Is there a way to disable to foot pedal on drums... please?

[vipeness]

Hey Guys...


is there a way to disable the foot pedal for the drums... my cousin is handcap and loves playing the drums, but can not use his feet and would love to jamm alone with the 3 of us, fails out because of the foot pedal.. is there a way to disable it??

please help us.. we love rock band and would like to help him.

[ZkDotNet]

Hey Guys...


is there a way to disable the foot pedal for the drums... my cousin is handcap and loves playing the drums, but can not use his feet and would love to jamm alone with the 3 of us, fails out because of the foot pedal.. is there a way to disable it??

please help us.. we love rock band and would like to help him.
Sorry, but there isn't a way to disable the bass pedal.

[Axel32]

I'm sorry man but your cousin is going to need to play a diferent instrument. Either that or on of you guys can take the pedal and us it yourself while singing, watching, guitarerering.

Yes Guitarerering is a word. In my mind.

[vipeness]

there has to be a way, because in the retail stores, they didnt have the bass pedal hooked up at all, and you could play. there has to be an option somewhere.

[Daesania]

They probably had it disabled in the demo version of the game, but there is no way in the full retail version that has been discovered.

[ZkDotNet]

there has to be a way, because in the retail stores, they didnt have the bass pedal hooked up at all, and you could play. there has to be an option somewhere.
As Daes said, and confirmed by HMX, the disabling of the bass pedal was for the store demo only (at the stores' requests). The final version has no known way of disabling the pedal.

[Conner Malvecino]

This may be a bit tricky...BUT the foot pedal IS detachable from the main drum unit. Could the vocalist do the occasional kicks? You may not catch all of them, but most of them will fall on the 1's and 3's of a bar. Most people tap their feet to rock and roll anyway.

Just a suggestion but it may be the only way your cousin can play and minimize you guys getting booed off the stage. It may be harder for the bass or guitarist to do this as they're pretty busy with their parts whereas vocalists eventually can memorize their parts.

[vipeness]

that is what we ended up doing, but with the singer not knowing some of the right lyrics, she was messing up a bit more trying to taking over the bass pedal. she just ended up not playing, and we had to only play 3 players, which was fine; just wish they would put in a hanicap for hanicap people. But it's ok, at least he got to play and enjoy himself like we do.

[MuyMacho]

Hey I read your post. There might be some solutions involving the apparent simplicity of the pedal mechanism. I checked out the kick pedal controller, and it's connected by a miniplug to the main four-pad unit. It's a simple single connection (if it were for audio it would only be mono) and that leads me to believe that there is some very simple, yet durable, 'on-off' switch inside the small rectangular section that is held in the pedal itself. There doesn't seem to be any actual 'pedal goes down and hits a switch' action, it seems more like a 'pedal detects impact of foot pressing something' action.

It's possible that you might be able to remove that box and see what sort of pressure it takes to activate a 'kick' impulse for the game to recognize - it might be something he could wear under one of his arms, at his side in a holster-type thing, and he could do the kick drum parts by snapping his elbow back against his body or something. Trying this with the box left in the full pedal seems like the resistance of the spring-action might be too much to do comfortably (plus who wants to wear a pedal under their arm!), but if you find the speed and amount of impact needed, it might be possible to trigger it by arm-motion with that box out of the pedal.

Or, it might be that a simple switch could be made that could be in his hand at the base of his palm, like how Spider-Man controls his web shooter devices in the comic book. It wouldn't interfere or get interfered with if he could loosely hold the drum stick and and click it with his fingers, over/around the drumstick. You guys could go to radio shack with the pedal and it's cord, ask them for a mono miniplug that's the same size, and a small 'momentary' switch (a switch that stays 'open' via a spring, only 'closed' momentarily when you press it down) and find someone who knows basic soldering and explain what you want to make. Wouldn't be hard to devise something he could click in his palm. Maybe even a mouth clicker or something, but that might look crazy, like a coach's whistle or something!

