Hands (and feet) on with ION's Drum Rocker Rock Band Premium Drum Set
By Nilay Patel 
posted August 25th 2008 1:34PM
posted August 25th 2008 1:34PM
Update: Joystiq also got a chance to check this bad boy out, they didn't like it quite as much as we did. Take a peek here.
- The kick drum pedal is fairly beefy, and while it's not quite some monster DW rig, it's pretty nice for what it is -- it's certainly going to stand up to abuse better than the Harmonix unit. The action is fairly light, but you'll have to get used to it.
- The pads are way nicer than the original kit's, but they still don't feel like drums, more like really nice practice pads. It'll be interesting to see how they work when used with a game that registers pressure-sensitivity.
- The cymbals are just duplicate pads -- you can actually pick which color you want to double. That led to some odd patterns in Rock Band since the game doesn't know about cymbals, but we'd bet that Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour have it sorted.
- We definitely had to re-calibrate Rock Band to make this rig playable, so don't expect to be able easily to swap between kits or anything.
- Sadly, it doesn't register as a regular MIDI controller when plugged into a computer -- hackers, get on it!
will the omega pedal work with this kit?
What I REALLY want to know is if you can plug in pads from a real e-drum set and they register. Please test this capablity.
I already own a roland set. If I can plug my set into the brain and have it work, I'd appreciate it. It would also let me know whether I could wait and see if they produced just the RB2 brain.
thanks
1.waste of money if you look at it like this - should i pay $300 for this drum kit by itself or $180 and get a guitar, mic, good enough drums, and the game
2. im glad i have the 360 version of the first game cause its drums/mic and 2 wireless Les Paul guitars seem like the best combo so far
As long as it doesn't slide back on wood floors. Every time I play drums in Rock Band the drums slide away from me, which makes it really hard to play well.
I really want to know if i can plug in my Roland set at long last and play rockband on my real-electric set!
Anyone know if just the hub where all the 1/4" jacks plug in will be available by itself? It seem to me that my Yamaha digital set would work if I had that controller.
Over an hour to set this up? Not sure if it requires a hardware key, but even so a monkey should be able to set this up faster consider a real 7 piece drum set can take under 30 minutes to setup.
I was talking about from first opening the box to getting it set up -- see all those separate boxes? Each one was full of individually-wrapped parts that had to be assembled and tightened with a drum key.
I MIGHT buy it if it was $300 and was compatible with 360, wii, and PS3, and also Guitar Hero World Tour on each of those consoles.
Looks very nice. I've never played Rock Band, so if 2 is going to be this good looking, I might finally buy a console.
SWEET! I want one....now if i can only win the lottery....
Buy a real drum set and stop being so gay.
(I don't care if you are gay, I'm just hitting on the South Park reference.)
Shut up.
the official drum kit came with an adapter for your 360 headset. an adapter and harness to be exact.
Timmy and the lords of the underworld is a bonus track on Rock Band 1(meaning HMX didn't pay one dime to get in the game). Trey and Matt both play Guitar hero and rock band as does most of their animation studio. Get over yourself and maybe realize there was more to that episode than making fun of people who take these games too seriously.
@CraigJ
"being the best drummer on Rock Band does not make you Neil Peart."
being the biggest douche bag on engadget doesn't make you any less of a cum dumpster.
sweet. Not the drum set, although that too is sweet, but my first 'sweet' was for that rug, because I have the same one in my theater room. It's bigger though, and my theater room is just a regular 12'x21' room converted to a theater, but I was wondering if I should place the subwoofer to my theater rig on top of the carpet, or on the side of it that's still part of the regular floor? will the carpet (is it a carpet or is it a rug? whatevs) deafen the sub?
Maybe we can get a video of you guys rocking out on it? :)
Why no mention of how the Ion set actually PERFORMED compared to the original. I WANT to know if they work as well. Well, do they??
Based on how you have the Ion kit set up, I'd say you've never seen a real drum kit before.
You're right, I don't look at drums very often -- in the H70s we've replaced the drummer with Ableton entirely and no one cares. ;)
would you still have to calibrate this even if you play on a CRT tv?
*slap*
Skip the drum kit and go buy a low end LCD.
Forget the drum kit! What kind of decks n mixer setup you got in the background there???!!!
And I thought the old drum set took a lot of space.
It's not assembled right. The crossbar that supports the yellow and blue pads fits in the top brackets of the legs. The supports for the red and green pads go in the lower brackets. With that change, you can rotate the side supports in and it would only be slightly wider than the original drum set.
After reading some of the comments here, I couldn't help but laugh.
Getting real driving experience playing a video game? I'd love to see some idiot who believes that, play a racing game for months then get behind the wheel of a car for his driving exam. You ain't walking away with a license kids. Just a heads up on that...
As for Rockband and it's follow-up?
I have been playing drums for 34 years. I've only been playing guitar for about 3 years. I love this game. It's not even close to being a learning tool or a way to learn real skills. But it's one heck of an amazing game. I play with my real musician friends at least once a week, I also play with my non-musically inclined friends regularly. It's about having fun.
Now I too wish I could hook up my Yamaha kit to this game and play, but it didn't stop me from ordering this new drum kit ($300+ is a Hell of a decent investment compared to the 8000$ I paid for mine). We've already modified an old beater Les Paul with the wired controller for Rockband 1 (well, I didn't, my guitarist buddy did), and having an even better kit to jam with on the game will be a blast.
If you can play real instruments that doesnt mean youre going to be able to make any good music lol.And for that matter be able to write any songs. Anyways Rock band and guitar hero are stictly RYTHEM games.not making music its mainly about keeping the beat.
Have you guys had a chance to test this as an actual e-kit yet? That is the only thing keeping me from buying it. If possible, could you test it with multiple brains?