Mad Catz Rock Band 2 cymbals, portable drums, premium mic, and more: spy shots galore

We promise this is the last Rock Band 2 post of the day (okay, maybe hour), but we were just pulled aside at E3 to peep some less-than over-the-radar product sheets for some upcoming Mad Catz accessories. First off, the Premium M.I.C. ($50) is said to have "studio quality" sound all the while including control buttons -- something we didn't realize was missing from the original Rock Band mic until we thought about it. Then we spotted the Portable Drums ($60), which is great news for those of you who excel at drums but like to play Rock Band on the road. They can be used on any surface and even come with foldable drum sticks. Next up, the Official Cymbals ($30 for a pack of 3 or $15 each) for the new Rock Band 2 drum kit are coming from Mad Catz. Remember those three 1/8-inch plugs on the back of the drum kit head? Yeah, these plug into those. Finally, the Kick Drum Screen doesn't really do much, but it certainly will make you look like a pseudo-real drummer (depending on the angle). Mad Catz says all of these random accessories will hit store shelves this fall. Oh, and apologies for the image quality -- these were literally taken in the corner of a crowded room with maybe two seconds of view time per page.

Gallery: Mad Catz Rock Band 2 Accessories Madness

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

[fudge @ Jul 17th 2008 3:12PM]

Open your eyes close your hands and make a first

[striggity @ Jul 17th 2008 3:14PM]

wow...uber gay. suicide. Commit that.

[fudge @ Jul 17th 2008 3:15PM]

yes i am a terrible person

[striggity @ Jul 17th 2008 3:14PM]

looks like a good time. :-D

[Justin @ Jul 17th 2008 3:16PM]

Is there some kind of attachment that I can use with the OLD Rockband kit, and just add the cymbals or something?

[Odelay17 @ Sep 1st 2008 8:55PM]

No

[Randy @ Jul 17th 2008 3:20PM]

Save up and buy REAL drums.
http://www.axemusic.com/product.asp?numRecordPosition=5&P_ID=18852&PT_ID=86

900 bucks...Losers!

[Jevanzz @ Jul 17th 2008 4:13PM]

FUCK OFF!

[andres @ Jul 17th 2008 7:36PM]

go buy your drums, ill go buy this.
now lets see who has fun first

[matt @ Sep 9th 2008 9:07AM]

those are actually shitty digital drums if your going to buy "real" digital drums.

[yode @ Jul 17th 2008 3:36PM]

Questioning the portable drums and how pointless they are...

[Kinger @ Jul 17th 2008 3:53PM]

I have to say it.

The official RB 2 kit looks much nicer. sticks down.

[Guerrilla Mason @ Jul 17th 2008 3:55PM]

In the third (I believe) picture in the slide show, it looks like the cymbals are attached to the RB1 drums. What's up with that?

[Guerrilla Mason @ Jul 17th 2008 3:56PM]

I'm blind...it looks like the RB1 drums in ALL the pictures of the cymbals.

[Jomolungma @ Jul 17th 2008 3:59PM]

I'm assuming this will all work out in the end, but the cymbals box indicates three symbols but only two extension polls. I'm confused as to set up.

[caf @ Jul 17th 2008 4:02PM]

Is it just me or are all the cymbals in the wrong place?

[SteveJ @ Jul 17th 2008 4:05PM]

So what do these cymbals do exactly? From the Rock Band article earlier (one of them) it sounded like these were mostly just for show, that it wasn't necessary to hit the cymbals. Or does RB2 actually have 7 different columns (or whatever they call them) for the drums/percussion?

[ac3249 @ Jul 17th 2008 4:27PM]

I was thinking the same thing too. Then I took a closer look that picturesand I noticed that color coding on the cymbals match the colors on the pad. Maybe you'll have the option of either hitting the Cymbals or the pad.

[belgand @ Jul 18th 2008 9:53PM]

They will function like the pads in most sections, but in the drum trainer and fills they will be mapped to different drum sounds as will the Ion drum kit. I've also read, albeit more anecdotally, that at the end of fills when you hit the crash cymbal and hit the add-on cymbal instead of the pad there will be a slight score bonus, but this is unconfirmed.

Frankly I didn't know that Madcatz was releasing the official cymbal add-on. I mean, I knew they were doing those offical Rock Band instruments that have already been announced, but with the greater interest in RB2 it looked like that was becoming a losing proposition.

