n00b guide to Dead on Arrival Expert

[Castanova]

I only got the game last week and I had no experience drumming beforehand. I just managed to get through Dead on Arrival on Expert last night. I figured I might share some of the tricks that I used to beat it considering I'm not virtuoso drummer by any stretch.

First, the obvious. RELAX! The song is so fast that it's easy to see the dropping health meter off to the left and then you start speeding up your drumming to compensate only to completely lose the beat.

Second, the most important point. ONLY TRY TO HIT NOTES THAT YOU THINK YOU CAN HIT. If you're flailing at the drums trying to hit every note passing by, you'll not only miss the notes but you'll register bad hits and kill yourself. You'd be absolutely shocked how many notes you can skip in this song and still survive. Once I realized this point, I went from 15% to 30% to 60% in the next few tries.

Intro and verse:
I am incapable of hitting the parts that go R+Y, bass, Y+B, bass, repeat. If I try, my foot ends up hitting the bass at the same time as the pads instead of in between. Instead, just hit the first three parts. Go: R+Y, bass, Y+B, REST, repeat. It's so much easier to keep the time and to keep track of your bass pedal doing that. You can get through those sections of the intro/verse without losing much, if any, of your meter.

Chorus:
Contrary to conventional wisdom, do not focus on the bass pedal here. Take it into practice mode for about 1 minute and learn the pattern for the cymbal (green) and the snare (red). It's a very easy pattern. Now, in the real song, make sure you hit all the greens and reds. Only hit the bass pedal on the easy beats (for me, when it's on beat and at the same time as the green). You can skip at least half of the bass pedals in this section if you're hitting almost all the greens and reds.

At the end of the section there's a short but tough part that again alternates between the pads and the bass pedal between the beats. If you can't hit this, just skip the bass pedal altogether except for maybe the last one which is on beat at the same time as the cymbal.

Solo part:
This one I found it best to focus on the snare and the bass drum right before the snare. It seems to repeat these two guys over and over and it allowed me to keep a beat going the whole time and fill in random cymbal hits when I got a chance.

Overdrive:
Since it's so hard to get overdrive in this song, I mostly lived without it. However, the first OD sequence isn't impossible to get. If you think you need OD, I would practice that verse pattern so you can hit the first OD. It's definitely possible.

There's an OD sequence like 70% into the song (verse #2 maybe?) that is very short. Only like 3 or 4 notes. If you can hit the first OD sequence and then pick up this easy one, you'll have half a bar going into the ending of the song. In this case, do not activate it unless you absolutely must. I found drum fill sections to be more helpful than activating the OD since it let me catch my breath and prepare for the next bit.


Overall, I think it's surprising how much of the song you can fudge your way through if you refuse to let yourself panic and start flailing. Take it into practice mode and figure out some basic patterns that you know you can hit and only hit extra stuff if you're feeling comfortable.

This strategy may not yield results every time you play the song since you're frequently riding the fence between life and death. For me, I probably fail at 30%, 65%, and beat the song in equal proportions. It really comes down to keeping your cool... you WILL be in the red for most of the song.

Also, I played this song heel down because I couldn't get enough speed/precision heel up. Your mileage may vary.

[Castanova]

I only got the game last week and I had no experience drumming beforehand. I just managed to get through Dead on Arrival on Expert last night. I figured I might share some of the tricks that I used to beat it considering I'm not virtuoso drummer by any stretch.

First, the obvious. RELAX! The song is so fast that it's easy to see the dropping health meter off to the left and then you start speeding up your drumming to compensate only to completely lose the beat.

Second, the most important point. ONLY TRY TO HIT NOTES THAT YOU THINK YOU CAN HIT. If you're flailing at the drums trying to hit every note passing by, you'll not only miss the notes but you'll register bad hits and kill yourself. You'd be absolutely shocked how many notes you can skip in this song and still survive. Once I realized this point, I went from 15% to 30% to 60% in the next few tries.

Intro and verse:
I am incapable of hitting the parts that go R+Y, bass, Y+B, bass, repeat. If I try, my foot ends up hitting the bass at the same time as the pads instead of in between. Instead, just hit the first three parts. Go: R+Y, bass, Y+B, REST, repeat. It's so much easier to keep the time and to keep track of your bass pedal doing that. You can get through those sections of the intro/verse without losing much, if any, of your meter.

Chorus:
Contrary to conventional wisdom, do not focus on the bass pedal here. Take it into practice mode for about 1 minute and learn the pattern for the cymbal (green) and the snare (red). It's a very easy pattern. Now, in the real song, make sure you hit all the greens and reds. Only hit the bass pedal on the easy beats (for me, when it's on beat and at the same time as the green). You can skip at least half of the bass pedals in this section if you're hitting almost all the greens and reds.

At the end of the section there's a short but tough part that again alternates between the pads and the bass pedal between the beats. If you can't hit this, just skip the bass pedal altogether except for maybe the last one which is on beat at the same time as the cymbal.

Solo part:
This one I found it best to focus on the snare and the bass drum right before the snare. It seems to repeat these two guys over and over and it allowed me to keep a beat going the whole time and fill in random cymbal hits when I got a chance.

Overdrive:
Since it's so hard to get overdrive in this song, I mostly lived without it. However, the first OD sequence isn't impossible to get. If you think you need OD, I would practice that verse pattern so you can hit the first OD. It's definitely possible.

There's an OD sequence like 70% into the song (verse #2 maybe?) that is very short. Only like 3 or 4 notes. If you can hit the first OD sequence and then pick up this easy one, you'll have half a bar going into the ending of the song. In this case, do not activate it unless you absolutely must. I found drum fill sections to be more helpful than activating the OD since it let me catch my breath and prepare for the next bit.


Overall, I think it's surprising how much of the song you can fudge your way through if you refuse to let yourself panic and start flailing. Take it into practice mode and figure out some basic patterns that you know you can hit and only hit extra stuff if you're feeling comfortable.

This strategy may not yield results every time you play the song since you're frequently riding the fence between life and death. For me, I probably fail at 30%, 65%, and beat the song in equal proportions. It really comes down to keeping your cool... you WILL be in the red for most of the song.

Also, I played this song heel down because I couldn't get enough speed/precision heel up. Your mileage may vary.

[Fedora]

Thank you, good guide for this. I'll try these suggestions tonight.
_________________

The original Rock Band career bassist.
Former DJ Hero player for vVv.

[Fedora]

Thank you, good guide for this. I'll try these suggestions tonight.
_________________

The original Rock Band career bassist.
Former DJ Hero player for vVv.

[nextlevel88]

Yes, thank you. Although I'd rather 'just get better' at a song than 'just get by' a song, I'll clearly make an exception for this one. I'm listening to it way too much for one thing, but the most frustrating thing is that on Quickplay, I can play several of the songs on the next tier, but can't get to them in my career. Kinda makes me wish they weren't so hell-bent on keeping the songs in the same order throughout all the difficulty levels. Some songs just don't see the jump in difficulty from Hard to Expert that others do.

[nextlevel88]

Yes, thank you. Although I'd rather 'just get better' at a song than 'just get by' a song, I'll clearly make an exception for this one. I'm listening to it way too much for one thing, but the most frustrating thing is that on Quickplay, I can play several of the songs on the next tier, but can't get to them in my career. Kinda makes me wish they weren't so hell-bent on keeping the songs in the same order throughout all the difficulty levels. Some songs just don't see the jump in difficulty from Hard to Expert that others do.