They are not designed to be tilted, but i rigged them up by wedging a small wooden dowell under the back and tightening the washer. This tilts them slightly towards you. It was a pain to do, but the slight tilt makes drumming a bit easier. It's not a huge deal though. Even flat they are a blast.

Ugh. DLC has been absolutely atrocious for me lately...other than "Times Like These", haven't bought anything in weeks, and that pattern will hold true for next week (and likely 1/6 as well).

I also like the cymbals (a lot), but I agree that they're kind of loud - probably about as loud as the RB1 kit. My biggest complaint with drumming in RB was always that it didn't really feel anything like real drumming - none of the pads really felt like they were what they were supposed to be (a snare, high-hat, tom, etc.). It just felt like I was hitting the correct color-coded area on my little toy when that color came down the screen. The cymbals have fixed that - they now feel like cymbals (well, except for the high-hat; it still doesn't feel like a real one, especially when you're playing an open high-hat note on the blue pad). And the toms now feel like toms, especially since you often follow them up with a crash hit. On Panic Attack, there's a part that has you alternating blue/green crash hits for a little while; it's a lot more fun when using the cymbals. It's just a lot more satisfying when you know the song well enough to alternate between cymbal and tom hits.

In short, expert players who know how to play on a real kit will likely get a lot out of them, but I'd recommend at least the triple kit (but even that didn't feel like quite enough to me; I'm looking into rigging another one or two). Players on lower difficulties might not get quite as much out of them - a single green crash might be enough. My girlfriend, an easy player who got excited when I added them, doesn't use them at all.

Also, the cymbals are still dedicated cymbals in Freestyle mode, which is nice. Sadly, it's still not any kind of substitute for a real electronic kit. There's too much of a delay between when you hit a pad and when the sound comes through. Also, the high-hat is always closed, and the cymbal volumes are too low. I can barely hear them over the clack of the physical sound of the cymbal. Turning the volume up doesn't help, either, since the toms are then way loud.


An aside as to how I set them up:

I couldn't find the triple kit, so I picked up two of the double kits. The mounting brackets included in the double kits aren't meant to be used for more than two cymbals, though, so you'd need to pick up some extra hardware at a hardware store to make it work. I read that some people have problems with the cymbals sliding down and that worm clamps can be a solution. So that's what I did - I used them to prevent the cymbals from sliding down, but I NEEDED an extra one to mount the third cymbal. The arm for the third cymbal probably isn't as long as it should be (so the cymbal sits really close to the drum pad), but it works well enough for me.

I'm now thinking about setting up the fourth cymbal. Since the yellow and blue cymbals are often used as crash cymbals, and a ride cymbal usually sits further to the right on a drum kit, I'd like to put another blue cymbal that sits lower somewhere between the blue and green drum pad. I'm hoping a splitter will allow me to use 2 blue cymbals; I figure it shouldn't be a problem especially since I'd never need to hit both blue cymbals at the same time. I also want to split an extra yellow cymbal to the left of the red pad, but I'd need to buy an extra extra cymbal for it...

All this cymbal talk makes me sad! They really really need to patch the game for left-handed drummers. :(

Just tried out my triple kit (found at Fry's before the holidays). Like they wait they feel so far. I've got the green above the blue pad and the blue above the green pad as the crash being higher and the ride being on the far right makes more sense to me.

So I tried bass for the first time and for my second gig I got offered that if I 5-starred a song in the 6-song setlist I'd get shitloads of fans but if I didn't I'd lose them. I accepted and got 2 X 5-stars, 3 X 4-stars, and a three star. I lost 411,xxx fans, which was about two thirds of the fans I had gathered so far in the game :lol:

Bass is generally easier than guitar, but, there are the occasional awesome songs where the bass rocks and the guitar is is not as tough, like Souls of Black, You Oughta Know, and Hysteria.

Drumming has handedness? Seriously?

Yes. I like to play pre-dominantly with my left hand and do my fills from right to left, unlike you righties who fill from left to right.

The main problem with the cymbals is that there is no red port on the back (which would be my crash), and therefore I can't have a crash at all. I could get a two-cymbal kit and do a ride / hi-hat combo, but the biggest draw for me is crashing the end of a fill. It isn't possible with my handedness. :(

Wow, I had no idea. I thought that was the one instrument that it really didn't matter.

No, that would be vocals. :)

Although, if they made "lefty" vocals, I might just have to do it!

I was actually surprised how fun the bass track for You Ought Know was. I also like the bass on the Lacuna Coil song.
I generally like bass, but it's definitely sometimes a bit boring. Not a fault of the game per se.

I usually use the money assistant too. I'll cap out on fans long before capping out on money.

ok, this AC DC track pack is actually kinda fun. I picked it up for the girl for xmas (:lol:) and since i'm off this week I've been working through the "tour" mode to get that achievement on drums. Dirty Deeds is a fun little ditty. Jailbreak was long as fuck. I'm 1/2 way through, taking my sweet time :)

You've never heard Dirty Deeds before? The Jailbreak big rock ending is almost as long as the song itself. :lol:

I got the AC/DC pack for Christmas and I only played a few songs, to get the quick achievements, before importing it into RB2. What I played was fun, it's a good set list. I just have to get used to hearing a live album instead of studio. The tempo on one of the songs seemed faster than I was used to.
Looking forward to Jailbreak, that's actually one of my favorite AC/DC songs.

Heard 'em all, but haven't played on Rock Band before -ohbfrank-

The BRE on Let There Be Rock was insane too. I think i was sweating by the end of that song.

The only track on AC/DC I'm miffed about is The Jack. None of the cool lyrics are there, it was treated as more of an interlude/jam session which blows. I want the original! :sad:

I think it's great that the choices in the game vary so that not every song has the bassist playing root notes but actually great playability for all the instruments.

Picked up RB2 for xmas and I already have RB and AC DC. I understand that there is a way that you can export the songs from RB and AC DC too RB2. How does this work exactly, I have never seen any options ingame?

http://vgstrategies.about.com/od/xbo...BandExport.htm


For AC/DC, use the code on the manual and redeem code on mktplace just like you would with anything else.

Then sell both games.

I think it's under the main menu in RB. You need to be connected to the net in order to get the title update and then the license if you aren't normally connected.

Insert the disc for RB1. It's under options I believe. ACDC has a code on the manual I think to enter on the marketplace to download them.

Did the end less setlist 2 and got all but 1 star (got interrupted by family) and didn't catch it in time to restart it... I had to restart 1 song 3 times and finally 5-starred it, and 2 songs I had to re-start because the pause button got pressed by mistake and a few notes rolled by, but 82 songs I was able to 5-star on my own on my first play-through :D I want that last star so now I'm on song 15 of 84 on my second play-through.

For the drums... how many of you use a screwdriver to open the bar secure thingie and how many use your hands?

How much do you actually move those latches, Gator? I really don't have to exert much force to open and close them anymore and I've maybe only changed the height of the kit a dozen times.

I've only had to adjust mine once.