Review Wii Game & Accessories

I am no super smart person, but I bought the Rockband drums for my family for Christmas, and I bought the Cymbals to go with the drum set. Nothing states that the Cymbals will not work with the Wii Rockband drum set. After getting up Christmas morning and everyone happy and working together to get the drum set working they could not get the cymbals to work after digging through the instructions I found that the cymbals would only work with the Rockband 2. We did not know that there is a rockband, rockband 2 and now a rockband 3. For those of us that are not real gamers this was discussing.
Rating: 1 / 5

I just received the long awaited cymbals… Surprise!!! They only work with the Rock Band 2 drums (yes, some of us got our drum kits with Rock Band 1)

This was not indicated when I did my purchase… I am pissed at the Amazon website for not stating it clearly…my trust towards Amazon has dropped dramatically…I used to be so happy with you people.

DANIEL HERNANDEZ
Rating: 1 / 5

I can’t rate this as it doesn’t connect to RB1 drum kit. There is a warning on the description page, but it is not exactly prominent. Got my money back quick and clean n’all, but disappointed that last year’s drum kit is no good w/ this year’s accessories.
Rating: 1 / 5

I’ll cut to the chase - These are not worth your money. Most people who play RB and RB2 on a regular basis are not real musicians that play real instruments, so those who play instruments as I do (especially the drums) will find several issues with the cymbal add-ons. I’ll start with the pros and finish with the cons:

Pros -

1. Adds the presence of a one-tone highat, a ride, and a crash to your RB2 drumming experience.

2. An inexpensive add-on, which goes to show you get what you pay for.

Cons -

1. The grips consistently fail to grasp the pole to keep the cymbals up. Within a song’s worth of play, the cymbals slide down. You either have to super glue them in place or rig something up to prevent them from falling.

2. The crash and ride are reversed. Traditional drummers place crashes above their toms and the ride off to the side near their floor tom. For these add-on cymbals, the ride is where the crash should be and the crash is where the ride should be. Unfortunately, there is no way to alter this (by switching the inputs, etc) as doing do will result in missed beats during game play if you can’t remember that you switched the blue and green cymbals around.

3. There is no way to adjust the positioning of these cymbals beyond the limited vertical plane (no way to further the distance away from the drumpads or to tilt the cymbals). They hover almost directly over your drum pads, which can aggravate the user when they hit the wrong cymbal while trying to hit a nearby different-colored drum pad.

4. The materials are very cheap and the wingnut mechanisms are going to break on a lot of people’s sets from trying to keep the grips from sliding down the poles.

5. These are simple-trigger pads (one-hit one-sound). They would be better if they had the ability to read the sensitivity of the hit and produce sound accordingly (light tap makes a lighter cymbal sound while a heavier hit makes a heavier sound). I know that this is more or less beyond the scope of the game and the purpose of the drums, but it is something to think about for V2.

Conclusion - We all know RB and RB2 are not intended for real musicians to pump out real music; they are meant for fun and entertainment. They have the right idea in creating these add-on cymbals, it’s just apparent that they chose the absolute cheapest method to develop them and chose the wrong people to provide input as to how to create them (they obviously weren’t real drummers). Nice try, but not good enough. I hope your V2 is developed more smartly and by those who actually know what they are doing and know how cymbals should be set up. I know I do not represent the average 13-year old kid out there who can barely pay the $40 to but these things, which is why I am sure they are so cheaply made. However, I would happily pay $80-$100 for add-on cymbals that fix the issues that I listed above as well as implement the suggestions that I have listed as well.
Rating: 1 / 5

I was sooooo jazzed to get these cus it would make my set easier to play - more like a real set. What a dissappointment! First of all, the screws seem to be metal, but the threads are plastic so be careful about tightening the screws cus they will strip the cheap plastic threads. Secondly, you have to strip the threads cus no matter how tight you put them the clamps still slip down the poles. Thirdly, they are really close to the pads. Fourthly, they just plain suck! They are nothing like digital drum cymbals which are soft and don’t make a horrible loud sound when you hit them. The very top of these is somewhat soft, but underneath are the electronics covered in a hard plastic case - thus making the overall feel hard like hitting a desktop, and rattly like hitting a desktop with marbles on it. VERY loud and unpleasant. Fifth… you know, I’ll just stop counting and just list the problems, ok…you cannot tilt them. So if you don’t tighten the “wingnuts” you get some tilt, but the thing bounces and rattles. If you do tighten the “wingnuts” they are flat and unpleasant to hit, and harder to hit. When the wingnuts are loose at least the things absorb more of the impact. Also, some reviewers are saying that they are super sensitive…maybe… I’ve been having problems with the green one… experimenting putting that particular pad on blue and yellow…seems like it probably is over sensitive as I have never had problems on the green cymbal parts and am now having problems. This is the one I hit the hardest… so it probably is registering as double hits from the impact.

If you decide to purchase these, I suggest going to the hardware store and buying extra clamps and poles to keep them from slipping and also so that you can extend them out further. I got contractors worm clamps (11/16″-1 1/4″) and so far they are

working just fine. Put these just below the cymbal clamps on the drum pad pole as a sort of “memory lock /clamp support”. I also got some 1″ pvc and couplings to extend my set out (especially the high hat which should be, if anything, to the left of the snare). May need some braces to keep that from jiggling too much. Also, once I got the memory lock clamps installed, and stopped the things from sliding down the poles, the problems with the green cymbal stopped.

Otherwise, your best bet is to ditch the idea of getting these. They SUCK! Just wait for the second generation. And good luck.
Rating: 1 / 5