Orange Lounge Radio

LOL You can see my Xmas post a little ways down the page when I originally bought DDR. Now I'm looking to upgrade my pads, I have two soft ones and they kind of suck. What's my next step? I'm really considering metal pads, my kids and I love DDR and we play alot! Any advice about the best prices, and places to buy metal pads (or should I go with foam??) appreciated.

How much and often do you and your children play?

If we're talking about serious playing in which you try to get AAA and such than I'd go for a metal pad like the Afterburner or CF but both pads cost reasonably more than soft or foam pad.

If we're talking about just having a good time than I'd suggest getting a foam pad just for the durability. As for where to get these pads, you can find them at these wonderful websites:
http://www.redoctane.com
http://www.cobaltflux.com

PS. While the prices for these pads might seem too much I really recomend getting them from those two site's listed above. There are places that offer metal or foam pads for less but the majority of them sell nothing short of junk ie. Buy'n Shop pads and TX metal pads.

I would not reccommend a Red Octane metal pad. I have poor experiances with them, so has a few friends of mine. My Octane lasted like 2-3 months before it just went to hell.... i bought some MyMyBox pads off of ebay ($100 each) and they both lasted me 9 months... (then they both died because my basement flooded and they fell victom to the water )

The MyMyBox pads require some work put into them to keep them running good.... but honestly i had a much better experiance with those pads than i did with the Octane (metal) then again i got the older one... the pad before the Afterburner was out...

Ive heard nothing of good from the afterburner. But ive heard nothing but pure unadultered ownage from the cobalt flux.

tweak_ wrote:Ive heard nothing of good from the afterburner. But ive heard nothing but pure unadultered ownage from the cobalt flux.

Well I have something good to say and I hear many other good things. Sure my original AB broke due to a few loose bolts but when I got a new one it has been running strong with no problems. It is very close to arcade perfect and has helped me sooooooooo much with PA. CFs are very very durable with one major drawback......it's way too sensitive. Yeah I know that sounds good but it's not because that strays it away from being arcade perfect and you should notice that your score is a lot better at home when you compare it.

There has been a war going on between CF and AB, a very dirty one. a lot of people don't give either a chance because the one they have is right no matter what, or the experience they have means everyone will have it. Try to read unbias reviews for pads. I honestly don't care what you get and I'm just saying my views and experiences. I tried both I just happened to like the AB better especially after some of the best players here in NY were dissing the CF for the whole sensitivity thing and I have great respect for them. So I picked the AB after all that.

Dont forget home perfect window is bigger

Yeah that too, oh how I hate that soooooooo much.

I've heard the plywood-like base for the Cobalt Flux is very cheap and is easy to break and that the Afterburner lose some parts to it after awhile. I don't recommend getting the Red Octane foam pads because they can rip very easily if you try hard PA'ing (sheesh, I can't believe I just used PA as a verb =.=''). Anyways, I prefer using the Dance Revolution Soft Pad 2 that I got a couple years ago. I just taped/superglued cardboard squares under where the panels would be, put a 50 mm. foam soft pad under that and bundled it up nicely with a good rug grip under it. It works wonders for me and barely slips. The downside to it though is that the top still feels slick so I'm planning to create a wooden top case maybe with some spring panels to encase the soft pad in. It wont entirely cover the whole pad, the bottom part will still be exposed.

A loooong tinme ago, when i first started playing, i order UM1 and two crapy soft pads on ebay. I took a HUGE peice of wood, staple gunned the pads to thw wood, and took a clear plastic sheet(like ona a picnic table) and stapeled that over it. I rocked doubles soooo hardcore.

I'm in DDR pad hell confusion!

We bought DDR and a couple Intec pads for $10 on sale. They played nicely for a while, and we bought a 3rd pad as a backup for a DDR party we had last night.

A week before the party, one of the original pads seemed to be getting flaky, and so I got the new pad out. Then..a couple days later, the other original pad died completely. So, we were left with an excellent pad and then a flaky-ish pad which seemed to recover and work OK.

So, these cheapy pads don't seem to last very long eh? That seems wrong.

Now, we're trying to decide between buying an Ignition 3.0 pad, which we hear has long-term durability issues...or just spring for metal pads. (Afterburner)

So, is it fair to assume that a good Ignition pad (Red Octane) is really only gonna last 3-4 months...is that worth $100? Or do you go for the Afterburner which could last a year...

And geesh, what to do if they die. Man oh man.

It seems like the big flaw on DDR games is the pad quandry? Can anyone tell me a great pad to buy, that's durable, and won't bankrupt me?

It is hard to tell with pads. I have a konami pad that I got with UM1 at release and it still works flawlessly but that could also be because the xbox pads are made differently.

A good friend of mine told me that ignitions never worked out for him since he plays a lot. Afterburners are good but you have to play the hell out of it the first months to make sure it won't break.

ZaBlanc wrote:So, is it fair to assume that a good Ignition pad (Red Octane) is really only gonna last 3-4 months...is that worth $100? Or do you go for the Afterburner which could last a year...

Here's a general rule of thumb: Ignitions are mostly the same. Buying a generic brand from eBay will generally bring the same results as buying a RedOctane Ignition, but they cost a lot less.

no they arnt, depending on the quality and the way the pads are made you can have very, very diffrent results. Red Ignition pads use a high density type foam making it very sturdy and durable. Also the raising of the arrows are just noticable enough but not to the point that its annoying.

Some other pads use a less dense but thicker material that make doing jumps and fasters songs harder to do. In comparison its like trying to run sand with some pads. They just dont feel well.

pkakira88 wrote:no they arnt, depending on the quality and the way the pads are made you can have very, very diffrent results. Red Ignition pads use a high density type foam making it very sturdy and durable. Also the raising of the arrows are just noticable enough but not to the point that its annoying.

I see what you mean about the foam. Let me rephrase what I meant to say. Generic brands do have pads with this so-called "high density type foam" as well and generally give the same results, because they're from the same factory with the RO logo removed.

Of course there are older generic Ignitions which use the old kind of foam, that's why you read product descriptions carefully.

Ok...pads are pretty simple to figure out:
The first factor is: how big of a DDR player are you?

If you play once in a while, just for a good time then the Gamestop pad ($50) is not a bad deal at all. I have heard some good things about it. However, my friend told me that the pad wears out after a while. But if you are not playing on a frequent basis (one or more times daily) then this pad is fine.

If you play at least once a day and are a bit more serious about playing then the Red Octane Ignition pad ($100) is perfect. I have had my Ignition pad for 4 years and have NEVER had an issue with it. I know that the 1.0 version of the pad had an issue with static electricity, but that issue was fixed long ago. (Note: I have an Ignition 2.0 pad). This pad has inputs for the PC, Mac, PSX, PS2, and Xbox. So this pad also allows for growth of the collection and of the player.

If you want to get super serious about it and start playing it almost religiously then Cobalt Flux is the way to go. The price tag is very high on this pad (well over $200). This pad is only for the most dedicated player. Building a metal pad can be cheaper.[/i]