Drumming feels a bit 'off'

[KeWLMoNk]

Just wondering if anyone else has this experience with the drums..... I feel like i have to hit them a half second earlier than I feel I should ... like that moment JUST before i hear them in the song. Maybe its cuz im playing on easy/medium and the fact that I've never drummed before in my life ... it just feels a little off though and I'd like to know if anyone else knows about this.

Thanks.

[Dabog666]

It might be your calibration-try a manual calibration from the menu.

[DJStix]

Ya, it's probably a calibration issue. Also, dont forget that easy and medium don't usually have all the notes in the song so you might be playing a note that's in the song but not on the chart.

[davidshek]

It's not just a calibration thing. I had a similar experience trying to play this even on Hard and Expert the other day. I was playing some songs in RB that I've been playing on real drums for years with a cover band, and it kept telling me I was missing notes that I KNOW I hit correctly.

[psyborg]

As a nondrummer I haven't noticed any problem at all, it seems perfect to me, but I had a friend over that drums for a local metal band and he had the exact same problem. "you have to hit them early" etc.

I wonder whats up with that.

[Sentouki]

Maybe you both have calibration issues???? :D

[SoberScott]

sounds more like calibration. Calibrating can be a *****. I have done it soo many times. and everyone that does it gets a different result. grr

[GHudston]

It's not just a calibration thing. I had a similar experience trying to play this even on Hard and Expert the other day. I was playing some songs in RB that I've been playing on real drums for years with a cover band, and it kept telling me I was missing notes that I KNOW I hit correctly.

As far as I'm aware (and correct me if I'm wrong, I'm no expert on this sort of thing) if the game isn't calibrated correctly for your set up then the audio and video might not sync up exactly right with the part of the game that judges whether you're hitting notes at the right times, which means that if you are hitting the notes along with the audio cues on the track or the visual fret board which you KNOW you hit correctly then it's very possible that the game thinks you're hitting them slightly late.

This definitely sounds like a calibration issue.

[davidshek]

This definitely sounds like a calibration issue.

You could very well be right. I was playing this at a buddy's house and thought he had already done the drum calibration before I got there. Turns out he didn't :) I'll have to try that and let y'all know how it turns out! :D

[Halfazedninja]

I Have A Question About The Calibrating. Since The Software Is "smart" And Recognizes What Instrument You Have Plugged In Do You Have To Do A Calibration For Every Instrument Or Is One Calibration All You Need?

[Brutal]

I had the same problem. You have to redo the calibration for each new character in single player it seems. If you go into Options it should ask you if you want to reuse the settings from your main account. Terrible interface.

[Sp 027]

I Have A Question About The Calibrating. Since The Software Is "smart" And Recognizes What Instrument You Have Plugged In Do You Have To Do A Calibration For Every Instrument Or Is One Calibration All You Need?

One calibration is all you need.

[chief2oo2]

You have to push the beat. If you are listening to the music waiting to play, then you are late. You have to be right with the music. It would be like if you had the song for memory, you would play a little ahead of compared to reading it.

[davidshek]

You have to push the beat. If you are listening to the music waiting to play, then you are late. You have to be right with the music. It would be like if you had the song for memory, you would play a little ahead of compared to reading it.

It's not like that at all. Read the situation I wrote earlier. These are songs I DO know from memory, so I'm not really reading along with the note chart except to see that it matches up with the notes I already know I'm going to play. And it was still telling me I was missing beats.

You shouldn't have to push the beat. You should be playing ON the beat, not ahead of it.

I'll try it again after going through the calibration myself and see if that makes any difference.

[SweetMeef]

It's not like that at all. Read the situation I wrote earlier. These are songs I DO know from memory, so I'm not really reading along with the note chart except to see that it matches up with the notes I already know I'm going to play. And it was still telling me I was missing beats.

You shouldn't have to push the beat. You should be playing ON the beat, not ahead of it.

I'll try it again after going through the calibration myself and see if that makes any difference.

I'm right there with you, man.
I calibrated an A/V sync of 20ms, and a HDTV lag (manually) of 60ms.
98% of the notes would hit just fine, but the 2% that I know I played correctly just like every other note, it doesn't give me, and it breaks my streak multiplier.
I'm going to mess around with the calibration a bit more, but Guitar plays spot on, so I am skeptical that it's simply a calibration issue.

