I hate Overdrive for drums

[SinistarX]

Yes, I love Rock Band. Even though my guitar is in down-strum limbo. I just can't stop playing this game!

HOWEVER, come on... The Overdrive for drums is terrible. Overdrive for vocals doesn't interrupt the vocal track. Overdrive for guitars doesn't interrupt the guitar track. But Overdrive for drums leaves you this big hunk of silence or a tom fill that never fits in with the music, interrupting the drum track.

WHY? It hurts me deep inside every time I come upon that overdrive section, especially when playing Maps.

Please, Harmonix, when we come around to Rock Band 2, can you find some other method of trigging Overdrive for the drums that doesn't kill the drum track? The worst is that when I opt not to kick it into Overdrive, I get opportunity after opportunity to do so, further messing up the music.

[espher]

I love it. If we get a sequel I'd love to see the samples be closer to the drum hits in the song, but I love the method itself.

[Xzyliac]

Dunno 'bout you but my fills rock.

And in a way Overdrives do modify tracks. Guitar/bass have effects and vocals echo.

Granted these don't interrupt like fills (although a bad effects choice is teeth grinding) but whatcha gonna do? Just be creative.

[espher]

I always seem to play the same crap involving some hammering on R & Y, then a couple of taps on B, then a pause, and then the crash. Every time I try to play something different I never do. Here's hoping it improves when I get a little more comfortable with them and a little more speed in my swing. :3

Must... break... habit...

[Xzyliac]

Depends on what I'm playing, my mood, and I try to sound good alongside my vocalist.

I almost never play the same fill. Not that attentive. :p Well I only play R/B on 29 Fingers. It's only two lousy drums!

[luminary pants]

It does get annoying when you don't want to activate it yet. I usually just end up doing it so that the fills will stop comming. But I don't really think there is a better way of doing it. Everything else would mess up hitting notes, which is worse then sounding weird for a second.

[NattyLight]

I agree. Also, guitar and bass overdrive can be activated whenever you need it. With drums, you have to wait. IF you're buddy fails out, you might not be able to save him even if you have full energy because you can't get to a fill in time. The problem is that I don't know of a good way to activate overdrive for drums.

[n8rocker82]

Honestly, I think this is more of a matter of experience than anything. I'm a guitarist/singer by trade, but even I'll admit that there's ALWAYS room for a fill at the end of a phrase (which is usually where RB places them). They just don't always have to be a machine gun-like barrage. In a spacey song like "Maps", if you're actually trying to make your fills sound good, just play a couple spread out tom hits, or even double tom hits, alternating with the kick and crash or something.

I can see your point though if you're playing with somebody on drums who just wants a super high score, and just wails away during the fills. It's going to screw with the flow of the song. It just depends what you're going for I guess.

[nitroman28]

learn to do fills. That easy. And don't just use two drums. They give you a snare,2 toms,crash cymbal for the fills. Use the snare and 2 toms From left 2 right and finish with the crash. Look up drum fills on Google that will help.

[admanimal]

I can see your point though if you're playing with somebody on drums who just wants a super high score, and just wails away during the fills. It's going to screw with the flow of the song. It just depends what you're going for I guess.

Do you actually get points from hitting notes in overdrive fills? I didn't think you did but then again I never really paid attention.

[gsu_paintballer]

Do you actually get points from hitting notes in overdrive fills? I didn't think you did but then again I never really paid attention.

Im pretty sure you dont

[blueruckus]

Never noticed but if you dont want to activate Overdrive, couldn't you just do a fill and not hit the cymbal at the end to throw you into Overdrive?

Or... does not hitting the cymbal ruin your current note streak/multiplier?

[Quastor]

Never noticed but if you dont want to activate Overdrive, couldn't you just do a fill and not hit the cymbal at the end to throw you into Overdrive?

Or... does not hitting the cymbal ruin your current note streak/multiplier?

If you ignore the last cymbal crash, you don't active overdrive, and it does not ruin your current streak... unless the fill throws off your rhythm and you screw up immediately afterwards...

[blueruckus]

If you ignore the last cymbal crash, you don't active overdrive, and it does not ruin your current streak... unless the fill throws off your rhythm and you screw up immediately afterwards...

With that being said, what is the complaint then? You don't HAVE to sit there and listen to an empty space of nothing. Just freestyle a bit and dont hit the cymbal crash to conserve the Overdrive. Or just continue the song's normal drum beat through the fill... or just do a very simple beat to keep the other band members on beat.

Dunno, maybe I'm not seeing why this is such a huge problem.

