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Rock Band Drum Kit Modded
Brett "Buzz" Dawson writes "Seeing all of the Guitar Hero guitar mods I thought it would be an interesting change of pace to mod a full-sized drum kit for use as a Rock Band game controller. With everything that I build I take lots of pictures to document the build process so here is the full build of my drum kit." Fortunately at my house Kathleen has been doing the drumming, so I don't think I need to go to these extremes to handle the abuse. I'm more interested in mods that let you use the original drums as a real instrument like the guitar mods that are floating out there. The tiny bits of drum solo time in Rock Band don't satisfy my internal Keith Moon.
If you have the PS3 version of Rock Band, then here's how to mod your drum kit:
Step 1: Plug drum kit into PC.
Done. Your PC will detect the PS3 drum kit as a MIDI device.
Check out this link for details for the Xbox-360 version:
http://news.filefront.com/rock-band-drums-for-pc-xbox-360-vs-ps3-kit/
In response to the editor comment: I hooked up my drum controller to my MacBook and used GamePad Companion to feed keystrokes into Ableton Live. I was able to use it as a real drum kit for a bit but I'm not a drummer, so instead I started using pitched tones for each of the pads.... much more interesting!
I posted the results on my blog.
Post-rock/Ambient/Drone and other noise.
And here I thought I was a bad-ass hanging a cow bell from mine.
This HAS to be one of the coolest game controllers out there. And it lets you get your rock on extra special loud I bet. Hate the neighbors? Get their kids one of these.
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
When playing the drums on Rock Band, keep your thumbs in the weak position, wrapped around the sticks, and not in the strong position on the top, despite the temptation to do the opposite. It didn't even occur to me until I woke up this morning to find my right thumb's knuckle was on fire.
Maybe it said that in the manual. I wouldn't know, I'm male.
It's about video games and hardware hacks. Why not?
Seek and ye shall find.
What's not to like?
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
Yes, we get it. You're a real musician, while all us fakers are just crappy little fools completely incapable of understanding what music really is. Thanks for reminding us that we're not real rock stars, and that video games are not the real world. I will stop enjoying my rock band drumsticks immediately.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
I fucking agree!
I bought the computer game "Civilization 4" and found it to be totally unrealistic, if I applied my usual style of leadership, the America in-game would be wiped out quickly, no matter how I tried to save it!
-George W Bush
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
STFU. I train as a classical pianist (level 6 RCM) and guitar player (started 6 months ago). And even though I find rockband/gh to be nothing more than a "game" or "toy" it's still fun. I've played a few pieces on the drumset (Don't Fear the Reaper, for instance) and it was a hell of a lot of fun.
Bullshit comments like this amount to nothing but ego-self-stroking. As if you're so much high and mightier because you mocked a toy.
Ya sure, nobody should claim because they're good at GH or RB that they're really a musician, but that doesn't mean they aren't challenging and fun games. Otherwise if it were so trivial, you should be able to play any piece at the Expert level. I mean, it's just a dumb toy right?
Actually - as someone who plays guitar - I can't fully agree with your comment. Although, in part, being good at Rockband is not going to make you a better guitarist, I believe it does help beginners move their fingers independently. Which is one of the early battles people face when trying to learn how to play guitar correctly.
I can't really say the same thing for drums or singing. On a side note, has anyone actually used the microphone yet, and is it really lame?
The point wasn't to put down non-musicians.
If one doesn't already play music, they can just follow the note indicators on the screen and play the game, eventually making the music the game wants the player to make. But, if one already plays music, they tend to try to play what sounds like it should be played rather than just following the notes on the screen--this makes the easier levels actually harder, because of simplified or abbreviated patterns.
And here I thought rock guitarists were usually the whiny divas.
Seriously, stop having fun!
http://xkcd.com/359/
Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
I quite agree. I'm not a drummer, though I think I was born to be one (always wanted to, never was allowed growing up and can't afford drums now), and I keep having to drastically weaken my blows because I'm whaling away and I'm worried I'll break the drums. Also, they're so bloody small and close together I can't flail around while playing like God intended. It's a problem.
