Hands on with Ion Drum Rocker for Rock Band

Rock Band veterans know that pounding away on flimsy drums loses its mystique in a matter of hours. And while the silicone pads of the Rock Band 2 drums mark a nice improvement over the originals, it's probably still not the stick-twirling, crowd-pleasing, lighter-igniting experience you're hoping for.

The Ion Drum Rocker claims to be "the most realistic drumming experience available to any gamer, regardless of platform," and that's pretty much right on the money. The Drum Rocker are real electronic drums first, a game controller second. Just look at what's in the box: four drum pads, two elevated cymbals, an all-metal kick pedal, and an aluminum frame to mount all this stuff on. When all set up, you'll feel like you're ready to tour with Rush. And if that's not enough for you, a third cymbal can be added to the rig if you need it.

Setting up the Drum Rocker is the only real drawback of the system. By my count, thirty-six separate pieces come in the kit, including a bracket and cable for each component. The rack itself is composed of seven thick aluminum rods, plus stands for the cymbals. It all has to be put together by hand, tightened with an Allen wrench (or thumbscrews for some pieces), and carefully cabled. I spent a full 75 minutes putting it all together from the moment I opened the box (and including three cymbals.)

After that, there's still more work to be done: One of the big advantages of the Drum Rocker is that you can adjust components up, down, side to side, and even tweak the angles of each piece. Want the green pad on the right but the green cymbal on the left? No problem, just move it where you want it. The configurability options are limitless, which is both a blessing and a curse: After playing all day I'm still not done tweaking the rig so it's just right. I'm not sure it will ever quite be totally finished.

But the gameplay is oh-so-worth all the hassle. These drum pads behave like no drum simulator to date, with amazing bounce and a muffled sound when hit that's as far from the clacking of the original Rock Band drums as you can get. They're not just easier to play, they're actually more fun to play, too, even if you don't reach up to smack the cymbals that much. (They're completely optional; each cymbal serves to give you a second pad to hit for each color you choose to hook it up to.) It will be hard indeed to go back to the regular drums after spending any amount of time on the Drum Rocker.

There is of course the matter of the price: At $300 you'll spend more on this kit than the entire Rock Band 2 bundle, and you'll have to shell out another $50 for the third cymbal. (Might as well get the $40 "drum throne" while you're at it.) In these troubled times I know it's tough to justify that kind of outlay, but think of it this way: If you drop another $360 on the special DM5 unit, you can actually use the Drum Rocker as a real, professional drum kit that can output MIDI to whatever sequencing system you'd like. Yeah, that's right, you're gettin' the band back together!