Ion IED08 Drum Rocker Premium Drum Set

by Ion

Product Features

• Compatible with ROCKBAND, ROCKBAND 2, and Guitar Hero for the PS3. Also compatible with ROCKBAND 2 for PS2.
• Two Color Assignable 12" Cymbals
• Ultra-Quiet Velocity Sensitive Pads
• All-Metal Kick Pedal
• Sturdy, Fully Adjustable Aluminum Rack

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001E2UGVQ
• Item Weight: 38 pounds
• Media: Accessory
• Release Date: December 9, 2008
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,305 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #5 in Video Games > PlayStation 3 > Hardware > Controllers > Drums

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

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 PlayStation 3 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 PlayStation 3.

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.

Product Description

Drum Rocker delivers the most realistic drumming experience available to any gamer, regardless of platform. That's because it was built by the engineers at Alesis, one of the largest manufacturers of professional electronic drums in the world. As a result, you get a kit that's designed to take a real beating, with all the positioning flexibility that professional drummers demand. While other drum controllers lock you down to a pre-molded plastic array of pads, Drum Rocker's professional aluminum drum rack lets you position your snare, tom and cymbal pads wherever you want. When you're ready to move from playing Rock Band to playing in a rock band, you can swap the game controller module with one of the professional drum brains made by Alesis, and you're ready to hit the road for real! Drum Rocker's velocity-sensitive drum pads feature a playing surface that is much quieter than other drum controllers. They also feel great � the stick rebound off of the pad is much more natural and consistent than anything else available. The pad housing is made of high-impact plastic, designed to be whacked on stage night after night. No matter how much you punish them, the Drum Rocker drum pads can take it. Complete the experience with up to three cymbals. There's nothing like finishing a monster fill by whacking a crash cymbal. Or crossing over to play your hi-hat with your right hand while you keep the backbeat on the snare with your left. Or keeping time on a ride cymbal during the chorus. Drum Rocker lets you do all that and more, with cymbals that can be placed anywhere around the kit. Drum Rocker comes with two cymbals and mounting hardware out of the box, and a third cymbal is available as an optional accessory. You get to decide how you want to use the two cymbals that come with the kit � set them up as a hi-hat/crash, crash/ride or hi-hat/ride combination, then add the third cymbal to round out the kit.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Problems...Read before you buy!!!, May 2, 2009

By 

David Miguel "Proud USAF Member" (Misawa AB, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Ion IED08 Drum Rocker Premium Drum Set (Accessory)

I ran into a few problems with the Ion Drum Rocker right out of the box.

First off, the sensitivity of the cymbals are about 65-75% of where they should be. If you're at an expert level, you'll definitely see the difference when you're hitting drum rolls on the high hat (middle of Everlong, YYZ, etc.). Second, you have to hit the cymbal a little harder than usual, which increases arm fatigue. Third, the cymbals are quite loud (not as loud as the RB1 drums, but damn near) in comparison to the tom toms. You can purchase aftermarket cymbals (several available for purchase online & amazon.com!) that would work extremely better.

The bass pedal is also an issue. Sturdy, but it is prone to sticking at the bottom. The pedal is also prone to static issues which cause the entire drum set to disconnect (http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=107816).

Also, my drum module was triggering buttons sporatically (due to a manufacturer defect), but a replacement from amazon.com is on the way to my home.

In conclusion, the Ion Drum Rocker could've been a great drum set, but there were a few quirks that keeps it from greatness. You can get replacements for your cymbals($40-50 a piece) and also the Rock Pedal(great buy for your aspiring fake drum career :D); but it retrospect, you shouldn't have to spend money to upgrade equipment after just spending [...] bucks. Do your research!!!

