Customer Reviews

Ion IED07 Premium Rock Band Drum Kit for Xbox 360

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

For the serious Rock Band drummer, these drums bridge the gap between the video-game plastic drums and a real electronic kit. Each 4 pads and two cymbals (a third can be added, sold separately) can be adjusted, tilted, moved, and spread apart to feel more like playing a real drum kit.

PROS:
-Spot-on accurate with no missed notes or any kind of crosstalk between the parts
-velocity sensitive in Rock Band 2
-wide range of positioning of all main parts
-good build quality and solid for $300 e-drums (except *)
-assembly was quite easy, albeit intimidating and lengthy with the numerous parts (between hour and 90 minutes)

CONS:
-HATE the *kick pedal... noisy and cheap feeling.
-velocity doesn't have much dynamic range between light tap and hard bang -- minor point
-somewhat noisy, especially the high hat yellow cymbal
-customization/positioning can lead to confusion and frustration

On that last point: there's a reason the stock Rock Band drums are positioned the way they are... the 4 pads close together makes it easy to play the game, especially for non-drummers. This kit allows moving all the parts around, which is nice for creating the feeling of playing a real drum set -- but once back in the game, it becomes harder to play. Plus, adding cymbals makes additional (albeit optional) targets that take getting used to, so there some "swing and a miss" to overcome. Having a closed high hat cymbal "yellow" to the left of the snare pad "red" is cool to play crossed arms, but during the game yellow is always to the RIGHT of red. Also, the reach to hit "open high hat" on the blue tom is far from yellow cymbal, and it doesn't feel quite right.

There is a learning curve to get used to, and it takes a couple hours of playing and adjusting to get everything just right. Once all the parts were where I wanted and I replaced that awful kick pedal (a high-hat controller on other kits! ...minus 1 star) with a Pearl "Omega Pedal" (mini to 1/4" jack needed), this kit becomes INSANELY FUN in Rock Band 2!!!!

I, sadly, have a mixed review of the DrumRocker.

When I initially received the product, I was very happy with the apparent quality, etc. As noted by some other reviewers, the foot pedal is not great, but is still a marked improvement over any other `stock' pedals to date.

After using the kit for about a week, the foot pedal broke (9/30/08). There is a small metal tab inside the pedal that hits a trigger/switch when the pedal is depressed.

The next day (10/1/08) I called the manufacturer and notified them of the breakage. I was told that I had to complete a "Customer Receipt for Replacement Parts" and return it to them by fax (a bit archaic, but whatever...). I completed and faxed the form that same day (10/1/08).

After about a week of not hearing anything from them, I called back and was told that nothing had been done with my original request because they "didn't stock replacement parts for the DrumRocker" because they "didn't expect it to fail so quickly" therefore, they could not fill my order. Nobody bothered to tell me this they simply ignored my replacement parts request. I am wondering how long they would have let that sit had I not called them.

The customer service agent with whom I spoke also told me that despite there not being replacement parts, he would "do me a favor" and get one shipped. After a week on inaction, they acted as if THEY are doing ME a favor by shipping a replacement for a defective part after ignoring the request for a week?

When the replacement part arrived a few days later it did not work. To replace my faulty bass pedal, they sent a hi-hat pedal - I guess the two are similar, but the switch inside seems to be different. The original bass pedal will register multiple consecutive hits as a bass pedal should. The replacement hi-hat pedal they sent me would only register a single hit, and not subsequent hits unless there was a 1-2 second pause. Presumably, this is how the hi-hat pedal is supposed to work.

The next day, I called back and explained what happened previously and what was going on with the replacement pedal. I specifically told them that there seemed to be a difference between a DrumRocker foot pedal and the hi-hat pedal they sent me as a replacement. The parts department sent another replacement pedal; unfortunately, they sent me ANOTHER hi-hat pedal - which we had already established does not work...

At this point, I am pretty miffed.

The second (wrong) replacement pedal arrived the evening of Friday, 10/10/08 which meant that I had to wait through their 3-day weekend to make yet another phone call. After waiting 15 minutes for my call to be answered, I told them that I wanted to speak with a manager - this request was met with resistance. It took 5 minutes of talking to them so they could "find" my account - they also took my phone number "in case we get disconnected".

