Drums

The OCTAPAD SPD-30 digital percussion pad from Roland puts hundreds of instrument sounds from around the globe and 50 different kits at the tip of your drumsticks. The portable unit features eight isolated trigger pads, multi-effects, and external trigger inputs for onward connectivity to such things as digital hi-hat and kick controllers. Also on offer is the ability to overdub on recorded loops in real-time and backup tracks to USB memory. Read More

Most times when budding rockstars pick up a guitar and start to play for the first time, it sounds like they’re stepping on a cat – well, to everyone else in the room, anyway. If you are the parent of one of these musicians you might want to introduce them to Paper Jamz, an affordable and innovative play instrument that provides an instant rock star experience and open-ended play, say its makers, WowWee Toys. The one-inch thick stringless guitars (slightly thicker drums) are touch-sensitive, which means you only have to the strum or tap the special circuit-embedded paper on the surface to get a professional sound. Rock on! Read More

Everyone at one time or another has cranked out a beat by slapping their hands on their thighs. One person who obviously feels the rhythm deep in his soul is software designer Boris Smus, who has taken thigh slapping high-tech with his Ubiquitous Drum Pant DIY project that turns an ordinary pair of jeans into a drum kit. Read More

While it's awfully easy to sit in front of Guitar Hero or Rock Band for hours on end, having the discipline to practise a real instrument for the long hours required to reach proficiency (and mastery) is much harder. Roland's Drum Tutorial DT-HD1 is the first of many products we've seen at CES 2009 that will help change this. Read More

After initially shunning the idea of the full band game, Activision caved, and decided to bring the Guitar Hero franchise up to par with the release of Guitar Hero World Tour - just in time to compete with MTV's sequel to Rock Band, the game that brought music video games to the next level last November. We've spent (far too much) time with both games to bring you this in-depth comparison. Read More

August 24, 2007 There is no more exciting yet-to-be released video game than the upcoming music-based game, Rock Band. It’s day one at the Games Convention in Liepzig and we haven’t seen everything yet, but we can safely say it’s the release of the show. It has been previously seen at E3 but with ten new tracks announced and the news that a special version announced for the 50 million installed base of PS2s in Europe, the game looks set to smash sales records when it is released in the coming holiday season. Even if you’ve never looked at a game previously, Rock Band might well turn you into a rabid gaming enthusiast. It's like Guitar Hero, except it also delivers bass guitar, drums or vocals and combines the lot so you can play collectively as a group, which multiplies the fun several magnitudes. Gizmag’s gaming blog thegamergene.com also managed to get its hands on the game at Liepzig and you can read those first impressions here. Read More