Electronic drum giant Alesis has jumped, head-first onto the gaming bandwagon by designing the Drum Rocker, a 'premium' drumkit controller for Rock Band. Alesis joins Gibson, Peavey and Line 6 by attempting to tap into the Guitar Hero/Rock Band franchise.
With Guitar Hero's debut drumkit controller garnering attention from the real rock sticksman elite (Chad Smith, Travis Barker etc), the race to create the most 'realistic' drumming experience is on.
The Drum Rocker features four "ultra-quiet velocity sensitive drum pads", up to three cymbals and an all-metal kick pedal with retractable spikes that, on screen at least, resembles Tama's HP200B pedal. The kit is also compatible with any Alesis brain, so you can ditch your Playstation or Xbox and take the Drum Rocker on the road for real.
Can we see any professional, semi-professional or even hobbyist drummer swapping their Roland HD-1 for a toy? No chance. But this is certainly an interesting development.
