It's novel time...
It's been requested a few times that I hook up my MIDI Hero mod to my Roland V-Drums. I had resisted in the past because I wanted to play on a "legit" setup so that I could post on Score Hero. My drumKat setup is legit because it's "4 pads and a single bass drum". I will not be posting any scores I get playing on the V-Drums setup, even though it's actually harder this way, a LOT harder.
So, I've got my mod hooked up to my "real drums" for this one. And it's a lot of fun. I have much more freedom to place the colors where they ought to be. For example, Blue is sometimes used for a tom-tom, and sometimes for a crash, ride, bell, etc. Now I can play Blue notes on the appropriate drum or cymbal. This song (Panic Attack by Dream Theater) demonstrates the different kinds of Blue and I try to play it as authentically as possible. I show the color mapping at the end of the video (which I leave up for a long time so you don't have to pause
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Not only that, I can now mix the sound of "real drums" over top of the Rock Band audio track. I can hear it when I play, and I record it separately so that I can mix it into my videos, like this one. It makes for better sounding fills since I can get all the dynamics and timing out of the V-Drums drums that I don't have with the RB1 drum controller that my mod is simulating. I turned the "Instruments" setting all the way down so you can't hear the in-game drums conflicting with my V-Drum sounds as much.
What's interesting about this is that now you can hear what it sounds like to play the charted drum parts in Rock Band on a real drum set. If I were to play these songs on real drums without the game keeping track of all my hits and misses, I would surely play other things, different fills, ghost notes, improv, etc. But from what I've found, the drum charts in Rock Band are pretty good! If you play them as written, on the right drums and cymbals, with proper dynamics, it sounds (almost) like the original drum part! (Of course, overlooking any double bass parts). So to those of you who are wondering if you're actually "learning drums" by playing Rock Band -- I believe that you are.
I also got a new toy: video glasses. So I don't have to hook up a monitor to my V-Drums to see the game as I play it. I just connect the 640x480 composite video signal from the Xbox 360 to these glasses (search "Myvu Crystal" on Amazon.com) and I can see it right in front of my eyes! What a geek! I can also see peripherally so I'm able to hit the drums I want. It's similar to how you play normally, because you're mostly watching the screen and your arms have the general feeling of where the drums are without specifically looking at them.
But it's really weird using these things, because...
1) My eyesight sucks. They are calibrated so that people with normal vision can use them. They make it seem like you're watching about a 24" TV screen at arm's length from your face. Pretty big. But I can't see clearly at that distance. So I have to wear perscription glasses. And I hate wearing contacts. So I used pro-grade, ultra modern and cool looking twist ties to attach the video glasses a spare set of perscription glasses I have. Can you say NERD?
2) When you're playing a rhythm game where you have to move around a bit (like drums on Rock Band), you're used to focusing on a stationary TV screen. All slight movements made by your head, your eyes are used to making the reverse adjustment to stay focused on the notes coming down. Now, when I move my head, my TV moves with me! So it's very strange when I move my head, that I have to keep my eyes always looking straight ahead. And it shakes a lot when you swing your arms around to hit drums. So it's a bit difficult to concentrate on the notes coming down the chart.
Reasons why I don't (yet) score very well using the V-Drums:
1) The video glasses reasons above.
2) Having to remember which colors map to which drums.
3) The feeling of playing "real drums" causes me to start improvising subconciously and lose my multiplier.
4) With the "Instruments" audio setting turned all the way down, you can't hear the drum track in the game, so it's hard to hear exactly where the beat is at times.
5) I didn't practice this song long enough to be able to pwn it, and I was just too psyched about everything not to post a video.
But I think I can get used to all of these things and get my scores back up, even playing on "real drums". My high score on this is 340k, played on my drumKat setup. And that was days ago. I'm sure I could gold star it on my next attempt. And even after lots more practice since then, the best I can do on "real drums" is currently around 250k. It's a lot harder and takes a lot more energy to play.
I hope you like the video. I love this song. Thanks for checking this out!
