Well I made probably one of the more silly purchases, the Ion Drum Rocker drum set for Rock Band 2. I found that playing Rock Band drums, (stupid as it is) actually helped my rhythm in drum programming for actual music and has helped me develop my ability to stay on tempo.

Now first and foremost they look and feel like a cheap set of drum pads instead of fisher price plastic toys. Striking the pad immediately “feels” You get natural rebound from a drum strike and it feels sturdier and more natural. Instead of a clacking dead sound, you’re greeted with deeper thud, more equivalent if you were to tap someone’s shoulder rather briskly. By no means it is silent but its quieter than the Rock Band 1 set.

Secondly the pedal is heavy duty, completely a metal chassis, and in comparison feels more rugged than the rest of the set. Perhaps its for the better but its the loudest component by far as it emits dry metal rattling as you jam on the giant spring.It feel good but honestly, my RB1 pedal didn’t feel bad either after adding the metal billet plate I bought online. It looks identical to the Alesis DM5ProHHPedal

Lastly there’s the cymbals. Yes Rock Band actually can tell the difference between the cymbals and pads. When you play a drum fill, the four pads are snare and 3 Toms, and the cymbals are high hat and crash. Even cymbals from higher quality midi sets always feel stiff and unnatural and the Ion’s are no exception. Even my friend’s rather nice set that allows for cymbal grabs and such doesn’t feel a whole lot better to strike.  Its a nice addition but its really hard to move towards playing the high hat for all high hat notes. Its optional thus I find myself using the pads, however with a drum fill, I found myself always reaching for the crash cymbal without even thinking. 

All the pads are velocity sensitive as well. Play the drum harder (at least in fills) the louder it plays, no surprise since the Ion Drum Rocker essentially is a midi drum set, right down to the 1/4 inch cables. You could use any of these pads with a midi module provided you have one, and have a fully functioning Midi set. However, even the cheapest Midi modules set you back $250. The pedal as before is not velocity sensitive, it works with my Korg padKontrol as a sustain pedal for a drum pedal but without velocity. I’m willing to bet you could use the Midi Drum Pad to Xbox 360 remote with any standard Midi drum set which makes me wonder why they don’t sell the unit by itself, for about $120?

Its a shame there isn’t any cheap Drum pad to Midi hardware that is strictly for controllers, aka no soundbank, as I could just wire it up to my Mac Pro like my other Midi controllers, and just assign it to BFD or Drumkit From Hell, and have far far better sounds than any hardware module could provide. 

So what benefit does the Ion Rocker Drum set provide? It honestly doesn’t really change the game BUT there’s one distinct difference, you’re actually for the most part playing the drums. You can’t dilute yourself Rock Band 2 will teach you complete drumming as velocity has a lot to do with expression, there aren’t any rim shots, no flam, no alternating hand paradiddles, no cymbal grabs, no brushes, but you could certainly transition to playing a better midi drum set. Plus, it adds a new dimension to fun and certainly is crowd pleaser.  Its not a pure skill transfer for my padKontrol but it helps. Having never played a rhythm game before Rock Band, I went from easy to hard in Rock band 1 and the ability to play about 1/5 of the songs on expert on the drums. I’m hoping i’ll be able to play most of the medium difficulty songs on expert, and play them well. If I can do that, I’ll actually be actually able to be competition for three friends who actually play real drums… at RockBand.

Hopefully I’ll dump plenty of time into it to justify my purchase as it’d be nice to actually be able to half assed play drums. I’m liking them quite a bit but I have to say, its purse extravagance and probably outside of most people’s wants or needs.

If it came with Midi functionality, it’d make for a great starter kit. Hell, with a proper module, you could simply toss on some Roland CY-8s and call it good, the pads work well enough as is.