Gizmodo: drum kit

Nyko Metal Pedal: Music Games to Fully Embrace Satan

Mark Wilson — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:40:00 EST

Someone give somebody at Nyko a raise, because they finally remembered the most important component of any pretend rock setup: Skeletons!

The Nyko Metal Pedal is a durable replacement for your Rock Band or Guitar Hero drum set pedal. Whereas Rock Band 2 upgraded their pedal from plastic to metal, many have cracked their old pedals with the force of their mighty rock. (I don't know if the GHIV set uses a plastic or metal pedal—anyone in the audience have a kit?)

Regardless, at $20, the Metal Pedal beats searching eBay for a replacement should your pedal break. It will be available this January.

Premium Rock Band 2 Drum Kit Surfaces: "Badass" Is The Word You're Looking For

Matt Hickey — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:20:33 EDT

I play Rock Band like a champ, and when I'm with my crew I'm usually on drums. I'm a drummer, and I love playing them, and the included drum controller always seemed just fine to me. Kotaku found this photo of the premium Rock Band 2 kit and I've decided I must have it. UPDATE: OK, so this kit doesn't ship with Rock Band 2, it's an $300 optional purchase.

Instead of just four heads, the badass looking kit gives you four heads, hi hat, crash, and ride cymbals. This kit, which will come with Rock Band 2 certainly beats the Guitar Hero: World Tour offering, but it also signals something unusual: the start of a music games arms war. I hope they bring it hard.

[Kotaku]

Rock Band Drum Kit Gets Wheelchair Accessible (With How To)

Jason Chen — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:20:00 EDT

The folks at Kinetic Communications took the Rock Band Drum Kit, which totally isn't wheelchair accessible thanks to its bass kick pedal, and put $20 worth of their own accessibility mod into it to make sure it is. All it took was a doorbell, a Y cable, a pair of pliers and some sweat and they made a Rock Band kick pedal that can be activated from on the drumsticks. Super cool, Kinetic. Hit up their site to see how you can do this yourself. [Kinetic]

Rock Revolution Drum Kit Confirms Absurd Arms Race

Mark Wilson — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:10:00 EDT

First we had Rock Band and their 5-button drum kit. Then we had the announcement of Activision's Rock Band clone (Guitar Hero IV) and its 6-button drum kit. Now, not to be outdone, we have word of Konami's Rock Revolution and its 7-button drum kit. And yes, it's all way too eerily reminiscent of "7-minute abs."

But even though Rock Revolution's drum kit looks like those of its competitors, the game is supposed to offer drummers more flexibility. Beginners can remove the pedal completely to ease the learning curve, and advanced drummers can feel free to fill in extra hits where they feel appropriate without penalty.

Still, we're starting a pool on the company/date that the first 15-button drum kit will hit consoles. Feel free to speculate in the comments. [MTV Multiplayer]

Rock Band Drum Kit Close-Up Look and Disassembly

Jason Chen — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:40:46 EDT

MTV's Multiplayer Blog takes us on a close-up tour of the Rock Band drum kit. It's the biggest piece of gear in the Rock Band set, so you'll want to scope out how this thing comes apart and goes together to see if you've got enough room in your house to fit it all. The guitars are easily shoved into a closet, but this drum set—even when disassembled—takes up a huge chunk of space. [MTV]