Hey, Guitar Hero (WT, 5, Metallica, Smash Hits, Band Hero, VH) drummers, how about you get a new drum kit that blows the stock GHWT and Band Hero controllers out of the water? Logitech has made the competitor to Ion’s Drum Rocker. Though Logitech is focused at the Guitar Hero drummer, and the Ion is focused at the Rock Band drummer. At 60% off the regular prices, this drum kit is a must have if you are still using the stock Guitar Hero drum kit.

This kit comes with three adjustable pads, two cymbal pads, and a kick pedal. Plus all the cables needed, and the built-in Xbox 360 controls.

Here’s everything else you will find in the box:

Package Contents

It even folds up nicely (unlike the Ion) for easy and quick storage.

Just like the Ion Drum Rocker, it is fully compatible with all Guitar Hero and Rock Band games.  Yes, this will work with all Rock Band games on Xbox 360, including Lego: Rock Band, Rock Band 2, and Green Day: Rock Band.

As a Rock Band drummer myself, who has played many hours with Guitar Hero drum controllers, I can tell you the important differences.  The yellow pad for Guitar Hero games is always used as a cymbal (hi-hat, ride, crash, etc), whereas in Rock Band games, the yellow pad may be a cymbal or a tom. For Rock Band drummers, there will be a learning curve to get used to hitting a cymbal for toms, but it is doable.  I played this way exclusively for several months.  The orange pad is only used in Guitar Hero games.  This is a huge win for Guitar Hero drummers.  Having the orange pad gives you more authenticity of playing a real drum kit, due the the dedicated orange/cymbal pad.  For Rock Band drummers, the orange pad is not used.  There is no learning curve for the orange pad, since Rock Band just ingnores the orange pad, and Guitar Hero games display an orange lane.

The reviews are mixed, though generally positive.  Most of the mediocre reviews are comparing it to the Ion Drum Rocker, and the fact that the two are so close in price.  But, at this current price of $91 with FREE shipping, this blows the Drum Rocker pricing out of the water.  Take a look at the Amazon deal for the Logitech Xbox 360 Wireless Drum Controller and see if this is for you.

September’s launch of Guitar Hero 5 was bungled, and sales figures have recently shown that overwhelmingly, music game fans chose The Beatles: Rock Band in September.  Has Activision also ruined any chance of success for their upcoming Guitar Hero: Van Halen game?

Activision is a company that is well known for their public relations antics, and their CEO is one of the more controversial personalities in the game industry.  Shortly after Guitar Hero 5′s launch in September, the public relations arm of the company quite firmly proclaimed their product launch was the top, and even exclaimed that they had outsold their competitor by a 4 to 1 margin.  Unfortunately the final number from the month do not support any of those claims, and worse yet, are exactly the opposite.

Even some of the highlights of the game, the ‘celebrity’ renderings, were not without fault.  Immediately after launch reports surfaced that one of the celebrity avatars could be fully unlocked from their own music tracks, and made to sing any song in the catalog.  The Kurt Cobain debacle, to which Activision was equally quick to assert their innocence, that they in fact had signed contracts that stated his likeness was to be a ‘fully playable character’.   The surviving members of Nirvana are currently pleading with the publisher to lock the feature in a future update, but Activision has made no indication that they are going to make that happen.   Admittedly, I was entertained by the “Bon Jovi” stylings of Kurt Cobain’s avatar, but ultimately disgusted that they would take a beloved rock icon like Cobain and completely trash him like that.

The disappointing (or predictable, if you’re Harmonix) sales performance and cold reception of Guitar Hero 5  have put further doubt on the commercial success of their next title, Guitar Hero: Van Halen.  The title so far has only been available for free, for those customers in the USA who purchased GH5 and the title has already been delivered to them.  For anyone who did not purchase Guitar Hero 5, the game is promised to be in stores in December at full price.

Well Activision, here is the elephant in the room:  nobody is going to buy Guitar Hero: Van Halen.  Here’s why.  The band Van Halen, although certainly very famous worldwide, has almost all of their game-playing fan base in the USA (in my opinion).  Activision must have realized early on that people in Asia are not going to get excited about playing the music of Eddie Van Halen and company.   One could also argue that anyone who purchased GH5 would probably also purchase GH: VH, and also that if you didn’t buy GH5, you probably aren’t going to be excited about GH: VH.   Simply put, Guitar-Hero-Van-Halen fans all got in at the right time, and got the free copy when they bought GH5.

