Rockin’ Out With My Ion Out – The Ion Drum Kit Review

Since early 2008 I’ve been playing, or rather, I’ve been addicted to the game Rock Band. Early on I found myself playing drums or vocals almost exclusively. In fact the number of hours I’ve put into playing drums on Rock Band probably exceeds the time I’ve spent playing every other game this year….combined.

Having played the drums so much, I’ve built up quite a collection of upgrades and mods over the last few months. I’ve installed gum rubber pads, purchased better drum sticks, installed arm supports, bought an Omega Pedal kit and purchased a Roc-n-Soc drum throne. Having done all that, I really felt like I had the best Rock Band drum set up I could possibly have given the options available. You can imagine, then, my excitement when the announcement for the new Ion Drum Kit came out a couple of months ago.

As soon as the Ion Kit became available through Amazon.com I put in my pre-order. Waiting patiently for the last several weeks finally came to an end today when the FedEx driver showed up with a lovingly packed 39 lb. box. I wasn’t able to contain my excitement and immediately opened the box and began assembling the drums right there at the office.

I can tell you right away that this is far superior to the plastic drum kit of Rock Band v.1. All the parts attach to a 2” aluminum tube via adjustable heavy plastic sleeves. You can adjust every drum head, extension arm and cymbal support in any and every direction you can think of. Most adjustments can be made by simply loosening and tightening a thumbscrew. Some adjustments are made with a square head screw that requires a drum key (included) to turn. It took a total of about 30 minutes to unpack everything and perform a basic assembly. It may take a few songs played before I finally have everything tweaked and positioned just where I want it.

The drum heads themselves are made of a rubber type compound that is far quieter then the Rock Band 1 drums with the gum rubber mod. There are videos up on YouTube comparing the two but they really don’t do the difference in sound justice. It’s like looking at a picture of the Eiffel Tower vs. actually being at the Eiffel Tower. They are easily half as loud as the heads I had before. The cymbals are made of a heavy plastic material (think PVC grade) that has a rubber coating covering about 1/3 of the surface area. They also seem to be very quite to strike. The pedal is similar in shape to the RB1 pedal but is made entirely of metal. I can’t see any feasible way someone would ever break one. It might be possible to wear out the sensor one day I suppose but that would be about it.

So it’s assembled and I’m ready to rock. The only problem is I’m still at work. Time to head home and give these bad boys a try…

The first thing I noticed when I arrived at home was that this new drum kit takes up a bit more real estate then the old one did.

If space is a consideration in your game area, you may want to give that serious consideration. On the plus side, unlike the original kit, all the tubing for the Ion kit is held together with a clamp system instead of simply fitting inside each other. You will be able to pick it up and move it around without pulling the legs from the base or the heads from the legs etc. The one other thing I noticed right away was that the USB cable is about 2’-3’ longer than of the RB1 kit. That may not be much of a factor for most people but in my situation, it was just enough to reach my USB hub without an extension.

So that’s the physical attributes. How about the play? While it may have only taken me about 30-40 minutes to set up the drum kit, it took nearly an hour of play time to finally get all the heads positioned exactly where I wanted them. Even now I’m not totally sure if they’re “perfectly placed” or not. Some of it may be positioning and some may be just taking time to learn the new placement. Fortunately, there’s a near infinite number of ways to adjust the kit so you should be able to find a positioning system that will fit your play style.

The drum heads themselves are QUIET. Have I mentioned that yet? Well, I can’t emphasize it enough. It’s almost eerie how much quieter they are. In fact, when I asked the guys online if they could hear my drums, the universal response was “barely”. When I was using a gum rubber pad on the RB1 kit, the online noise was tolerable. Without the rubber pads I would have to mute my Mic during play so as not to annoy the rest of the band. The drum heads also have a far better bounce to them than anything I’ve tried before. I really notice this playing “Teen Age Riot”. That song features a very long run of quick yellow hits that really would cause my arm and shoulder to start burning towards the end. Playing it last night, I didn’t feel nearly the “burn” that I had before. I can only assume the new surface created less work for my arms than hitting the comparatively dead drum head of the RB1 kit.

Now while the new drum heads themselves are quiet, the same can’t be said for the rest of the kit. Particularly the cymbals and kick pedal. Lightly striking the cymbals gives a very quiet and “springy” response. However, in the middle of a song, reaching over to strike the crash cymbal with some force produces a much louder thud. That’s quite a strange thing to hear when the game is playing a crash and you’re hearing a dull thud. Also, the kick pedal gives out a semi-loud clicking sound has you play along. At times it can be quite annoying. So much so in fact that I may buy an adapter for my Omega pedal and go back to using that one.

I spent about an hour and a half or so playing last night and at no point did I ever feel like notes were being dropped. I never witnessed any “cross-talk” among the heads nor did I experience any random double hits. Every note I missed I could clearly see was my own fault. That makes a big difference to your scores, much less your sanity, as you play. It will still take some time to adjust to the new set up. Because the kit is larger, my arms have to sometimes travel a bit further to reach heads than I’m used to. I used to sit basically right on top of the RB1 kit. Now I find myself sitting back just a bit and reaching forward a little more. All of that will become more comfortable with time I’m sure.

Now to answer the big question, is the Ion Kit worth the $300 price tag? For me, yes. For you, let’s look at some determining factors. Do you play Rock Band often or occasionally when friends come over? Do you prefer to play the drums or guitar? Do you have the space required to set up an Ion kit? Do you want to be a better drummer? Do you have a wife/husband willing to let you spend as much money on a peripheral has you did on the 360?

I play Rock Band nearly every day. I don’t necessarily play all day every day, but at least for a few minutes before dinner and for a couple hours’ 2-3 nights a week (current new release notwithstanding). I almost never plug in the guitar controller. For my purposes the game could be called Drum Band or Drum and Vocal Band. When I started playing the game (v.1) I could barely get past the Easy tour. Now, having played more, I’m able to 5 star most songs on hard, even with just a sight read, and can survive the first 3-4 tiers of Expert. I also have a basement that allows for plenty of room to set up the drum kit behind the couch and not be in anyone’s way when I’m not playing.

If you think that your situation is similar then I would highly recommend getting this set. If, however, you only play once in a while with some buddies who come by the house, then I’m not sure it’s worth $300 from a practical standpoint. This is a serious drum kit for a serious player. Time will tell if I truly feel my investment was worth it, but to this point I can say unequivocally that I’m very, very happy with my purchase.

Oh, and for that last question, you don’t think my wife will read this article do you? :-)