The upcoming edition of Game Informer is going to have a juicy feature on Rock Band 2. One of the more startling revelations in the feature is that two sets of drums will be offered to players. The first set looks much like the original with the standard four pads. Fortunately, this time the pads are actually cushioned, which should help all of your neighbors sleep at night. It is also sporting a reinforced kick pedal to avoid those nasty breaking incidents. Additionally, players will have the option to upgrade the standard set with an expansion pack that adds two cymbals to the piece.
Pictured above is my artist rendition of the big daddy drums that will be sold optionally with Rock Band 2. It’s called the “Ion drum kit” and has a seriously sleek black finish and decent metal detail work. This thing is rocking three cymbals, four drum pads, and a reinforced foot pedal. This best part is that the set can be utilized away from the game as a fully-featured electronic set, if you have the required stuff to do it.
Both sets of cymbals will have corresponding colors with the pads on the drum kit. Basically they will act as alternate buttons, instead of completely different inputs. Harmonix alludes to the fact that in future updates or revisions the cymbals could possibly play a larger role. Both these sets are completely optional as well. The original Rock Band drums will operate perfectly in Rock Band 2. The only difference is that you will look infinitely more hardcore behind that Ion set.
Personally, I would love to sit down and act like I could traverse a huge kit, but I know my bounds. Are any of you ready to toss down the dough that something like this would cost? I know my biggest concern with the original Rock Band was finding a place to put all the instruments in. There's absolutely no way something this big could fit in any agreeable place in my apartment.
[Thanks, Gantz!]
Contest:
12:00 PM on 07.11.2008
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The only problem is, well shipping that thing to Peru can cost me both eyes, and i woun´t be able to look at hte TV to play with it.
by the time either of these games come out we'll be playing a full drumset with 30 touch-sensitive locations :p
my head's a'spinnin....
2 cymbals FTW!
$1,000?
Niero hands out $1,000 dollar bills and tells people to keep the change when he buys Pez refills.
He uses $1,000 dollar bills for spit balls.
He got rid of the "free candy" bowl and put up a "free $1,000 bill" bowl.
...I'm just bored and at work and felt the need to post again :)
So this drum controller would certainly suit the needs of someone who is getting into drumming with Rock Band but is still on the fence about wanting to fully invest in the hobby, sure, but Guitar Freaks/Drummania had compatibility with (proven quality) Yamaha kits, and I can't remember for sure but maybe any drum kit.
I haven't experienced a real electronic kit in person, do different brands have vastly different connections or something? It seems like most would just connect via MIDI or USB.
I have a Roland V-Drum (TD-3K).
All electronic kits are just midi triggers pluged in a brain that plays samples (from shitty ones like I have to awsome like the TD-20)
They have a midi out/in and can be pluged to a USB device with a MIDI to USB cable.
I use this setup to drive a VST plugin in Cubase to have kickbutt sound with EZDrummer instead of the crap sound I get from my TD-3 brain.
I would be a simple mater to map a midi note to a controller button with the provided velocity.
I almost considered getting v-drums at one point but decided I'd better actually learn to play my guitar before merrily skipping to the next impulse instrument.
I think having the ability to hook up any pair of drums to the game would be a really neat advantage that could serve as an excellent practice and learning tool, which would be awesome for guitar too but obviously that would be a lot more complicated (hopefully Guitar Rising will prove it can be done well).
The way things are going it wouldn't surprise me if by Rock Band 4 it had cross support and game modes for simplified game peripherals and real instruments. That way the 'go play a real instrument' arguement becomes a moot point and the market for music games expands even further.
I've seen the Ion drum kit, and let me say, DO WANT. Before I can afford that though, I'll be buying the bundle so I can get the new improved drum kit and guitar (plus trading in my current wired one for another wireless one), even though I just finished getting everything together for my perfect drumkit (drum pads, wooden support from Conrad's friend, and Omega Pedal). I guess as long as I can still use the wooden support and Omega Pedal with the improved drum kit, I'll be happy.
Agreed. I would much rather have a second bass pedal than any number of "cymbals", then they could release more metal songs and won't have to gimp songs that feature double bass. You could even use the second pedal for a high hat if there's no second bass.
Me, thats who. Neil Peart drumkit mod plzkthx.
I'll probably be picking up the drum kit and cymbals, but hope they don't take too long implementing alternative gameplay with the cymbals. While I'm not expert on the drums, I am looking for some more advanced drumming on medium and hard modes.