[ZkDotNet]

With that being said, what is the complaint then? You don't HAVE to sit there and listen to an empty space of nothing. Just freestyle a bit and dont hit the cymbal crash to conserve the Overdrive. Or just continue the song's normal drum beat through the fill... or just do a very simple beat to keep the other band members on beat.

Dunno, maybe I'm not seeing why this is such a huge problem.
It's not a huge problem.

Either way, personally, I like them. But like someone else mentioned, I do wish they sampled drums from the current song to be used in the fill. The generic drum fill samples sound a bit out of place (even when playing a decent fill). That's my only critique... and it's a minor one at best.

[StrangeDays]

The Overdrive for drums is terrible.

I could not disagree with you more on this. Doing drum fills to get Overdrive is my FAVORITE part of this game.

Once you get used to doing fills, it's a great opportunity to get creative for a few seconds. I love em!

Give it some more time, and once you used to them, you'll have more fun I bet.

[ShroominWITfurl]

I could not disagree with you more on this. Doing drum fills to get Overdrive is my FAVORITE part of this game.

Once you get used to doing fills, it's a great opportunity to get creative for a few seconds. I love em!

Give it some more time, and once you used to them, you'll have more fun I bet.

couldnt have said it better myself. the fills are the one part of the song where u can be creative and put in ur own 2 cents worth. u just gotta learn to fill. ive played drums my whole life so its aint that hard from me but i could see why it would be awkward for some. and if u think learning fills in the game are hard, reall lifes even way more of a pain. u gotta be on beat and then bust a nice ass fill and then get right back on beat. its sounds easy cause u think u can do it in RB but it really aint so easy when playin without scrollin notes infront of u.

[SoKGiX]

i love the fill sections like they are. lets you be creative while still keepin the beat for everyone else.

[dougpr]

The only problem that I have is that I feel compelled to activate it everytime. Because hitting the cymbals at that part of a fill is basically the perfect place to play a cymbal crash on every fill. So ignoring the cymbal crash makes the end of my fill sound like crap.

So we end up keying off on my fills. Since the guitar/bass can do theirs anytime, they just listen for one of my fills to know that they can get us a 6x multiplier. (Singer is usually optional in my band...and if we have 4, I usually end up doing it, so that kinda changes our method anyway (since usually our new drummer doesn't get a whole lot of white charts down)

[Smidget]

And you don't have to go crazy every time during a fill either. Fills don't automatically = thrown in as many notes as possible. Anf if you know the song and know how its supposed to sound you can play what should be there.

I personally don't like the big splash of yellow when overdrive is kicked in. Playing on expert and if there's constant bass notes right after the overdrive section, the screen goes yellow and I can't even see them anymore; annoying as hell.

[dougpr]

And you don't have to go crazy every time during a fill either. Fills don't automatically = thrown in as many notes as possible. Anf if you know the song and know how its supposed to sound you can play what should be there.

I personally don't like the big splash of yellow when overdrive is kicked in. Playing on expert and if there's constant bass notes right after the overdrive section, the screen goes yellow and I can't even see them anymore; annoying as hell.

And if you know the song, you know that there's supposed to be a cymbal crash at the end, and if you're trying to avoid using your overdrive, it becomes an awkward sounding drum fill.

[logicalnoise]

part of learning drums is improvasation. If you can't thiink of any new fills remeber ones you do normally in the game. Hell a great fill is just doing the same beat from the last bar but doubling or tripiling the last hit before your cymbal crash.

[vidwiz]

I'd love to fill, if the drums didn't lag. The delay makes me sound like crap.

[firestrike]

i try and keep the beat or give it a better beat that you can easily go back to the original one from

[Lovecraft]

My 11 year old beats on the drums like crazy, but I just put into the fills what feels right. SOmetimes it's fairly sparse, or something that sounds like what I've been playing. I agree that it's part of the fun- being creative.

I noticed that they get sneaky with either some songs or some skill levels, and the fills are actually very short. that caught me off guard!

[dlisapussy]

My fills are awesome.

I do agree though, because you can't use overdrive whenever you want. The thing is, drums are usually being played non stop throughout the song. So, how would it be possible to make overdrive available whenever you want. You can't tilt the drum set. Some ideas on how you could use Overdrive whenever would be nice.

[admanimal]

My only complaint about the fills is that sometimes I see one coming up and start the fill a little too early and break my streak.

[Xzyliac]

My fills are awesome.

I do agree though, because you can't use overdrive whenever you want. The thing is, drums are usually being played non stop throughout the song. So, how would it be possible to make overdrive available whenever you want. You can't tilt the drum set. Some ideas on how you could use Overdrive whenever would be nice.

Be great if the Select button were an option.