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Watch That Tiny $74 1.5GHz Android-Powered Thumb-Puter In Action One lucky fellow was surprised with this truly excellent Rock Band drums cake. Unfortunately, he had to get married first. [Kotaku]
YouTube may be full of robots, but few as charming as this little drummer bot. Armed with a rudimentary pill-jar plastic drum and a beep-bop-boop synthesiser, he somehow gets quite the groove on.
Someone give somebody at Nyko a raise, because they finally remembered the most important component of any pretend rock setup: Skeletons!
Wii Music set up a solid control scheme for drumming with the console’s various attachments, which hacker He Zhao has basically replicated. Except this time it’s free, customisable and on your PC.
If you have ever tried to play the guitar using drumsticks, you were probably drinking the same paint thinner as I was drinking, because it’s impossible. Unless you are playing with Guitar Hero III. And you have a custom midi controller designed to play as it if you were drumming. And you kick arse playing drums. But then, you would probably be the crazy guy who recorded himself in this amazing video just to show that he can a) replace Animal in The Muppets and b) beat the crap out of you playing Guitar Hero III using sticks. [College Humor -- Thanks Jon B.]
Since Guitar Hero: World Tour features a full set of instruments that are nearly identical to Rock Band’s, Activision decided that it was time to take the high road and make their PS3 hardware completely compatible with their competition. Great, right? Well it is, except for one minor catch: PS3 Guitar Hero drums are not working in Rock Band. Oh, and the Rock Band mic isn’t working in Guitar Hero, either.
Remember the ’80s? You know, the decade that playing a beat on your chest passed as music? Just me? Wow…I am getting old. Anyway, you can relive those days with a high-tech upgrade thanks to this electronic drum kit shirt from Think Geek. That’s right, you can actually play seven different drum sounds through a built-in speaker by tapping on different areas of the shirt. As you can see in the video, the effect is awesome—but the whole thing has reminded me of Bobby McFerrin, which has reminded me of that God-awful Don’t Worry Be Happy song, which is now deeply entrenched in my head. Damn you, Bobby McFerrin…damn you to hell. [Think Geek]
Seeing as drum machines are pretty ubiquitous in music these days, the idea of a machine that plays the drums doesn’t sound all that groundbreaking. But what about a robot that plays the drums? Eh? Not impressed? What if I told you it played the most rudimentary beats possible? Now are you impressed? I thought so. [Impress via New Launches]
A normal game demo features a kiosk, maybe a couch, and it’s all a pretty ho hum experience save for the fact that you’re usually playing a game that won’t be released for anywhere from a several months to a few years. But when testing out Rock Band 2, it’s set up on a stage with professional lights, mixing boards and speakers. And, of course, their add-on fog machine. It all reminded me how freaking expensive this whole music game madness has become, but also just how far it had come.
I play Rock Band like a champ, and when I’m with my crew I’m usually on drums. I’m a drummer, and I love playing them, and the included drum controller always seemed just fine to me. Kotaku found this photo of the premium Rock Band 2 kit and I’ve decided I must have it. UPDATE: OK, so this kit doesn’t ship with Rock Band 2, it’s a US$300 optional purchase.