Once they had all of my info, they asked me if I could hold on so that they could transfer me to a manager... yeah, that never happened. Instead, they disconnected me (accidentally?), and despite taking my phone number "in case we get disconnected" (their words), nobody bothered to call me back.

I tried harder than any customer ever should, to give them the opportunity to make this situation right - they simply were unwilling or unable to do so.

The only positive here is that Amazon.com HAS stepped up and IS taking care of this. They shipped a replacement for overnight delivery on the day that I reported the issue to them. This is why I shop here.

I received my set via Fed Ex yesterday. Everything was very nicely packaged and labeled in the box. Instructions were included but I feel could have been a bit more detailed. Not that I needed the help but I could see where some people new to setting up electronic drumsets might be a little confused or possibly set it up wrong.

Setup took maybe 45 minutes and they supplied a tool to tighten all the bolts on the stand. One thing to note: There is an adjustment at the top of the cymbal stand to keep them from rotating. This adjustment is an allan wrench which they did not provide for me. Luckily I have my own set.

Another thing to watch for... the cymbal holders are held in place with a metal loop with threads on the end. The wingnuts they supply are very large and the threads are not that long so I found myself stripping the very end of the threads trying to get the wingnut on. A trip to the local hardware store fixed this where I bought replacement nylon wingnuts. They are a lot more shallow and tighten down much further on the threads.

After putting it together and getting everything plugged in I noticed right away that the pads were amazing. Great rebound and very quiet. Single and double stroke rolls are a breeze. The cymbals felt pretty good but didn't quite have the same rebound. The kick pedal is really made to simulate a hi hat pedal so I was a little off-put at first but it still works quite well and is lightyears beyond the original stock RB1 pedal. I'm thinking about upgrading to either a Rock Pedal or an Omega Pedal soon. I've read that these will work just fine with the ION.

My first impressions of the kit with the Rock Band 2 game were very good. The pads never miss hits but unfortunately the cymbals still drop notes quite frequently. I have read others are having the same problem and I haven't quite figured out yet how to correctly position and hit them to make them more reliable. Some people suggest hitting the edges of them with the stick, some say tighten them down very tight and some say remove the felt padding beneath them. None of these have worked for me yet. It's for this reason that I'm considering removing the yellow hi-hat completely, unfortunately. It's not fun playing it when it consistently drops hits. I'm considering changing it to a blue ride.

I'm an expert RB drummer and usually score around 95-99% on most songs and after a few runs over songs that I'm quite familiar with I find myself having less trouble with those passages I couldn't quite get right because of controller conditions. My first try at Tom Sawyer on my new kit yielded gold stars and put me in the 16th spot on the leaderboard. I was nicely surprised with this seeing how I'd never been in the top 500 before.

This is an excellent buy if you have the money and want to take your Rock Band drumming to the next level and possibly move on to a real kit.

Edit: 9/23/08 - Well the Nylon wingnuts held for one or two moves but I ended up replacing the nut within the plastic wingnut. A simple 6mm 1.00 hex nut fixed the problem. I will probably replace all the stock nuts just to be safe. Still LOVE this kit! I've tweaked the setup a few times but I think I finally have one that I like.

I also was shipped a defective product. Amazon is helpful as usual but they require that you have all of the parts for them to replace.

I foolishly followed the procedure in the packing material that said to contact the manufacturer for any problems. They wanted me to ship the item to them. Then the agony of dealing with the antics of Numark/Ion Customer Support as mentioned by other reviewers. Yup, they treated me exactly the same way. Terribly.

I've contacted Amazon and they are willing to help but only if I can ship all the parts to them. SO now I have to rely on Numark/Ion to ship back the defective part before my replacement window with Amazon expires.....

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.

11/20/2008 - Replaced red ION drum pad with a Roland V-Drum PDX-8 to use as a snare.... WOW!. More responsive than needed for the game(s).

But this post was edited re: DrumRocker Drum Pedal.
FYI: To enable a second Pedal, use a stereo headphone cable splitter (Y-Connector/splitter cable for use with mp3 players) and connect both pedals to the same line/wire. Not a true "double kick" drum pedal, but this will allow you to use both feet.

Also, to see if the drum brain was capable of multiple inputs on the same color, I added a cable/headphone splitter on the blue cymbal input and installed a SECOND blue Roland cymbal, positioning one left and one right. They both work great! This proves the ION the set can be extremely expandible. I have installed 12" yellow ride cymbal, 8" and 14" blue cymbals and 15" green crash cymbal; all Roland cymbals instead of ION cymbals.