ResidntGeek
Modding real guitar to be guitar controller, friend has modded drums for a drum controller... given how much lip syncing is done in music now, at this point you'd basically be in "real" band!
stuff |
Q: What do drummers and groupies have in common? :)
A: They both like to hang out with musicians.
"Slow down, Cowboy! It has been 3 years, 7 months and 26 days since you last successfully posted a comment."
Exactly, they're set up more like orchestra tom-toms with a foot petal! Which fine for mimicking some tonal things isn't the right feel for a rock band's drum set. Also, they're the soft practice pads. Good for the game and the people around you HORRIBLE for the proper recoil from the stick for the faster movements. There is an arcade game where you play drum set and I like its layout MUCH better... Can't think of its name though...
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
Mods are great, but hard work. I designed my GHX software to work with an unmodified guitar hero controller.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkyRRSSKHLU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8do51fVRyzY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMTHozq4XPI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3ohtqvF33c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2wk70ZSZNc
I think the sky's the limit on this whole guitar hero/rock band thing. Practically every kid I know got Rock Band for Christmas, and every one of their parents took a turn on the drums or microphone.
Man, I didn't get ANY oral hygene products with my kit. Not a one.
for a video showing someone fraggin in COD4 with a drumkit controller...
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
Q: What do you do to a musician without talent?
A: Give him 2 sticks and make him a drummer!
Q: What do you do with a drummer who can't keep time?
A: Take one of his sticks away and make him the conductor...
me thinks the link's been /.'ed
Still, in terms of timing and the logistics of where your hands and feet are I still believe the drums in Rock Band are about as faithful a reproduction of the real thing as you're likely to get in a virtual setting.
Is it DrumMania? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drummania
I was the same, didn't buy my first kit until I was 25. Cost me about $400 then and pieced it together to get a double bass kit. I'm now 45 with an 8 pc pearl kit and I'm finally starting to learn Red Barchetta by Rush. (the musicians, not the fat tard ;-) stolen from slashdot sig. )
I use big sticks so I've never broken a set, but man these drums are loud at times!
Drums on these games kill me, I mean, you hit the damn things... If you can get the chops to play the game, you can play the real things.
Guitar is WAY different, you're not going to learn to play guitar with those colored buttons.
I'm not anti-social, I'm anti-idiot.
Actually... I prefer this one:
http://xkcd.com/70/
Modding the set into something of a more full sized drum set while, yes, taking up FAR more room will make it a lot easier for people like me to play
Also, the guitar controller should have six strings instead of just a toggle switch, and 22+ frets instead of five colored buttons. You know, so it's easier for real guitarists to play.
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
Did you even read the summary? :p
which is totally what she said
From my experience I find that the drum kit in rock band is the easiest to transfer actual drum experience to game skill. Now I myself am no musician but my brother is a drummer (he also plays guitar and bass). And he turned out to be the best at the drums on rock band that I know, and he sucks at every other type of music timing game. The guitar on rock band/guitar hero, DDR, and all those other bemani games he sucks at. He was able to pick up the drums on rock band and easily do some of the harder stuff right away. He just didn't like the feel of the set because it feels like a bunch of practice pads that aren't even different sizes to make different sounds. So "musician guy" posting before you could possibly just suck as a drummer and have no hand eye coordination (no offense drummer guy) but some guys just have it and some don't.
Balderdash!
In terms of the mechanics, sure, but that's the easiest part of playing the drums. Rock Band's timing is forgiving enough that you can correct your timing over several bars. Real drummers don't have the soundtrack correcting their slightly mistimed hits, and a drummer whose tempo would fluctuate wildly until his bassist killed him could do fine on Rock Band. You can usually get a good idea of whether a Rock Band drummer would be a good drummer from the free-form solos - if he stays on the beat during the longer solos, his timing is likely good enough for a real band. Most drummers, even the ones who are good at the game, either hit drums wildly and randomly then use the bass to get back on beat after the solo, or drift off the beat and correct themselves at the end.
ResidntGeek
Q: How do you know the stage is flat?
A: The drool comes out of both sides of the drummer's mouth.
Whether or not there is some sort of god, I'm not supposed to say/god is a word and the argument ends there-Smog
This thread is to suggest who should be considered best drummer ....
