Music Gaming Goodness: Rock Band 2 Rocks The House
by Derek Wilson on October 24, 2008 1:25 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
A Quick Detour: Setting Up The Drums
Playing the drums, and by extension, playing with the drum controller on Rock Band 2, can be quite a work out. This gets even more amplified when people make it harder on themselves than it needs to be. There are ways that you can set up your drums, your throne (that's what drummers call the seat they sit on to play), and hold yourself in order to minimize the work you do while playing the game.
Some of the hardest stuff to do, because practice is required, are rolls and fast kick drum work. With both of these techniques, proper strength and endurance are required no matter how much natural timing a person has. And there are some songs that people can just brute force their way through, but you'll have an easier time both learning how to do these things and playing for an extended period of time if you follow these suggestions.
First, you need to determine how high you should sit. If you are sitting too high or too low, you'll be wasting a lot of energy every time you lift your leg to play the kick drum. When you are resting with your foot on the kick pedal, you want you knee to be slightly below your hip. Your leg should be nearly parallel to the ground, but you'll have a little bit more endurance if you are just a bit higher (if the angle your knee makes is a little greater than 90 degrees). This will be true whether you play with your heel up or down. An adjustable drum throne is the way to go, but you can also get by with adjustable chairs. Stools and fixed chairs are kind of hit or miss, and if more than one person is planning on playing drums a lot, you'll really want to go with something that can be raised and lowered easily.
After getting your seat height set, you'll want to look at where to position the drums. Sitting on your throne with your arms relaxed at your sides, lift you hands (bending at the elbows) until your forearms are parallel with the ground. You'll want the vertical center of the red and green drums to be at the height of your finger tips. When actually playing the drums, you'll want to hold your arms at about this angle (you'll need to shift slightly when moving between drums obviously), but in order to conserve energy, you will want to do most of your playing with your wrists.
We could get a lot more into technique, but there are plenty of resources around for those who really want to dig this deep. Whether or not you decide to play Rock Band 2 like a drummer would play the drums, playing the game will be easier on you if you set the drums up as I've outlined and remember to sit up straight. Good posture and the positioning of your seat and the drums will go a very long way to helping improve your experience with the game.
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7Enigma - Saturday, October 25, 2008 - link
A buddy sent this to me a couple weeks ago. Insane drum playing on Expert in RockBand.http://gamerblips.com/video/this_calling_5gs_all_t...">http://gamerblips.com/video/this_calling_5gs_all_t...
And just to give you an idea of how difficult this really is to play (if hearing it didn't quite sink in):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whkXozib-0g">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whkXozib-0g
silversound - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
Anybody have any ideas about the guitar hero world tour?Im planning to buy a RB2 bundle or world tour bundle since they are at the same price. Which one is better? Most of my friends got RB, any thoughts?
DerekWilson - Saturday, October 25, 2008 - link
i'll try to get some quick thoughts on GH4 up after we get ahold of it.if your friends have RB 2 and want to play with you online ... then ... i'd prolly go with RB 2 :-)
if you guys get together and play with eachother, it might be nice to add some variety and pick up GH4 so that you and your friends can play a little of both.
GhandiInstinct - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
Where's the hi-hat pedal?Electronic drum kits have 2 pedals.
crimson117 - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
"In songs with 16th notes or triplets, there still isn't much that gets by without being fairly accurte." ...unlike the Anandtech spell check process :)JarredWalton - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
Okay, I may not be the most up-to-date in terms of bands and such, but the number of songs and even band names that I recognize from the RB2 list is amazingly small. Half of the bands/groups I recognize then have one of their B-sides or some other unknown song on the list. RB1 was pretty bad in that area, but RB2 takes it to a new level. Plus there's the "20 free songs" you can get - but I don't recognize a single group or song on that list! If I were to want to pretend to be a rock star, I think I'd prefer to "cover" songs that I actually know. Guitar Hero seems to do a lot better in this regard; Harmonix appears to have cut costs by choosing cheap/free songs to license.Myrandex - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
I felt the same way until I played it, then I realized that I recognized a lot more afterwards. also as the author mentioned, I eventually obtained a greater appreciation for certain songs or even certain aspects of songs. There are definitely songs that I didn't know that I like quite a bit after playing RB2.And for the 20 free songs, I am greatly looking forward to Static-X "Push It". I love that band and I could think of at least 8 songs that I'd gladly pay for to be in the game (with Push It being one of them).
I recognized some other ones, but not too many. I don't know if the list that I saw was actually finalized or not though. The one song that I was looking forward to the most in RB2 was Linkin Park's One Step Closer. I could think of probably 15 LP songs that I'd also pay for in there.
Jason
jnmfox - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
+1 to the comments & +1 for more LP songsheadbox - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
Rock Band is genius- it gives all of the untalented people something to do other than waste money on instruments and annoy their neighbors. It's so well made that people can actually pretend they have some talent, allowing tone-deaf people who can't keep a beat to still have fun with music.headbox - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
I'd like to add: Rock Band is to music what FPS games are to military training.