My ION Drum Rocker is now a REAL drum set with 4 cymbals, a 'real' snare drum, the original ION drum pads as the 3 tom-tom drum heads and it is also ultra quiet and extremely accurate. I can now achieve 95-99% on most songs.... with some practice. AN INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE.

Perhaps I initially got bad parts (cymbals) from ION, as many people have related, but nothing compares with real drum parts. I feel inferior parts will encourage bad drumming habits that could result in repetative motion injuries (RMI), such as carpal tunnel syndrome. I beleive that all game controllers should carry RMI warnings, but especially for any item that simulates a musical instrument.

Ok - I'll start out by saying I think this item is totally worth it. I am a drummer in "real life" and I even own a real drumset. This is a huge step up from the plastic pieces of crap they give you with the original rockband. I have not ever had the pleasure of trying the rockband 2 drumset but jumped immediately to this one seeing how flimsey the original design was (I have already gone through 4 drumsets playing rockband alone). Being a real drummer I play everything on either Hard or Expert (with this set I've played about 95% Expert and 5% hard) on drums. That being said for some background I'll now review the product at hand.

As I said this drumkit is totally worth it overall. It's pros outweigh it's cons in my book and the reviews I've read on it are pretty darn accurate. The drumset takes about 45 min to setup and an additional 30 min or so to make minor adjustments while you start to test it. It is a pretty sturdy set and it's "footprint" (how much space it takes up) is considerably more than the rockband set. That's neither a plus nor a minus other than the fact you'll need more room to set it up and play it. I guess a small minus to that effect, though, is that there is no easy way to take the set down or make it smaller for storage. It would take you 30-45 min to take it down into it's pieces and then another 45 min - 90 min to set it up and tweak it to where you want it again - which is highly impractical. Ok - the drumpads are VERY responsive and velocity sensitive - I'm actually pretty impressed there. They are MUCH MUCH quieter than the other drumkits I've tried. However the cymbals make a bit more noise and are almost (still quieter) comparable to the noise given by your drumpads on an original drumkit. Also - the kickpedal is VERY noisy. I don't like the kickpedal because of that fact - it's been VERY reliable and picks up all my bass drum kicks but it's noisy as hell so I switched it out after a couple of songs. Although the drums don't really drop a beat - the cymbals do. I tweaked them quite a bit and got it from about 20% of the notes registering to about 80% now. But still that means 2 of 10 beats I hit at fast speeds are being dropped and to me that's unacceptable. I've tried tweaking almost everything on them, their angle, height, the tightness of the hinges/screws they're on, even my sticks and my grip! On slower beats I can hit about 90-100 but on faster beats it misses more. Because of that and the fact theye're semi-noisy (MUCH noisier than the pads) I find myself using the drumpads far more than the cymbals. I use one for a crash cymbal so it looks cool (real) when I do a big crash at the end of a fill or whatever but the high-hat one I rarely ever use. I use the drumpads for that as they are much much quieter and actually reliable. And when I'm trying to 100% another song on expert that makes a big difference to me. On that note I'll mention that if you're not playing expert or if you don't care that you'll drop a note fairly consistently even though you're playing it, then by all means use the cymbals to your heart's content. They do add to the game and the general look and feel of playing though. Needless to say I will not be ordering the 3rd cymbal unless they come out with a newer more reliable model. Oh - I might also note that the drumpads have better rebound (more like a real drumhead) than any other rockband set I've tried.

Let's see...what else...oh yeah...the drumset is highly "flexible" (customizable) in that you can move the parts and pieces to better fit where you want them and how you play. I have mine setup exactly as my real drumset (spacing is almost exactly the same) which is nice. The drumsticks it came with are pieces of crap though - almost feels like balsa wood and they came with major chips in them. Also the set is not wireless - you do have to plug it in to your xbox like the old set (unlike the rockband 2 set).

