Do you need the Ion to be competitive?

**tordana** · Joined: 11 Jan 2008 Posts: 91

Just thinking about this...

I'm up to 4th place on scorehero (all systems) and 12th on XBL... however, I find myself not being able to improve much at all on my scores any more. This is generally not because I feel I can't play sections (although there are certainly some of those, fast bass drum patterns are my downfall), but because I feel like my equipment screws up. I'm using the RB1 drums on my roommate's HDTV (I have no TV) that changes calibration anywhere between 50 and 150ms video lag on any given day. My red pad registers everything, yellow pad occasionally drops fast hits, blue pad registers everything, and green pad either drops fast hits all the time or crosstalks when I hit blue if I add some tape to make it more sensitive. And my bass pedal... I can't even tell what is going on with it. I just know sometimes I miss notes that I can't attribute to the pads, I think it either doesn't register sometimes or registers random hits sometimes.

At any rate, after that long-winded explanation of my set-up, let me get to the question. I know that someguy913ps, the long-dominant drums leader, uses the Ion set. So do most of the other "pro" players. Is it really that much better than the RB/WT sets in terms of registering everything correctly? And if so, how is that fair? Those people with $300 to drop on a controller for a video game have an advantage over those without the money? What do you guys think?

**ElementOfZero** · Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 10:35 pm Post subject:

Someguy doesnt use the Ion.

he uses a $2k Roland electronic drum kit.
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**tordana** · Joined: 11 Jan 2008 Posts: 91

**rkuo** · Joined: 17 Mar 2008 Posts: 152

Shrug, it's unfortunate, but having a kit that registers hits properly should never be illegal.

And yes, I think having something like the ION kit is the lowest cost way to play competitively, short of lucking out with a good stock kit. The stock kits seem to just be junk for the most part.

**HoorayItsMike** · Joined: 28 Jul 2007 Posts: 1604 Location: Ohio

No. Ion kit will not affect your scores all that much. I mean it might, but not enough to really change your scores dramatically.

However, a WT kit will. I bet that If we both FCed every single song, but with me hitting all accents and getting the orange note that is worth more points, I would have over 1 million more points than you. That's not an exaggeration whatsoever. I've noticed runs where I've missed multiple times and still have beaten Effectzz FC score by a decent margin. I bet on average one of my FC runs will beat a RB kit run by 15-20k just because of accents and having orange notes. When SP is used that means that margin increases even more.
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**GRYBOPandRYBOGP** · Joined: 28 Oct 2008 Posts: 255

I thought that Orange notes were charted as Blue/Green. I also assumed that using the RB drums would result in the same amount of total notes in the song.

On the OP's thought. The Ion could help with Y/B/G rolls by alternating cymbal and pad which might be easier than just using pads.
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**hydrapower** · Joined: 28 May 2006 Posts: 1708 Location: Rochester, MN

I think right now the World Tour drums are an even playing field (at least until people start figuring out how to mod their pedals or whatnot) because if your drums are bad they can be fixed with the tuning software, usually. With the Rock Band drums it's RMA roulette and that's part of why I never sent back my QM set even though I needed to put a sock on the red and couldn't put socks on any other pads because they would crosstalk. Any yellow, blue, or green roll needs to be played very softly for it to register. With some players sending back half a dozen kits I can see why some of them would get fed up and seek a more premium solution. I actually bought a metal Roadie pedal myself because I couldn't stand the stock pedal.

Interestingly though, on World Tour you can hook up your e-kit as a standard feature. So I guess there, it's not exactly even due to the more comfortable nature of your e-kit, but I think it's more even than the discrepancy between Rock Band stock kits, ION kits, and modded e-kits there.

You seem to be at a crossroads where you have to decide how much you like playing plastic drums. If you don't feel like you want to spend more money on them, then you've probably reached your scoring limit. It's an unfortunate reality.

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**EffectZ** · Joined: 04 Jun 2008 Posts: 60

**Tagrineth** · Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 2197

**wambafat** · Joined: 14 Feb 2007 Posts: 183

Well, Mystakin, who is 2nd place on SH on rb2 drums uses a generic RB kit if I'm thinking correctly...

**Jared1287** · Joined: 26 Apr 2008 Posts: 1743 Location: San Diego

Depends on 2 things.

1) Are you gonna use it for e-drums?

2) Do you play Rock Band more than GH or vice versa?

EDIT: that's for if you're on the edge about buying it. I'd get it, cause at your skill level, if you're more concerned with rock band, it makes a lot of difference than the crappy RB1 pads.
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