Rock Band 2 Triple Cymbal Expansion Kit

Mad Catz Rock Band 2 Triple Cymbal Expansion Kit provides the means for you to drum like the pros do with velocity- sensitive Crash, Ride, and Hi-Hat cymbals. With the easy-to-install mounting brackets, you have total control and can setup your drum kit in any configuration you see fit. Once your drum kit has been customized to your standards, you¿ll be all set to attack your song library with new vigor and achieve the next step in drumming perfection.

Rock Band 2 Triple Cymbal Expansion Kit Product Features
* Crash, Ride & Hi-Hat cymbals. Game sold separately.
* Velocity-sensitive for precise drumming
* Adjustable height
* Easy-to-install clamps for quick setup
* Only compatible with Rock Band 2 Drum kits

Rock Band 2 Triple Cymbal Expansion Kit Reviews

I think it’s great to expand the RB2 kit–just four pads and a pedal–using cymbals to add some variety to playing the tracks, but these come up a little short in that area.

Admittedly, they’re something of a bargain when you compare them to real electronic cymbals, so the question becomes whether the shortcomings are worth the price.

Ultimately, I’d say these are for two types of player:

1. people who are really starting to get into drumming and are wondering if they’d want to take the big leap into the Ion Drum Rocker.

2. people who want to expand their Rock Band gameplay.

In the end, I’d say they really don’t serve either group completely. They’re a lot louder than the standard RB2 pads and have a tendency to come loose if you hit them a lot, so they’re not really comparable to the sort of professional experience you get with the Ion.

The other aspect is a bit trickier to explain. While the cymbals add a lot of flash to fills and free-form playing by being mapped to their own sounds (Yellow – Hi-Hat, Blue – Ride, Green – Crash), giving you eight total sounds in those modes, that flash doesn’t carry over to the songs themselves.

In the main of the song, the game only knows you’re playing Yellow, not that it’s the Hi-Hat. As a result, you end up listening to the song while you play to determine if you’re on the “right” target for the sound that’s coming out…is that green note a Tom or a Crash? This adds an extra layer of complexity to playing and requires that you learn the song a bit differently from if you’re just playing the drum pads.

The volume of striking the cymbals is kind of a turn-off, too: now that Harmonix has delivered a much quieter drum kit, adding the cymbals suddenly makes it about as loud to hit as the RB1 kit had been. It’s not bad if you’ve got the volume up, but if you’re playing at night and trying to keep the noise down, you may find yourself hearing the tap of your sticks against the cymbals and little else.

The last minus is the way they mount. The hardware is secure enough, though a bit difficult to assemble exactly as directed and very difficult to disassemble, but the design of the cymbal mounts doesn’t work quite the way the instructions imply. Supporting the cymbal is a wedge that serves the dual purpose of keeping the cymbal’s active edge turned toward you and which also allows it some tilt. The problem is, to get it to tilt, you need to loosen the nut that secures it in place. Given that that nut likes to ride the vibrations and unscrew itself while you play, getting it loose enough to allow for significant tilt can be pretty frustrating.

As a result, they end up mounted more-or-less horizontally, which takes away from the “real drummer” experience they’re supposed to be providing.

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