I nominate Neal Peart from RUSH
If we all humor you and 'agree' that he's the best, can we let this boring and pointless debate end here and now...?
Haha, nice flamebait attempt there, you asshat. Unfortunately for you, machine dance is officially recognised as a dance discipline by the International Dance Organisation (IDO).
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
Q: What do you call someone who hangs out with musicians?
A: A drummer!
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
I can't really say the same thing for drums or singing. On a side note, has anyone actually used the microphone yet, and is it really lame?
As an owner of Rock Band, and an "actual" guitar player, I would add the guitar playing also teaches some fundamental strumming techniques as well. You learn to strum both down and up to reduce muscle fatique, and play faster.
For drumming, I'd say the sticks that come with the game are "ok", I replaced mine with some vinyl-tipped ones that I got for my standalone snare many years ago. They're bouncier.
In addition to the syncopation learned from the snare and hat/cymbal work, the drum kit has a bass kick pedal, and this helps would-be drummers gain limb independence (arms do one thing, right-foot does other stuff) and at "Expert" stage, you should be able to transfer what you learn in Rock Band to a real drum kit (not accounting for hi-hats).
To wit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ9XLiMfBRo&feature=user/ This guy uses some pretty cool video techniques to show both himself & the video from the game. He'll occasionally fade the game audio out to demonstrate what HE hears.
If you watch some of this users other videos, you can see what kind of work he has done researching the quality/effectivness of the Rockband drum kits. (Some models are better than others).
Also, the microphone is quite heavy for it's size and feels very nice. It's USB, and also doubles as the cowbell. (And you get to use it during Don't Fear The Reaper)
1. Neal Peart - Rush
2. Mike Portnoy - Dream Theater
Its a close race...
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
Danny Carey. Peart can't play the Tabula. And he's a bit arrogant imo.
You mean, they don't satisfy your desire to be an energetic and entertaining, yet alcoholic drummer with only a vague sense of rhythm?
Cool we can't stop playing Rock Band at my house. Too addicting...
Peart is probably the top rock drummer, but as far as jazz goes, Peart's pretty lousy (even by his own admission). Buddy Rich takes the crown there, but I think Rich wouldn't be as good of a rock drummer, too many drums, and he wouldn't be the center of attention. (not that I'm saying he was egotistic).
I think these games have an upside & downside - the upside is that it kind of lets the player know what it's like to play in a band, similar to how training wheels let you kind of know what it's like to ride a bike. They also kind of let you know how to read music/tab, but not really. At least it exposes the concepts of sight-reading & memorization - 2 good things for musicians.
A possible downside is that the relative ease of getting proficient at one of these sorts of games might make learning to play a musical instrument a bit more discouraging for those with high expectations and short attention spans, but that's probably moot since they'd end up quitting anyway.
I guess I shouldn't over-analyze it - it's a cool game concept that could at least potentially move someone in a creative direction, so I'm all about it. Plus that drum-controller mod is way cool.
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
Groucho Marx
What, you would prefer another "BSD is Dead" article or perhaps one pointing out that Microsoft doesn't make the most secure products? At least it isn't a dupe. Yet.
"But this one goes to 11!"
I don't own the game, a friend does. You're perfectly correct, if I could afford the game I could have a drum set. I think you are over-analyzing it, personally. Rock Band may help with reading tabs and such, but honestly, it doesn't matter - it's the most fun I've ever had without women or hydrocodone (and it can definitely give the latter a run for its money). That's enough for me.
ResidntGeek
Q: What do you call a guitar player without a girl friend? ;-)
A: Homeless.
Well here's a hater. I thought it was established by now that these kinds of gripes against rhythm games were moot. It has nothing to do with playing the real instrument, it's about the feeling you get. And actually, for the record, practicing real guitar did make me a bit more comfortable on the guitar in Guitar Hero, and my pal Ray who actually is a drummer is clearly the best Rock Band drummer amongst me and my friends, since the drums come much closer to their simulated instrument than the guitars do. Not saying you could easily transition to real drums from the Rock Band drums, but knowing the real deal certainly helps you out in the game.
And you may not be a gamer, that might be why you're not that good. But trust me, you wouldn't break the drum set the first play. Well, maybe the pedal, that thing is a real piece of shit and everyone breaks it eventually. My "rock band" and I are always slamming the sticks onto the wrong parts of the set while waiting for more notes. It can take a lot of abuse.
