Drum drama
THE GOOD NEWS:
Yesterday I finally passed "Visions" on expert drums, meaning I have now passed all of the songs that come with Rock Band 2. Pretty frickin sweet.
THE BAD NEWS:
My pads are really starting to wear out. They aren't missing notes (yet), but the rubber is starting to disintegrate. I'll need to vacuum around my drum kit in the morning. While they aren't missing notes, the performance of the pads is reduced in the sense that they don't generate as much rebound as they used to. This means the drum sticks don't "bounce" away from the pads like they used to. This is important because greater rebound makes it easier to do fast drum rolls because you only have to do work to strike the pad -- with less rebound, you also have to work to move the stick away from the pad before striking again. It makes a surprisingly large difference.
Here's the problem: most stock electronic drum pads aren't compatible with the ION kit. There are a few that would work, like the Roland PD-8, but not many. And even the Roland might require some modding on my part. Alternatively, a website now offers ION-specific replacement pads which are slightly different than the original pads.
Here's the bigger problem: the ION-specific replacements cost $40 a pad. The Roland PD-8s cost around $85 a pad. Replacing all four at once would set me back $160-340 (and probably add another $10-20 on shipping). That's a lot of money for an unemployed guy. I have some money saved up, but damn...
I'm thinking about buying one replacement pad ($40), see how it works, and then decide if I want to get the others.
Do you guys have any bright ideas?
Yesterday I finally passed "Visions" on expert drums, meaning I have now passed all of the songs that come with Rock Band 2. Pretty frickin sweet.
THE BAD NEWS:
My pads are really starting to wear out. They aren't missing notes (yet), but the rubber is starting to disintegrate. I'll need to vacuum around my drum kit in the morning. While they aren't missing notes, the performance of the pads is reduced in the sense that they don't generate as much rebound as they used to. This means the drum sticks don't "bounce" away from the pads like they used to. This is important because greater rebound makes it easier to do fast drum rolls because you only have to do work to strike the pad -- with less rebound, you also have to work to move the stick away from the pad before striking again. It makes a surprisingly large difference.
Here's the problem: most stock electronic drum pads aren't compatible with the ION kit. There are a few that would work, like the Roland PD-8, but not many. And even the Roland might require some modding on my part. Alternatively, a website now offers ION-specific replacement pads which are slightly different than the original pads.
Here's the bigger problem: the ION-specific replacements cost $40 a pad. The Roland PD-8s cost around $85 a pad. Replacing all four at once would set me back $160-340 (and probably add another $10-20 on shipping). That's a lot of money for an unemployed guy. I have some money saved up, but damn...
I'm thinking about buying one replacement pad ($40), see how it works, and then decide if I want to get the others.
Do you guys have any bright ideas?