Rock Band - Impressions...

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 7:58 pm

SEMINOLE wrote:Jon,
Guitar sounds faulty. You are able to open it up and see what strum bar mechanism you have. There are about 16 or so screws on the back of the guitar.

Apparently, I don't have a first gen, or a second gen guitar, or the magnetic one.

I just opened it up (it also required me to remove the pick guard to reveal 2 more screws holding the back down).

The back of mine does not connect to the circuit board, like alot of the other videos and pictures on the internet. It wasn't connected to anything inside.

My strum bar has this black thing covering it up and it looks like the two switches are little white levers that are inside of these two black posts. The notches on the strum bar moves the levers down which triggers the electronics I guess.

Here are a few pics:

Inside:

Upstrum:

Downstrum:

BTW, here's a pic of my drum pad mode (foam + felt)

Nozzleman_216 · Post by **Nozzleman_216** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 9:44 pm

Drums look a little familiar

NICE. Actually the last set I did for my new drums I used color foam and cut it to fit snug next to black ring then cut felt smaller. Same end results. Nice work.

Guitar has me blown away. I spend a lot of time on Rock Band forums and have never seen a pic of that one LOL. Who knows

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 10:28 pm

SEMINOLE wrote:Actually the last set I did for my new drums I used color foam and cut it to fit snug next to black ring then cut felt smaller.

The foam on mine are actually colored, that's all Michael's had (in a package of like 10 sheets for $7.99.

I went ahead and matched the colors up for the hell of it, but you obviously can't see them as the black felt slightly overlaps their diameter.

James_E · Post by **James_E** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 1:41 pm

I'm in a band with my 7yr old son. Brings a tear to my eye.

He's drumming (on easy), I'm playing guitar (usually hard, sometimes medium). He's having a blast. Even the wife was playing with us last night and sang "paranoid" by Garbage. I actually have fun singing and my 5 year old keeps asking me to do the singing LOL.

I'm having an absolute blast with this game. I'm doing a solo rock tour on hard mode on drums and I'm in Stockholm now (around 26 of 58 songs done). I can do most of the songs on hard first try (enough to pass.. not 100%) but "Epic" took some practice work, as did that song by Jet for some reason. I absolutely LOVE that Coheed and Cambria song.

I've done the foam mod with Michaels foam (wife has a well stocked craft loft.. circle cutter is the least of my worries.) The foam is good, but it IS worth putting the felt on. I couldn't find sticky back felt when I went shopping, trying again today. Just used some felt we had here and the "Xyron 1200" my wife has, to make it slightly sticky. It certainly is quieter than just foam, even 2 layers of foam.

My problem now is keeping the drums in one place on the hardwood. Going to get something from teh dollar store today (that sticky, rubber mat stuff) and try that out.

This is just WAY too much fun.

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 3:16 pm

James. The self-adhesive foam at my Michael's store was right with the rest of the 9x12" pieces of felt, but they were individually sealed in plastic bags. 99 cents each.

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 3:58 pm

James_E wrote:I'm in a band with my 7yr old son. Brings a tear to my eye.

He's drumming (on easy), I'm playing guitar (usually hard, sometimes medium). He's having a blast. Even the wife was playing with us last night and sang "paranoid" by Garbage. I actually have fun singing and my 5 year old keeps asking me to do the singing LOL.

I'm having an absolute blast with this game. I'm doing a solo rock tour on hard mode on drums and I'm in Stockholm now (around 26 of 58 songs done). I can do most of the songs on hard first try (enough to pass.. not 100%) but "Epic" took some practice work, as did that song by Jet for some reason. I absolutely LOVE that Coheed and Cambria song.

I've done the foam mod with Michaels foam (wife has a well stocked craft loft.. circle cutter is the least of my worries.) The foam is good, but it IS worth putting the felt on. I couldn't find sticky back felt when I went shopping, trying again today. Just used some felt we had here and the "Xyron 1200" my wife has, to make it slightly sticky. It certainly is quieter than just foam, even 2 layers of foam.

My problem now is keeping the drums in one place on the hardwood. Going to get something from teh dollar store today (that sticky, rubber mat stuff) and try that out.

