New Kick Pedal

[Xanthous]

After hearing the flood of complaints about faulty hardware I had been taking extra care of my Rock Band set since it's initial launch. I absolutely love drumming, and had trained myself to rest my foot on the kick petal and lightly lift and tap it to use the bass drum.

I've gotten pretty deep into expert drums and it seems many of the songs demand you to use the pedal like a real one, lifting your entire leg to play. I played like this for about an hour and a half before my petal snapped right above the pin.

What has been done to the newer model kick pedals to prevent them from breaking near the base? Has anyone received a new pedal only to break it again? Mine is on it's way and I'm considering shelling out an insane amount of money ($30+) for one of the steel kick pedal protectors on eBay.

[ZDS]

Happened to mine - I just Gorilla Glued the shiznat out of it and it's actually stronger now than it was before. I used to be slightly nervous about my friends playing on it since they just slam down on it but now i know it won't break. Seriously, that stuff is amazingly strong.

[Xanthous]

You glued your original one after it broke or you glued your new one before it had a chance to break?

[v0lum3]

I've gotten pretty deep into expert drums and it seems many of the songs demand you to use the pedal like a real one, lifting your entire leg to play.

... dude, I play on expert and I've never had to slam my whole leg... that's counter productive and costs you speed... it really only works if you're having trouble keeping your foot on time...

[Xanthous]

... dude, I play on expert and I've never had to slam my whole leg... that's counter productive and costs you speed... it really only works if you're having trouble keeping your foot on time...

So you play songs like Mississippi Queen without ever lifting your heel?

[jpw21683]

So you play songs like Mississippi Queen without ever lifting your heel?

I lift my whole leg up too...pretty sure that's how you're supposed to.

I bought one of the poplar pedals from woodrockpedals.com. Works great!

[deediare]

... dude, I play on expert and I've never had to slam my whole leg... that's counter productive and costs you speed... it really only works if you're having trouble keeping your foot on time...
Ditto, I so far haven't felt the need to slam my whole leg either. I feel it would make things a wee bit easier, but not necessary.

[KaYotiX]

I got the diamond plate renforcement from a guy here who sells em on Ebay. Works like a champ!!! Looks bad ass also.

[Project_Mercy]

I lift my whole leg up too...pretty sure that's how you're supposed to.

I bought one of the poplar pedals from woodrockpedals.com. Works great!

Heel up is one method. Heel down is another method. Neither is "supposed too", they're just different styles for different purposes.

Still, in RB I play heel up. I lift my leg. I Just don't slam it down. You're only lifting it about .5 inch anyway (or should be). I've had my set since release day and it's still perfectly fine. The only problem I have is the mic jack doesn't work. My drums are stock beyond zip tieing the pedal to the pipes to keep it from bouncing, and I use normal 5A sticks instead of the stupid RB sticks (which are too light).

The pedals crack with heel-up because people play with the contact point of their feet further down the pedal. I know why a normal drummer would do that, it's just not applicable in this case. If you put your contact point (probably the ball of your foot) directly over the rubber stoppers, the pedal WILL NOT break (at least not in the traditional way that everyone talks about on this board). If you play with your contact point (more likely your toes in this case) down below the orange line it will crack and break, probably very quickly.

It's not really a pedal flaw. The game wasn't designed to be played heel up. If you watch their demo videos, or take their tutorial, they're all playing heel down. I agree it's hard on the faster songs, hence why I don't play heel down.

Yes I've only 4-stared Mississippi Queen on expert, but that's enough to know that it works perfectly fine to heel up over the stoppers. My failings are more due to poor visual parsing and crappy timng, than anything to do with the pedal or contact placement.

It's not a drum kit. It's a game controller that just uses similar skills. In the case of the pads, you just need enough force to get the stick to rebound (switching to normal drum sticks helps this a ton) anything else is hard on your limbs and counter-productive. In the case of the pedal, you just need to lift your leg slightly and either bring it down again, or flick your ankle/toe to get a quick double kick in and bring it down again.

If you hit some of the older threads you'll find people who broke their RB sticks, split the pads, one guy even broke on of the pads clean away from the rest of the controller. That's hitting far too hard.

[AdamWill2]

stomping is just about the hardest way to play triplets like MQ, actually. I like to stomp on very regular bass beats (it's not good technique, I'm just used to doing it, and it works fine for a very regular beat), but it's not a good idea for beats like MQ. heel up and poke with toe is best way for MQ for me...some people will be better heel-down, but stomping is *not* the way to go.

you usually wind up stomping if you're not doing well, you know you're not doing well, and you get frustrated. this almost always leads to more exaggerated movements: you hit the pads harder and you start stomping the bass. it's a response to stress, I think. when you're confident on a song you're far less likely to overhit the pads and you're far less likely to stomp the bass. it's not a successful technique, just a kinda panic reflex.

[cjkuhlenbeck]

they just need to release the pedals so people can double em up. Works for me ;)