Truth is, I only glanced at that thing and it may be some super-advanced digital signal that you can't simulate with some parts from Radio Shack. But I really doubt that. I think if you're a company that puts all this stuff in a big box and sells it for the relatively low price of $170, you probably went for the simplest, cheapest working switch you can trust.

Let us know what you work out.

[vipeness]

Sweet Deal. I'll bring this up to my wife tomorrow to see what she wants to do. Thank you so much for at least recommending something.

[alz]

Sounds like you could convert the Drum Pedal into a Tambourine for the singer!

[vipeness]

lol too funny

[wedschilde]

just wish they would put in a hanicap for hanicap people. But it's ok, at least he got to play and enjoy himself like we do.

i just asked the same question... because well, got no feet! so drum pedal really isn't working for me.

[kevmaster2000]

Have you tried No Fail mode? That would at least prevent him from failing out... although it would disable saving.... Just a thought.

[wesjett08]

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/01/diy-make-your-rock-band-drum-kit-wheelchair-accessible/

:)

[bigWALL]

I have a few suggestions. My pedal is broken and I love the drums and my wife won't let me sing...

If I'm playing alone I go into practice mode and it will let you get through a song without hitting the kick. no fail will work too, but you have to deal with the boos unless you turn them off.

Finally, as far as how the mechanism works, it is a magnet on one end of the pedal and a sensor on the other. You would have to have a sensor to get something to work out which would require taking apart a pedal.

[SmashMan]

So, do people just go to the most random page possible to bump stuff from over a year ago? Geez.

[GammaPaladin]

I would probably take the pedal apart, wire the guts to a pressure sensor, and make a fifth drum pad out of it.

[wedschilde]

lol too funny

someone just gave us this doorbell fix:

http://www.kinetic.com/channelk-rock-band-mod.html

[psufan1993]

no fail mode

[pyro13g]

The switch used as the base trigger is a reed switch. A magnet in the footboard causes the switch in the base to open and close. Don't destroy the current pedal. The parts are readily available from radioshack and other parts places. the magnetic sensors for door and window security alarms are usually reed switches. In the end you need a normally open reed switch. At radioshack the switch is $3.00. You will also need a 1/8" mono plug (2 pack for about $3.00), and some wire(cheapo speaker wire is fine). Rare earth magnet($3.00) or ceramic magnet($3.00). I chose to use a rare earth on top of a ceramic for my mod to an old base pedal and practice pad. You will need to solder the wires to the 1/8 plug in the correct places and then each wire to the reed switch.

The harder part is devising a comfortable way to operate a trigger for your friend. I'm thinking, since there are not a lot of songs with a base kick on the same beat as the snare, that you could mount the reed to a practice pad from a music store and mount near the current red pad. Int the nook between red and yellow seems like it would be comfortable. Attach the magnet to the stick of the hand to play the snare.

It would be very natural since many drummers(self included) will use the snare hand to play hi-hats and other voices. The base beats on most of the songs fall in concurrence with any other pad but red. Some songs will have a base hit e with the snare hit. If you get creative with the mounting of the reed switch, you could come up with a way where he could possibly trigger the snare(red) and base with one stick motion. Solving the red pad plus base problem is something for later. Just avoid those songs for now. If you can find some that can show you how to make a circuit for multiple switches to trigger the base, then you could put 2 or 3 pads around the kit so he can trigger the base with either stick.

This is a very easily solvable issue. Your friend will be be more successfully jamming with you very soon! There will be some problems with some drum rolls and in other areas, but this should help him get through a lot of tunes successfully. Just pick songs that fit better. If you don't have the skills to solder or a soldering iron, just ask around school, neighbors, friends, etc.

Oh, to mount the reed switch to the pad just use velcro.

I take it he is paraplegic in the sense he has no use of either leg, not just feet. Correct?

[GammaPaladin]

Yeah, just personally, if it were me, I'd not bother with the magnetic switch. Long term, I'd want a pad that responded to hits, just like the others, not the proximity of a magnet. Fine distinction, but over the long haul it could get irritating.

