‘Rock Band 2' promises beefier peripherals

More details are coming out about the revamped instruments for "Rock Band 2," and things are looking up for those of us already neck-deep in our fake band investment.

I purchased the original "Rock Band" the day it was released, in the full bundle with guitar, drums and microphone.

It quickly became the center of a new lifestyle, with at least weekly gatherings of myself and friends to play the game.

With many games, this level of involvement would fade over time as members of the group eventually tired of the content and moved on to other things, but with the brilliant addition of new downloadable songs available weekly, "Rock Band" has remained a staple here right up to the present day.

The unfortunate side effect of this was the rapid attrition of the equipment due to wear and tear.

The drum set, being more or less a piece of plastic designed to be beaten upon with wooden sticks, was the first to fail. Hastily-repaired breaks in the bass kick pedal eventually resulted in total structural failure, while the drum heads themselves began to crack and became increasingly temperamental about registering hits, then quit working entirely.

A retrofit using parts from a real bass drum kick pedal (idea, parts and implementation courtesy of my father, a real drummer) produced a Six-Million-Dollar Pedal - rebuilt better than it was before - but the rest of the set was a write-off, and I was forced to purchase a new one. The pedal from the new set, however, has never been used. Our Frankenpedal has a permanent home with the band now.

The failure of the "Rock Band" guitar was more abrupt, and more fundamental - the strum bar quit working. This I simply replaced with the wireless guitar controller that came with "Guitar Hero 3."

Even the microphone, a device that really ought to be relatively foolproof, is beginning to show signs of degrading, probably due to the questionable decision to force vocalists to strike it against their hand in order to play auxiliary percussion parts like tambourine or cowbell ("Don't Fear the Reaper," anyone?).

The good news is that it seems Harmonix, makers of "Rock Band," are aware that the instruments they released last year weren't up to the beating they were likely to take from users. All indications are that the new instruments to be bundled with "Rock Band 2" (due out in October) will be sturdier than their predecessors.

The new drum kit uses heads that are both more durable and more responsive than before, while simultaneously reducing the excess noise produced when hitting the old heads, which could often compete with the drum sounds coming from the game itself unless the volume was set to irresponsibly high levels. And - in what I choose to read as a personal acknowledgment of my father's innovation - the new kick pedal employs a metal plate, instead of plastic, for the part where the player's foot rests.

While not directly addressing the hardware failures of last year's model, the new guitar controller seems to have been bumped up a social class, with wireless standard on all systems, a new sensor to autocalibrate for audio/video lag, and supposedly more accurate and tighter strumming control, which hopefully translates into: "less likely to totally quit working for no reason."

No word yet on any improvements for the pack-in microphone, but open support for 3rd-party peripherals at least promises the option to invest in a better-quality device. May as well plan on this now, since vocalists tend to be whiny when they don't get their way.

Of course, for those of you with unlimited money, companies like Peavey, Fender and ION are more than happy to provide you with "Rock Band" instruments nearly indistinguishable in appearance and/or price from their real-life counterparts. This would help in responding to those seemingly unavoidable comments from people who wonder why you spend so much time on playing fake music when you could be learning to play for real: Just tell them that after spending $400 on a fake guitar, you can't afford a real one.

For my part, I'd just like to be able to play the drum intro to Boston's "Foreplay/Long Time" without hearing the sickening crack of breaking plastic.

Here's hoping the "Rock Band 2" drum kit can stand up to the power of my sexy, Neil Peart-like drumming prowess.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that Harmonix has once again extended the factory warranty on the "Rock Band" peripherals.

Through Oct. 1, you can still get repairs or replacements with essentially no questions asked. You will, obviously, have to return the broken equipment. Be advised, however: I would imagine that broken drum heads or foot pedals will likely be construed as abuse, and not covered even under this more-generous warranty policy. I'm currently waiting to receive a replacement guitar, while simultaneously hoping they don't decide it was my own fault the old one broke. We'll see how that turns out.

James Post is a copy editor in addition to writing a column on gaming for The Leader in Corning, N.Y. He can be reached at jpost@the-leader.com.