Yep. Brad Paisley is a great guitarist, although I don’t remember “Mud on the Tires” being particularly technical. “Sin Wagon” is probably going to be a high difficulty song, it’s fast. “Hillbilly Deluxe” is just a cool fun song about cruising. Brooks & Dunn are on tour with ZZ Top.
Did the last patch disable velocity sensitivity? All hits now register as the max volume.
Also - does anyone know if the drummer animation is correct for differentiating between cymbals and drums? I think I’ve seen it do it correctly but I’m not sure. I ask because I was hoping they’d some day release a patch that would differentiate the notes between pads and cymbals - but I thought that if they didn’t record that info, they’d have to go back to all their previous songs and rework them so it’d probably never happen. But… if the animation is correct, and the little video game drummer correctly hits his ride cymbal or mid-tom depending on the music, that would mean they already have that information available.
Yeah, the last patch disabled velocity sensitivity, but Harmonix says it’s only temporary until they put in a proper fix (probably involving a major update so they can add controls so you can adjust the drum sensitivity yourself).
I downloaded the country pack. I’m not a big country fan, but the songs looked fun to play, and they really are. Some of the most fun songs in the game. They’re all reasonably hard on expert, and Sin Wagon is really, really hard. I barely passed it my first time through - 3 stars, and the fail indicator was flashing red a lot.
The other songs are all really fun if you like songs that feature more melody and intricate patterns (like the Grateful Dead pack), and not just rapid-fire chording and strumming like most of the metal songs.
So, I am a Rock Band neophyte. I just got RB2 for Wii for xmas and I am enjoying it greatly. So much so that we’re having some friends over on New Year’s Eve for a Rock Band party. My plan was to have us form 2 bands, then play some identical set lists and compare scores to see who won that round.
Sadly, the game does not appear to have that kind of feature. “Battle of the Bands” mode is of course just an online challenge. Score duel seems to be a simultaneous mode that would require 2 of every instrument.
So, then I thought, OK, I can still have everyone just create a character and we can skip the Band Names and play it on Quickplay. We’ll just pick a setlist and have the next band repeat it and keep track of the total score. But then I realized that we’ve got an odd number of people playing, so one band would have 4 people in it, and the other would have 3. If I understand the scoring correctly, the more players you have, the higher the (potential) score. So if the teams were of roughly equal talent, the 4-person band would always beat the 3-person band.
Anyone ever had a Rock Band contest like this before? Any advice for how to do it? Sure, we can do it without the scorekeeping, but I think the competition helps ramp it up and I’d like to do it if possible. Thanks in advance.
OK, so I’m about to pull the trigger and actually buy the ION Drum Rocker (Amazon’s got it $30 cheaper than retail, plus no tax and free shipping). For those of you who have purchased this kit, has anyone bought a different brain for it? Anyone experimented with something other (read: cheaper) than the DM5? I’d love to hear your experiences.
I feel that I have to ask- is it considered “bad form” around the gaming circles if one plays the drums with their hands, as bongos?
I don’t know what my deal is, but I can play the drums pretty good with my hands, but put the sticks in my hand and it all goes haywire; my timing is goes all off and I am constantly hitting the rim and missing the notes. I’m sure it is just for a lack of practice(I’ve only played on a couple occasions), but I just seem to feel the music more by hand. So is it just free wheeling or training wheels?
We’re having another RB party this Saturday (it’s my birthday)! I’ll now be able to play quite a few songs on Hard guitar and a smaller number of drum songs on Hard. The ION is turning out to be a wonderful add-on to the game. I couldn’t imagine playing with another drum kit now.
We never play competitively, so I can’t help you there, but one tip we learned from the last party: let the singer(s) pick the songs. It’s easier for the instrument players to adapt to the song than it is for a singer to sing something way outside their range (at least it is for us untalented hacks).
Do you have the third cymbal? I’m trying to decide if it’s worth shelling out another $50.
That’s interesting. From what I’ve read, the “superduper ION kit” turns out to be nothing but the cheapest, flimsiest set of e-drums out there. Do keep us posted on how well it stands the test of banging-the-shit-out-of-it, please.
I’d find it mildly amusing, but not bad form, not “easy mode”. Whatever floats your ROOOOOOOOCK BOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAT ! 
The really hard part of drumming is the kick pedal anyway, if you ask me.
Probably, as it’s only $300 e-drum kit at its core. When my husband was pricing real electronic drum kits, most he found were closer to $800 minimum. It’s held up fine for the past 2-3 months we’ve had it, though.
No, just the two it came with. Before we’d shell out for the 3rd cymbal, we’d probably look into a pedal kit that converts the yellow to a closed/open high hat.
I’ve got the Ion kit, and I bang on it pretty hard. It’s fine. I broke the Rock band set within a week of playing on Expert (which really thrashes the drums).
