Review Shopping Online

Excellent - as a game peripheral
The Drum Rocker is an excellent upgrade from the standard Rock Band or RBII drum kit. It's adjustable, which makes a huge difference in play comfort, and it feels solid, including the metal bass pedal. Sure, it doesn't make a great e-drum kit, but I didn't buy it for that, did I?

A Digital Drumset
Why get a digital drum set?

One huge thing could be, you can adjust the volume.

This one is like any digital drumset, plus, you can use it to play Rock Band 2.

You'll get lots of wonderful practice drumming, if you use this with your Xbox. For one, on Rock Band, there's a drumming tutorial, practice sessions where you can play songs 50% slower and go up to 60%, 70% to 100%. You can also put it in Freestyle mode and play whatever you like, like a real drumset.

Awesome alternative
The Ion Drum Rocker is WORLDS above any other rock band/guitar hero drum set available right now. Everything works great and its overall EXTREMELY quiet compared to the others.

Only complaints are that the drum pedal is a little loud and its hard to set the cymbals up for a "strike through" type of play. They work better when they are tightened down and stationary.

Other than that the set is very sturdy and customizable, and is fairly easy to set up(Just time consuming). It NEVER misses notes so your scores will instantly go up and you won't lose those combos.

If you enjoy playing drums on rock band and can afford to fork out 300 extra dollars... BUY THIS DRUM SET

But let me warn you... You will never want to use the old drums again. And none of your friends will want to play guitar!

Couldn't be happier with the Ion Drum Kit.
Rockband is a great game. The only problem I've had with it is trying to get the stock rockband drums to work perfectly. My issues with the stock kit are:

1. Too loud. The clack clack sound of the sticks hitting the pads can get annoying. This can also be an issue if you're living in a apartment.

2. Cross talk between the pads. Occasionally you'll hit one pad and it will register a hit on another pad killing your multiplier.

3. Missed notes.

I tried a lot of different mods (pennies, socks, felt/foam, gum rubber, tape, etc.) with mixed results, some helped one problem but created other problems. Eventually I returned the drums and received a new set. Unfortunately I had the same problems with the new set.

I purchased the Ion drum set with very high expectations, and after spending quite a bit of time on it, I couldn't be happier. My Ion Drum set works perfectly.

Pro's:
- Quieter pads
- No missed notes
- No cross talk between pads
- you can customize pad placement and angles
- cymbals add a lot to the feel of the game

Con's:
- Kinda pricey
- The ion drums are larger then the stock set. Not as portable.
- Foot pedal works fine but feels a bit loose.

I'd recommend this set to anyone, and I would buy again.

ION Drum Rocker
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.