Another huge positive - I ordered my set from Amazon and I ended up getting it 4 days earlier than the expected delivery date. It was amazing! It made my weekend (-: (especially due to the fact I chose the free super saver shipping).

ok so to review --

Pros:
- Drums are velocity sensitive and pick up notes VERY well
- Highly customizable to how you want it and where you want your drums, etc
- Sturdy, long-lasting looking design of a real drumkit
- Good rebound-ability on the drumpads
- Shipped super super quickly and free from Amazon
- Awesome, realistic look and feel


Cons:
- Cymbals are noisy and unreliable
- Kick-pedal is VERY noisy
- Drumsticks are extremely lousy
- No easy way to compress it's footprint for storage
- Perhaps a little pricey (I'm fresh out of college) -- but I still think it's worth it.

So that's my 2 cents - probly mostly stuff you've already heard (-: Hope it helps though.

I received my kit yesterday and set it up with little issues:

Is Good things:
-Setup took about 45 minutes and this is the first kit I have ever even touched.
-Drums are very responsive as well as the cymbals.
-Very customizable and versatile for any setup
-Kick Pedal is a lot easier to use and maintain beats on than the stock pedal
-Packing for materials was very nice (ION box NOT Amazons!), as I live in Japan and use military postal services our packages do not always arrive in a "safe" state
-I did not have an issue with the provided wingnuts luckly, but I have not taken the kit apart yet.

Is Not So Good Things:
-Requires you to have an allen wrench on hand as the kit does not supply (even though it states it is in the parts checklist)
-Some people seem to have issues with the cymbals and there is a forum on the site to help/address this issue. http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82452
-Kick pedal seems to be sticking on double bass hits. This may be due to the fact that the spring has a lot of glue on it that was used to manufacture the pedal.
-Takes up a lot of living room real-estate and does not compact to a decent storage size with out taking it apart.

All in all this kit is awesome, addicting, and well worth the money to buy it. It has made the game even more fun than ever.

I received my Drum Rocker yesterday and, after nearly six hours of straight play, I can tell you that I haven't the slightest bit of buyer's remorse (I played both Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour). The $299 price tag can be tough to swallow but if you want the best possible drumming experience while playing a band game, this is it.

Now, I must tell you that I am not a professional drummer by any stretch of the imagination. I'm getting pretty good at the games, but outside of that I've never touched a drum set. Even so, I felt stifled by the Guitar Hero World Tour (herein referred to as GHWT) drum set. My main problem was that the flimsy pedal was keeping me from completely moving up to Hard on drumming. I did some research on upgrade pedals and it was going to cost me $120+ to get a decent pedal that was compatible with the GHWT drum kit (most upgrade pedals are only compatible with RB2 drum kits). For that, I figured I may as well spend the few extra bucks and get a whole deluxe drum kit.

That's enough story. Let's get on to the review. I'm going to break this up into parts so that it flows a little better.

SETUP:
Setting up the drum kit was fairly straightforward and easy. It takes about an hour due to all of the pieces but it's a one-man job and not at all complicated. The pieces are all clearly marked and the intructions are written in plain english with big colorful diagrams. My biggest gripe would be the mess of wires. Each individual drum and cymbal has it's own wire (to connect it to the "brain", which is the XBox controller that sits in the middle of the kit). These wires are significantly longer than they need to be and so you'll have to spend some time trying to wrap them up and hide them. The kit does come with quite a few zip ties for you to do this and it'll only take you about five minutes, but it's still annoying. While speaking of wires, I should also mention that this kit is NOT wireless and requires you to plug it into the XBox in order to play.

Another thing worth mentioning is the size and weight difference between this kit and the standard RB2 and GHWT kits. This kit probably weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-40 pounds, while the other kits might be around 10 pounds. You won't be picking this thing up with one arm and tossing it into the corner. It's also roughly 1.5 to 2 times bigger. If you have a small living room (like I do) storing this thing away is a nightmare. They say you can fold it up for easy storage and, yes, that's true. But folding it up requires you to untighten the screws from every piece you want to "fold" and then retighten the screws when the piece is in it's folded position. That can be pretty time consuming and nobody wants to move the pieces around once they've found their most comfortable setup. That solution is a little unrealistic if you plan to use this drum kit frequently.

DRUM PADS:
Man, these things are sturdy. Each individual pad weighs a couple of pounds and the strike zone is made of a rubbery/leathery material. I don't imagine this thing breaking down anytime soon. My GHWT kit started flaking after playing a few songs and you can actually rub off flakes from the strike zone when you touch it. That won't be happening with this kit. The pads are also 100% accurate. I've yet to drop a note and it picks up every hit no matter how far off to the edges I am.

