Review: Mad Catz Wireless PRO-Drum and PRO-Cymbals (360)

Drummers absolutely need one skill to be successful: rhythm. It’s a funny thing, rhythm; you either have it, or you don’t. If you have it, you know you have it. If you don’t have it, you either know you don’t have it, or you know you have it and the people who tell you otherwise are just JEALOUS. I know I have it. It’s what makes me a great drummer, an absolutely phenomenal dancer, a dynamite foot-tapper, and one of the most incredible human beatboxes ever to roam this earth. At least one of those things is true, and as a dynamite foot-tapper, I need something great to tap my foot to. That’s where the Mad Catz Wireless PRO-Drum and PRO-Cymbals kit comes in.

The backbone of any band is the drummer. A band’s drummer sets the pace and timing of a song, and makes sure that everything stays on track. Without a solid drummer, songs get sloppy, so if there is only one big investment that you plan on making for a set of Rock Band 3 peripherals, let that big investment be in the drum kit. More than any other peripheral, the drum kit needs to be of solid construction. It will take a beating, and needs to be able to remain absolutely responsive and tactile for the best experience possible. The Mad Catz Wireless PRO-Drum and PRO-Cymbals set seems to be just the kit for the job.

Being a device that gets repeatedly hammered with a pair of wooden sticks, the drum kit is definitely designed to handle extensive punishment while maintaining pressure-sensitivity and sharp response. The materials used have a high quality feel to them; it’s definitely not Crackerjack. After a couple of weeks of heavy drumming, the kit feels like it did out of the box; the pads still have the same give, and the cymbals have retained their 10 degree slant, designed for faster transitions from cymbal to drum pad. Additionally, the materials used have an almost rubbery feel to them, which is excellent for deadening the old “clack” sound of the pads from previous drum kits. Less noise from the actual impact of stick to pad results in a more audible game track.

For the most part, construction of the drum and cymbal set is fairly simple. The drum set itself is definitely the easiest bit, with basic common sense and logic serving as the only instructions necessary, though instructions are included. When you come to the cymbals, however, the instructions fall flat. The illustrations don’t represent three dimensional space very well, so there may or may not be a great deal of trial and error when attaching the cymbal set to the drum kit. It took me longer to assemble and attach the cymbals to the drum kit than it did to build the drum kit itself. Additionally, as you can see in the images above, the cymbals have loose wiring connecting them to the kit that mar the otherwise wonderfully designed kit and can, depending on your configuration, get in the way of actually drumming. As with any wireless Rock Band 3 controller, be sure to calibrate it first to ensure that everything is timing correctly.

At the end of the day, the Mad Catz Wireless PRO-Drum and PRO-Cymbals kit offers one of the best feeling Rock Band drum kits I’ve ever played on. Granted, the majority of my Rock Band drumming was done on the PS2 Rock Band 2 drum kit, but I feel that my statement is still valid; there is nothing more the drum kit itself could do, short of being an actual drum kit, to provide a wonderful drumming experience. For $199, you get the standard Rock Band 3 Pro Drum set along with the Pro Cymbals add-on kit, providing you with the ability to play any level and style of song from EASY to PRO and everywhere in between. The construction is solid, the wireless transmitter works great, and the kit is tactile and responsive. For serious drummers, this is definitely a worthy Rock Band 3 investment.