Lefty drummers: Feedback/help/advice/info needed

[TerryM]

I am looking for some info from left handed drummers. Is anyone there?

When it comes to playing TB:RB, I am willing to do the vocals on Expert level without hesitation (unless Sir Paul is in the room). I can handle bass on Hard, as well as guitar (although guitar is more of a challenge). However, when it comes to drums, it's like I have two left hands (or in my case, it would be like having two RIGHT hands).

I am ready to learn how to play drums, and I want some advice on how to proceed, specifically related to hardware setup.

I plan to use the Beatle Beats tutorial to begin. I tried it in the past, but I was using a Guitar Hero World Tour drum set (with five heads/cymbals) instead of my TB:RB set (with the four heads).

Some time ago I purchased the 3 add on cymbal expansion kit for my TB:RB kit, knowing that I would be using it in the future.

Well, the future is now. At least at thought it was.

I was preparing to install the cymbals and the instructions were a bit confusing (at least for me). I assumed that I would probably want to set them up as a mirror image to the standard configuration, since I want to drum as a lefty. I tried to do some research to confirm this. And I ended up more confused than ever.

Someone somewhere out there in Internet land (I don't remember who, or where) wrote that although a lefty would want to use a red cymbal on the far left instead of a green cymbal on the far right, there is no 'red' cymbal jack on the back of the kit. They also implied that selecting lefty mode changes the orientation of the drum heads but NOT the cymbals, and that it's not as simple as moving the cymbal plugs around. It sounded like major confusion. So I have a few questions.

As a lefty, should I just leave the cymbal expansion kit off?

If I put the cymbals on, how do I orient them, where do I plug them in, and will they work as they should (in other words, will they act identical to the way they would work for a right handed drummer in standard (RH) mode)?

I haven't done anything yet. If I don't hear from anyone, I think I will just go lefty mode without the cymbals. However, if there is a way to make it work THE RIGHT WAY, I would love to install the cymbals and play with the full kit.

Any info is appreciated! And if this info is already out there somewhere, just post a link.

Thanks in advance!

Terry

OR... Should I consider installing two cymbals in the center?

[GNFfhqwhgads]

Beatles doesn't recognize the full kit the same way RB3 does(requiring cymbal hits), so you might as well not.


Also, I could be wrong, but I think at one point(maybe it's fixed) that cymbals didn't flip properly for lefties.


As for the initial problem with the red jack, there is none. Just put them in the three jacks, put them in the areas you would, and they'll invert for the sake of gameplay.

[FujiSkunk]

Set up the drums in a mirror image of the right-handed configuration. The standard RB controller is symmetric, so that should be easy to do. Then, plug the yellow cymbal into the yellow jack, the blue cymbal into the blue jack, and the red cymbal into the green jack. Yes, that will require plugging the cord into the opposite side of the controller. There should be enough slack to do so.

Once you've done that, and set the game to "lefty mode" for drums, your pads and cymbals will all work the way you expect them to.

Note that this is only true for The Beatles: Rock Band and Rock Band 3. Rock Band 2 would treat the green cymbal like a green pad in lefty mode, so some additional hardware trickery was required to have a red cymbal. Thankfully the newer games fixed that.

However, TB:RB and RB3 have one additional caveat. Due to the way the cymbal and pad information is trasmitted, in lefty mode, if you hit the "red" cymbal and the green pad at exactly the same time, the pad will not register. It's an unfortunate hardware limitation that the game cannot work around, and it is why I am still a little irked that Harmonix didn't design the controller to have a red cymbal jack in the first place. But, it is what it is, and I've gotten used to "flamming" that combination, that is, hitting the pad just before hitting the cymbal. The game is forgiving enough with the timing that this works well enough.

[SheSaidSheSaid]

Play right-handed.



Hey, it's how Ringo does it!

[TerryM]

Set up the drums in a mirror image of the right-handed configuration. The standard RB controller is symmetric, so that should be easy to do. Then, plug the yellow cymbal into the yellow jack, the blue cymbal into the blue jack, and the red cymbal into the green jack. Yes, that will require plugging the cord into the opposite side of the controller. There should be enough slack to do so.

Once you've done that, and set the game to "lefty mode" for drums, your pads and cymbals will all work the way you expect them to.

Note that this is only true for The Beatles: Rock Band and Rock Band 3. Rock Band 2 would treat the green cymbal like a green pad in lefty mode, so some additional hardware trickery was required to have a red cymbal. Thankfully the newer games fixed that.

