Rock Band Premium Drum Kit

As far as video games go, no game takes up more of my time than Rock Band.  I’m not much of a fan of the guitar playing, but I’m addicted to the drums and vocals.  I think those are the two skills in the game that are the most realistic.  For the vocals, you at least have to hit the notes.  The lyrics don’t matter, but it can be difficult if you naturally can’t do it.  Sadly, for the first installment of Rock Band, vocals was the only skill that I was able to complete on expert level.  For everything else, I at least got halfway through the tour on hard level.

Rock Band 2 was released for Xbox a few weeks ago and I bought it the same week and I’ve been playing it frequently trying to unlock all of the songs.  I chose to start out on drums even though anybody who has had previous experience with the Guitar Hero series and easily unlock all of the songs using guitars.  I really enjoy the non-linear progression through the tour section.  You can find songs randomly by playing “mystery sets” or you can play a set with pre-determined songs.  Either way, you unlock the songs once you successfully finish them.  As you unlock more cities and venues, you have a lot of freedom to simply wander the map and play a gig anywhere.  Unlocking 84 songs takes awhile, but I was able to accomplish it sometime during the weekend.

I’ve been big on accessorizing the game.  I have guitar stands for all of my guitars.  I also have a microphone stand, which makes it easier to play and instrument and do vocals at the same time.  I have a drummer’s throne, which is a lot more comfortable than a dining chair.  With Rock Band 2, I’ve actually put some money into downloads and licenses.  I purchased the license to import the original Rock Band songs into the second edition.  I have a few downloaded tracks, but by far the coolest thing I’ve purchased for this game is the premium drum kit built by Ion.  The big problem with the standard Rock Band drum kit was its flimsiness.  It was loud and you could easily break the kick pedal or drum pad.  The premium drum kit is a lot more sturdy and is built to take a beating.  The drum pads are a lot more solid, but are a lot quieter than the pads on the standard kit.  The kick pedal is metal and fairly heavy.  It makes a very loud click when it’s activated, but if you’re used to the old kit and learned to delicately use the kit pedal, it isn’t much of a problem.  You can also add an actual electronic drum brain and a kick pad and pedal and it becomes a functional electronic drum kit.

Gameplay doesn’t change at all with the cymbal pads.  The game graphics don’t magically add new parts to add cymbals.  The look of the drum track stays the same.  Basically, your yellow cymbal serves the same function as your yellow drum pad.  The game doesn’t know the difference.  You don’t have to use the cymbals at all and just play the premium kit as if you were using the standard four-pad kit, but what’s the fun in that?  The retail price on the premium kit is $300.  There is also an add-on kit for a third cymbal and future plans include an add-on kit for a second kick pedal.   I guess crazy people like me are too eager to spend that kind of money to have something cool to play a video game with, but after having played with it for the past two days, it’s an awesome toy to play Rock Band with.  The only criticism I have is that it takes a long time to set up.  It took me over two hours to put it together and adjust everything to where it’s comfortable for me.

For more information visit www.drumrocker.com.

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