video game reviews

Xbox 360 Drum Rocker Premium Drum Set

The wait is over for the next generation of musical gaming equipment. Whether you are an aspiring amateur, or a practicing professional, Ion’s award-winning Drum Rocker Premium Drum Set for Xbox 360 lets Rockband players finally jam out with ease, letting your inner rockstar come out screaming.

The Ion Drum Rocker Premium Drum set can be customized to fit your drumming style. View larger.

Professional-grade design allows you to unleash your inner rockstar. View larger.

The Ion Drum Rocker Premium Drum Set Features: Completely customized set-up. Ultra-quiet velocity-sensitive drum pads. Sturdy, all-metal kick drum pedal. Professional design from Alesis, one of the largest electronic drum manufacturers in the world.

Game Critics Awards Winner
Rockband, which took the gaming world by storm in late 2007, was followed by the highly-anticipated sequel, Rockband 2 that was released in September of 2008. With Rockband 2 came Ion’s Drum Rocker Set, which quickly took the Game Critics Awards top spot in 2008’s Best Peripheral/Hardware category.

Professional-Grade Aluminum Rack and Pads
While other drum controllers force you to use their configuration with a pre-molded, plastic array, the Drum Rocker’s professional-grade aluminum rack lets you position your snare, tom and cymbal pads the way you want. Not only can you play your hi-hat with a right-hand crossover by placing your cymbals anywhere around your kit, but by mounting your pads to the drum rack with the included metal L-arm and clamp system, you can tilt, swivel, raise and lower the cymbals to whatever position you want.

Drum Rocker’s velocity-sensitive drum pads feature an ultra-quiet playing surface and a more natural and consistent stick rebound than your average pad. The pad housing is made of a hi-impact plastic, which means that no matter how much you punish them night after night, they will always be ready for more.

The Drum Rocker’s all-metal kick drum pedal is also designed to take abuse. It offers the perfect amount of tension to replicate the feeling of a real drum pedal. And keeping in line with its set-up flexibility, the kick drum pedal comes with Velcro and retractable spikes, allowing you to place it in the most comfortable position.

Go Beyond Gaming into Real Music
Built by the engineers at Alesis, one of the largest manufacturers of professional electronic drums in the world, the Drum Rocker Premium Drum Set delivers the most realistic drumming experience available to a gamer.

But when you’re ready to move from playing the game to playing in a real life, you can swap the game controller module with one of the professional drum brains made by Alesis, such as their DM5 drum module, or any other drum brain that accepts a quarter-inch output. (Drum modules are sold separately.) And with the option of purchasing a third cymbal, you can round out your kit and move beyond gaming and onto the stage.

The Drum Rocker Premium Drum Set is compatible with both Rockband and Rockband 2 for the Xbox 360.

The Drum Rocker comes with cymbals, kick pedal, and drum pads. View cymbal, kick pedal, and drum pad.

What’s in the Box:
Aluminum drum rack, 4 drum pads, 2 cymbals, drum pedal, all mounting hardware and connecting cords, and 2 drumsticks.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars A Digital Drumset
Why get a digital drum set?

One huge thing could be, you can adjust the volume.

This one is like any digital drumset, plus, you can use it to play Rock Band 2.

You’ll get lots of wonderful practice drumming, if you use this with your Xbox. For one, on Rock Band, there’s a drumming tutorial, practice sessions where you can play songs 50% slower and go up to 60%, 70% to 100%. You can also put it in Freestyle mode and play whatever you like, like a real drumset.

4 Stars Awesome alternative
The Ion Drum Rocker is WORLDS above any other rock band/guitar hero drum set available right now. Everything works great and its overall EXTREMELY quiet compared to the others.

Only complaints are that the drum pedal is a little loud and its hard to set the cymbals up for a “strike through” type of play. They work better when they are tightened down and stationary.

Other than that the set is very sturdy and customizable, and is fairly easy to set up(Just time consuming). It NEVER misses notes so your scores will instantly go up and you won’t lose those combos.

If you enjoy playing drums on rock band and can afford to fork out 300 extra dollars… BUY THIS DRUM SET

But let me warn you… You will never want to use the old drums again. And none of your friends will want to play guitar!