However, TB:RB and RB3 have one additional caveat. Due to the way the cymbal and pad information is trasmitted, in lefty mode, if you hit the "red" cymbal and the green pad at exactly the same time, the pad will not register. It's an unfortunate hardware limitation that the game cannot work around, and it is why I am still a little irked that Harmonix didn't design the controller to have a red cymbal jack in the first place. But, it is what it is, and I've gotten used to "flamming" that combination, that is, hitting the pad just before hitting the cymbal. The game is forgiving enough with the timing that this works well enough.

Thank you! I believe that the information I read that caused my concern mentioned that this was a RB2 problem, but it didn't say anything about TB:RB or RB3 (or Lego or Green Day, for that matter). I hoped that someone would either say that the info was incorrect as written or that the problem didn't exist for TB:RB. If I had heard here that it wouldn't work right, I was going to get rid of the cymbals. Now I will install them and give it a go.

Thanks for the info about the inability to strike the 'red' cymbal simultaneously with the green pad. It makes sense since there is no red jack. Unfortunate, but we lefties are used to dealing with such 'challenges', aren't we? :-)

I will set up my kit accordingly, and hopefully I will advance from 'woefully uncoordinated and incompetent' to 'mostly inadequate' in short time. My brother usually gets elected to be the drummer during our annual Christmas week jam sessions. I would like to surprise him by offering to relieve him for at least a few songs.

Not to depress you or anyone else, but a few years back I read that data indicates that lefties have a shorter life expectancy than righties. And there's a logical reason for it. It's because almost everything in this world, from water fountains to wrist watches to TB:RB Hofners, is designed for right handers. That's usually not life threatening when it comes to Macca's bass, but when you are dealing with motor vehicles, heavy machinery, or farm equipment, it can be. More accidents, more serious injuries, more fatalities.

So be careful out there! And thanks again for the info.

PS - Ringo is ALSO a lefty, so there should have been a red jack on the drum kit! See, it wasn't just the Hofner, ALL of the hardware in the Limited Edition Premium Bundle should have been for us southpaws. Maybe they'll get it right when The Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition Premium Bundle 2 is released. :-)

[TerryM]

Play right-handed.



Hey, it's how Ringo does it!

Does that mean you play the bass left-handed?

Hey, it's how Paul does it! :-)

[SheSaidSheSaid]

Uh, yes, actually.

But my half-jokey point was that Ringo is left-handed, but sets up his drums like a right-hander.

[TerryM]

Uh, yes, actually.

But my half-jokey point was that Ringo is left-handed, but sets up his drums like a right-hander.

Sorry, I couldn't resist being a smart a**. Do you play the bass LH and the guitar RH, or is all LH? In my case, it is all LH. It's not by choice, I was born this way. :-)

It would make sense to learn to play the drums with a RH setup, since you could then sit in for a session on a standard kit and not have to reconfigure everything. And really, same thing with a real guitar or bass - either learn how to play it in standard RH position, or hold it 'upside down' in lefty position but play it with standard RH string setup. Easier to borrow an instrument, more selections in the guitar shop...

Still, I think I'm going to go with a LH setup for my kit, and hopefully once I learn how to make my hands and feet work independently of each other (which seems to be impossible right now) I will be able to play a RH setup without too much trouble. We will see. :-)

[SheSaidSheSaid]

I play 5-button guitar "right-handed," and I use the scare quotes because I really feel that my left hand is doing the harder job.

When I get my Mustang, I'm going to play Pro lefty. It's kind of weird - I was always taught to do things right-handed as a child, but as I've learned new skills later in life I've found myself using my left a lot more naturally, and a lot more skilfully. I think this might also explain why past attempts to learn guitar have ended in ragequitting, and why grade school teachers always called me out on poor penmanship

[TerryM]

Having heard of so many left handers being forced to go against their nature, I have always felt fortunate that I was allowed to be who I was (and am). It isn't done so much any more, but when I was a child, it was fairly common to discourage left-handedness.

And yet there are silver linings to all clouds. As you said, you are able to do things with your right hand, things that would be very difficult if not next to impossible for me to do. And you STILL have a brain that is naturally wired as right side dominant, so you have innate abilities, many untapped, for your left hand. I understand what you mean about the left hand doing all the 'hard work' on the frets when playing guitar as a right hander, but it seems so unnatural for me to try to strum a guitar with my right hand.

Good luck with the Pro lefty mode! Hopefully someday in the not too distant future you (and the rest of us) will have the opportunity to play some new Beatles songs (either DLC or TB:RB2) along with the ones we already have.

And thanks for contributing to the thread.