Do you want to play Rock Band like a real drummer?

Well the Ion Drum Rocker is pretty close to the real thing and a great start to a real quality electronic drum set.  This set came out in conjunction with Rock Band 2 a couple months back for a high price of of console itself at around $299 but was it worth the steep entry?  In two words, yes and yes.

The Ion Drum Rocker is leaps and bounds above the standard wireless drums that Rock Band 2 puts out.  The wireless drums had sensitivity issues that caused you to miss notes or even activate other pads that you weren't even hitting.  Sometimes I would be in a roll on the red pad and the blue pad would be going off at the same time.  And the there was the pedal problem.  Sure the bass pedal had a metal strip the prevent cracking but they forgot to reinforce the hinge and that's where my pedal snapped just two hours into playing during a Fleetwood Mac song.  The Ion Drums have none of these problems what so ever.  The pads are sturdy as ever with a thick layered pad of gum rubber ready to take a beating and the pedal feels like it weighs as much as the standard set itself.  The pedal is actually a converted hi-hat pedal from the Alesis DM5 electronic drum set but it does the job rather well despite sometimes sticking a bit.  But perhaps the best part of the Ion Drum Rocker is that it is totally configurable.  There really is no right or wrong way to set it up.  Just simply unscrew a couple of wingnuts and rotate a couple pads and move the cymbals up and down and you're set.  And when you feel like you've mastered Rock Band 2, you can then purchase a drum "brain" and have yourself a fully expandable drum set without using an Xbox 360 or home theater hook up at all.

So if you're are serious about drumming and got some extra scratch, go ahead and get the Ion Drum Rocker.  It's well worth the investment and you won't ever want to play the standard drums again.