[MJDoja]

ive noticed that you cant drag at all and when you accent + drag youre ultimately going to not do very well.

ive messed with calibration but didnt find the right number`and didnt want to get thrown off ever more.

rushing the beat a bit or being exactly on beat helps. you can see on some songs the groove is lost when the notes youre hitting are still rigid 16

[FatalisticDread]

i have the same thing...but it seems to be inconsistant...i'm playing and am on beat with the audio and video...then suddenly i am missing every note even though I'm still playing the same beat...i pick up the pace and realize that i have to get ahead of the audio to match the video...then it goes back to okay for awhile and then goes to hell again....

So, while it could be a calibration issue, i doubt that because of the change during one song from dead on to ahead/behind and back and forth

[MJDoja]

timing is just something to get used to in this game.

im always afraid im going to miss an easy hihat 16th when i try to full combo in bloom.. not the fills.. of course not. but a hihat hit.

[Halfazedninja]

So one calibration for all? It still seems a little off. I just did the auto calibration and the guitar plays fine but the drums just don't feel right, not by much but just enough. Haven't tried the mic yet

[Grayshadow]

I calibrated mine before I started playing (PS3 version on Toshiba 50" Plasma - selected the plasma calibration option). Been a drummer for 15 years and have played some of these songs in public with the bands I've been in. Timing seems to be spot on for me, both on screen and by matching myself to the audio.

[Frederf]

Do you have the problem shown in this video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAWd7nTAK0Y

[SweetMeef]

Do you have the problem shown in this video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAWd7nTAK0Y

I'll test that tomorrow and see if my problem is the same. Thanks for the link.

[davidshek]

Do you have the problem shown in this video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAWd7nTAK0Y

Actually yeah, that's EXACTLY what I was talking about. I guess I'll tell my buddy who had those drums that he needs to send them in for a replacement. He plays a lot lighter than I do so he didn't even notice this happening until I sat down at them. Thanks for the link!

[smudgeyjoe]

I am going to look at the calibration issue because I have been questioning the performance by the drums. The guitars seem to be much more accurate. The question that I have has to do with the location on the drum that you strike. I noticed that when I was using the drums to move through the software, up and down, forwards and backwards, there were times when I would strike the forward drumhead in one spot near the middle and nothing would happen. I then struck it with the other stick in a slightly different spot, and it did work. It made me wonder if there is smaller sweet area for success. Has anyone else found that different sections of the drumheads are more responsive than others?

[Stevenam81]

There should not be a "sweet spot". They should work 100% no matter where you hit them as long as its on the pad area inside the rim. Of course center is ideal. It's just better technique. Anyway, my drums have this problem. It is definately not a calibration issue. When I talked to the support lady on the phone she wanted me to try calibration since I haven't but I know my screen has zero lag. I'm absolutely certain of it. Plus my problem has nothing to do with timing. It is simply the pad not responding 100% of the time. On a game like this everything has to respond 100%. If the guitar doesn't respond to pushing the strum bar just once in a song, that is unacceptable and can be the difference between 4 and 5 stars.

I have only gotten 5 stars with the drums twice on medium because of this issue and I've been playing drums for 8 years. It usually happens during a basic beat using the pedal, and red and yellow pads. I can't keep a streak going at all. At first I thought it was just me and that maybe I was just a little off at times, even though I didn't hear a change in the beat of my sticks hitting the pads. Then I noticed that the yellow and blue pads don't respond in the menus at times. I went into practice mode and although my pads aren't as bad as that guy's red pad in the youtube video, they still don't respond 100%. If I hit twenty 16th notes on a pad, one usually doesn't count. That makes it impossible to 5 star anything. I should be able to 100% most of the first songs on medium. I can't even get 100% on easy, even though I know I didn't miss anything.

My new drums should arrive Wednesday. I'll be sure to let you guys know if they work like they are supposed to. I have this fear that no set of drums for Rock Band is going to work 100% and there will always be a time when a hit doesn't count. I hope I'm wrong.

[lineous]

I am having the same issues... I would love to hear if your replacement drums work better

good luck

[AssAssin1]

would any1 be willing to sell their crappy used drums to me

[reverser]

I had this exact issue on my 360 version. I was missing notes that I knew I was hitting correctly. The next day I happened upon a PS3 bundle and bought it, brought it home, and began to play. I was full comboing all the songs in the first tier. It is night and day difference. The issue you are having is defective drums. Send them back and get a new set and these problems will go away.

[Malev0lent]

Please note that the problems in that video are regarding the drums not picking up half of the strums. It's not showing drum lag. If your just having drum lag, read below.

