The Gadgets Page

Back in January at CES, we showed you Ion’s prototype for a professional drum set:

• Gadgets Page » CES 2008: Professional Rock Band Drums

Ion has announced that it is accepting pre-orders for Drum Rocker, which will sell for $300 a set. There are additional cymbals that you can purchase to add to the set, but that’s the price for the base set.

You can see them in action here with Dan Amrich of the Official XBox Magazine, who was nice enough to play the drums while I filmed.

The two biggest questions I have been getting about these drums are WHEN will they be available and will they be able to be used as “real” drums. According to the Drum Rocker FAQ file from Ion, here are the answers:

If I pre-order on this website, when will my Drum Rocker be shipped?

Drum Rocker is expected to ship mid-September.

I want to use Drum Rocker as a real electronic drum set. What will I need to be able to do that?

While there are many “drum brains” that accept the 1/4″ outputs of the Drum Rocker drum pads and cymbals, Ion recommends using the Alesis DM5 drum module with Drum Rocker.

The DM5 is a professional drum module with (12) 1/4″ trigger inputs and more than 500 professional quality sounds. Its trigger inputs are well suited to handle the output levels of the Drum Rocker pads. If you decide to use a DM5 with Drum Rocker, you’ll also likely want to purchase a kick pad and regular kick pedal, which will let you take advantage of the increased control that the DM5 offers. The drum pedal that comes with Drum Rocker can then be used as a hi-hat pedal.

I am so glad that Ion made Drum Rocker compatible with drum machines so they can double as a game controller and real drums. Here’s to learning to play and playing to learn. I think Rock Band is the best catalyst for music education that we’ve had in a long time.

Via: Ion’s $300 “Drum Rocker” premium drum kit for Rock Band unveiled – Engadget