If the pedal is a simple current switch, and doesn't have any sort of complex PCB in it, then yeah, there's no reason to take it apart. But there's also nothing saying you need to use the same exact type of switch in the pad you build.

I'd just use a pressure switch :)

[Ecko Elite]

You guys need to look at the dates on these threads... The OP hasn't posted anything for almost a year, I doubt he will ever read this.
Let the thread die, once again.

[pyro13g]

Yeah, just personally, if it were me, I'd not bother with the magnetic switch. Long term, I'd want a pad that responded to hits, just like the others, not the proximity of a magnet. Fine distinction, but over the long haul it could get irritating.

If the pedal is a simple current switch, and doesn't have any sort of complex PCB in it, then yeah, there's no reason to take it apart. But there's also nothing saying you need to use the same exact type of switch in the pad you build.

I'd just use a pressure switch :)

A piezo or pressure switch won't work(unless the pressure switch only closes/opens a circuit) for the bass(regular pads and cymbals they will). The controller uses the open/close state of a circuit to trigger, not the voltage produced from a piezo. You would need to build a circuit that takes the sensing of the voltage and opens and closes a circuit connected to the orange input, and quickly.

With the reed mounted correctly it will trigger as your stick hits the pad.

I use a TAMA pedal with the magnets on the beater arm and reed switch on the practice pad. It works flawlessly and I get the same feel as playing my acoustic bass.

[wedschilde]

You guys need to look at the dates on these threads... The OP hasn't posted anything for almost a year, I doubt he will ever read this.
Let the thread die, once again.

It's actually been helpful for other people who need the information. So whether or not the original poster reads the messages, the thread is still valid.

The people posting here are giving us options...and I really appreciate it.

[RockBandForUK]

just give up.





now.

[frenat]

I'm sure this won't be a popular answer but GHWT has a cheat to disable the kick pedal. That could be an option for a handicapped person.

[wedschilde]

That's like disabling the strum bar for the guitar.:o

some of us don't have feet

:D

strum bar can still be manipulated.

[wedschilde]

I'm sure this won't be a popular answer but GHWT has a cheat to disable the kick pedal. That could be an option for a handicapped person.

we've got GHWT and the game play just doesn't do it for us. we're going to try the doorbell fix that someone suggested and someone else just posted a mod for the drums. i am wondering if we can't just "install" another pad and designate it as the bass pedal.

[GammaPaladin]

A piezo or pressure switch won't work(unless the pressure switch only closes/opens a circuit) for the bass(regular pads and cymbals they will). The controller uses the open/close state of a circuit to trigger, not the voltage produced from a piezo. You would need to build a circuit that takes the sensing of the voltage and opens and closes a circuit connected to the orange input, and quickly.

With the reed mounted correctly it will trigger as your stick hits the pad.

I use a TAMA pedal with the magnets on the beater arm and reed switch on the practice pad. It works flawlessly and I get the same feel as playing my acoustic bass.

It's not hard to find (Or make) a pressure switch that acts as a momentary on (Or momentary off, in this case).

[McSick]

Well if he can move his knees he could put the pedal inbetween them and just squeeze his knees together to do bass.

[Hardwire]

if yall are handy you could alwase modify it

make it like a nother pad that he hits with the sticks

wont be prity but i bet it just might work

[WhiteHot]

You could also....turn on no fail mode?

[Herdnerfer]

Has anyone tried plugging a cymbal into the bass pedal input?

[Seegs2283]

You could also....turn on no fail mode?

You could also... notice that this thread is from 2007. He was referring to RB1.

[koolwank]

You could also... notice that this thread is from 2007. He was referring to RB1.

You could also.... read the thread and see that other people have asked the same question recently.

DOC_SOCAL is the mod-master around here (so PM him if you really want to know), but from my limited experience the pedal works different than the pads. I think the pads are normally open circuit (closes when you hit) and the pedal is normally closed circuit (opens when you hit), so to make a pad for the pedal, you'll need an invertor of some kind.

[Seegs2283]

You could also.... read the thread and see that other people have asked the same question recently.

Eh my bad, I thought he was being a smart a$$ to the OP.