And I'm told those actually are real sticks. A5 size sticks, to be exact. Real drum sticks, just a smaller size. If you wanna be the guy who tries out the drum controller with larger sticks... Be my guest.
What about Gavin Harrison from Porcupine Tree? He gets my vote - his stuff isn't as masterbatory as the rest.
But Halo rules, right? You know, running around shooting guys....with a fucking piece of plastic.
The crazy kids over at the rockband.scorehero.com forums have been modding the drum controller since like a week after the game came out: http://rockband.scorehero.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=1038&sid=d1748155f6f141a8f805db1bf5df84b3
Double bass pedals, yamaha midi kit mods, alternative bass pedals, analyzing how the piezos in the drum kid actually register hits and improving on them... List goes on.
I've modded my pedal after the cheap one that came with the kit inevitably broke after the third day of playing. Since the bass pedal connects to the rest of the kit using a mono audio plug, it's easy for someone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of electronics (me) to rig a real bass pedal to work with the kit. Documented here: http://rockband.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2029
"machine dance is officially recognised as a dance discipline by the International Dance Organisation (IDO)."
And the IDO are officially recognized as asshats to me.
"But this one goes to 11!"
You win, you're a better musician than someone that spent $150 to buy a video game. I can't imagine why someone would want to sit down and play a simulation for fun when they'll never be as good at the real thing as you are.
I play guitar, I can hold a tune, and I've played Rock Band once. It *almost* made me want to buy a 60" HDTV and an Xbox 360 (the setup I played).
The microphone isn't lame, but seemed really easy, even on advanced settings. Either I was *really* on key, or the mic looks more for tempo and relative pitch than true accuracy.
The guitar was not as easy (and I only went up to medium difficulty), but, like you said, strumming was simple because I already play. As for "finger independence," Rock Band only makes you move your finger on the frets. There are five buttons, and you only have four fingers (the neck was too broad for me to wrap my thumb around). So, I did have to move my hand some.
The really fun part was how involuntary moving around was when I played the guitar, or get into the song when on the mic. Nail a solo (even your first time on easy settings) and you'll swing around while holding the last "chord." Try, just try singing "Enter Sandman" without yelling, "Ya, Ya, YAAA!" at the end.
As for the drums... I suck. I could either hit the bass pedal or the right color, not both. I didn't get booed off stage, but even on "easy" I wasn't good.
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
the mod link in the summary leads to a black page with dark blue writing. nice.
the significance of a signature is insignificant
My only mod so far is to replace the bass drum pedal. I'm a "real" drummer (though I don't play much)... and I couldn't stand the included drum pedal. It has a huge springy travel, and it triggers somewhere in the middle of that travel (rather than right at the end like a real pedal would).
I have a Yamaha DTXPress electronic drum kit, and was able to use a cymbal pad from that, mounted (on a cymbal stand) right in front of the DTX's bass drum trigger. The bass drum trigger itself doesn't work for some reason, but it does have a nice mount point for the real bass pedal. I had to remove one of the crossbars at the bottom of the Rock Band kit so that I could have all the stuff under the kit where it should be -- the remaining crossbar passes between the pedal and the vertical part of the bass trigger, right on top of the clamp.
To actually connect it, all I needed was a 1/4" female --> to 1/8" male mono adapter (which I already had for playing guitar into the computer).
The Rock Band drum kit seems a little flakey when first hooking up another trigger. I even thought I had broken it because for a while, the included pedal didn't work. I was able to fix it by repeatedly unplugging and plugging it into the port on the main drumkit.
Important tip for testing the triggers... go to the song list in quick play. It lets you change the sorting of the list by hitting the bass drum.
SlagheapFirst against the wall when the revolution comes
Honestly, the best drummer is probably some one that spends all their time practicing and few people have heard of. Then, you break it down by the different genres. Who is the best jazz drummer? Who has the fastest feet? It can go on and on.
