Moveable Snare?

[larrylips]

Perhaps in the future, the manufacturers of "Rock Band" can put a swivel mechanism on the snare drum that would rotate it between the yellow and blue. This would simulate how most drummers cross arms when they play. A simple 2 position arm for drumming either side would be fine. And of course, an option in the software to switch the red and yellow on the screen to match. Just a thought!

[Mushroom]

Maybe it would be easier to add in the option to switch around the which pad triggers what, and flip around those lines on the note chart.

They could call it "Expert Flip" or "Reality Flip"

[derrikirred]

Initially I was hoping for this as well, but because there are only 4 pads the "hi-hat" is also used as a tom and moving it to the left would make for some weird fills.

[Mushroom]

The fills could still be programmed to the normal layout, solves the problem

[akurybo]

Assuming your playing the set on the stand, the pads are all angled towards the player. If the yellow pad (high-hat) was put on the left, it would be positioned below the red (snare). As a real drum player, I cannot imagine how you could possibly play like that. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have a more realistic playing style, but I don't think this would solve the problem (if I'm understanding your solution right). Plus, songs like Orange Crush would be really messed up, since it switches the high-hat to the red pad.

Edit: I was thinking you just wanted the yellow and red to swap places, but I think I understand your idea better now.

[akurybo]

Wait, do you mean like this? (sorry for mad mspaint skillz...)
<img src="http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y231/wodos/rb1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

That could work, but I now I'm fearing for durability....

[Grayshadow]

I had thought the same thing the first time I saw the drum controller and the pad configuration. However, I honestly don't mind the drum configuration the way it is, since the yellow changes from hi-hat to tom when appropriate. I've been a drummer for 15 years and didn't even feel any kind of adjustment period using the current pad configuration. In fact, it seems more efficient the way it is due to the multi-function pads.

[AdamWill]

playing cross isn't something fundamental to drumming, it's just a question of the only practical arrangement to allow you to play snare with your left hand all the time and other drums with the right. As there's only four pads in RB, there's no particular need to use cross-hands.

I suspect they may have tried some potential designs to allow cross-handed play but discovered the same thing as Konami did: it's practically difficult to design a peripheral for a reasonable price that allows this. You really can't do it if the pads are at the same height - try it, it's extremely impractical. Even on Drummania arcade machines, where the hi-hat is higher than the snare but only slightly, many players play open handed because the height difference isn't enough for them to play cross handed comfortably. It's far cheaper to fabricate a kit like RB's if it's one piece and all the pads are essentially of a piece, on a single level. Trying to create a kit for RB where one pad was on a different height level from the others would probably drive up the cost substantially.