I have been holding off on writing my review of the product because I wanted to base my opinions on as much playing experience as possible. Having played for almost a week now I feel like I can adequately describe the experience for all of you.
I’m going to break each component down by durability, ease of use, and performance. I’m assuming you already have yours pre-ordered or aren’t getting one due to a lack of funding, if so just try to find something entertaining in here for yourself. Maybe take a moment to check out my game collection. For those of you still on the fence, do let me tell you now why you should get off it and pick one of these bad boys up.
First up is the pads, easily the most used part of the set and arguably the most important. As soon as you open the box containing the drum pads you’ll notice the quality. Holding one in my hands made me realize I may have wasted my money on that three year warranty from Amazon.com. They are constructed of a high quality plastic and the hit surface is some sort of silicon rubber substance. I don’t imagine these pads will break down any time soon. The pads are all attached to brackets and are easily moveable, a large wing nut holds each in place. Any Andre the Giants out there beware, it wouldn’t surprise me if they broke due to over tightening. The responsiveness of the pads is absolutely amazing. I have had no problems at all with missed notes and drum rolls are much easier due to the new surface’s increased rebound action. The only noticeable flaw is how much dust they attract. Luckily you can’t really tell, unless of course you have your camera’s flash on.
The most important thing for me was the new pedal. I had a lot of issues with the original and really wanted to find something better. When I first pulled the pedal out of it’s box I, like with the pads, noticed a great attention to quality. It’s completely constructed out of metal. I had no idea how anyone could ever break this through normal use. If you do, you have problems… The pressure required to depress the pedal is much lower than on the original Rock Band pedal. For me this was important because I usually keep the pedal held down between notes and it’s much easier on this one. There is a bit of a clank noise when I really get going on those fast songs. It only seems to happen when my foot isn’t square on the pedal though so I usually just move the pedal to a position where it isn’t as noticeable. One other perk is the retractable spikes, you can use them to keep the pedal from slipping around on the carpet.
The rack isn’t anything special. It does it’s job and not much more. Constructed of aluminum tubes held together by plastic braces, I doubt if this will ever break for anyone. Having not much else say I’ll move on the what is probably the least important part of the kit as far as function goes, but most important to most in terms of form.
“Playing a fake drum set would be much more entertaining if I could whack on some cymbals.” That was me a year ago. Knowing I was not alone in my wish, I assumed all along it would include cymbals this time around but that didn’t make me any less excited to try playing with them. Let me tell you, these were EASILY the hardest to get set up right. After about an hour of play I realized I simply hated where I had put them so I tore down my whole set to move them around. Then I was having all sorts of trouble with double hits and hits not registering. Luckily I found some help on the forums, you can hit up my assembly tips to read about how to fix that…it’s easy. Once I got through all of that funny business I ended up right where I knew I would all along. Drumming heaven.
This drum set is amazing. Yea, I said it…DRUM SET. It’s hard to tell from the pictures and video’s, but this is a genuine drum set. You can head in to freestyle in Rock Band 2 and you’ve got an electronic drum set sitting right in front of you. I have a hard time believing this thing will ever break down on me, I am in love. The responsiveness is great. The sense of realism I get is unbeatable. And on top of all that, my friends all think I look like a real badass when I play. Thank the lord for cymbals!
