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The Ion Drum Rocker, well, rocks
A few months ago I went to stay at Brad’s place up in Keystone and was greeted by a large box in his basement that held the Ion Drum Rocker. I quickly tore into the box as I’d read about it many times and was very curious to see them in action. If you can’t tell from the picture the Drum Rocker is a premium drum kit for Rock Band and Guitar Hero.
The difference in these drums and the toy that comes with the game is remarkable. The standard drums are very light and flimsy, the heads are hard and loud and the pedal, well it sucks. The Drum Rocker is basically a small, inexpensive digital drum kit. A real digital drum kit I might add. You can get an add-on module for it that turns it into a fully standalone drum set that you could play with real musicians. The heads are quiet and very responsive, allowing for rolls and fast fills with ease. While the cymbals are a bit hard (they don’t quite crash like a cymbal should) they are years beyond the Guitar Hero World Tour cymbals. While I’m not a drummer (I can keep a beat fairly well) playing the game with these drums feels like you are actually playing drums, not a toy.
At $300 for the basic kit (the picture above adds the third cymbal for an extra $50) it’s not cheap. Given the excellent quality if you enjoy playing drums it’s worth it. Highly recommended.
I absolutely love the idea of the drum rocker drum set. I have had the set for 4 months with an expansion cymbal and it was great while it worked. Just after the 90 day warranty, 2 cymbals stopped working. Upon inspection I found that the PLASTIC screw holes holding the cover over the censor underneath the cymbal had broken which was causing double and triple hits. Then my kick pedal stopped working, upon inspection I found that the paper thin medal tab used to activate the censor was completely broken off. Then my third cymbal stopped working, and after some basic testing I had found that the cable going to it went bad. I was able to repair the set, but why should I have to. $350 poorly spent, great idea, poor construction. I was able to repair the set but it has never worked at 100% since all of the issues I had. For self repair help please email db2370@att.net I have some decent ideas.
I completely agree with you. I've owned the Drum Rocker since the day it was released and started having problems with it after about one month of light use. The pedal was the first to go, with the thick, bent piece of metal that holds the thin piece you were talking about completely shearing in half at the bend. I had to ship it to ION at my expense and did not receive a replacement until two weeks ago, four months later. I bought a Rock Pedal so I could keep playing and much prefer that to the craptastic electronic hi-hat pedal shipped with the ION.
The control module and pads, unfortunately, are the major source of my problems with the Drum Rocker. First, it CONSTANTLY disconnects from the Xbox (even though it is plugged into the USB port securely and NOT into a hub). This may not happen at all during a RB session, or it may happen every other song- super annoying when it keeps you from gold-starring a song you would have otherwise. If left on a menu, sometimes it will randomly press a button, even if nobody is within 20 feet of it. The d-pad is terrible- I cannot just hold it down and scroll through the song list anymore. I have to press it each time I want to increment down another item in the list. I contacted ION and was promised that a service person would look into it. Never heard from them since.
The rubber pads started to dry rot after about two months, despite being kept in a climate controlled environment and if I rub my hand on one, what looks like black eraser shavings come off. The pads miss many notes, since a RB update removed velocity sensitivity for the drum rocker and it has yet to be fixed. I play acoustic drums and utilize the bounce of the heads to play faster riffs- not so on the Drum Rocker. I have to single-stroke every freaking note. Try doing that on a song like 'Burn You Down' that has 32nd notes- easy on the acoustic drums, impossible on the Drum Rocker.
It is more realistic than the plastic set and has added to the fun a bit, BUT the problems engineered into the damn thing make it more frustrating than rewarding. I'm pissed at myself for spending $380 (with Rock Pedal) on this thing and I'm pissed at ION Audio for the worst customer service I've EVER encountered. Unfortunately for ION/NuMark/Alesis (all the same company), my Rock Band bandmates and I made the switch from video game to the real deal and have spent over $10,000 on instruments and equipment. NONE of the equipment we buy has been or will be ION/Alesis, and it is all because of the crappy construction and customer service I've experienced as a Drum Rocker owner.
If you're considering buying one of these, consider the GoodWoodMods mesh head retrofit kit for the RB2 stock drums instead, or spend the money on a Yamaha DTX e-kit and adapt it.
I can't even imagine buying the Alesis DM5 module for this thing and showing up at a gig with it- you would never get hired again! Screw you, ION Audio!!!
Does anybody have any suggestions for how to fix the broken bass pedal? The little piece of metal that hits the sensor came off. We're tinkering, but any suggestions would be well appreciated.
sorry but I have owned it for a little over a year now and the only problems I have had are 2 cable just stopped working. $10 problem fixed. These are 1000% better quality then anything else you can use for rock band. They are sold at music stores as an alesis electronic drum set for $400. That set comes with a 2 zone snare pad and a second actual electronic kick pedal. If you have ha trouble with it it is because you have abused it.
[...] going to sell it to. As someone who owns 2 Xbox360’s, a PS3 and a myriad of controllers (Drum Rocker, Xbox360 Racing Wheel, Logitech G27 Racing Wheel, Fender Replica Bass, etc, etc) I’m obviously [...]