This is just WAY too much fun.

That's awesome James. My daughter keeps asking to sing. She's only 4 but she can somehow pass a song on Easy without singing any of the verses. Her favorites are "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" and "Ballroom Blitz". She's been running around the house this weekend singing "It's, it's, a ballroom blitz. Yeah, a ballroom blitz." Sounds like between your kids, Web's, and mine we have a little DSP Hanson group developing. My wife even likes the game and she pretty much doesn't like any game I show her.

James_E · Post by **James_E** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 6:39 pm

jondiehl wrote:James. The self-adhesive foam at my Michael's store was right with the rest of the 9x12" pieces of felt, but they were individually sealed in plastic bags. 99 cents each.

Found them today at a different Michael's. Stupid Canadian prices were $1.69 each. 70% markup!

WARNING: those foam pads DO stick very well to the drums and do not come off that easily after a while of being on there, depending on how hard you hit. I hit the red pad (snare) hardest of all, and when I went to take the old foam pads off to put on the foam/felt combination, it was a chore. 80% came off no problem. The other 20% took me sitting there with a paring knife for about 30 minutes scraping it off.

Not much of a worry if you are keeping the drums, but if they had to be repaired or something you better get all that sticky stuff off I would think.

Also, that material I bought to keep the drums stable on the hardwood works wonders. It can be purchased at the dollar store. A roll of 12"x4' works fine. Cut a small portion off to put under the bass pedal, and put the other portion under the drum stand. This is called "non-adhesive non-slip liner" and is often used to line cupboards with glasses/plates etc. The brand I got was "Creative Wraps" and was called "Get a Grip".

What the hell has this forum come to anyway... we're discussing Michael's prices, circle cutters and non-slip liners. f*** me.

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:52 pm

James_E wrote: What the hell has this forum come to anyway... we're discussing Michael's prices, circle cutters and non-slip liners. f*** me.

Tell me about it. I even went shoe shopping today at DSW and got myself AND the wife a 2 pair of shoes.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:57 pm

jondiehl wrote:
James_E wrote: What the hell has this forum come to anyway... we're discussing Michael's prices, circle cutters and non-slip liners. f*** me.

Tell me about it. I even went shoe shopping today at DSW and got myself AND the wife a 2 pair of shoes.

...now thats funny s***....

James_E · Post by **James_E** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:21 pm

uh oh. A joke that XXXIV understood flew over my head. I'm screwed, or just old I guess.

Downloaded the Metallica pack and am working on Ride the Lightning on Hard. so fun.

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:30 pm

James_E wrote:uh oh. A joke that XXXIV understood flew over my head. I'm screwed, or just old I guess.

Downloaded the Metallica pack and am working on Ride the Lightning on Hard. so fun.

Try "Enter Sandman" on hard

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:43 pm

Diablo25 wrote:
James_E wrote:uh oh. A joke that XXXIV understood flew over my head. I'm screwed, or just old I guess.

Downloaded the Metallica pack and am working on Ride the Lightning on Hard. so fun.
Try "Enter Sandman" on hard

Hell I cant get it on medium

...bestest game since WoW

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 11:44 pm

It would be nice if the kids would let me play the drums every now and then.

James_E · Post by **James_E** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 12:48 am

EDIT: This sort of works... it seems to have sensitivity issues.... I went back to the stock RB pedal for now...

HA! Check this out. I was reading rockband forums tonight and people discussing various ways to hook up real electronic kits. One guy even built a board to convert midi -> rockband signals and hooked up his e-kit.

Anyway, another guy mentioned that all it takes to wire up a e bass pad is a 1/4 -> 1/8 inch adapter. DING! I have one of those!

Run upstairs, grab it and the e bass pad and my crappy pedal and whammo.. real bass pedal on rock band. (Hell I can even hook up my Pearl double bass pedal if I want.)

James_E · Post by **James_E** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 1:44 am

Holy crap could "green grass and high tides" be any longer? Geesh! (good song though.)

WillHunting · Post by **WillHunting** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 2:34 pm

James_E wrote: Anyway, another guy mentioned that all it takes to wire up a e bass pad is a 1/4 -> 1/8 inch adapter. DING! I have one of those!