I will say that the two that have impress the hell out of me are Terry Bozzio and Virgil Donati. Bozzio does all this interesting polyrythmic musical phrasing and has actually written string movements to accompany hi playing. Virgil Donati just has absolutely insane chops and the craziest feet I have ever seen. I would highly suggest looking them both up on Youtube
Also, I am pretty sure there is some one better then them. Then, there will be some one better then that guy.
In the end if you're enjoying yourself that's really what matters. Rock on!
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
Groucho Marx
I'm going middle ground on the usefulness on real drumming - the game will give you some skills if you play it right. If you're playing the game and just want to pass, you can 3-star a lot of songs having no clue on the rhythms used. If you want to 5-star, you need to pick up some actual skills.
I've had a bit of drum training way back in the day and it certainly gave me a comfort level where the people watching me play said "you've played drums before". The drum kit will give you the basics of being able to split off your arms and your kick pedal, which is a pretty essential skill. It's also an easy way to give you lots of fun practice at basic beats, and the songs have enough variety to make that fun once you get to hard or expert. For people who haven't played before, unhooking the foot from the arms is often a big hurdle, and this'll teach that part of it.
What it won't give you is a lot of the stickwork for rolls, or at least the songs I've been on don't have that sort of stuff (played through on Medium and Hard). I don't think that sort of stuff is in there, as things like 12-stroke rolls are not easily representable on screen. It also won't give you drum selection - RB magically switches the drums to hit what you need to hit within reach, so you're working the ride cymbal right next to the snare, where normally your body position would be completely different. I think that feel and the ear for what works in fills and such are things the RB can't give you. Also no hi-hat, but that's kinda evident.
So I'd describe RB to real drums as the difference between riding a mountain bike and a motorbike - it'll give you some basic skills, and most importantly comfort and familiarity when you switch over, but you'll have to add to what you know already and relearn some muscle movements to make it work right. But comfort goes a long way.
As someone who plays guitar but has relatively short pinkies, I actually found that, once I stopped constantly tormenting anyone who played Guitar Hero for being a geek (read: when I started dating an addict), playing Guitar Hero forced me to use my pinkies more than playing guitar did, which in turn improved my actual guitar playing. Plus, it was fun to pick up the game and beat it on Expert when the addict who got me into it can't play on Hard. What is it that I enjoy so much about being better than people at their favorite hobbies? ;)
hey, as a former semi-pro drummer (i paid for grad school playing in bands,)i find the drums on rock band to be exceedingly hard. I am curious, do guitarists have similar difficulty playing guitar? I can't play guitar for crap in real-life, but it's totally easy on rockband... funny.
Well, as far as Sig's go, Freud was a doozy.
he can't play a slate? as in tabula rasa? how odd. after 30 years of drums or so, i never played one either. however, i have played tabla...
Well, as far as Sig's go, Freud was a doozy.
Drummania players have been doing this for years with a Yamaha DTX or similar. Just plug it into the usb socket.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Jaki Leibezeit from Can trumps them both.
From what i have seen, most people that play guitar suck at guitar on rockband or guitar hero. I think its just a matter of how different the controls are from the real thing. The drum setup is essentially no different that real drums in that u hit them and have to have timing and all that. Even having skills with bounce control help. Real guitar is just too different than hitting some buttons because you are not making chords or hitting strings. If the guitar controller has buttons for each string stacked up the neck as strings are and not along the neck as general hand positions could be maybe guitarists could have a better time playing but I believe that the controller for guitar hero works well in that the motions you can make with your body make you feel like a rockstar without having to practice like a rockstar. Real guitarists already can enjoy the fruits of their labor by playing a real guitar.
Balderdash!
Dennis Chambers. 'Nuff said.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
I am sick and tired of you damn liberals turning every topic into a George W Bush Bash-a-thon. For god's sake, can we have ONE article where we just leave the politics out of it? His term is almost over...quit bitching and vote in November.
Agreed. I've seen some great deals at music stores for decent semi-pro gear for just a few hundred dollars. More than adequate for beginners and you won't soon outgrow it. I don't even play drums and I've been considering picking a set up and learning because of it.
