The Official Rock Band Discussion Thread - Page 59

Yeah, FedEX delivered it today.

I'll submit a report, possibly with a pic, in this thread tonight.

Good to hear. I just hope that new pedal you ordered is just more responsive as opposed to the stock pedal.
And as for the rubber pads, are you guys installing this without voiding the warranty? If so is there a simple how-to?

They are just simple circles of industrial gum rubber -- I believe someone said they are similar to the material used to make rubber bands. They stick on top of the drumkit's pads with adhesive.

I just opened the Omega Pedal and thought I would share some pics for those interested. There's a little more assembly than expected, but it doesn't look too bad:



As you can see, the pedal is a Pearl P-120P which is then modded with a switch for the trigger and a clamp for the RockBand drumkit's bottom crossbar.

Here's a close-up of the switch on the side of the upper rotating arm of the pedal, bonded securely and protected with electrical tape:



Next step is assemby. If anyone has any questions or concerns, fire away!

Assembly was a breeze: Put the bracket in and tighten, put the hammer in a tighten with key. That's about it!

Here's what it looks like assembled:



Here's a closeup of how the beater comes down and strikes the bracket (notice 3 extra pads are supplied):



As the hammer makes contact with the bracket, there's a slight "click" from the switch pictured in the previous post. Notice that the pedal does not have to be attached to the RockBand drumkit in any way (except for the trigger's wire)... it can sit freely anywhere on on the floor.

And it's solid and heavy! I don't think it's going to be sliding anywhere.

So now it's time to ROCK!

Question is, how well does it perform. Does it makes things any easier especially with tracks like say GG&HT where you find yourself constantly using the foot pedal.

I just took my vocal character into the rock shop and spent some cash, I hadn't spent any in a LONG time. I had about $70,000 built up. I spent it all, I bought every piece of chothes, shoes, pants, accessories except one and that was a $24,000 ring that I'll get soon after doing some more BWT.

This is the big question. How does the switch perform under different playing styles?

For instance, if you bury the beater into the head between each note, is there a chance you could get a double-hit from the tiny micro-bounces that often occur with this style?

Also, how much force needs to be applied to register a hit...or does it register even when it touches? And is the sensitivity adjustable?

I'm really excited to hear the results. Thanks for posting the pics man!


GT: IBitePrettyHard & IBiteLegacy

I spent a solid hour going through some favorite songs with the new Omega Pedal.

I'm in love.

I'm not a shill for the company -- just an honest RockBand drumming enthusiast who can't stop playing the faux-drums and wants the best experience while doing it. The Omega Pedal adds a new dimension to the game... or at least the foot action.

I would best describe my initial impression as this: it does to the foot pedal in RockBand what a force-feedback wheel does to a racing game. It's probably not going to make me a better drummer, but it does improve the feel of the kicking. A lot. I might not get higher scores or more stars initially, but it certainly feels like what I imagine playing the kick drum on a real kit would feel like. My foot could feel the swing of the hammer, and right as it makes contact, the kick drum in the game registers.

Playing through some songs in expert mode, I noticed how double or syncopated kick rhythms felt very different from single or steady kicks because of the momentum of the arm/hammer. I also noticed much more finesse playing "heal down". I don't know if I'll switch to this style, but it makes more sense with a real pedal.

One thing to be aware of: this is not a silent replacement. I play on a rug on top of hardwood floors -- the kick drum now sounds like a subwoofer thump! This might be because I'm so used to the heavy spring in the pedal of the launch RockBand kit and I need to adjust to less "stomp". But apartment dwellers or people in quiet households take notice... because there's impact, you will hear the kicks along with the tom pad hits. The wife commented "that sounds like a real drum set now".

With that said, I actually like it better with the kick making a sound now. The feedback of the sticks hitting the toms is crucial for connecting to the music in the game, but with a silent pedal there's no audio feedback to the kicks. With this pedal, the kicks are about as loud as the sticks hitting the industrial gum rubber pads. For me, the sound ("noise"?) the RockBand kit makes is filled out with impact of the pedal.

Obviously a $75 enhancement for one game isn't for everyone. But to the drumming obsessives, the Omega Pedal really adds to an already great rock experience. Highly recommended!

Hey I think I own that same rug

I saw you online earlier testing it out....I would say one thing: The best part about that pedal is that you can now whail the **** out of it and not fear for it breaking..and if it does, your local music store is just a simple replacement away.

Looks good..I keep looking at my unused drums and wondering when I'm going to really try getting into the game as a drummer but the urge hasn't hit me yet, nice to know there is a viable option there for when I shatter my pedal to pieces.

PS: Now that you no longer need your reinforced pedal, you may send it to me

(and with that pedal you'll also start to appreciate why drummers who play alot of fast beats will use a slave pedal or a dual pedal/dual drum setup, centrifical force being what it is, sometimes that hammer doesn't return quick enough to get the job done).

