Posted 10/27/2008 12:00 PM by Gerasimos Manolatos
Filed under: Holiday 2008, Ion Drum Rocker, Reviews, Rock Band 2
Price:
$299
THE
SKINNYAfter 10 whole
months of banging on those old
Rock Band drums, it's time to upgrade your
skins. There's no better time to do that than with
Rock Band 2 now on store
shelves and there's no better way to do that than with the Ion Drum
Rocker.
THE
GOODIon's Drum Rocker is comparable
to real electronic drum sets and is relatively easy to set up (about a
half hour of screwing things together). It features super quiet,
velocity-sensitive pads and a metal-reinforced kick pedal, all of which
are individually-adjustable into real drum set arrangements to
accommodate Maroon 5 and Slipknot
drummer alike. During our review period,
which involved hours of shrill vocals, failures on
"Easy," and some mild bruising, our assembly line of staffers all had a
blast whacking on it with no missed notes.
THE BADA warning to all
people not named Bob Vila: Make sure that all of the bolts are screwed
on tightly, or you'll end up like our Production Editor, who
failed a song after the left drum pad flopped to the
floor. Also, the Drum Rocker is wired, meaning you'll have to run seven
or eight different cables around the unit. For PS3 and Wii
owners (who have to wait till mid-October for the game anyway), you'll
have to stick to the stock drum set.
OTHER FANCY MAGIC
FEATURESOnce you've tired
of playing "Livin' On a Prayer," you can connect the unit to a drum
synthesizer for use as a real drum kit. The kick pedal has two spikes
you can plant into a floor for better stability—watch the
scratches, mom will kill you! Two cymbals are
included, but you can connect as many or as few as you
want.
VERDICT: BUY
ITThe 300-dollar price
tag, over $100 more than the whole
Rock Band 2 bundle, may
seem steep, but those serious about getting the authentic Keith Moon
experience should take the
plunge.
BUY
IT
HERE
[UPDATE]
Thanks Lazlo for the correction on
the No. of cymbals included. We had a package with three of them in
there, but retail versions only come with two.