Joystiq E3 sticks-on: Ion premium drum set

by Ross Miller { Jul 22nd 2008 at 6:30AM }

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Last week, a handful of Joystiq crew got to make fools of themselves on the mini-stage before Harmonix's Rock Band Bash featuring The Who. Set up for us on stage was the new Ion premium drum set for RB2. Over the span of the night, we drummed through a handful of songs to get a feel for the set.

The drums themselves are very sturdy, and the cymbals are quieter and responsive. If you get a chance to play, our first recommendation is to make sure the cymbals are placed as far as comfortably possible from the pads so that you don't accidentally hit one while intending for another. We did that more than a few times and it threw us off a bit and caused us to miss a few more notes than we normally would have.

Some of the issues we had are due to how Rock Band programs the drums, which are great for the standard set but don't necessarily transfer well to the Ion premium kit:

Songs with fast, repetitive hi-hat beats (i.e. when you need to use two hands) will generally assign the hi-hat to the red pad, meaning you'll have to change your mindset back and forth on songs that capitalize on it, such as "Debaser" or "Everlong." The red pad is not able to have a cymbal attached to it.
Songs that feature both open and closed hi-hat sounds generally assign the sounds to separate pads such as yellow and blue, while in real life you'd have a foot pedal to open and close the cymbals. The Police's "Message in the Bottle" highlights both this problem and the previous issue since it assigns the closed and open hi-hats to blue and green, respectively, for a large chunk of the song.

A lot of our concerns can be chalked up to being unfamiliar with the new set, but for the $300 price tag, we're perfectly comfortable rocking out with the set we already have, or the smaller, expandable RB2 set (which you can bet will also be usable as a functional electronic drum set).

Tags: drums, e3, e3-2008, ion, ion-premium-set, josytiqfeatures, rock-band, rock-band-2

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

FSK405K @ Jul 22nd 2008 7:31AM

comments are dead? submitted one, not here 10 minutes later.

Solid Chief @ Jul 22nd 2008 8:41AM

Comments have been getting shittier for awhile now. Having forums would solve this, but I know that won't happen for a number of reasons.

dark_inchworm @ Jul 22nd 2008 9:10AM

"Comments have been getting shittier for awhile now."

What, the comments system or the people posting?

(hint: both)

Deezul @ Jul 22nd 2008 7:47AM

Thanks for making me worried regarding my pre-order. Then again, I'm getting the ION drum kit more BECAUSE it can be used as a real drum kit - Rock Band functionality is a bonus. I'm sure if enough folks complain/comment, Harmonix might issue a fix or a way to customize what the cymbals are able to be set as.

T @ Jul 22nd 2008 8:32AM

I don't know if they would. Part of the reason they remap the cymbals is due to the game's scoring system. For righties, the red pad is considered the "important" one along with the bass pedal.

You'll take a bigger hit when missing that pad, so they assign some of the tougher roles to it to make sure you're actually trying. (Don't know if I like it...but there it is) For lefties they swap this importance to the green pad.

So if you could remap the drum, or they had a special setup for the cymbal attachments, they'd have to reset up the scoring system so it would punish you more for missing the rolls (but only on certain sections that would normally be red/green)

And now having written this...I see a problem with the ION kit. What if I'm a lefty drummer (which I am). I would need to take the green cymbal and put it on the red pad to get the correct feel.

...Well, good thing I didn't reserve this I guess. Hopefully it's not the same problem with the standard kit.

Kyera @ Jul 22nd 2008 8:41AM

On songs where the hi-hat is switched to red (RttH being the perfect example), the yellow has the value the red normally has.

Just fyi. :)

Flash @ Jul 22nd 2008 9:15AM

Keep in mind that on the ION kit you can just switch which input each trigger is plugged into (look at the center console). It looks like you can just unplug the red and yellow triggers and switch them.

You should be able to do the same thing with the cymbals and also change their physical positions. So, setting up this kit for a lefty should be no problem (just like a real e-kit). The only issue you might run into is having the right color stripe on the correct cymbal b/c it looks like the cymbal arms might be different.

On top of all this, you can pick up a cheap splitter at Radio Shack and another trigger (either one of their cymbals or a real e-cymbal) and add another "red" cymbal. This is the approach I took with my e-kit, which I have modded to use with RB1 already.

T @ Jul 22nd 2008 10:32AM

@Kyera: Dang it. Here I thought I was just getting better at rolls.

