Rock Band: The Next Great Franchise - Page 26

Originally Posted by Cysquatch

WTF?

http://www.ebgames.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=802828

The Rockband Stage Kit! (360 only atm).

Originally Posted by Bryan_P

Interactive light and smoke stage show? Now we're getting a little ridiculous...

Originally Posted by KnightLerxst

Next we need the Spinal Tap kit...complete with an amp that goes to 11.

Originally Posted by HeadRusch

...now you see...*this* I'd buy.

"It comes with a CD of Spinal Tap songs enabled for Rock Band, a dwarf in period costume, a tiny Stonehenge, and a cucumber wrapped in foil"

For the Record, I hate to say it, but that Rock Band "Stage Kit" looks damned...well...ingenious. I mean, absurd...and yet...genius at the exact same time I wonder how it knows when to do what, or if you are the one who has to deploy the FOG (which, btw, you have to cool with Ice of some sort if you want it to hug the ground like you saw at your last Iron Maiden or Ozzy concert).

Like a few people that have modded full sized guitars I did the same with one of my PS2 controllers using an Ibanez guitar. But, since others beat me to the punch I didn't bother with a build report for it.
However, I haven't seen anyone mod the drum pads yet so here goes a full build report.


The first thing that I had to do was start assembling the Gibraltar drum rack. I wanted to use a rack specifically because it keeps all of the drums hard mounted to each other which is important since there will be wires linking them all together. It will also make it easier to transport the kit to the stage when Otronicon begins.


Now that the rack is assembled I can get to the business of figuring out how the drum pads work. I started by removing the red pad which is held in place using shaped rubber inserts. The rebound and shock absorption of each pad is just four pieces of foam cut into pie shaped pieces.

The pads that come with the game are on the right and the high tom drum is on the bench to the left.

After opening up one of the pads I found that it uses a simple piezoelectric cell to detect vibration. Pretty ingenious and elegantly simple.

Now that I understand how that works it is time to move on to completing all hardware components before dealing with the electronics.


One of the common points of failure with the Rock Band kit is the kick drum pedal. The plastic foot pedal has a problem with breaking from people stomping on like like they were riverdancing. So, to alleviate that I used the steel foot pedal that came with the drum kit.

The kick drum switch on the game is triggered using a magnetic reed switch in the base of the pedal that is activated by a small NeFeB magnet on the foot controller. I made a s-shaped bracket and mounted a heavy duty SPST NO Momentary switch to replace the magnetic reed one in the foot pedal since all of this metal would interfere with the magnet anyway.

The kick drum clamp acts as a mechanical stop for the pedal to keep it from crushing the button. Also, the game pedal using a compression spring with a constant K value (meaning pressure increases that further you press down) whereas the professional drum kit pedal uses a chain and cam to provide progressive resistance and then release to snap at the bottom of the stroke. This makes the kick drum notes feel much more natural.


The next challenge was to mount the LCD monitor for the drummer. Since each of the guitarist and the lead vocal have their own screen I wanted the drummer to have the same convenience. The monitor is a 21" Dell with a composite input just like the others. However, I needed to find a way to mount it in the rack.

The kick drum had a mounting point for the high tom which was no longer being used. So, I went into the shop and found a piece of aluminum bar that would fit the mount. next, I had to machine an insert that would fit into the bar so that I could drill and tap it with a 1/2-13 thread. I wanted to use a big bolt because this is the ONLY thing attaching the monitor to the rest of the drums.

Unfortunately, the bolt that I had was too long and the head was too tall and it had a shoulder that had to be turned down. Fifteen minutes on the lathe and I had a bolt that was short enough, had a low profile, and would screw in flush to work to mount the monitor.


Viola! We have a monitor mounted in the rack.

You will notice that the screen seems to be highly reflective. That is because I put a sheet of 1/4" Lexan polycarbonate over the screen to protect it from errant flailing drumsticks. You can smack the dead center of the screen with the sticks and it doesn't even phase it.

Next you will notice that the heads of the drums are now black versus the usual white or clear ones. That is because I replaced them with Kydex. This stuff is so strong that I played one song on the drums using two crescent wrenches and didn't even leave a scratch on them.

Now that the hardware stuff is done it is time to move onto the electronics.


After removing the pads you can see the piezoelectric cell in the center of the pad. It is held in place with a spring and a retainer to make sure that the cell is pressed flat against the pad.

The next few pictures came out a little blurry but they are basically the cell removed from it's cradle (showing both sides).

The second group of pictures is of a piece of foam being placed over the cell on the back of the Kydex to act like the spring in the original mount.


You will noticed also that I had to splice longer lengths of wire to make sure that they would reach the control panel when it is finished.

Okay, now the cell is mounted so let's see if it works...


Yep, after plugging it into the open spot where the red pad used to be it seems to work very well. So well in fact that just tapping on the side of the drum is enough vibration to trigger it.

So, the next few hours was spent putting the cells in the other three drums. After finishing the install I tried all drums and they worked very well. The only drawback was that the drums still sounded like drums even with the Kydex heads on them.