[Seraf @ Jul 17th 2008 4:09PM]

hm...couldn't you take the portable drums and just lay them over something like a real drum set or electronic drum set? Seems like a workable solution to using your own kit in rock band...although with the ability to just plug in an electronic kit its pretty useless :)

[huh @ Jul 17th 2008 4:31PM]

Can someone answer a somewhat related question for me (seriously). I got very interested in Dance Dance Revolution as a way to have fun and get a bit of coordination practise/exercise in. Unfortunately, the game proved to be totally designed for the hardcore. Either you were aiming for the maximum complexity/BPM, or you weren't playing. I would rather find something that is more fun oriented.

Are these Rock Band type games the same, or can you just play it for fun without it constantly trying to trip you up? I've never tried them but would if they weren't too competitive. (I do realize that currently these games are dissimilar from playing real instruments, but surely they will transition into some form of instrument playing).

[SteveJ @ Jul 17th 2008 4:12PM]

I don't quite get your comments on DDR. You can just pick a lower difficulty level to start with. If the lowest difficulty level is too difficult, then I would recommend looking for a copy of Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix (for the Gamecube - get a Gamecube too if you don't have a Wii, they are super cheap now). It has an even easier starting skill level, and it's a fun game. If you mean that at the lowest skill level you don't get a lot of exercise, that's true, but it won't take that long to get the hang of it and be doing faster stuff that will get your heart rate up. IMHO, DDR is a fantastic way to get exercise.

As far as how the difficulty compares to Rock Band. I would say they are fairly similar. If DDR was too hard even at the easiest skill level, then I think you will be frustrated with RB (and Guitar Hero) too. Guitar is much easier than drums, though. As far as how much exercise you get, there is no comparison. RB does not provide any significant exercise. It's not a good substitute for DDR.

[huh @ Jul 17th 2008 4:21PM]

SteveJ, thanks for your comments. Actually I glossed over the fact I was trying StepMania, an open source clone of DDR. While it looked similar, it seemed entirely oriented toward people keenly into the game.

I don't expect to get any exercise out of RB, just some fun and maybe a bit of the sense of playing instruments with other people.

[huh @ Jul 17th 2008 4:38PM]

... but my complaint is these games (the one I've tried) all seemed oriented toward "getting to the next level" rather than having fun playing around,which I would prefer. I'd like to see it more aimed toward learning and practising, like a real musical instrument, rather than just learning some trick to get to the next level.

[greatajax @ Jul 17th 2008 5:32PM]

I've played stepmania, and it basically IS DDR, if you go and download an illegal package of the DDR songs - right down to the difficulty. But when people make custom step patterns for their own music, they tend to only create the hardest step patterns.

If you're buying DDR and want to make sure its easy, get a newer one. The older ones tend to have more steps and to be generally more difficult, I find. They also seem aimed more at the Japanese.

Also, DDR and Rock Band drumming are mutually supporting - getting good at the one will improve you at the other. And rock band drumming can be exercise, but it will never approach the level of DDR's 20 calories or so per song (on hard).

[huh @ Jul 17th 2008 6:02PM]

Thanks!

You inspired me to look into it a bit more, from reading http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/puzzle/rockband/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;review it seems that Rock Band is more oriented toward novices (whereas many other games are oriented toward experts). I'll look for a chance to try it.. and try to find that DDR song pack for StepMania too.

[The 3rd Hot Dog @ Jul 17th 2008 4:55PM]

I thought that drum screen shot was showing optional cupholders...

[CCasey @ Jul 17th 2008 4:56PM]

Yea bro it is laid back if you wanna play on easy.

My buddies and I would start playing at around 6 on Med-Hard on the hard songs (depending on instrument) and work our way down toward the easy songs and/or easy skill level the drunk-er we got!

Our skills dramatically decreased as liquor intake increased but it was damn fun the whole way through!

[The 3rd Hot Dog @ Jul 17th 2008 4:58PM]

My real drums are in storage right now because I live in an apartment. You've never engaged in escapism before?

[Justin @ Jul 17th 2008 4:59PM]

Coming soon: the new Rock Band 2 cash shredder...

[Guerrilla Mason @ Jul 17th 2008 5:26PM]

I'm in.

