Seth's midi Adapter (aka Use Electronic Drums to play Rock Band)

[sethmeisterg]

Posted new pics of my drums, with the Alesis cymbals and DM5, and sethmeisgerg's controller.

And yes, I am spamming all the old threads. Get over it.

Dan

They look GREAT!

[mpkelley20]

I originally posted this over in the AVS forums. Thought I would post it here as well.

I received my Rock Band Midi/USB adaptor this past Friday so I wanted to post a review of it so others that have real electronic drums can decide if they want to go this route rather than an aftermarket kit like the Goodwood Mesh Kit. Please keep in mind that this only works with the PS2/PS3 version right now. I don't know if there are any plans to create one of these for the X-Box.

Ordering:
I contacted the gentleman, Seth, who designed the adaptor and asked a few questions. I was quickly given answers and was informed that there were several people ahead of me on the list if I decided to purchase it. You can get bumped up in priority right now for an extra cost. I decided to do this as my stock RB kit is basically destroyed and out of warranty. I had the adaptor 3 days after ordering as it was shipped priority mail.

Cost:
Because he is currently working on ways to improve his turnaround time, I do not want to post the price on his behalf because it will most likely be less that what he is selling it for right now. What I can say is that the cost is less than the Goodwood Mesh kit but comparable to the other aftermarket kits that just came out. Since I don't know exactly what Seth is doing to improve his design time, I don't want to speculate too much on what the final price would be. Just be prepared to spend a little dough if you want to transform the way this game is played on drums. But it's so worth it…more on that later.

Hookup:
The adaptor is pretty small and has a MIDI input on one side and a USB on the other. You need to have your own cables as the adaptor does not come with any. Since everyone has different needs, it make sense not to drive up the cost on his end by sending a size that is useless for some of us. For me, I need a 15 foot USB cable minimum in order to reach my drum set. The adaptor has a button layout on top that tries to replicate all of the necessary buttons you would use on a PS3 controller. It works great and I found no issues with it. I will try and post pictures of it later tonight as it is quite a nice design and functions well. Once I opened the package, I simply hooked up my MIDI cable to my drum set and the other end to my PS3 via USB and then turned the PS3 on. The adaptor immediately lit up so I knew it was getting power. Total setup time, 45 seconds.

Game play:
Once RB started up, I was able to use my drum set to control the selections just as I would if I used the stock RB drum set. Rather than try practice mode first, I decided to jump right into game play on one of my characters. In expert mode, I selected probably the easiest song in the game (I think I'm paranoid). Before the song started, I quickly tested all of the pads and noticed that they all work. The song started and I realized two things very quickly:

1. Real drums are harder then the RB stock kit
2. I suck at real drums

I ended up with a 98% (my usual score is 100%) completion rate which is not bad considering now I was using two cymbals and a hi-hat along with the 4 pads on my drum kit. Any misses I had were solely due to my mistakes where I was confused as to which pad to hit. After this song I went into practice just to make sure I understood the default mapping. Here is the default

Red Pad - Snare Drum
Yellow pad - Hi-Hat or first tom
Blue Pad - Ride cymbal or second tom
Green pad - Crash cymbal or floor tom
Bass - Obvious

There is an alternate mode that you can easily switch to that swaps the red and yellow pads for songs like RTTH where the hi-hat is played on the red pad. I haven't tried this out yet. You can also customize the default settings if your E-drum setup is different. Seth sends an excellent detailed instruction booklet on how to change virtually anything on the adaptor so it should satisfy everyone's setup no matter how weird it is. For me, I have no need to change it as I am using a Roland kit which appears to be one of the primary test kits that he used when designing it.

As you can see from the mapping above, you could easily just use the snare and 3 toms to play the game using the adaptor if you didn't want to use the cymbals. It would work just like the stock kit, but that is not why I bought this. Being able to use the ride or hi-hat completely changes this game. First, it makes it much harder because you have more items to strike and you have to be much quicker when you are hitting notes due to the cymbals/pads being further away from each other. Second, using this adaptor creates a more realistic environment to real drums. While the stock RB kit can teach you some basics and help with muscle memory and things, it is a "far cry" (shout out to Rush!) from the real thing. For someone like me that is learning the drums, being able to use my real kit in this game is the best thing ever.

After a bit of playing, I did have to adjust my crossover setting on my drum module (Roland TD-3) and reduce the sensitivity on the pads but that only takes about a minute or so. This helped alleviate any crossover hits from vibration that may happen when pads are close together. I was getting a bit of it due to how hard I was playing. I had this happen a lot in playing DTXMania as well.

Summary:
If you have an electronic drum set or are thinking about getting one, you MUST get this adaptor. While there are some interesting aftermarket drum set coming out such as the GoodWood Mesh mods, there really shouldn't be any substitute for a real drum kit if you have one available to play. The adaptor works right out of the box, is fully customizable if needed, hooks up in less than a minute and is apparently firmware upgradeable (I just received an e-mail with the new firmware which adds additional features that I have not used yet). Plus, there is no need to destroy your stock kit like some of the other mods out there. So far, I have had no dropped notes (except for the ones I missed) and my drum set is just as responsive as a perfectly working RB stock kit. I will caution you that it may take some time to get used to the new setup. I ended up going into "Hard" and practices there for a bit so I could get used to it and I can now say that I was able to get my 100% in expert mode on "I think I'm Paranoid". A few more hours of practice and I'm sure I will be back in full expert mode in my normal career and will hopefully get through DFTR!!