In an effort to help quiet the drums I fill each one with foam. It did work to an extent. There is still a rather loud tapping sound from striking the plastic heads but it isn't quite a pronounced as before. Another side effect is that the piezoelectric cells aren't as sensitive since all vibrations are damped almost immediately.
Once I have the stage set up I am planning to remove the foam to improve sensitivity.


Now comes the fun part; dealing with all of the interconnects from the pads to the controller.
After removing all of the electronics I take the plastic shell over to the band saw and cut out just the control box. This is the first thing that I have done to the pads that is irreversible.


The picture to the left shows the control box mounted under the monitor but I haven't wrapped the wires in split loom yet.
the picture to the right has all of the wires covered in split loom to match the color of the drum kit. The odd silver wire is a shielded two-conductor wire that leads to the kick drum pedal.


Finally! Drum kit is done! Now it is time for some banging on the drums (yes, that is me :-p)
Overall I am very pleased with the outcome and I think that it will withstand a lot of abuse.


This drum kit will be available for public play at the next Otronicon, January 18-21, 2008 at Orlando Science Center in Orlando, Florida. We will also be holding Rock Band and Guitar Hero competitions and the first place winners will get to perform live at Hard Rock Live in Orlando as the opening acts for Video Games Live!
I will post pictures of the completed stage within a week as well as posting videos of the drums and the rest of the Rock Band stage in action so be sure to check back here!
Also, check out the rest of otronicon.org to see all that's going on at this year's Otronicon V.3!
- Buzz

Originally Posted by Cysquatch

WTF?

http://www.ebgames.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=802828

The Rockband Stage Kit! (360 only atm).

Originally Posted by MichaelTS

I'd guess that he can play very well if he had a drum set to just "throw away" for a rock band setup. I've been more than half tempted to take in my ps3 and hook the system up at work on a Friday afternoon for some co-workers, 2 of whom are professional performers (one is a jazz guitarist & vocalist and the other a WICKED good drummer).

Impressive setup. I'm working on dampening my pads currently as the pad 'tap' is just too pronounced and annoying for me. That and the foot pedal reinforcement.

michael

Originally Posted by Auditor_Kevin

So I have a new person to Rock Band over last night, and me and my buddy are playing with him in the career band tour mode. Of course since he's new, he's playing on Easy.

We weren't able to get ANY new fans after any of the gigs! I don't expect a million fans every time, but at least give us something.

Then my buddy does medium drums and I do hard guitar without anyone on easy and it STILL doesn't give us any fans.

We're only at 260,000 fans. I thought this game was supposed to be more of the musical experience and group fun. Now everyone I play with has to be a friggin expert just to increase the fan base??

The only thing I can think of is that maybe since we didn't create a new character for the new guy playing on Easy, it just assumed it was someone more experienced??

Any hints/tips for growing H9's fanbase without making my casual gamer friends put hours upon hours into the game to advance up to Hard level gamers???

Originally Posted by ppshooky

Do you really need the fans? Are you trying to unlock venues and songs? My wife and I can only do a few songs on Hard, but we need the fans to unlock venues. So, what we do, is we play "Make a Song list" at all of the venues that we have access to, giving us more fans, more venues, and more songs.

It is possible to have you and your more skilled friend to play when your drummer isn't there, allowing you guys to build your fans and unlock more venues and songs for your friend to play with you.

Originally Posted by Auditor_Kevin

Of course I'm just going off my own experiences with this game, but the first thing people noticed (to a man) when finishing a song was how many fans they helped the band gain.

I could jump through those hoops to build more fans, but at that point the game becomes a ritual in how to EXCLUDE people, not include them. And that flies in the face of the whole goal of the game.

I'm hosting a guys weekend this weekend, where 5 of my closest friends are coming from out of state and staying at my house. Make no mistake about it, we'll be having a blast playing this game plenty in between trips to the bars, river boat and poker games. But it would have been nice if these new guys could have experienced that extra level of immersion via the adding of fans.

Originally Posted by Auditor_Kevin

Good advice, Kess.

Do you know if quickplay keeps track of high scores at all? I can't seem to find it.

Originally Posted by Bryan_P

Can't you just turn off Dolby Digital in the menu to reduce the lag? I think that will work fine, even if you use the optical cable.

Originally Posted by Pikasauce

WTF - 360 only! There better be an explanation.

Originally Posted by Mattdoc

Maybe they use the heat generated by the 360 to produce the smoke

Originally Posted by BMLocal175

First off how long does it take the leader board to update after you finish a song?
I go right in and look its never updated immediately.

Second, I did a quick play of "In Bloom" and now I'm ranked 16th for that song. Before that I was like 39th on my solo tour. So I take it quick play's update your score or am I mistaken? Can someone verify by looking were I'm ranked for that song. My PSN ID is BMLocal175... Thanks!!

I'm asking because when I first looked after the quick play it had the higher score but I was still ranked 39th. When I scrolled up I was then 16th.

Also is there no way to get to the bottom to see how many people are ranked. I was doing double stroke rolls for 10min to get to the bottom but was still in the high numbers.

Anyway if someone could check "In Bloom" at the top of the list for me that would be great. My score I believe is 198,300.