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.

Good news, plastic rockers -- Activision announced at E3 today that its upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour game will work with Rock Band's controllers, including the drumkit, and that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith on Xbox 360 has received an update that "should" make the game compatible with Harmonix's axes. Nothing too wild on the Aerosmith tip, as the guitars should just work now (finally!), but Activision's had to do some work to make World Tour play nice: the game is designed for a five-pad drumkit, but it'll compress down to four to work with Rock Band's set. See? Friends all around. Is that so hard, guys?

Read - Guitar Hero: Aerosmith updated
Read - Guitar Hero: World Tour

Sure, Guitar Hero and Rock Band have fake plastic Gibson and Fender controllers, but cheap plastic ain't exactly rock'n'roll -- which is why this new StarPex PS2 / PS3 guitar controller looks pretty sweet. The ersatz Strat features a hardwood body and neck crafted by "a leading guitar manufacturer" (we'd bet $100 it's made by Samick), as well as solo buttons, an Overdrive / Star Power button in addition to the tilt sensor, and both wired and wireless capabilities. On top of that, the electronics are modular, so you'll eventually be able to swap parts and build your own custom axe. Sounds great -- but you better start singing in the subway, since this thing'll set you back $179 when it goes on sale late next month. Yeah, maybe we'll stick with the plastic axes after all.

Well, that was quick. We mentioned Ion's fancy drum kit yesterday, which will be released around when Rock Band 2 ships, but works with both Rock Band games, and now we've got a price and a press shot of the Drum Rocker. The $300 set has high-durability pads, which are supposed to play quiet and will register the velocity of your hits, but the real win is the re-configurability of the whole set -- much like a for-realises electronic drum kit. We're also really digging the metal-reinforced kick pedal, which seems a major improvement over the junky, difficult pedal packaged with the original game. Only $300? We'll take two.

[Via Joystiq]

Alright, this is getting a little silly. First it was Gibson claiming that Rock Band and Guitar Hero violated a patent covering "simulating a musical performance," and now Konami is suing Harmonix, Viacom, and MTV Game because Rock Band allegedly violates a similar set of patents covering "simulated musical instruments" and "musical rhythm-based matching games." Filed in good ol' Marshall, the suit seeks the big green in damages and an order preventing the sale of Rock Band's instruments. Interestingly, Gamasutra noticed last year that the fine print on Activision's Guitar Hero homepage says the game is covered by the Konami patents in question, so it appears that Activision's managed to reach a licensing agreement with Konami -- which, if true, doesn't necessarily bode well for Harmonix and company. No one's commenting yet, but we hear Harmonix's lawyers are furiously punching in the old up-up-down-down trying to get this to go away.

Read - Wired article on the lawsuit
Read - Gamasutra article
Read - Konami's complaint (PDF)
Read - Konami patent covering simulated musical instruments (PDF)
Read - Konami patent covering musical arcade machines (PDF)
Read - Konami patent covering musical game machines (PDF)

While the axe that comes with Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is pretty sweet, if you were hoping to just get the game and use your Rock Band guitar, you're out of luck. Despite rumors that Activision had opened its doors to the Harmonix-made Rock Band guitar controllers, early users of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith are reporting that the Xbox 360 version game isn't being so friendly after all. The sad message: "An unsupported guitar peripheral has been detected. Connect either a Guitar Hero guitar or Xbox 360 controller and press START to continue." It's like they never even knew each other.

Whoa, wait a minute -- Mad Catz signed on to produce Rock Band instruments? Sure enough, the deal was announced shortly before CES 2008 consumed our lives, and now we're hearing whispers that the first products from said agreement could hit stores as early as next week. We're talking a Fender bass ($69.99), Telecaster ($79.99), microphone ($59.99), portable drum kit ($49.99) and a premium drum set ($149.99). From what we can glean, everything listed above will be tethered, but we aren't writing off wireless versions just yet. Oh, and be sure you consult with the SO before you up and purchase a second kit for the den -- you can't afford for that first one to get defenestrated.