I will try and post some pics later today and possibly a video at some point as well.

I will try and answer any additional questions if there are any.

[jpiceman]

I'm on the waiting list for one also, and I have the same eletronic kit that you got. Its good to hear that for one it works and also can add features later. I can't wait until mine comes. There are a few songs that me and my cousin are waiting to do in world tour just cause it would be so much better.

Good review, hope mine comes soon =)

[mpkelley20]

It's definitely worth the wait. I did the priority option as my stock kit was basically unplayable so I was stuck with nothing. Hopefully Seth will be able to streamline his process so he can get more out the door quickly. I was actually getting bored with RB and found myself playing DTXMania on my computer and Roland kit more since I am really trying to learn how to play on a real set. Seth's adaptor have given RB a new life for me and I couldn't be more happy. Hopefully RB wil be around for a long time, or if RB2 ever does come out, the adaptor will be compatible.

Enjoy it when you get it!

[jpiceman]

I hope I will. I been thinking about going priority also, mostly cause I can't wait for nothing, lol. Plus my friend is going to buy my stock kit with the premium covers on it. His kit is dropping notes, and is a peice of junk. I got my pearl pedal modded to work with the stock set for now, and after playing that I just can't wait to jam on my drum kit with rockband.

I'm banking on that this can be used for RB2. I'm sure people that bought the awesome goodwood drum kit hope that too.

Acutally I think I talked myself into priority option as I was typing this. I blame you for that mpkelley!

When I get mine we should duel, lol. Although I'm not great on drums.

[dagware]

1. Real drums are harder then the RB stock kit
2. I suck at real drums

lmao! Yes, I totally relate.

The adapter does indeed work great, as you said. My only issues now are trying to figure out on each song what RB maps the blue to, etc. Sometimes it's Open HH, sometimes ride, toms, etc. Then my brain has to process the information quick enough to determine WHAT to hit when a blue comes up (for example).

But it's a lot of fun. Except for the time when I hit the thumb of one hand with the stick from the other hand. Man, that smarts!

Dan

[mpkelley20]

I hope I will. I been thinking about going priority also, mostly cause I can't wait for nothing, lol. Plus my friend is going to buy my stock kit with the premium covers on it. His kit is dropping notes, and is a peice of junk. I got my pearl pedal modded to work with the stock set for now, and after playing that I just can't wait to jam on my drum kit with rockband.

I'm banking on that this can be used for RB2. I'm sure people that bought the awesome goodwood drum kit hope that too.

Acutally I think I talked myself into priority option as I was typing this. I blame you for that mpkelley!

When I get mine we should duel, lol. Although I'm not great on drums.

Once you are up and running, look for me...I am either under golfer97 (yes I know...weak name!) or Go_Frak_Yourself. I've been using the latter recently as I've been trying to track my expert only score rather than a mix of expert and hard. I'll add you to my list next time I log in and keep an eye out for you.

Oh, sorry about costing you more money......but it really is worth it! As far as Rock Band add ons/Mods.....I would have to give Seth the award for best product.

I did OK on expert drums until DFTR and Foreplay. I'm hoping the using a real drumset will eventually get me past those songs!

[mpkelley20]

But it's a lot of fun. Except for the time when I hit the thumb of one hand with the stick from the other hand. Man, that smarts!

Dan

Yup.....I really need to be more careful when playing the hi-hat and snare. During some fills, I've slammed my fingers, dropped the sticks and completely missed the pads I'm aiming for! It really is much harder than using the stock drums but I'm having an absolute blast again!

[dagware]

Yup.....I really need to be more careful when playing the hi-hat and snare. During some fills, I've slammed my fingers, dropped the sticks and completely missed the pads I'm aiming for! It really is much harder than using the stock drums but I'm having an absolute blast again!

One thing I'm considering is adding another crash to the left of my ride, right near my hi-hat. There's some songs where you have to go from crash to hi-hat really fast, and this would help. Of course, my brain could probably never handle this!

Regarding hi-hats: Since my set is DIY, I just placed the hi-hat above and left of the snare, and a little higher. (Click the bottom link in my sig for a picture.) Do you (or anyone else) have any pictures of how most people set up their (real) hi-hats, so I can see if I need to reposition it? Thanks.

Dan

[davidshek]

Regarding hi-hats: Since my set is DIY, I just placed the hi-hat above and left of the snare, and a little higher. (Click the bottom link in my sig for a picture.) Do you (or anyone else) have any pictures of how most people set up their (real) hi-hats, so I can see if I need to reposition it? Thanks.

Sure, on my Myspace page (and my band's) you can see a ton of pictures of me at my drums. Where you described it is correct for right-handed drummers.

http://www.myspace.com/davidshek
http://www.myspace.com/woundedsoulband

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/e...avid12-800.jpg
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/e...k/wsdrums2.jpg