With the December retail launch of Van Halen coming up, its not clear who they expect to buy this game.   Given Shawn’s first impressions, as an international customer who did not get it for free, I will not be buying it.  I am sure that if you listen to the PR team at Activision, it will probably outsell every game ever created to date.

This is Part 3 of a multi-part series.
Part 1: the discovery
Part 2: intro and shopping
Part 3: basic setup
Part 4: pro setup (coming soon)

Ok, so you now have all the gear to get going. Let’s take a few (literally) minutes to get setup so you can experience this for the first time. Honestly, it won’t take you more than 30-40 minutes to get the basics setup.

To review, here’s what you should already have:
* Guitar Hero Drum Kit
* MIDI Cable
* Electronic Drum Kit/Brain with Assignable MIDI capabilities
* can’t forget…Game console (i.e. Xbox 360, PS3, Wii) with game (i.e. RB2, GHWT)

1. Setup the GHWT drum kit as instructed in the manual. Nothing out of the ordinary here; setup the stand, place the drums on the stand, plug in the pedal, plug in the cymbals etc.
NOTE: If you are using the GHWT kit for Rock Band, put the Yellow cymbal on the left, and orange (unused) on the right. If you are using GHWT, put orange on left and yellow on right.
2. Plug the GHWT kit into your game console and start up your game of choice (i.e. RB2 or GHWT). Play around and make the the kit plays as expected.
3. Plug the MIDI cable into the back of the GHWT kit; there is a MIDI port right next to the kick drum plug port.
4. Plug the other end of your MIDI cable to your e-drum kit brain (i.e. Yamaha TMX, Roland TD6V, etc).

Ok, so let’s step back for a second. You have confirmed the GHWT kit plays fine with your console right? If the GHWT kit has issues, please make sure you get those corrected before proceeding.

Now, let’s get into pad placement on your e-drum kit.

5. Make sure you have at least the minimum number of pads setup on your drum kit. For example, Rock Band needs four pads and a kick drum; GHWT needs 5 pads and a kick drum. You need to have at a minimum 4 or 5 pads ready to plug in/configure.

6. Configure each pad on your e-drum kits brain with the following MIDI value.  NOTE:  The voice (actual sound) doesn’t matter, what matters is the MIDI value.

RockBand Settings (CREDIT: Doc_SoCal)

RED – MIDI Note 38
YELLOW – MIDI Note 46
BLUE - MIDI Note 48
GREEN - MIDI Note 45
KICK - MIDI Note 36

GHWT Settings are the same, you just add the orange pad at MIDI Note 49.

7. Now, turn on your game and try it out.  If using RB2, test each pad in the Drum Trainer. This way you can start to fine tune everything.  Basically, every time you hit your kits snare drum (aka red), your e-kit drum drain will send the MIDI note #38 through your MIDI cable, into the GHWT kit, into your console…and of course onto your screen (and speakers).
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Now, you will likely have to recalibrate your game as I noticed a very small, but noticable lag.  After manually setting calibration, everything works great.

What this leaves you is with your e-drum kit fully functional as a drum kit for RB and GHWT, and it also leaves you with a fully setup GHWT kit. The good part of this is, you can let friends (or kids) use the GHWT kit when they want to play, and keep them off your nice kit.  Both kits will be usable at the same time.  So, if someone hit a pad on the GHWT kit while you are playing your e-kit, the hit will get registered. What’s good is, you can let someone play the GHWT kit without unplugging the MIDI cable.  What’s bad is the obvious. Someone can break your streak by hitting a pad on the GHWT kit. It’s only an issue for me if my little kids are in the room and want to join in the song with me.

There are two potential concerns to consider. First, You don’t have your Start, Select, or Menu buttons mapped on your drum kit. This means you need to use the GHWT controller to press Start etc.  The mapped MIDI pads can be used as a D-pad and the corresponding buttons, but you have no Start, Select, or Menu on your kit.  Second, you have a plastic drum kit now just sitting in your room unused. If you are short on space, this can be an issue.  My setup is in my basement, so it is not an issue and I’m fine with this.  In fact I keep the GHWT kit rght next to my e-kit, so I can press Start, Select, and Menu as needed.

So that’s the basic setup.  Coming in my next post, I will talk about taking things further with more professional setups. I will talk about mapping multiple e-drums so you can expand well beyond the 4-5 pad configuration (see picture for a sneak peek). I will also talk about ripping apart the GHWT controller and mounting it on your e-kit (something I do not plan to do, but others with limited space have).