Oh, hey, is that the Wii Rock Band drum kit? On shag, you say? And wireless with the included dongle? Say, is that all white plastic? Well, it turns out this kit has basically the same feeling as its other-platform counterparts, with the exception of some softer drum pads and a strengthened kick pedal. Sold, Harmonix, sold.

While we of course rock oh-so-very-hard on Rock Band's drums, the pedal just never felt right under our weakling calves. The problem is naturally exacerbated for folks in wheelchairs, since there's no way to avoid the kick drum or re-route it to another button -- at least out of the box. Some folks at Kinetic Communications modded up a doorbell to work as the kick drum button and screwed it to a drum stick. Not the prettiest mod in the world, but it got their wheelchair-bound buddy drumming for about $20, and it shouldn't be hard to replicate their instructions.

GameStop leaked the existence of the $100 Rock Band Stage Kit back in January, and it's updated the listing with the first pictures we've seen of the included smoke machine and strobe light. The smoke machine looks fairly ordinary, but the light features controls so Rock Band vocalists can apparently blind themselves while making selections. The kit's listed with a ship date of August 15, but who knows if that's accurate -- and considering you can pick up a real fogger and strobe light sufficient to glam out your living room for all of $50, we're not exactly waiting on pins and needles.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

When it comes to sussing out info on Guitar Hero IV, we've seen blurry images and scanned pictures, but now Activision is getting all official on us with a Fall release date and complete feature list. So here's what we know: Guitar Hero: World Tour (as it's called) will include a drum kit with cymbals, a new guitar controller, and a microphone. In terms of game modes, look for a Music Studio music creator that will let you compose, record, edit, and share your own music -- fear that -- and an 8-player "Battle of the Bands" should keep things interesting both on and offline. They're calling it "The Guitar Hero experience reinvented" and we can't argue with that, at least until the game actually comes out in Fall 2008 for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and PS2. Peep the official trailer and Lenny Kravitz ubiquity after the break.

[Via Boy Genius]

Brilliant, just brilliant. As if Rock Band wasn't living room clutter enough, Activision is busting out a drumset for Guitar Hero IV, and now Konami is getting in on the "pretending to play music" meme with its very own Rock Revolution title. If the oversaturation of incompatible music peripherals wasn't enough to make you take pause, the janky-ass nature of Konami's kit certainly might. Granted, there are more things to hit on Konami's set, Rock Revolution allows you to improvise in between the proscribed hits, and doesn't require that pesky kick drum until midway through its five difficulty levels, but MTV Multiplayer's Patrick Klepek didn't have too easy of a time hitting on it, while his buddy did a lot of plastic smashing attempting to improvise -- not a promising start. Oh, what was that? We can play "Sk8er boi"? We take it all back, when can we buy?

[Via Joystiq]

It doesn't look like Activision and Harmonix are ever going to make nice and implement broad hardware compatibility for Rock Band and Guitar Hero controllers, but if you've got a sizable investment in PS2 gear, The Ant Commandos' new converter might let you ignore all the nastiness and keep rockin' anyway. TAC's Universal PS2-to-PS3 Converter is compatible with PS3 Rock Band and PS2 / PS3 GHIII, and it works with basically every PS2 axe you can think of, wired and wireless. Not bad for just $20, but c'mon, guys, let's just make this stuff work for real, alright?

It's one thing to use a real live stompbox to activate Overdrive; it's another to hack up your Rock Band kick pedal to enable that sweet, sweet double bass action that Lars Ulrich, Joey Jordison and the rest of the crew (read: you) just have to have. As you'd expect, there's a bit more to it than just adding in a splitter, but if you're not frightened by circuitry diagrams and having to ask the hobby store guy for a 5-volt power supply, you'll be more than fine. Check out the video demonstration after the jump, and tap the read link for the full list of instructions.

[Via MAKE]