CYMBALS:
I've read quite a few complaints about the cymbals but they honestly work great for me. They're registering every hit and don't have any issues with double-registering a single hit. Yes, they are stiff, so you won't be able to strike through (one of the more common complaints) but I just tilt the cymbals downward which allows me hit the edge and drop my arm back down to the drum pads in a fluid motion. If you leave them level then, yes, you'll have to hit the cymbal and then work your drumstick around it to get back to the drum pads.

I should also note that the cymbals are pretty much optional. There's no difference between hitting the green cymbal or the green drum pad when playing the game. A hit on green is a hit on green. So the cymbals are really for decoration and play style preference. They do sell an add on cymbal so that you can have three (the kit only comes with two) but I don't see much need for that. I imagine it would obstruct my view of the television and won't add much to the kit beyond aesthetics. Again, it all depends on how you like to play.

My big gripe about the cymbals is that you can have a cymbal for every color except for red. So for lefties like myself the experience will be a little different than it is for righties. When playing right-handed you can bang the green cymbal at the end of your drum fills in RB2 but, playing lefty, your only option is to bang the red drum pad. So, in that aspect, this kit doesn't fully support the "lefty flip".

PEDAL / DRUMSTICKS:
This is the category that made me give this kit only four stars. The pedal is awful. It's made completely out of metal, so it probably won't break on you too quickly, but the feel of it is just terrible. There's virtually no resistance when pushing the pedal down and it sounds like a door hinge. I'm going to end up having to upgrade to a Rock Pedal.

The drumsticks were also a let down. They were pretty rough cut and the wood was splintering at the bottom. I played a few songs with them and just couldn't get comfortable. As a result, I've been playing with the gimmicky Rock Band 2 aftermarket drumsticks (see Rockband Rubber Tip Drum Sticks - Yellow Flames). What I like about those is that they come with rubber caps to put on the end of the drumsticks. This really dampens the sound of you hitting the drum and lets you focus more on the music coming from the television.

OVERALL FEELING:
Great drum kit. Playing RB2 and GHWT with this kit is a totally different experience. You might be put off by the $299 price tag but when you put them next to your GHWT or RB2 drum kit, both of which sell for nearly $100, you'll be able to easily justify the price difference. It's three times the price for ten times the quality. But don't forget the other little things that you may want to buy that will cost you extra:
- Upgraded bass pedal: $70+
- New drumsticks: $10 - $15
- Drum throne: $45 - $50
- Third cymbal: $50

This premium setup gets expensive fast! But, if you're serious about drumming like a rock star and can afford a little discretionary spending, I believe you'll be satisfied with your purchase.

First, I love this set. It's been sturdy and reliable so far.

I wanted to note here that it might not work with Guitar Hero World Tour though.

It seems when you hit a cymbal on the ION kit, GH:WT registers it as a hit on that color AND "orange", thereby counting as a miss-hit and reseting your score multiplier.

I use the Omega pedal, which works great with the set (just needs a 1/8th to 1/4th adapter) though it needs something to be anchored against so it doesn't creep away from you as you play.

I've also found that super-glueing the four feet to the base of the set helps tremendously in stability.

UPDATE: It seems Activision has patched Guitar Hero: World Tour so it now recognizes the Ion Drum Rocker kit properly.

Mr. Whittle explained it nicey. I've had mine about a week now and love it. Assembly was very easy. Positioning items is personal taste on how you play. The kick pedal, I hate it slides all over the place it has two metal screws to help hold it down, but your wife/mother may oppose to screwing holes into the carpet or wooden floors, however duct tape works great.

The play is right on and it nevers misses a note, due to a technical error. Very well constructed. I had the orig. RB set which I broke the foot pedal and later broke the red pad which was not fully supported. So this was a nice change. There is nothing like rocking away on this set, catching the perfect fill and ending with a nice crash.

I would recommend buying from amazon as I was double charged through ION and had to jump through hoops to get my money refunded. Customer service at ION is horrible. Which after being on hold for 15min. I was disconnected 3 times. Again this is why I would recommend buying from amazon.

Overall, to get a great drumming feel in a video game, this is awesome!! Just make sure to warm up your wrist before playing I got Carpol Tunnel Syndrom from been exited with my new drumset and playing for 5 hours staright ata time