That's awesome, how much is a real bass pad cost? I really want to replace the peddle....

btmmayor · Post by **btmmayor** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:24 pm

James, is there a reason you left the cardboard inserts between the drums?

James_E · Post by **James_E** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:33 pm

btmmayor wrote:James, is there a reason you left the cardboard inserts between the drums?

Laziness.

James_E · Post by **James_E** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:47 pm

WillHunting wrote:
James_E wrote: Anyway, another guy mentioned that all it takes to wire up a e bass pad is a 1/4 -> 1/8 inch adapter. DING! I have one of those!
That's awesome, how much is a real bass pad cost? I really want to replace the peddle....

My quick attempt above only "sort of" worked. It missed alot of hits (not timing wise, but didn't register them at all, alot of the time.)

A real single bass pedal is around $69 for cheap stuff. $125-$200 to get a good one, and $400 for a good double pass pedal. That's just the pedal... the bass pad is going to cost more. A bass practice pad is $65 or so. Then you'd have to take apart the plastic crap bass pedal of RB and wire it so it would work with the bass practice pad. (Some guys on the net have done this.)

I'm sure some really good solutions will be posted on the net soon.

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:52 pm

Question about getting better at the bass pedal: how do you practice getting your foot to move independently? I passed the Medium tour and am trying the Hard tour. The thing that screws me up is using the bass pedal whenever I get out of the main rhythm or if there's a tricky bit like the part in "In Bloom" that goes (bass pedal is O)

Y Y Y RY Y Y YO O Y

I always hit the yellow hit hat note on the second O. That's the kind of thing that's keeping me from getting good on hard, because there are a lot of tricky bass pedal bits that pop up.

btmmayor · Post by **btmmayor** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:52 pm

James_E wrote:
Laziness.

I thought for sure it was there for stability or something since you have the foam/felt and a real bass pad.

I'm debating if I should send my drum kit back in. I already have a new guitar on the way since my strum is acting up. With the tape on my green and red pads the drums are fairly consistent but I know I am still missing notes here and there because of the hardware.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 4:04 pm

James_E wrote:Holy crap could "green grass and high tides" be any longer? Geesh! (good song though.)

Not a Rock Band story, but I had that song RIPPING in my office while doing some work Saturday night. One of my all-time faves! Very cool that it's in that game.

Take care,
PK

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 4:06 pm

Brando70 wrote:Question about getting better at the bass pedal: how do you practice getting your foot to move independently? I passed the Medium tour and am trying the Hard tour. The thing that screws me up is using the bass pedal whenever I get out of the main rhythm or if there's a tricky bit like the part in "In Bloom" that goes (bass pedal is O)

Y Y Y RY Y Y YO O Y

I always hit the yellow hit hat note on the second O. That's the kind of thing that's keeping me from getting good on hard, because there are a lot of tricky bass pedal bits that pop up.

I had the same issue, and it just takes time. The only advice I can offer is not to panic and reflexively hit everything in sight trying to keep up with the double kicks. Relax, and try to feel the beat.

Even now when I a pretty good at hard drums I still play much better with the volume blasting and playing by feel rather than trying to slavishly time the notes to the screen.

James_E · Post by **James_E** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 4:14 pm

Brando70 wrote:Question about getting better at the bass pedal: how do you practice getting your foot to move independently? I passed the Medium tour and am trying the Hard tour. The thing that screws me up is using the bass pedal whenever I get out of the main rhythm or if there's a tricky bit like the part in "In Bloom" that goes (bass pedal is O)

Y Y Y RY Y Y YO O Y

I always hit the yellow hit hat note on the second O. That's the kind of thing that's keeping me from getting good on hard, because there are a lot of tricky bass pedal bits that pop up.

Go into practice mode (or just do it with the 360 turned off) and just do that one thing that's giving you trouble, very slowly, for 5-10 minutes. Way slower than the song.. and slowly work the speed up. In a couple of days you'll get it.

James_E · Post by **James_E** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 4:52 pm

I moved my setup upstairs to a carpeted area for more stability. No HDTV up here but the bass pedal and pad from my e-kit is working alot better.