One thing I have been interested in is to use the OSP DD502 electronic drums to play Guitar Hero or Rock Band. My hopes were raised when I read the Rock Band World Tour kit included a midi jack.

I fianlly had a chance to try to connect the DD502 to the Rock Band kit and it was a partial success. The rides and toms seemed to work ok. The cymbals, floor tom, bas and snare did nothing.

It seems like the rock band kit is expecting specific midi notes from each pad of an external kit. Unfortunately I can’t find a way to change the note the DD502 send out on. I even tried to change the sounds assigned to the pad but it doesn’t seemne to effect the midi note.

I also have a Yamaha DD65 which I was able to use to play rock band with through the midi port. I had to adjust the sounds assigned to the pads to find the right notes. Unlike the DD502 the Yamaha kit seems to change the midi note when you change sounds for the pads.

I suppose I could connect he DD502 to my computer and somehow remap the midi notes and send it back out the rock band kit. I probably won’t cross that bridge until the rock band kit starts to break.

Last Christmas I bought the OSP DD-502 drum set on Ebay From Sigler Music

Many people have questioned the quality of this kit compared to the more expensive Roland or Yamaha Kits. I’m happy to report that my kit is still going strong. It gets played almost daily and believe me it is not babied. I can’t say how the kit would survive on the road but if you’re looking for a digital drum kit for home use I still would recommend this kit.

Note: One year follow up review of the DD-502 here.

One day I went to Guitar Center to check out some guitars. I strolled into the drum room and started to play around with some of the Roland digital drum sets. I was having a blast but don’t have $1000’s of dollars to blow on a set.

I poked around a few drum forums and learned about a kit for sale on Ebay called the OSP DD-502. Most of the posters on the forums were kind of raggin on the OSP set. I chalked it up to the fact they were primarily drummers just being a little harsh.

I took a chance an ordered the DD-502 from Sigler Music on Ebay. This set cost me $399 with free shipping. I also got a free throne and some sticks. The set cam complete with all pedals too. I am quite pleased so far.

Sigler Music ships Fedex and I had it to my house in a matter of days right before Christmas.

Setup took about an hour. I gave the toms a few wacks and was impressed with the sturdiness of the set. I was expecting the frame to be a little flimsy. I plugged the set in and threw on some headphones. This thing didn’t sound too bad !

The drum module comes with 20 drum sets. You can also custom build up to 10 of your own sets choosing from about 230 different sounds. All of the sounds are useful sounds. Another real fun feature is that the module has 50 songs you can jam along with of all different types of styles. Some of the songs sound like cheesy midi compositions but they are a blast non the less.

Check out the video demo ! Just don’t rank on the playing !

One nice thing about buying from Sigler Music is that they also have a retail store. So I felt a little more confident buying from them.

The bottom line this is a totally awesome set for anyone looking to get a knock around set or an introduction to electronic drums.

Download DD-502 manual