\\m/

It looks like http://www.DrumPads4RockBand.com is now selling gum rubber pads.

nice job DaverJ, thanks for the quick rvw. I was waiting for some feedback before I pulled the trigger myself.

Questions:
does (or can) the pedal clamp tighten down to the drumkit crossbar, or does it just rest there?

did you notice any fatigue from having the pedal further away from the kit? (change in the angle of your foot/ankle articulation, and all that)

KO

Excellent question, and you nailed it. One of the first songs I played with the Omega was "Nightmare", which starts with a couple measures of double bass hits. As I kicked the second beat and held my foot down,I was getting a very slight "bounce" -- this bounce was registering as a third hit. I had to re-learn not to hold the foot down so hard.

Keep in mind this would probably also happen on a real bass drum of a real drum kit.


You can adjust the tension of the pedal, something I probably need to do. The switch seems to click within an inch or so of the beater hitting the bracket. Its so close that, for all intents and purposes, the switch registers at the same time as contact from the beater. But with some very slight pedal fluttering you could probably get switch action without contact if you are real precise.

But in reality, it feels like the switch and the hit are simultaneous.

It just rests on top of the closest cross bar on the drum kit. The pedal is heavy and very solid - it actually helps anchor the rest of the kit.


Didn't notice anything, but I've only spent an hour with it. This might change for better or worse, and YMMV.

Looks like their drump pads are 1/16" thick whereas this site sells 2/16" (1/8") and 3/16". I like the colored ring on the brown pads but don't know if the reduction in thickness is recommended.

So Rockband patch is coming out this week. Let the celebrations (and inevitable whining) begin! No online BWT, sorry. The new in-game music store looks VERY slick, though. Also several general improvements, IMO.

http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2008/03...ore-and-fixes/

* Rock Band General Fixes Fan cap revision -- Increase on number of fans possible before cap. Easy players can travel across Atlantic, Medium players have a wider range of venues and Hard players on the Xbox 360 can unlock "One Million Fans" achievement.
* Increased diversity in Band World Tour song selection.
* Improved phoneme recognition -- Improved detection and scoring for phoneme recognition. Examples are songs like Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld and Blitzkrieg Bop.
* Microphone latency on PS3 improved.
* Xbox 360 band logos now visible through Xbox LIVE -- A parental controls prevented band logos from being visible over Xbox LIVE.
* Faster loading of DLC -- Also song is cached for a one time wait.

Huzzah!

Anyone have details or theories on what the second part of that means.

all great additions. Not sure I'll use the in game store since I boot to the dashboard first and the new weekly songs are usually only a few selections away. Then again maybe teh in game store will have some sort of previews.

The store has previews (audio only, no note charts unfortunately), album art, tells you how difficult the song is (which tier for each instrument). Overall pretty slick.


Daver the cache thing means the content loading will be a one time thing, not every time you load the game. That's the way the HMX guy explained it on the rockband.com site.

well for me it takes up to a minute to load teh DLC in the game and another 30 seconds if something finishes downloading in the background. So I guess I'll only have to see the "loading additional content" logo only briefly and once in a while.

very cool, this should end a lot of the complaints about youtubing for previews of DLC.

It means that there will be a delay the first time you load up your DLC list after you apply the update (the "now loading additional content" popup). But after that the list is cached and will not need to load each time.

As a vocalist and solo BWT player this patch REALLY has me excited. The better detection in the "talkie" parts could get me several more full combos of songs. Now hopefully they will fix the gold star cap on a few songs that are impossible to gold star like The Hand That Feeds on vocals.

It's great that they're offering the option of gum rubber, but $27?! You can get them for a little over half the price and twice the thickness at drumpadsinc. If you can find a local rubber product retailer who can cut gum rubber sheets to order, you can get them for a quarter of that price.

As for the colored rings, I don't believe they're part of the pads. Looking at the pics of the pads on the drum kit, they just look like the tan gum rubber you get everywhere else. If they're offering the colored foam pads as well, then that could be possible but they don't list them as part of your order.

I'm all for giving people more opportunities and choices to experience the added benefit of gum rubber pads, but those prices are too steep (and they need to better clarify what the pads really look like out of the box).

looks like the patch could be out today sometime, a screen cap during the opening video on www.rockband.com

The fan cap improvement has me excited! Maybe I'll play it with my girl again, now that we will be allowed more that 260,000 fans.

I'm very happy with the enhancements. The one thing that I was really hoping for was BWT online. My brother and I can easily play together on expert, but unfortunately he lives 30 miles away so playing BWT together is rare. Maybe in a patch this summer, they could get that working.

wow, this new rockband store thing totally took me by suprise but its a very welcome addition! I can't be the only who was totally annoyed at having to navigate thru like 5 or 6 levels just to get to the DLC you want, and when you add it to the cart then you have to start all over at the beginning again. (referring to psn store , not sure what xbox's is like).

"improved mic latency" also sounds intriguing, if it turns out to be a significant difference.

KO