Here’s a picture of Trick Drums’ new bass drum trigger system unveiled at NAMM. The laser apparently reads the grain of the pedal’s metal for performance data (velocity, impact, etc.). More info as I get it.
I can’t totally confirm this yet, but I’ve heard that the “Ludicrous Speed” pedal reads the back motion of the bass drum pedal. I’m guessing that this is to play double bass parts with one pedal.
