Hello Everyone!

I figured I'd take a moment out to write about some of the updates that have been going on in the sidelines here at Drummer Connection! Starting back in December, we brought on Billy Ashbaugh to build an education system on Drummer Connection.  We've equipped and trained him (he's a fast learner) on how to completely be self sufficient in the video editing and publishing phases of Drum Lessons, so Billy has been extremely busy. 

The Holidays came and passed quickly, and then a new arrival here, Joe Brewer who we relocated from Portland Oregon to be our in-house PHP / MySQL and JavaScript developer. Joe hit the ground running fiercly and is now full speed into the code. While he was ramping up, we set off on our next journey.

Meanwhile, the whole crew went to Winter NAMM 2009 and attacked the scene hardcore.  Damian King managed to get up-close interviews with all of the latest Drumming Industry stars, while Keith Thomas and myself built a long lasting relationship with our friends at ddrum during the setup and exhibit during NAMM. Billy Ashbaugh and his lovely wife Jenie hit the ground running and made several contacts and spread the awareness of Drummer Connection throughout their stomping grounds. Chris Carbonaro joined us on the journey and kept everyone from going insane with his good spirit.

Coming home from NAMM, we've beel all over the place. Damian has been busy as can be with the local drum scene and clincs, as well as putting his thoughtfulness into the Jim Chapin Lifetime Achievement Award.  Damian hand delivered and filmed the presentation with some of Drummer Connection's greatest friends to include Dom Famularo and John Spineli from Seminole Music and Sound. 

Another great addition to the team has arrived after much consideration and tremendous offering of time and friendship to Drummer Connection, Jeffrey Cash has joined the team.  "Cash" as we call him around here, (not to be confused when the developers are screaming about their @#$@# CACHE in the next door office) is here to bring us music. Not only music, but music designed for you to JAM to. We've got Drumless tracks onboard with metronome clicks just for you to playalong to! Cash is an exceptional drummer as well as a multi-talented musician. He's been my first Jam-along buddy, and I learned so much jamming with him, and shared so much of it, I've decided to bring him onboard so you can have a slice of Cash in your drumming as well! Enjoy, he's a mad man!

Website Features:

So, what's happening with the Geeks around here? More than you can imagine. Joe and I are locked into the dev office while everyone else is feverishly collecting stories, pictures, videos, and etc for you on the site. Keeping you connected and educated is what we're here for, so the crew has been cranking at it.  Joe and I have been Geeking out with some new features such as:

LIVE RECORDING system right into the website! You don't need to hassle with recording, editing, converting, and messing around with dubbing, etc. You can simply come to the site, pump your mix into your computer and hit record and jam along with our playalongs right here. You can do either Audio Only, or Audio + Video. You simply record, save, leave a description and you're done!  We're preparing contests to giveaway some of these cool items we have at Drummer Connection that manufacturers like Sabian, ddrum and DW have donated for your interests in drumming! 

If you don't want to do a Live recording, and you wish to use your own video recording / or audio recording and publshing methods (ie: record your own MP3 file, or video) then you can also just upload them to the website as well and your version will be included as your playalong to the drumless tracks.

BRAND SPANKIN' NEW VIDEO COMMENT SYSTEM:

Yeah, we've got it. If you've got a webcam, you can now leave video comments. Imagine what you can do with discussions on drum lessons if you have your kit setup for audio / video. Simply press record, you've got 1 minute per comment to either rock the hell out, or confess to us what we need to know to make you a better drummer.  Please, no Blair Witch Snot Shots. 

 

COMMENT MUGSHOTS:

If you want to take and add your mugshot with your webcam, you can do so as well with our Mugshot system. Please, again, no Blair Witch snot shots!

 

General Visual Enhancements

Joe happens to be a kick ass CSS and JavaScript developer, as well as a photoshop nerd (even though he refuses to admit it) he's got the skills and he's been polishing up the website and sometimes, re-polishing when the colors are a bit goofy for my taste. We've hit the homepage, the drum lessons page, and several other places in detail, as well as implementing a whole new media system. So, you should start to see things become easier to use throughout the site. 

New Media System:

We've completely upgraded, overhauled, and made some customizations to the Media players you see on the website. We're also in the process of updating our media streaming server to use better protocols for seeking and buffering (geek stuff...it'll be nice, you will see).  Joe and I have implemented video chapter support for Drum Lessons. You can see a "Chapters" tab on your video and you can seek to spots we found were good focal points of the video. We could tell you more geeky stuff, but take our word for it and just enjoy the new media players!

 

New Comment System:

We never liked how the comments worked in the past, so Joe and I brainstormed and he redesigned the comment systems. No longer do you have to refresh pages while viewing audio / video, and on other newer sections of DC. We also organized comments and added reply support so that you could better correspond.  You can also now edit / delete your own comment (whew!). 

New Playlist System:

You'll start noticing that you have a Blue Tab below your media players. This tab labeled "Add to Playlist" allows you to create playlists on the fly, even while viewing the media on the site without interurpting your flow.  Any media, to include Youtube videos, Drum Lessons, Drumless Tracks, Playalongs can be added to your playlist.  You also have a Playlist section on your profile (still being designed, but functional) that allows you to view and soon edit your playlists. Have fun with this, it can be a great educational or entertainment utility!

Drum Store Database:

We've got Becky working behind the scenes entering information about literally every drum store in the world. Soon, you will have the ability to search, map, shop, and write reviews about almost any drum store in the world. If you're store isn't listed, contact us and let us know, we'll be happy to add it.

New Drum Lessons Youtube Section:

Yeah, we're great at what we do, there's no doubt about that, but there's not enough time in the world to shoot and produce every drum lesson we can think of. We're certainly here to try, but in the meantime and not to sell you short, we've created the Drum Lessons Youtube section where we stream off some cool lessons from Youtube, thus making our education system even more versatile and diverse.

New Forums and Image Gallery Planned:

We've been working on solutoins to move off of the current forum systems and  Image Gallery because they are third-party and we're getting sick of the constant maintenance and lack of customization options. So, we're about to crank out some pretty cool features that are a million times easier to use. Our goal is to make this website "Duh-Proof" and we're on the right track now.

 

Drummer Connection Google Search:

I've mentioned this before, but we've implemented in a search engine that we obtained from Google. This is a physical Google server we own and maintain, and it constantly catalogs our website.  You can use this search anytime you want: http://search.drummerconnection.com to find the most relevant searches. Soon enough, we'll be replacing the search engine you can find on this website with an integrated version of this search engine so that you can easily use it without having to leave this website.

 

We're open to suggestions. Please feel free to participate in this discussion by leaving a comment here, and tell us what you think, like, don't like, want, don't want, or what the temperature is outside. Just leave a friggin' comment so we can start building a community here!

DC Crew. did I forget anything? There's so much happening, it's difficult to keep it all in track.