Ian Hall
English 110
Professor Turner
14 September 2008
Drum Mania
The other day my friend contacted me, and told me that he would like to hang out with me since he did not have any plans for the following evening. We talked about various subjects over the course of an hour, and when I asked him, “What are we going to do?”, he replied saying that he would like to do something “maybe involving Rock Band and real instruments.” I laughed and explained how foolish that would be. “If only I had a real drum set,” I thought out loud. That's when my wallet started quivering in fear.
My friend plays the guitar, and he's pretty good at it. I play Rock Band (a videogame) on the drums, and I'm pretty good at that. He thought that I could jam on the Rock Band drums with him on the guitar, but the Rock Band drums are too restrictive, so that would not work. It certainly is possible to hook them up to a computer and “jam” on them, with the use of some software, but with 4 pads (or 4 different sounds) to use, there is not much I can do with it.
The fact is, I had been wanting a drum set for a long time, and I had already considered getting one before. I figured if fake drums are as fun as they are, real drums could be fun too, but nobody had encouraged me to buy one before. However, when my friend threw in the idea that we could jam together, I could not stop thinking about how fun it would be to do so. With enough practice, I could get really good at the drums and someday join a band! My mind was swimming in the possibilities. But most of all, the idea that I could be making music at some point made me consider this seriously. I love music so much, I listen to it all the time, and it would be extremely fun to play it and to make some of my own. If there is anything that I want to accomplish in life, it is to play real music someday. Thus, all anyone had to do was give me a little nudge, and my pathos would be driving me insane.
As much as I wanted a drum set, I was not fully convinced yet, as there were some other issues to look at. Probably the biggest problem with getting a drum set would be to be able to play it and not annoy my mom. I did not think she would enjoy hearing me banging on the drums all the time. Nor, for that matter, would my neighbors. My friend's first suggestion to counter this was to use some material on the walls of my garage, using a logos attack on me. The material he said I should use is soundproofing acoustic foam, which has a wave pattern that makes audio reverberate within the room (assuming this foam is completely covering the walls). This would be a great idea if it weren't for the high price of the material (and the lack of room in the garage). If I was going to be getting a drum set at all, I would not have much money leftover for other accessories like that. Despite the fact that this logos attack failed, it remained in the back of my mind as something I could try later on when I obtain more money.
My friend then offered me another solution.”Why not get an electronic drum set,” he said. It sounded great to me. He explained that electronic drums work just as well as acoustic drums, and are not as loud, especially since they most likely have headphone jacks. Since me banging on my Rock Band drums doesn't seem to bother anyone, I believed that electronic drums would not bother anyone either. I also thought that an electronic drum set would be quieter than the Rock Band drums. “As a matter of fact,” my friend says, “You could probably hook up an electronic drum set to Rock Band too!” At first, when he told me this, I did not believe him. “No way, that's too awesome to be true,” I replied. It turns out that it was true. This time, he appealed to my logic as well as my emotions; the mere idea of playing real drums and my favorite videogame simultaneously made me ecstatic. By this point, I was totally ready to buy one.
Before we went to the store, we had to consider another obstacle. There are two rooms in which I could potentially place a drum set, one being my room, and the other being the family room. My room is too small, so we eventually came up with a plan to take out the giant Bowflex Motivator in the family room, and put the drums in its place, but we were going to need permission from my mom to do this. To start off the conversation, I asked her if she had any plans to use the Bowflex in the future, and she said that she will probably never use it. Then I asked, “So, you wouldn't mind if I took the thing apart, with the help of a friend, and put it in the garage?” “What do you need to do that for?” “So I can put a drum set in it's place. Don't worry, it's not gonna be a loud one or anything.” I further pointed out that we've been needing to get rid of the Bowflex for a long time, and that the drum set would be no louder than the fake one I had. “Plus, I'll get a lot more exercise out of a drum set than I would out of the Bowflex.” It turned out that this logic was good enough for her, and she granted me permission to undergo this task.
Now that I have decided to try to get a drum set, my friend took me to Accent Music to take a look around and ask them what their cheapest drum sets cost. We went up to the counter to ask someone about drum set prices, of both acoustic and electronic sets. The prices did not satisfy me. My friend then came up with the idea of buying acoustic drum parts separately, and building upon it when I get more money. The employee told us that the 5-piece drum sets are definitely cheaper than all the parts bought separately, so we scrapped that idea. While we were looking around the store, my friend pointed out that they have separate parts available for electronic sets as well, which is something that will be crucial to know once I get one.
The unfortunate problem in my situation is that my only source of income is Christmas and Birthday presents. My friend knew this, so he helped me to find the cheapest drum set available. We found out that the best option would be the ION Drum Kit, which is an electronic kit designed to work with Rock Band. We had to find out about this kit online, since they did not have it at music stores. It does not come out for at least another month for the system I need it for, but my friend realized that if I want to have one as soon as possible, this is the fastest way to get one. It would be even easier to master playing on a real electronic drum set if I played with it on Rock Band all the time, so getting this ION Drum Kit made sense. Thanks to my friend's brilliant views of logic, and my own emotional Rock Band disorder, I am now determined to purchase the ION Drum Kit, and have some fun jamming with my friend when it comes out next month (after we spend hours vigorously moving the Bowflex Motivator).