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How much fun is this thing??, December 11, 2008

By 

M. Winter - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Ion IED08 Drum Rocker Premium Drum Set (Accessory)

I ordered these on December 9th (in the evening) and thanks to a free trial of Amazon Prime, I got it shipped next day for just $3.99. Anyway I received them today and......WOW!!!! This peripheral single-handedly has made Rock Band FUN again!!! It's a completely different experience than the standard drum kit. The symbols add a level of realism that could not come close to being achieved with the standard kit. There is a learning curve, as the symbols will confuse you at times (when to hit them vs when to use the regular pads,) but it's fun figuring it out! The kick pedal is very good (way better than the one that comes with Rock Band and Rock Band 2, but not as good as the Omega Pedal.) It does take a while, took me about 30 minutes, to set up out of the box. There are wires going everywhere, one from each drum pad/symbol, to a central hub but you can zip-tie the cords up so it doesn't look like a rats nest. The kit can be set up to your liking as all the drum pads and the symbols are move-able. The pads themselves are more quiet and give more "bounce" than the rock band kit as well. Over all this is a very good drum kit, I have been playing Rock Band for almost 1 year, got to the point where I could play about 1/2 of the 250+ songs on expert so I have put a lot of time in on the old kit. I love the Drum Rocker and am looking forward to hours and hours of fun using it!!! The BEST kit on the market for playing Rock Band/Guitar Hero World Tour!

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!, December 12, 2008

By 

piq - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Ion IED08 Drum Rocker Premium Drum Set (Accessory)

In a nutshell, this is a fantastic electronic drum kit for Rock Band. It's worth picking up if you have skill and the drums and want to advance to the next level.

Some notes before starting out:

- When I compare the Ion Drum Rocker to the standard Rock Band kit, I am referring to the original R.B. drum kit, not the R.B.2 kit

- I have the Rock Pedal (which works for this kit with a simple 1/8 to 1/4 adapter) and will not discuss the pedal that comes with this kit (though it seems more responsive than the standard pedal)

- I have been a "Rock Band drummer" for about 10 months, and can play roughly 75% of the songs on Expert

Let me explain some specifics about this kit via a pros/cons list:

PROS

1) Drum pad placement. Lots of flexibility to move drums pads around--change the angle, height, and placement on the bar. You can set the four pads to wherever is most comfortable for you. The L-shaped rod under each pad gives you some flexibility in height.

2) Noise reduction. The drum pads are much quieter than the standard Rock Band kit. (There are some YouTube videos that demonstrate this, and it is a noticeable difference.)

3) Sensitive pads. The drum pads are velocity sensitive and also have more 'bounce' to them than the standard kit.

4) Easy adjustments. The kit comes with a drum key (an allen wrench, really) that lets you make every adjustment that needs to be made.

5) Cymbals. Come on, you really want this to have the cymbals, right? :> The cymbals are also quiet and really add to your enjoyment when playing. It also makes you focus more closely on what's going on in the music (not just blinding hitting the blue pad without noticing whether you're hitting a tom or a ride cymbal).

CONS

1) Cymbal placement. Well, it's okay, but you're a bit more limited when it comes to placement and angle. The kit comes with a short (~12") bar and a longer (~24"-30") bar, so you have some flexibility in height. The drums give you more freedom of placement.

2) Ships with two cymbals. You can order the third for $50, though.

3) No option for a fourth, or "red" cymbal. Some songs ("Run to the Hills" or "Rio" amongst others) have you hit the red pad as a cymbal, but there's no option to plug a cymbal into a "red" input. Not a huge problem, just a tad annoying (I'm actually more annoyed at the RB programmers for ever turning the red snare drum into a cymbal!).

4) Bigger/Bulkier than the original RB kit. Or maybe this is a con. :> It's not too much bigger, but it is heavier and a little trickier to move.

As a sidenote, I have not had any problems with the cymbals dropping 'fast' notes (mine are set to Ride/Blue and Crash/Green currently, so I haven't tried the Hi-Hat/Yellow).

Overall, the pros vastly outweigh the cons. These seem to be very high-quality drums, and it adds to the challenge of drumming when you have to differentiate between cymbals and toms when you're playing! If you are really into Rock Band drumming, I highly recommend this kit.