toblix

Crock Band

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I forgot to mention that we have an Elite. So...I guess they're not much better, heatsink-wise. Or maybe it was caused by something entirely different, I dunno.

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Some of the early Elites had the same problem, or so I heard. Sucks, doesn't it? At least the refurbs should be RRoD proof... I hope.

It'll be interesting to see how our countries handle the situation. I just got emailed a label today and so I had to go out and buy and box and protection to put my XBox in, so I can mail it.

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For anyone about to buy Rock Band, I recommend factoring in the following:

1. The drums for Rock Band are not great. Not by a long shot. They're loud (to the point where you can't hear what you're "playing"). They're not always great at registering notes. No matter which kit you get (there are a few variants), chances are that you'll be looking at modifications. Annoying, but likely.

2. Rock Band can be used with any USB microphone.

3. The guitar can be bought separately, but most people prefer the GH2 or GH3 models.

Now! Buy the game, by all means, but instead of buying the drums, I'd suggest buying these:

http://www.goodwoodmods.com/products.html

They are the best drums you can buy, and much better than simply modding a Rock Band set. They're quiet and deadly accurate and they've been hand-made specifically for use with Rock Band... But they're also very expensive.

If you don't need a second guitar, I'd have to say stick with your GH one. Although the RB guitar looks the shit (and it really does), it doesn't play the same as your GH one without warranty-busting modifications. (There's no "click" when you strum, and the strum bar doesn't feel as "responsive" as the GH guitars. That's not to say that you won't get used to it, though, but most people I've seen seem to concur that they play better with the GH ones.)

After playing Rock Band, it's what I'd do if I was about to buy it now. Better to get something that's fun to play out of the box than spend time taping socks to your kit, especially if you're planning to get very involved in the game.

Just a few things to consider!

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Those drums look mighty tempting, except it seems they don't ship to Canada. Boo...

And once again, I gotta disagree on the guitar. I'm now forced to ship mine back to Harmonix because the fix I preformed only held out for 4 months. It's stopped registering notes again. Now that I have to use a GH guitar, it just feels so wrong. I don't like the GH controller anymore. At first I preferred it as well, but after several months I realized that it was just because it was what I was used to. I then came to embrace the awesome that is the RB strat.

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I don't get why it's a better business model to make these games and ship them with these low-quality controllers instead of doing the sane thing and agree on a music controller standard or whatever, and then Logitech and the people who produce things that don't suck could make all sorts of awesome guitars and drums.

Okay, I totally get why, but I think it sucks.

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There ARE third party peripherals, and here in the UK you can buy the game separately (not sure about the US/Canada) so you can use what you like. The problem is that the market for these 3rd party things is mighty mighty small as most people will just go with the official one.

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Those drums look mighty tempting, except it seems they don't ship to Canada. Boo...

They will do by the end of the week. They've got a waiting list. I'm #48. I just hope I can find the money! :)

And once again, I gotta disagree on the guitar. I'm now forced to ship mine back to Harmonix because the fix I preformed only held out for 4 months. It's stopped registering notes again. Now that I have to use a GH guitar, it just feels so wrong. I don't like the GH controller anymore. At first I preferred it as well, but after several months I realized that it was just because it was what I was used to. I then came to embrace the awesome that is the RB strat.

That's really good to hear! Hurrah! I'm going to keep it up with the Strat (when I get my XBox back) as it just looks sooooo sweet.

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For anyone who hasn't heard, apparently the 60-day warranty is now in effect. :tdown: :tdown: :tdown: :tdown:

We never sent back our Strat because we figured we'd just get another broken one, so we were going to wait....

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This week's DLC is awesome. They're all really fun to drum to, even the song I don't like so much. I like having songs I've never heard before, because I won't get sick of them as fast. Now if only I could actually play them IN the game....

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Update: It's arrived at the repair centre. Gajos signed for it, apparently. Let's hope he's some kind of 360 fixing demon that will have my console back pronto.

More exciting updates as my 360 goes on its little adventure through the Microsoft RRoD repair process.

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My roommate dropped ours (his) off in the mail yesterday I believe. The race is on, ThunderPeel. :shifty:No fair you got a head start.

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I can't believe there's something to do with Microsoft that I can't complain about in the slightest. I'm still waiting for my repaired console to be delivered, but I never expected such a quick turnaround. I'm gobsmacked.

Of course, maybe they haven't fixed it... :shifty:

We'll see.

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Here's some speculation about why so many break:

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=51TYZYXYRWUZUQSNDLSCKHA?articleID=208403010

ANAHEIM, Calif. — When Microsoft Corp. announced a mammoth global recall of its Xbox 360 a year ago, the software giant never disclosed the exact source of the game console's heat problem that led to the fiasco.

Now, in an unlikely venue at Design Automation Conference here, Bryan Lewis, research vice president and chief analyst at Gartner, disclosed that the problem started in a graphic chip. Lewis offered this offhand revelation while discussing the changing ASIC and ASSP landscape for his DAC audience.

The Xbox 360 recall a year ago happened because "Microsoft wanted to avoid an ASIC vendor," said Lewis. Microsoft designed the graphic chip on its own, cut a traditional ASIC vendor out of the process and went straight to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., he explained.

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Best bit:

But in the end, by going cheap--hoping to save tens of millions of dollars in ASIC design costs, Microsoft ended up paying more than $1 billion for its Xbox 360 recall.

Whoops!

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Shit. I just broke another pedal. And I'm no longer under warranty. Awesome. Any tips?

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Holy crap. A roomate felt so bad about the pedal breaking while he was playing last night that when I got home from work there was a whole new drumset waiting for me. I will (of course) be paying him back as soon as my next paycheque clears, but right now I'm just astounded by the quality of the people I live with. Damn.

Brief review of the second-run drum sets. Pedal is the same as my old one, which means that another part of my next cheque will be going to an Omega Pedal, as that one looked the most appealing to me. Drum heads, much more responsive. I can actually hit rolls now! All this time I thought it was me, but really my drum heads were just dropping notes left and right! I'm thinking that I may pick up those Goodwood heads in a month or so and see how much that improves my performance as well. Yay! Drumming is go again!

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New sets are SL, old ones are QM. I don't really know what that means, but given my experience, SL is awesome.

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Cool. EL are supposed to be the most troublesome, but the newer sets are ok, apparently (mine are EL). But you have to hit them pretty hard.

I think the QM are supposed to be great, much more responsive than the EL sets... but you've got that quirky/rare variant: The SL, of which I know nothing :)

Good to hear it's working well, though.

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