Ion Drum Rocker Review

As my Twitter followers will know, just after Christmas I got a load of back pay through from a promotion at work. Like any other video-game-mad ex-band-member would do, I bought myself the Ion Drum Rocker. (I played the bass guitar in a band at school because our flat didn’t have the space or isolation for a drum-kit. We mostly played Metallica covers.)

Let’s get the most important points out first:

1. Yes, drum sticks are included
2. Yes, the Drum Rocker is awesome!
3. Yes, it works with Guitar Hero: World Tour

The Rocker comes in a box roughly the size and shape of the Rock Band Instrument Pack. When you open it, you get…

…a bunch of little boxes. And some poles with bits on them. And Empty Box “A”.

Open all the boxes….

Lots of thingies. Have no fear, the included instructions are fairly idiot-proof and have lots of pictures. For the record, Empty Box “A” contained air.

You may be tempted to disbelieve reports that the kit will take about an hour to assemble even for experienced… er… assemblers. It’s true. The gear isn’t complex but there are lots of parts and lots of connections to hook up. The thing cost 230 quid, so now is not the time to skip steps.

The finished product is big.

That TV in the background? That’s a 46-incher. It’s about 2 feet behind the Drum Rocker, so you can try to gauge the size yourself. Or, y’know, I could just go measure it.
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Right, I’m back. In a playable configuration (as pictured) it’s 177cm wide (46 inches), 67cm deep (26 inches) and 110cm high(43 inches). If you don’t want to take it apart between sessions, you can fold in the arms holding the red and green drums. That’ll bring it down to 76 cm wide (30 inches), which isn’t exactly small but is less dominating. If that’s not enough, keep hold of your allen keys and get used to doing lots of unscrewing and reassembly coz there’s no easy way to fold bits up for storage. You do need everything screwed tightly coz it’s fricking annoying when the drum pad drops a millimetre every time you hit it.

Performance-wise, the Drum Rocker is fantastic! Sure, those missed notes on the original Rock Band kit miiiight have been my fault… With the Drum Rocker, you get much better feedback. If you miss the drum pad and hit the edge, you know what happened. There’s no ambiguity to that click of drumstick on frame. I haven’t noticed the kit itself dropping any of my good hits and the rebound off the drum pads feels much nicer than the original kit. The physical sound is less annoying than the original plastic kit but still enough that you need to turn the volume way up to hear the drum sounds properly.

The bass pedal is still a bit soft. I never liked feeling that I have to consciously hold my foot above the original kit pedal and this kit doesn’t address that at all. I have no experience with other electronic drum kits but I know that you can rest your foot on a standard mechanical pedal between songs with no problems.

The cymbals feel very strange. If you’ve ever hit a real crash, you’ll notice it straight away. These don’t move at all. You hit them, they go *clonk* and jar your hand like you’ve hit something solid. Oh, and if you turn your volume way up you can just about hear
the cymbal noise above the clonk. That being said, they are responsive and you learn not to hit them so hard. Better than not having cymbals at all.

The Verdict: If you have the space and you really enjoy the drums, this kit is well worth it. You do still need to turn volume up but the drumstick noise is noticably quieter. The Drum Rocker is a great stepping stone to real drumming, if you’re considering that. Plus, it looks way cooler at parties :)