you can hear what's happening.
S1: So what, you use it in conjunction with someone using
S1: a keyboard.
S2: Say you could absolutely. Um, you could also do things
S2: like record some drum sequences and save them to a
S2: USB stick, or record them to the device and then
S2: play them back so that you could play keyboard or
S2: guitar or something like that over the top of them. Um,
S2: you can use it as a Midi controller. So if
S2: you're if you're a musician and you want, uh, let's say,
S2: for example, you do live gigs where you sing and
S2: play guitar or sing and play keyboard. You might use
S2: this to record a bunch of, um, you know, drum
S2: tracks to play along with, to sort of fill out
S2: your performance, that sort of thing. Um, you might also
S2: use it if you're a music producer and you want
S2: to sort of show, you know, you've come up with
S2: a song idea or something like that, and you want
S2: to show your band or your drummer, you know what
S2: you're thinking in terms of rhythms or that sort of thing.
S2: You might use it in that scenario as well. Uh,
S2: you might use it as a metronome if you were,
S2: you know, playing drums, you know, playing on a proper
S2: drum kit. Um, there's a, a load of different ways
S2: you could use it, or you could just be a,
S2: you know, a hobbyist and a tinkerer like me who, uh,
S2: has always wanted to play the drums but doesn't have
S2: room for a drum kit and doesn't have neighbors that
S2: would necessarily appreciate it if I did. So, um, yeah,
S2: there's lots of different ways that you could use something
S2: like this.
S1: How did you find it? Damia?
S2: Uh, just sort of randomly. I was, uh, chatting to
S2: a friend of mine over in the US, and, uh,
S2: she happened to mention it, and then she sort of
S2: pointed me towards a, uh, another podcast where the male, uh,
S2: host of the podcast had gotten one for his birthday,
S2: and I sort of thought, oh, this sounds cool. So
S2: I then started looking to see whether they were available
S2: here in Australia and looked at all the different features.
S2: And um, so there's an FG 30. So if you
S2: think FG for finger, DP for drum pad, uh, there's
S2: a 30 and a 50. The 50 does have a
S2: screen though, so I would and I don't think it
S2: has the voice guidance. So the 30 is the one
S2: that is more accessible to us.
S1: What sort of money are you talking about?
S2: I got this one for, I think, $349 from, um,
S2: store DJ slash, Manny's music. Um. Turramurra music. Better music.
S2: Any of your online music stores? Um, would either have
S2: them or be able to get them.
S1: So let's go back to your demo and show us
S1: a little bit more of what it can do.
S2: Okay. So when I sort of demonstrated the different sounds
S2: before you heard that there's a number of different kits for,
S2: for different types of things, and that sort of changes
S2: the sounds that you get out of it. So if
S2: I was to scroll through, for example.
S3: For five R&B, six dubstep son.
S2: So if I do that, some of the cymbal sounds
S2: are a little bit different. And so instead of the
S2: rim shot that we had before on that pad, we've
S2: got that sort of synthetic sound that you tend to
S2: get in a lot of electronic music. There's even a,
S2: beatbox kit. Seven Big Beat which I will.
S3: Ten Modern Jazz 25 hip hop 26 Beatbox Pine.
S2: So if we select Beatbox Pine, which is the, um,
S2: beatbox kit, that's. And for people who don't know what
S2: beatboxing is, that's where you where someone kind of makes
S2: vocal sounds to represent drumming. So, you know, we still
S2: have our kick drum. We've got. Things like that. So
S2: all the sorts of vocal sounds that people make when
S2: they're impersonating a drum kit, which is what beatboxing is
S2: quite remarkable. It really is. And the samples are really
S2: high quality, too. Um, you know, it's very clear that
S2: the audio quality is really good.
S1: Terrific. So it's a Yamaha FG 30. Have I got
S1: that right?
S2: That's right. Yamaha FG for finger DP for drum pad 30.
S2: I would just do a google for something like by
S2: Yamaha FG 30 in Australia, and all of the online
S2: music stores will come up. Alternatively, you could have a
S2: look on Amazon. They do have them up actually a
S2: little bit cheaper than what I paid, but it was
S2: going to take a week and a half to get
S2: there and I was impatient. I wanted something to play
S2: with over my Easter holiday, so um, but you can
S2: definitely probably pick them up on Amazon or eBay as well,
S2: if that's what you want to do.
S1: Good on you Damo. Your Yamaha FDP 30 device a
S1: drum kit while we've got time. A couple of other
S1: matters to ask you about. One, you've got a bit
S1: of news about the we Walk, which is the smart
S1: cane we talked about over the last few months.
S2: Yes, it is a brilliant device. Let me say that
S2: I was very pleased with mine and I took it
S2: to see son. And I'm hoping that for next week's show,
S2: I'll actually be able to give you a little bit
S2: of a demonstration of it. But there is an issue.
S2: A known issue with it at the moment with battery drains.
S2: So even if you leave the device sitting and you're
S2: not using it, if it sits for 3 or 4 days,
S2: you'll probably come back and find that it has a
S2: flat battery. Now we walk, are aware of it and
S2: they are trying to address it. But just a note
S2: to anyone who has one of these that you may
S2: want to. Until this issue is addressed in firmware, you
S2: may want to put it on charge every night just
S2: so that you're not let down by, you know, taking
S2: it out and finding that it's gone flat.
S1: And the other one I wanted to ask you about
S1: is the meta glasses that have been around now for, well,
S1: probably just on 12 months. Updates continue to flow.
S2: They do indeed. Yes. I got mine in May last year,
S2: mid May. And at that stage we were up to,
S2: I think version 5 or 6 of the software. Uh,
S2: they have now just released version 14.1 and there's some
S2: nice features in it if you use, uh, things like Spotify.
S2: So with your music services, you can now tell it
S2: to shuffle a playlist. You know, if you have a
S2: workout playlist or something like that, you can play it
S2: on shuffle. Um, you can get more information about the weather,
S2: so you can get things like air quality and, uh,
S2: UV index and some of those things, rather than just
S2: a generic sort of forecast. Um, unfortunately, we still don't
S2: have the live AI feature. They did say that we
S2: were supposed to get it in March, but, uh, it
S2: hasn't materialized yet, which is a bit of a shame,
S2: because that's one that I'm really looking forward to taking
S2: for a spin. Um, every time I sort of see
S2: a new update, I think, oh, I wonder if this
S2: will be it, but, uh, no. Not yet. Unfortunately for
S2: people who, uh, have these and have experienced the frustration
S2: of it not reading documents, uh, in full. The trick
S2: for that seems to be read this document verbatim, or
S2: read this text verbatim, and that stops it from summarizing and, uh,
S2: and makes it actually read what's there rather than trying to, uh,
S2: summarize it for you.
S1: I'll keep that one in mind. Read this text verbatim.
S1: The meta smart glasses. Before we go, a reminder that
S1: you can find details of what we've been talking about
S1: in this and previous editions of the program by going
S1: to VA radio. VA. To write to the program.
S2: You can email me. At Vision Australia.
S1: Damo McMorrow at Vision Australia. This has been talking tech
S1: with me has been Vision Australia's national access technology manager
S1: Damien McMorrow. I'm Stephen Jolly. Take care. We'll talk more
S1: tech next week. See you.