Guitar Hero World Tour Equipment Problems, Subscription Possibilities?

Guitar Hero: World Tour's recent launch saw boxes of plastic instruments flying off store shelves, quickly selling out in many areas. Unfortunately, many players reported problems with the bundled drums sets, prompting Activision to release a drum "tuning" application and a free midi-USB cable to connect the instruments to a PC. Otherwise, reviews for the game have been largely positive, and MTV's Multiplayer Blog did an analysis of using Rock Band drums in GH:WT, and vice-versa. Kotaku looked at which set was louder, coming to the conclusion that while they sound different, decibel levels are very similar. The early success in sales for GH:WT caused Activision to say holiday demand may not be met, and that they're examining two methods in particular to develop the franchise: instrument upgrades (hopefully less ludicrous than Logitech's $250 axe) and the possibility of a subscription-based model for user-generated content. "[Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby] Kotick says that there are now 25,000 user generated tunes that have been created for the game, and projected 'up to 100,000 songs' by the end of this year."

WT drums on PS3 issue?

[Flamesplash]

No mention of the PS3 WT drums on RB compatibility issue? We have to make some noise if Rock Band is going to release the path Guitar Hero says is needed.

Re:WT drums on PS3 issue?

[Josejx]

It's the same situation on the Wii. Guitar Hero: WT is incompatible with the Rock Band Wii drum kit. It's absolutely ridiculous for both platforms to not support these controllers, and reeks of a money grab by Activision.

For what it's worth, I've had less fun with Guitar Hero: WT than Rock Band Wii, gimped as it is. Hopefully Rock Band 2 Wii is at least as good as the previous installment, and DLC works as promised.

Drumset

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're going to seriously play drums on this game (or rock band 1 & 2), get rid of the bundled drums and replace them with the ION Drum Rocker set (about $270-$300). They are much easier to play for extended periods of time.

Re:Drumset

[ohtani]

SOOO agreed, considering my experience with the drummania drum sets available.

The MIDI cable doesn't go two ways

[Manfesto]

I haven't gotten my USB-to-MIDI cable from Activision yet (just put my RMA in today), but I was able to tune my drumkit with my USB MIDI keyboard (An EDIROL PCR-80). Here's the thing - I had to hook the drumkit to the MIDI OUT port, not the MIDI IN (I know this for sure, because I originally tried using my M-Audio iControl with only a MIDI IN port, and it didn't work). What does this mean? That cable Activision is sending out is MIDI OUT, not MIDI IN. So if you were planning on using this free cable to hook a MIDI keyboard to your computer as an input device, it won't work. MIDI signal goes OUT of the cable, not IN. If you still want mine when I get it though, let me know :) Also, I cranked the sensitivity on my red pad up as high as it would go, and though it's significantly better (and I can actually play comfortably without smashing the living #@$% out of my plastic kit), it's still not as sensitive as the rest of my kit. Dunno if I want to exchange it or not (Target is perpetually out of stock for the Wii version).

Re:I'd go for a real band

[HycoWhit]

The majority of people don't have musical talent. Hoping to get a random group together to learn instruments and play recognizable songs late at night after a night out partying is a pipe dream.

Give one of the games a whirl sometime. Actually knowing how to play diminishes some of the fun. But in the end it just another way to enjoy music.

Re:Unfortunately

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what a rimshot is.

Re:Drumset

[kiyoshigawa]

As it seems from the ion drum website, these are actual electronic drums that you can also hook up to a drum computer (at least one of the same brand).

The bit about needing the same brand is a myth propagated by the folks at ION to sell Alesis drum brains. I currently have a Roland TD-3 Drum brain hooked up to my ION Drums and everything works just fine. Feel free to mix and match drums as you please. You can also use Roland V-Drum Cymbals with the ION controller brain and suffer no adverse consequences.

Re:Unfortunately

[gEvil (beta)]

That's what a rimshot is.
It is and it's not. What you're describing is actually two snare hits, followed by a bass/crash hit. For some reason, it's called a rimshot in comedic circles. In drumming, a proper rimshot is when you hit the snare head and rim with the stick at the same time (called a ping if you do it closer to the edge). It produces a sharp, slightly metallic sound.

Re:WT drums on PS3 issue?

[JCSoRocks]

RB2 is *awesome*. It's a huge improvement over RB. I've owned both games almost since they were released.

RB2 has a no fail mode which is great for teaching your friends without failing songs over and over. You can tour with your friends online now via Xbox Live (I'm sure it works on PS3 same way). You can tour as a single player and you can play bass as a single player now as well. There are drum solos now and the calibration tools works a lot better. There are many, many other improvements but those were the big ones for me.

The actual RB2 instruments themselves are quite a bit better. The guitar's main improvement is that there isn't nearly as much slop in the strummer as there is in the original. The drums are a vast improvement. The pads are pressure sensitive, much quieter, and do a better job of picking up rolls. The kick pedal now has a metal top so you don't have to worry about it breaking. Also I believe the new mic is wireless and has built in controls.

The DLC works as advertised. All of my RB1 DLC came over to RB2 automatically, I didn't have to do anything.