Guitar is WAY different, you're not going to learn to play guitar with those colored buttons.No, but I think it could be good for us guitarists. Most guitarists can't count worth a golly good damn, but Guitar Hero makes a decent rhythm trainer. You're right: not so much for the notes, though. But then, that's not really the point of Guitar Hero, is it? I don't get musicians who look down their nose at it and Rock Band. I'm a decent guitar player, and I've been formally trained in music theory and composition, but think these music games are an absolute blast. I don't own any of them myself, yet, but I plan to.
And "Red Barchetta" is a great song. :-) I actually started as a bass player and it was mostly Geddy Lee who responsible for that.
I can't really say the same thing for drums or singing. On a side note, has anyone actually used the microphone yet, and is it really lame? I've never sang in a band before, but I did years of choral and musial theater singing, and I sing for our band (though I sub in on drums - poorly - when our female drummer wants to do the female-voiced songs). The included microphone is fairly heavy, and I'd much prefer a headset or stick mic, but it is shaped appropriately for the "tamborine/cowbell" tapping sections of songs. It does pick up my vocals very well.
The real problem I have with the vocal portion of Rock Band is that the engine deducts points for natural tremolo. I've had to consciously be careful when holding notes to not produce any tremolo that's not displayed on the track, even when the original singer sings with tremolo. I understand how bloody hard it would be to compensate for it (when is it tremolo, and when is it someone flatting/sharping/flat out missing the pitch?), but it still is a PITA. Once you get that down though, it's great fun.
RW
I got to see Rush in concert when they were touring hemispheres. I saw them in a small arena in Geulph Ontario with about 500 other people. It was like our own private show.. Incredible. It was my second concert so I wasn't really aware of encores.. I waited patiently all night for 2112 and was pissed when they "ended" the show without playing anything of that. Silly me, they had an encore and played the entire 20 minute song for the encore... I was blown away!
I'm not anti-social, I'm anti-idiot.
It was a South Park reference.
Silly mods.
Unfortunately, I sometimes find using the Bush Doctrine very effective in Civ 4. Pissed off a neighbor because your religion is a little different and you decided to not give them tribute? Suddenly you see several war units on your borders even though their country is several miles away?
A: Tactical Nuke them and invade their homeland
B: Let them destroy a city of yours, THEN, tactical nuke them and invade their homeland.
A seems best for me, indeed.
When I advance technologically above my neighbors, I usually attack them and take things like oil access and uranium, or in earlier ages iron, copper and horses to keep them from matching me. Usually just enough to create a nice meaty vassal state that can deter land invasions from further away countries. Often by mid-game I will control 1/3 of the map in vassals in moderate difficulty settings. I usually force them to be the same religion as I am so the relationship improves over time, just in case they do grow a little powerful (can't invade vassals) and it helps if I own the Apostolic Palace, which I usually rush to get control of.
Of course, this all seems a little off topic.
I wasn't bashing him! I just used his name because he's the current US president. I based my comment on an old Sid Meier (the creator of civ) quote. When he was criticized for civ not being very realistic, he replied "I don't make civilization for presidents."
...for them to come out with French Horn Hero for Xbox 360 in order to make a mod I want to play on. Don't know that I want to put limit switches on the valves on my horn, though...maybe all it would need is a mic.
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
Which is why I play a pointy bass. There is nothing like being clocked in the head with the nut of a P bass 4 times a bar to teach you timing.
A sig is placed here
To display how futile
English Haiku is
I've played bass for 25 years, and playing on Rock Band is quite fun, but really different than the real thing. Many of the notes are absent , and so when you play the notes that you know are there - the game dings you. SOme of the fingerings are screwy too, since the difficult/difficult+ levels just move your hand around to use 5 "frets", which doesn't always make sense from the chords used. I hear a major 4th interval, and the fret the game wants me to hit is waaay up the neck, instead of just moving your finger up one string.
..........FULL STOP.
No Hi-Hat? You can't be a real rock drummer without a hi hat. That set of glorified quad toms just wonon't do.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
What is this guy on?
This stuff is so strong that I played one song on the drums using two crescent wrenches and didn't even leave a scratch on them.
I bet I could break them easily.
Show a man some news, distract him for an hour. Show a man some mod points, distract him for the rest of his life.
When did Presidential humor stop being funny? It was funny when Clinton was in office... remember all the jokes about how Hillary controls him? And then all the jokes about how Hillary *doesn't* control him? There was some good stuff there, and very few people were offended by it. What changed?
