I absolutely LOVE the cymbals. I've played with the 2-pack for a couple months, and just recently bought the one-pack to have the full 3 cymbal setup. When I first set mine up, I was a little disappointed. I had the nuts tightened completely down, yet as I would play, I would gradually beat the cymbals lower and lower. Upon closer examination, i noticed that there are clips situated just to the inside of where it wraps around the poles. The trick is to squeeze these until they click BEFORE you tighten the nuts. Then, once you tighten the wing nuts, you'll get no movement at all--no dropping, rotating, anything. Once I did this, I haven't had to touch them since. The cymbals themselves work great. I occasionally have to re-tighten the colored nuts, but more out of OCD--they have never missed a note or registered double notes for me. One disadvantage of the cymbals is the sound...if you bought the RB2 kit partially because of the quieter drumheads, throw that out the window if you have the cymbals. They're distinctively "cloppy" sounding, and require the music volume higher to drown them out. Once you do, though, having the cymbals makes you feel like even more of a real fake rocker. It takes a little while to get used to knowing when to hit the cymbal and when to hit the pad. Good news is, it doesn't matter...hit either, and it registers as long as it's the right color. Even though it might be nicer (if much more confusing) to have separate note colors for the cymbals, as a non-drummer in real life, it's helping develop my musicality by forcing me to think about whether the yellows and blues should be cymbals or toms. The final advantage in my opinion is that you get a much better reaction from a group of drunk people by breaking out the 7-pad drum set when fully outfitted (much moreso than the standard RB 4 pad or even GH 5 pad set up). Nothing like being the coolest of the non-cool :) As a marketing person by trade, I think the way they set up the cymbals as one, two, or three packs and somehow managed to make nothing but the two packs available at stores is brilliant. As a customer, I think it stinks. To curious readers...do NOT buy two of the 2-packs thinking that it's worth having a separate cymbal. Buy the two pack, and then find a single pack online, or just buy the 3-pack online. The single pack comes with a longer pole, a "Y" brace (to attach two to one of the drum legs--something you can't do with two double packs), and an extra cross brace to give your higher cymbal extra support.
2 of 2 found this review helpful.
Overall rating
5/ 5
Design
5/ 5
Performance
5/ 5
Erilinaz
These do work!
PostedJanuary 28, 2009
I bought these back in November and haven't looked back. Taken my Rockband drumming to a whole new level. Yeah the tightening screws can be a little iffy but about the cymbals themselves I've never had them miss a note. Not once. It took about 2 hours to get used to them because I'm not a "real" drummer and play most of the time on Medium. After I did I was able to FC 5 Gold Star "Charlene (I'm right behind you)". That's beat it 100% on Expert. These things are great and make drumming in Rock Band so much more fun. I don't know what these other reviewers are talking about because I've never had a problem. All I do know is that they are much better quality than the ones that came with GHWT, and I plan on buying the single when I can find it so I can have a ride.
Overall rating
1/ 5
Design
1/ 5
Performance
1/ 5
Dante1976
Just as bad as you'd expect
PostedDecember 21, 2008
Well, its official. MadCatz sucked back in the day and they still suck today. Temporarily setting aside my disbelief that Harmonix would trust a company with such a terrible reputation to create not only *an* officially licensed product, but *the only* officially licensed product, I'll share my thoughts on the cymbals themselves. The only point that matters and is worth mentioning, is that these simply DO NOT WORK. I bought the two pack yesterday, excitedly took them home and hooked them up. Figuring I should field test them before the gang showed up last night to play, I fired up the 360 and picked a simple song (Social Distortion). No Everlong, no Metallica, just a nice simple 4/4 tune with the opportunity for the game to get a clean read on my striking the cymbal. Every time I hit either cymbal, it registered two hits. I knew I had tightened the wing nuts as much as possible to prevent any "flopping" that may have been interpreted as another hit, so I loosened them a little and tried again. Same crappy product, same crappy results. Wondering about freestyle mode? Same results. Disappointed, I disassembled the cymbals and am packing them up today to return them. I really hope that Harmonix nixes the deal with MadCatz and lets a *real* company try to develop another set of cymbals. Don't be fooled into wasting your time buying these. You'll find yourself packing them back up, too, and cursing MadCatz the whole time. Of course, given how my "new, improved, more durable, blah blah blah" Rock Band 2 drums have pads that are already peeling off after only 2 months' use, maybe I shouldn't be so surprised at the quality of the cymbals. FYI - If your pads peel off, too, my best advice (if Harmonix tells you your out of warranty) is to buy a caulk gun and a tube of polyurethane adhesive/sealant. Draw a nice spiral on the felt pad underneath the rubber pad and slap the rubber back on. It's a $10 fix vs. $90 for new drums (with the same adhesive that will just decompose again).
2 of 3 found this review helpful.
Overall rating
1/ 5
Design
1/ 5
Performance
1/ 5
BERNIE v2
Don't waste your money
PostedDecember 16, 2008
These things are garbage. I upgraded to the RB2 drums so I could have the expansion slots for these cymbals. I finally found them in store at Gamestop and quickly picked them up:• First off the clamps that hold the cymbal arm don't fully tighten, so by the end of a song the cymbals are sitting on top of the pads from being pushed down.• They sound horrible and loud -- the equivalent of banging on an empty milk carton.• The nut / pad that holds the cymbal in place doesn't work well -- sometimes the cymbals sensor will swing 180º and there's no way to get it back mid-song.• The sensitivity is off, it doesn't record every note every time, especially on faster 16th notes.I've played drums from 10+ years so I was excited for this upgrade but it was a giant FAIL. i've since gone back to the regular default, 4 pad set up. Much better...