Checking on the Rock Band Forum, which is full of people who have Ion sets, I don’t see a lot of complaints about breakage. They seem to be holding up very well.
What makes this a ‘cheap’ set is not the durability of the pads, but the cheap construction of all the mounting hardware. This makes it useless as something to break down and rebuild as musicians need to do. There have been some reports of mounting clamps breaking and things like that, but the pads themselves seem pretty bulletproof.
Don’t forget, being a real e-Drum kit, everything is modular and replacable in pieces. If a pad goes, you can replace it with another of the same type, or upgrade to a roland pad while keeping everything else. You can upgrade the rack if you want to.
I think it’s a fine set for Rock Band. It’s good enough to do the job well and reliability, while still being priced in the range of a (high end) game peripheral and not a piece of professional musical gear.
As a game periperhal, the Ion is pricey. As a music instrument, it’s quite low. It’s certainly durable - I’ve yet to have any problem with it (aside from not quite knowing what to do with one mysterious screw). It’s more fun and comfortable to play. If you drum with RB a lot it’s easily worth it.
It would be nice if it were more portable. I’m probably taking it on a trip with me soon and I’m not looking forward to breaking down and reassembling everything - not that it’s that hard.
I understand the lack of full portability, but is it simple enough to drag it across the floor? Our current set up with the Rock Band kit is to leave the set in a corner and then drag it out in front of the TV when it’s time to rock. I’m assuming this won’t be a problem with the Ion set, right?
It’s set to arrive on Thursday – I can’t wait! We’ll see how long it is before I order the brain, though.
It’s not really any more difficult to move aside than is the Rock Band kit. However, it is significantly larger, so depending on how big the area is is that you want to park it in, it may be more noticeable while you’re watching TV or whatever.
There are other brain options and you can try to buy them used on ebay. I have a DD-502 (less capable, much cheaper than the one the site recommends) brain that’s compatable but I haven’t played with it much yet. Your brain just needs the right inputs and inputs ranges for the kit… I’m not sure which brains will work, but I bet one of the RB forums has a list.
Is it just me or are there a lot more of really shitty songs? I really don’t think the game needed 5 or 6 speed/death metal songs. There are plenty of good songs out there with tricky drum/guitar/singing parts that there shouldn’t be a bunch of crappy songs just for difficulty levels. If I have to sit through “Visions” again, I’m going to throw my drum kit through the TV.
I happen to agree with you, but if you go on the Rock Band Forum, there seem to be even more people who throw a hissy fit each week if Harmonix doesn’t release some speed/death metal song.
Judging by the music the employees of the company play in their own bands, I’d say Harmonix is probably biased towards metal and similar genres. So I’m happy when they stretch themselves and do something different. For example, this week they are releasing a Roy Orbison six-pack. So they’re trying to cover all the bases, but metal and hard rock will probably always be at the core of the game.
That Visions song, however, is something else. It’s the song from hell. It sounds like crap, it’s impossible to play, and playing it makes my fretting hand hurt. I’ve beaten almost everything on expert, and I can’t beat that stupid song on hard. I’ve actually given up trying, just because I hate the process of practicing it so much. So I’ll never finish the world tour.
What pissed me off the most so far is they released all of Nirvana’s Nevermind album EXCEPT “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Lithium.” And “Polly” and “Something in the Way” seem like terrible songs for group play, don’t know why they bothered with those. Seems like in many cases they’re holding back from releasing the most popular song from the artist, like for Journey they released “Any Way You Want It” when I think their most popular song is probably “Don’t Stop Believing.”
Overall I like the variety of songs. I’d like to see more classic rock and more stuff like The Breeders or The White Stripes (although a lot of their songs have no bass guitar.) And songs like “Whatcha Want” are cool enough, but not really very interesting musically.
I was playing in a group that included a black lady in her 30’s and she was singing and liking Ratt’s “Round and Round”, she’d never heard it before. Same with my teenage daughter, she’s listening to a lot of music that she wouldn’t have listened to otherwise because of Rock Band. A lot of white people enjoy “black” music, but Rock Band does a good job of exposing everyone to a variety of rock(ish) music.
I’m a metal fan but it’s damn hard to play in many cases and I’m not sure if it’s a good fit for mixed company.
I’m a big proponent of more metal in Rock Band but not speed or death metal (unless it actually aims to be good music rather than simply fast or technically difficult music). The game would be well served to have more metal like Metallica and Dream Theater which are both technically difficult and interesting to listen to - songs like visions are just horrible and boring.
I had to bring up Visions in YouTube just to see what it was. I/we managed to beat Rock Band 2 without hearing it. Yeah that sucks. I’m all for heavy music but I don’t like the cookie monster voice, and that song is a little too far out for a general interest game.