5 Stars Couldn’t be happier with the Ion Drum Kit.
Rockband is a great game. The only problem I’ve had with it is trying to get the stock rockband drums to work perfectly. My issues with the stock kit are:

1. Too loud. The clack clack sound of the sticks hitting the pads can get annoying. This can also be an issue if you’re living in a apartment.

2. Cross talk between the pads. Occasionally you’ll hit one pad and it will register a hit on another pad killing your multiplier.

3. Missed notes.

I tried a lot of different mods (pennies, socks, felt/foam, gum rubber, tape, etc.) with mixed results, some helped one problem but created other problems. Eventually I returned the drums and received a new set. Unfortunately I had the same problems with the new set.

I purchased the Ion drum set with very high expectations, and after spending quite a bit of time on it, I couldn’t be happier. My Ion Drum set works perfectly.

Pro’s:

– Quieter pads

– No missed notes

– No cross talk between pads

– you can customize pad placement and angles

– cymbals add a lot to the feel of the game

Con’s:

– Kinda pricey

– The ion drums are larger then the stock set. Not as portable.

– Foot pedal works fine but feels a bit loose.

I’d recommend this set to anyone, and I would buy again.

4 Stars ION Drum Rocker
The greatest addition to Rock Band 2. Ion Drum Rocker creates the realistic experience…. Almost.

The foot pedal seemed ‘lightweight’. I purchased the Drum Rocker pedal from Amazon. A 1/8″ to 1/4″ converter was not provided, but necessary. There was a significant improvement from the foot pedal provided by ION.

The ION Cymbals are not as responsive as I would have preferred. After reading reviews and technical posts, and tightening the kit as much as possible, there was marked improvement. Still, I went to my local Guitar Center and purchased 3 Roland electronic cymbals, with hardware. There was immediate, significant improved response. Also, since the new cymbals are not as loud when hit, I am considering replacing the pads with other parts which I noted at Guitar Center.

As a fan of Guitar Hero World Tour, I am extremely disappointed that the ION drum brain is not 100% compatible. Let me explain. As I understand it, the Guitar Hero World Tour kit uses 5 colors and a pedal. The ION kit for Rock Band maps only 4 colors, even though it can recognize the cymbals separate from the pads. I now have all three cymbals hooked up and have no orange cymbal.

Finally, If I had realized how much fun I was going to have playing the drums, I might have purchased the ION drum brain and the drum kit separately. The overall weight of the set has increased since adding the new hardware. If I purchase the new drum pads, and a new frame to properly hold and mount the hardware, the only original ION part will be the “Drum Brain”. It seems ironic that, to turn the set into a “real” drum kit, the only part that needs to be replaced from the ION drum kit is the “drum brain” that connects the unit to the game console.

I beleive some manufacturer (ION) will produce an expensive solution and produce a drum brain for the “ION Drum Rocker”, that would properly map the kit to the Guitar Hero World Tour game. BUT may I suggest a little software switch that actually recognizes my now REALLY EXPENSIVE hardware…… I know that that would be too much to ask.

Still, I beleive you can really learn how to drum using this kit with the Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero World Tour games. I am now an amateur but aspiring drummer.

4 Stars realistic electronic drum kit for rockband
This drum set is awesome! It is more realistic than the original rockband set. It is also more expensive. The original set had no cymbals. This new one has two to start and you can add another. The original base pedal broke as it was made of plastic. The new one is all metal and solid. You must be careful not to over tighten the wing nuts that attach the drums to the stand. One of mine snapped at the weld point Amazon could not replace the broken part nor the single drum but Amazon was very accommodating and was willing to replace the entire set or give a refund. They did give me a $45.00 credit for the inconvenience. That would have paid for a new drum, but I was able to have the piece re-welded and it is holding just fine. I have found that one of the cymbals is not as sensitive as it needs to be and a lot of notes are missed. But, I use the first drum as the cymbal and this works find. Hopefully, the manufacturer will address this at some point. All in all this is a huge improvement over the first drum kit and if you are a serious rockband drummer, this set is a must.

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