Ardent Meridian… incoherent rambletastic techno-babble …

I wrote recently about the Ion "Drum Rocker" I had purchased, partially in response to a broken Rock Band drum pedal, and the excellent experience I had, and am having, with it.

However, as there are options to repair or replace the original pedal, and it was the "only" thing "wrong" with my original drums, I spent some time looking at those options with the intent of fixing the pedal, and giving the old drums to a friend.

That’s my broken pedal above, snapped clean off at the hinge.  A little research research pointed to two primary options for getting my broken Rock Band drum pedal fixed, and several more for a complete – and more expensive – replacement:

• The first was to go through the official warranty/repair process, which is probably the route most people would go.  However, assuming a simple swap of the broken pedal for a new one, this is just going to lead to the same problem occurring again somewhere down the road.
• The second was a third-party solution, either replacing or repairing the existing pedal.  The options I found for this looked like they would result in both a more solid and durable end-result, and a better looking one as well.

I opted to repair my existing pedal, partly because that option was slightly cheaper, and partly because the premium replacement pedals look like they might even be upgrades to the "Drum Rocker" pedal!

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A few days ago a good friend of mine suggested I buy him some new drums for Rock Band for his birthday.  He’s a bit of a cheeky bleeda’, with some very strange ideas, but the drums he pointed out looked really cool.

As it happens, my own Rock Band drums just suffered a pedal-snap so those were in need of repair or replacement.

The drum kit in question is the Ion "Drum Rocker", and I was sufficiently intrigued by what I read on the product’s web site, and in various reviews, that I decided to buy a set for myself (for his birthday).

Anyone that has played with the standard Rock Band drums for any length of time is well aware of their pros and cons.  On the upside they are no-fuss, and are relatively affordable.  On the down side, the bass-drum pedal is prone to failure, typically snapping in half or at the hinge, there is very little room for adjustment (height only) and you need to whack them pretty solidly to ensure they register.

Oh yes, and they make an infernal racket when hit … so you’re very unlikely to actually hear the drum sounds from the game while you’re busy playing.  I might be exaggerating a little here, but not much.

You can, if you’re so inclined, purchase official Rock Band drum "silencers" (third-party options also exist).  These are, in my experience, easy to install, look good and are very effective in deadening the sound of the standard drums.  Sadly they are even more effective at deadening the responsiveness of the drums themselves, so they’re not something I can recommend.

The pedal issue is relatively easy to work around as well, either before or after it breaks, but I’ll write more about that when the upgrade/repair arrives and I give it a try on my current broken pedal.

Harmonix have announced new drums with Rock Band 2, which may improve things somewhat, but while the standard product is more than serviceable, and quite entertaining, the Ion "Drum Rocker" steps things up several notches.  You would expect it to offer more than the standard "instrument" of course, on the basis it is more than three times as expensive.

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A long time ago, way back in the distant annals of history (otherwise known as late-2002), I bought a rather entertaining Xbox game called "Steel Battalion".  This was a first-person Mech game with two rather interesting differentiators:

• It cost $200 – the same price as the console it ran on.
• It came with an enormous, and insanely cool, controller.

The controller in question was a glorious three-console plus foot pedal monstrosity, solidly built and quite the thing of beauty (if you like that sort of thing).  The image doesn’t nearly give the true scale of the thing.

In addition to being unique and having a certain amount of bizarre geek-status, the other interesting aspect to owning this game was its tendency to cause everyone you knew to question your sanity.

"$200 for one game!?", was the typical first response.  Okay, actually "WTF" was often the first response, but the first response not comprised solely of consonants was the "$200?!" one, but I digress.

I suppose, at a time when the Xbox console itself was only the same price as the game, it might have seemed a little odd.  But in terms of people questioning the sanity or value of the thing … well that’s a little bit different …

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