Thanks for clearing that up though!

WhoMe? @ Jul 22nd 2008 8:27AM

As a real drummer, I think it's a cool idea. I currently have two sets of high hats already (one open and one closed) so it's not going to really matter to me. I'm sure when they start to offer the brains they will come with some more neat little pedals (hopefully a double bass pedal is possible, since you kinda need it for metallica and the haunted).

natels @ Jul 22nd 2008 9:31AM

I hope you have two different hi-hats due to size and not only to avoid using the pedal to open and close them.

WhoMe? @ Jul 31st 2008 8:29PM

I use a lot of double bass... a lot of double bass. Plus the closed ones have bends on the bottom to let air escape.

galvo @ Jul 22nd 2008 8:18AM

That's because this kit sucks. Ion FTL.

jsn @ Jul 22nd 2008 9:02AM

The drums aren't made by Ion. They're made by Medeli and are used in several mass market kits (simmons, etc), all which get very good reviews for the entry level market they are aimed at.

zabari @ Jul 22nd 2008 8:54AM

cool but think i'll wait for GH:WT

Demaar @ Jul 22nd 2008 11:52PM

Assuming RB2 instruments are also compatible with GHWT, why not get both?

melquiades002 @ Jul 22nd 2008 9:25AM

Im just excited about trying to drum with a wooden sword!

Farseer (GDI) @ Jul 22nd 2008 9:56AM

Ok dude. If you're going to spam, at least do some fucking research first. I don't know if the name of the blog or its articles give it away, but Joystiq is a blog for gamers. As in video games. AFAIK, gamers aren't the biggest fitness buffs.

I would try your spam somewhere else. Here are some suggestions:
http://www.cyclingforums.com/
http://www.vegas.com/douchebag/

turkeybaster @ Jul 22nd 2008 10:21AM

So is the guy in the picture holding a really large shoehorn?

T @ Jul 22nd 2008 10:32AM

Motion blur. It's how you know the drummer's hardcore. ;)

Juno @ Jul 22nd 2008 10:29AM

I have a huge lingering question..

I have a midi kit at home with a Roland Drum brain. Is it possible to swap out the drum brain for a controller brain and use my kit with rockband?!

John @ Jul 22nd 2008 7:50PM

You'll be able to in GH:WT

deaftly @ Jul 22nd 2008 11:48AM

this is the only drumming i care about

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v736/KhanateGAMER/loldrums-1.gif

ScottG13 @ Jul 22nd 2008 12:40PM

Seems like pretty minor problems for what looks to be a terrific expansion to the Rock Band drummer gameplay. My pre-order is in like Flynn.

Aaron Childers @ Jul 22nd 2008 2:32PM

Why dont they just make sumthing less complicated like the Guitar Hero World Tour drum set. They just tried to make it to real this time with this set, i see no point in having everything if u cant use it like in reality.

Conbus @ Jul 22nd 2008 5:40PM

The reason you have everything is because you can use it as an electronic drum set. If you buy a drum brain (which I hear can be pretty expensive, $200+) it'll be a real e-drum kit.

jb007 @ Jul 23rd 2008 1:24AM

Nice post, but sadly it answers very little:

1. How do the drums actually, you know... work? I mean, was anyone able to hit a lot of Everlong? Dropped notes or cross talk? IMO this article FTL in terms of a "hands on" description.

2. People seem to forget that when you activate lefty flip on the first rock band, you don't need to take a hack saw to your set and rearrange the pads, it just asigns different sounds to different pads. So...basically if you activate lefty flip the cymbals should just flip flop sounds too... like the est of the set. :\ ???

3.No one can comment on the "failed reality" of this kit until they know that it's convertable into an actual electronic kit. IT WILL WORK WITH ANY ELECTRONIC DRUM BRAIN OUT THERE, FOLKS.

batlin @ Jul 23rd 2008 1:09PM

Correct me if I am wrong, but I dont think the reason Harmonix switches the Red and Yellow (Hi-hat and snare) is for points reason... I think it is because if you are doing fast 16th notes on a hi-hat you will be using both sticks and when you need to hit the snare, you will use your right hand to hit the snare and miss that one note on the hi-hat. so therefore, if they didnt switch the inputs and you had to do fast 16ths on the yellow pad, you would have to use your left hand for the snare.... so by switching it they make it so it is more like the real feel....