I admit it. I missed out on the original Playstation 2 version of Guitar Hero. I watched people play and made fun of them as though it was just as sad as watching DDR kids play, but at the least the music was better. Years later, after a very enjoyable rental of Guitar Hero II and just the mere announcement of what Rock Band was to provide, I took the plunge and bought Rock Band when it was released. I admit, buying it was motivated by a quote I remember from Harmonix when IGN was allowed to try the game out sometime last year, “If you can play the drum parts on hard, you can pretty much play the drums.” ‘Pretty much’ is good enough for me.

From the very start I accepted the fact that playing the guitar on Guitar Hero and Rock Band is just for fun, but the drums, there is something a little too similar to the real thing when playing these bad boys, but not quite enough to admit in public “Yeah, Dave Grohls drumming isn’t actually that hard.” Well, times are a changing, for both closet pad drummers and wannabe guitar players.

Let’s start with the big news that I am sure Guitar Hero fanatics have already been awaiting, but maybe the general public needs a little more awareness, Guitar Rising. Think of those online mods people have done of taking a real guitar and destroying it to put in the innards of a Guitar Hero controller so you get to play the game with a full size feeling. Now take that idea except forget about having to destroy anything. Developers GameTank plan to release Guitar Rising this year, and provide us with a little glimpse into what they are offering:

GuitarRising
by jakeparks It may be time to sell off your little toy guitars and invest in the real thing. Pricing for the game and other specifics have not been released, but this is a title to keep an eye out for. I do would to remind readers though, it is a game, not a teaching program, however using an actual guitar definitely seems like it couldn’t hurt if used as a stepping stone to eventually learning how to play for real. I will definitely be posting any updates here as they come.

Now the other half of my findings, the drums. As far as I know, there are no real drum games coming out. Not that there isn’t a market, but more because there seems to already be other solutions that don’t require you to sell your copy of Rock Band just yet. The first solution would be a costly one but with a big payoff. Modding.You ready to void your warranty? The below video will either put you off to the idea or make you work a few extra hours every day for the next month to get the money to do a project like this properly:

If you are sold on this idea, then proceed to take out your credit card and be ready to spend at the very least $300, but figure more along the lines of $800 or so (prices can go higher). Add another $50 for a MIDI Decoder. Once you have your kit, take yourself over to The Flash Speaks blog with his pretty easy to read instructions on getting yourself started on this mod. Heed the warnings, you will be voiding your warranty, so make sure you do some practice soldering before you break apart anything. It would also be in your best interest to check into Flash’s inspiration for the project, the official Rock Band forums where a full thread is dedicated to this – Rock Band with Electronic Drums (HOWTO).The other, possibly cheaper alternative, is Ion Audio’s prototype drums. The company had brought these to the latest CES where Microsoft’s Gamerscoreblog posted a video of Chris Paladino playing them: After seeing a modded full electronic drum kit, I can’t say that Ion Audio’s drums are that great by comparison. However if the price is right, I would quickly be on eBay selling off my current Rock Band drums to use as credit to get these as an alternative. Unfortunately Ion Audio has no price set, nor any true plans to bring these to the market unless there is interest. A quick search of their official forums leads me to believe there is not enough interest to get these put in stores. Count me interested.I guess for now I will just be working extra nights to get that grand for an full electronic drum kit and watch the guitar I have in my closet collect dust while I wait on Guitar Rising to come out (I have no time for real hard earned honest time invested learning.. everything I do must be in the form of a game). Keep an eye out next week as we do a hard hitting piece on Rock Band’s new instrument, the Keytar!

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