You really should first check if your audio is lagging BY EAR by screwing around on the drums in the beginning of a song. If the sound of the drums comes out of the speakers well after you have hit the pads or pushed the pedal, the audio is lagged. This is caused by your TV's audio setup. You can either tweak the audio lag until it's perfect, or plug your XBox 360's audio cables directly into a surround sound system, where 0ms is a good setting. Changing this setup will give your drums/guitars almost exact real time response.

Once you know the audio isn't delayed, it's time to calibrate your TV's video lag. This part is really straight forward. All this does is change when the note tracks are cued to be in time with the audio setup. If you have your audio lag perfect, then the notes on the track will be at the exact same time as the notes come out of your speakers.

If you've tried screwing with the settings and can't get it right, you'll either have to invest in a surround sound system (removing audio lag), or start hitting notes early.

[Frederf]

Please note that the problems in that video are regarding the drums not picking up half of the strums. It's not showing drum lag. If your just having drum lag, read below.

It's really easy to tell if your drum controller is experiencing the problem shown in the video. Simply start a song with a long intro and make many fast successive hits before the song starts. If the drum target "beats" along with all hits, then you're fine. If there are periods where no hits are registered then you're probably not. The test is clearly shown in the video, explained too.

[SEMINOLE]

I am not a drummer, I cannot do any sort of "roll" or whatever but my red does not register all the time when attempting one. So you are saying my drums are defective then?

[Frederf]

Possibly, watch the video, recreate the video, listen to what the guy on the video says.

[bart2712]

i can see the point, whereas i kindof have the same problem...however im not sure thats totally true...the guy in the video is beating kinda hard on those drums and u notice he misses a lot, but when he plays somewhat gently he hits a lot more often...ive read that electronic drums r made so u dont have to hit them as hard when u play, which is basically what these are. Ive found that i miss my drum notes a lot less often when i dont hit the pads as hard, when i try whacking at em like a lot of ppl do i miss my notes quite a bit giving me same problem other ppl have been complaining about.

[bart2712]

oh ya, and i also found i had to do a calibration on my drums separate from the guitar...my guitar was spot on, but using same settings playing drums i was missing beats that i know i hit even hitting it gently.

[Frederf]

i can see the point, whereas i kindof have the same problem...however im not sure thats totally true...the guy in the video is beating kinda hard on those drums and u notice he misses a lot, but when he plays somewhat gently he hits a lot more often...ive read that electronic drums r made so u dont have to hit them as hard when u play, which is basically what these are. Ive found that i miss my drum notes a lot less often when i dont hit the pads as hard, when i try whacking at em like a lot of ppl do i miss my notes quite a bit giving me same problem other ppl have been complaining about.

It looks like he's hitting it hard but he's not. He's hitting it correctly and allowing a lot of bounce in his sticks (which is why it looks like a harder hit than it is).

I've opened up my green pad and cleaned/made tight all connectors and it works slightly better (green pad was fine before). My red/yellow pads are a pain to play with since I hit them at exactly the same time over and over and watch as only one of the red/yellow chord registers. It gets slightly frustrating when sometimes I play horribly and keep 4x multiplier and other times play really well and miss every other note. It's like the drum controller doesn't like to register two pads at once. If I sloppily hit them 50ms or so apart during a chord it works fine.

[bart2712]

ya ive got the same problem...a lot of times when i have to hit red and yellow at the same time, im sure i hit em both at same time, but sometimes only red registers, and not the yellow.

[GattzDaBerzerk]

My buddy plays drums forreal and he has issues playin RB as well. I guess games and real life are different *shock*:rolleyes:

[SmokaCola]

Believe me, your game is off. I'm not an expert real life drumming. But I know timing and RB is dead on. So far I haven't had to hit anything half a second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds earlier than I should. Not even the tamborine/cowbell notes.

[Frederf]

ya ive got the same problem...a lot of times when i have to hit red and yellow at the same time, im sure i hit em both at same time, but sometimes only red registers, and not the yellow.

I think the sensors work on the "shock" and vibration of the hit and perhaps the perturbation travels around in the controller so fast that it ignores one of the hits because it is being interfered with by another vibration from the other pad. They are likely tuned to the same "frequency"

[billmcdougal]

i have the same thing...but it seems to be inconsistant...i'm playing and am on beat with the audio and video...then suddenly i am missing every note even though I'm still playing the same beat...i pick up the pace and realize that i have to get ahead of the audio to match the video...then it goes back to okay for awhile and then goes to hell again....

So, while it could be a calibration issue, i doubt that because of the change during one song from dead on to ahead/behind and back and forth

This is a weird one. I can think of 2 things:
a. Your timing is just off sometimes
b. Your tv's video lag is not consistent. What brand is it?