Bass Drum

[Cliffhanger]

Being a guitarist IRL, I get the most fun out of doing either vocals or drums in RB. Mostly, I love the drums. I love the way it feels to get really active and hit all the pads with the beat, and I've been having a blast with the game.

My problem is this: I am now to the point where I can play most songs on expert, and I'm having a great time. Playing "Enter Sandman" on expert drums with my friends is one of the most fun gameplay experiences I've ever had with a video game.

However, many songs, such as "Paranoid" require very fast bass pedal, which I, for the most part, just cannot do. On these songs, I am forced to just fail, make my whole group lose fans on BWT, then switch to hard and do it again. And then I go back to expert, and hope I don't get a bass pedal heavy song. :/

Anyone have any advice? are you able to do Paranoid on expert drums? what do you do?

I've found that if I just heel-toe the pedal, it won't always register that I'm playing fast enough, so I have to instead step on it repeatedly, which becomes uncomfortable over time (my leg and knee are SO tired!). How do you press on the pedal?

Any great ideas on how I can play faster bass pedal? Or do I just suck? Or is it just hard?

I wish I had a real bass pedal, or better yet, a real double bass, and I might just have to find out a way to jury-rig a double bass at home. But for now, I'd like to think that you can still pass the game with the equipment they shipped; so what gives?

[macafied]

I can do paranoid 4* on Hard (took a while). Haven't made it to expert career yet. I do heel up on the bass drum and stomp. Works best for me. Just keep at it. It will come. Oh and keep Ibuprofen on hand for the next day :)

What are you sitting on when you are playing?

[Cliffhanger]

Its a chair that I use for when I practice Guitar, its very comfortable and has no arms to get into the way.

Yeah, I'm keeping my heel off the ground and just stomping on it, but for the expert songs that just seems like too much work, too fast.

Are there any mortals who have completed the whole game on expert drums yet? I'm curious.... ^__^

[AdamWill]

generally speaking it's an ability you just develop through practice; on Drummania, after a year and a half practicing, I can get through the shorter constant bass sections on Anthem's Immortal Bind - which is slightly faster than Paranoid (165bpm vs. 153bpm) and has bass hits on *every* beat, not triplets with a pause like Paranoid does. I'd say that it would help to first develop your ability to play doubles reliably, if you can't yet - find a song which has this kinda pattern:

hh bass
bass
hh snare

hh bass
bass
hh snare

a lot (it's a common pattern, I'm sure there must be one song at least in RB that uses it) and practice that until you're perfect. You're likely not going to do well with the more complex variant on the same pattern which Paranoid has (where the empty beat contains a bass hit) until you can do that simpler pattern.

also make sure you really understand the pattern - try playing it at a much slower speed. I guess RB's 50% speed practice mode helps with that. It's possible to 'think' you know the pattern but not actually have it quite right, and then you'll get misses you don't understand, try to compensate, and screw up more. Make sure you can play it without any misses at 50% speed before trying to get it at 100%. That'll help a lot.

Technique is probably also important here. I play with fairly crappy technique so it took me longer to be able to do beats like this than it should have done, and I'm probably still not as good as I could be at them. For a fairly fast pattern like this (it's really not *that* fast, but still) you shouldn't be lifting your foot entirely off the pedal between each beat if you can avoid it. Try and play with "proper" technique - keep your foot on the pedal the whole time and just adjust the pressure to raise and lower it.

Personally I tend to play with stomp style - raising my foot off the pedal entirely - so for sections like this I use an ugly, toe-prodding style where I keep my heel off the pad completely and just poke at the front of it with my toe to trigger the hit. This only works on Drummania as its bass pedal uses a rather unrealistic trigger switch rather than a beater, and it's quite a loose pedal. It wouldn't work on real drums. I don't know if it work on the RB pedal, either, as I've heard it's rather stiff. So don't do that, if you can possibly avoid it, try and do it the 'proper' way instead. You probably *could* play it at 153bpm by raising your foot entirely off the pedal between each hit, but it's needlessly fatiguing and difficult if you can train yourself to do it the proper way.

[Cliffhanger]

Yeah, I can play double bass sections like the one you described just fine.

I guess I just gotta keep practicing in order to get the even faster ones. But man, ouch. So fast! XD

Thanks for the advice.

[Sp 027]

I play heel down and it only took me two days to get used to playing the double hit bass patterns. You just have to keep practicing. I can play heel up but heel down just fits me better.

[KoofNoof]

can you do that thing where when you position your foot at a certain angle, it starts to randomly shake really fast, almost like a seizure? if you can, try to use this to help you. i need to do this sometimes....

[Sp 027]

can you do that thing where when you position your foot at a certain angle, it starts to randomly shake really fast, almost like a seizure? if you can, try to use this to help you. i need to do this sometimes....

Nothing on rock band should make you do that.

[KoofNoof]

Nothing on rock band should make you do that.

lol, it makes your foot move up and down really fast which helps a lot. i play the drumset in real life and use this to sometimes help me when playing fast bass pedal. (i need a double bass pedal soon)

[Sp 027]

lol, it makes your foot move up and down really fast which helps a lot. i play the drumset in real life and use this to sometimes help me when playing fast bass pedal. (i need a double bass pedal soon)

There's just not a fast enough bass drum beat to make you swivel foot or whatever the technical term is.

[KoofNoof]

There's just not a fast enough bass drum beat to make you swivel foot or whatever the technical term is.
just trying to help, geez. i know there are no bass pedal parts that fast in the game. im just throwing out some suggestions...