Actually I sing more than anything else. I'm a Karaoke type, and it works real well. The trick is to sing like you actually want to sing and not like someone forced you to hold the microphone. Get up there and have fun. If you know the song and can anticipate what's coming up you are ahead of the game. Some people hum to get through songs which is really boring IMHO. If you have to do that to maintain pitch, turn the mic sensitivity up, and practice. The software recognises pitch, and not specific notes, so if you can't hit a high note then drop it an octive an you'll be fine.
I'm hoping they bring the Band World tour online soon, my friends and I do awesome sets, but can't get 1,000,000 fans unless we are all on expert. Currently we have 2 Guitars on hard, Drums on medium, and vocals on expert.
Tremolo is amplitude; that would be vibrato.
"damn liberals"
Smooth, dude. I'm sick of you goddamn idiots turning "liberal" into an epithet.
God forbid someone mock the president, they must be a damn liberal!
Suck on an egg, jackass.
Another vote for Gavin Harrison, please. Porcupine Tree ftw. Also a good example of how you just can't have enough drums. Or cymbals, for that matter.
Ha, wow, Hemispheres. You're probably a little bit older than me, I would guess. I was only 10 when that came out and still about three to four years from catching the Rush bug. My first Rush concert was the Signals tour.
I seriously doubt you can't afford to learn drums. All you need is a practice pad, a pair of sticks, and a couple of firm pillows. Plus a lot of dedication.
If you want a real kit you can pick up something to begin on for a couple of hundred bucks easily - you can nearly buy a new kit for that kind of money!
Electric kits start at that kind of money too, and you can modify the most awful acoustic kits into really nice electronic sensors for a few bucks per drum.
It's really helpful to see these games not as music games, but rhythm games.
I'm a guitarist, but my rhythm sucks and metronomes are nearly useless to me. Playing Rock Band has already markedly improved my ability to stay on tempo - this thing is a metronome on steroids that will whack you when you get too far off beat. That's exactly what I need and short of a whole lot of expensive instructor time or being constantly mauled by disgusted band mates, I can't see any other way that I could have improved this quickly.
What I really want is very similar software that works with real instruments. And a version that allows you to simply suppress a track to allow someone on a real instrument to replace it. This software is really exciting to me, and that's before even starting to talk about how it makes "playing" together so accessible to such a wide range of people - my 65-year-old folk-loving mother who never was into the new-fangled "Rock and Roll" stuff has become an instant addict and while she was staying with my over Xmas was waking me up while practicing Nirvana, the Pixies, and Nine Inch Nails. She wants some Lynard Skynard CDs, too.
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
Q: What do you say to a drummer in a suit? A: "Will the defendant please rise."
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
Groucho Marx
> I am sick and tired of you damn liberals turning every topic into a George W Bush Bash-a-thon.
"You damn liberals??" I have a hard time understanding why anybody who voted for the sonofabitch, especially conservatives, wouldn't be disappointed as hell. Forget the war in Iraq, the guy hasn't kept a single campain promise. All he's done is spend billions of dollars chasing vague goals and fattening up his cronies, while betraying the constitutional principles he's allegedly fighting to preserve.
i too find the rock band drums kind of hard. i find it very odd having just 4 heads all angled and non-adjustable, and the foot pedal isn't exactly in the best position either. i play guitar and drums and the guitar didn't take as much time to get used to, the drums on the other hand just throws me off in many ways. 3 of the heads keep switching from cymbals to toms, and none of them are in my usual position. i really wish they had used a roland or yamaha (style) electronic kit, it wouldn't be that difficult having 6-8 sequences over the 5 they have now. nonetheless, i still have fun playing it and will get good at it hopefully.
Alan White from YES.
Well I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years doctor, and I'm happy to say I finally won out over it.
Did you know Phil Collins almost became the drummer for Yes?
He had an audition set up and never went. He said he knew the songs backwards and forwards, and was sure he would have gotten the gig if he'd bothered to show up - and always wondered later how things would have been different if he had joined Yes instead of Genesis.
Shut up shut up shut up! Damn liberals! LEAVE GEORGE ALONE! You bastards!