[Jhongerkong @ Jul 18th 2008 12:13AM]

Fake plastic instruments are serious business

[Khaled @ Jul 18th 2008 8:22AM]

Better images and from the Link

"both companies stated in no uncertain terms that all products
related to Rock Band will be made with the utmost quality in mind. We
were told that around eighty percent of Mad Catz's resources were
thrown at perfecting Rock Band related products. The folks at Harmonix
also said that there had been lots of back and forth between the
companies. Mad Catz plans to release an entire line of premium Rock
Band peripherals, and even some totally new designs that are exclusive
to them.

Mad Catz decided to utterly blanket the Rock Band franchise with
products.

The company partnered with Fender to make full size replicas of the
guitar and the bass. Both will be made from actual Fender bodies, and
will have the full heft of a real guitar.

The over engineering of these guitars became readily apparent when we
were told that these guitars were meant to handle up to 2.5 million
presses before failure; standard Rock Band controllers fail after 1.5
million presses. "
http://e3.gamespot.com/blog.html?topic_id=26494089
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Actually these are not the Madcatz Rock band 1st wave accessories that will hit the market in few days but probably 2nd wave.

So Rockband, Rockband 2, Coffin Case & Fender Licenses by Madcatz, all this 2nd half 2008

[Bryan @ Jul 19th 2008 2:18AM]

ya whats up with the box. it says 2 extension poles, yet shows 3. it better come with 3.... i also kinda wish the cymbals werent so ugly. theyre not like the GH:WT ones, and theyre not like the ION kit ones. theyre weird looking. and the poles are rather thick. but i'll probly buy em anyway. just cuz it completes the set.

[john @ Aug 2nd 2008 2:37AM]

wat is wrong with u people, idiots, it looks the same as rock band 1 drums but wayy wayyy more upgraded and won't break like rock band 1's drums. first of all, the kick pedal is metal so it won't break. 2nd of all u can get a 2nd pedal(with metal) on it .3rd of all, they are velocity sensitive and thicker and won't be louder then the music is playing. 4th of all, portable is good, i always go to my couzins place and he only has play station 1 so he always tells me to bring guitar hero(i have the wii and rock band sucks pretty bad on the wii, hopefully rock band 2 is better on teh wii, but some people say it sucked on wii because they were rushed and were already working on rock band 2)and the wii lol, so i could bring it no problem now. 5th of all, the cymbals are just teh same as the pads, but they give u the feel of playing real drums.6th of all, there are 2 kinds of drums u can get for rock band 2, and that is this one and the real electronic drum kit that u can use as drums in life or drums in rock band 2 called the ion drum kit, it's amazing,adjustable and real! Journey John has made his point.

[john @ Aug 2nd 2008 2:57AM]

the guitar is more upgraded to. 1st of all, the new fender guitar has a fully new desighned strum bar to go faster(faster notes) and work more accurately. 2nd of all, the neck of teh guitar is more grippy so your hands won't slip. 3rd of all, the end of teh neck of teh previous rock band 1's guitar had an annoying screw there and now it's gone and more smooth. 4th of all, it looks wayy better and more smooth like. 5th of all, it is way quieter then rock band 1's guitar and i think more quieter then guitar heros(not excatly sure but really quiet) they even tested it and all that shit. 6th of all, fancy sunburst paint job and a faux-wood neck. Wireless functionality is huge step forward in reducing clutter. The guitar also has a new auto-calibration feature that makes the game much easier to set up and play. so it has auto calibration in all intruments, The original Rock Band setup had a manual calibration method that was error-prone due to user interaction. Harmonix indicates that the auto-calibration should make flat-panel TVs as easy to play on as CRTs. well this one point from a website describes how quiet the new rock band 2's guitars are, Boch told to us that he regularly tested out button variations at home while friends watched movies in the same room. His friends couldn't even tell he was playing the guitar during the movie when he tested the new controller. lol this is were u can look up the new guitar at this website...... http://www.gamespot.com/features/6195188/p-2.html one of the people who commented said there coming out with a new rock band 2 guitar in september, i guess we will have to see lol. the mic is also upgraded and is way better than rock band 1's mic. so ya

[matt @ Sep 9th 2008 9:05AM]

when does rock band 2, the roadies series come out? I can't wait to put back up the mic stand when the lead singer knocks it over, give the drummer towels when he is too sweaty, hook up the bassist with blow between songs, and show the ladies to the bands backstage room.