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Dom's 4-Panel Dance Pad Roundup 2020
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- Опубліковано 16 сер 2024
- An overview of home pad dance options for In The Groove, Stepmania, and Dance Dance Revolution.
Links:
- Stamina Nation Discord staminanation.com
- LTEK www.maty-tanec...
- PDP www.precisionda...
- DanceFit www.dancefitga...
- Baila Tech baila-tech.com
- RHP www.rhythmhori...
- SMX stepmaniax.com
Pads I left out:
- DSR pads: www.dsprototyp...
- PAD9 plataformas-ex...
Songs (in order):
- Spacetime / spacetime
- D.A.A.N.A.C.C.E. • NegaRen - D.A.A.N.A.C....
- Houmous • Igorrr - Houmous [audio]
- The Power • Video
- APETENODYTES DISCO TYPE.4.0 • APETENODYTES DISCO TYP...
- Swamp • Binary Squad - Swamp
- Snowman • Brookes Brothers - Sno...
- Raichu • Luude - Raichu
- George • Charisma.com『GEORGE』
- Crazy Loop • Crazy Loop - Crazy Loo...
- MEMOIRS OF A GORILLA • $UICIDEBOY$ - MEMOIRS ...
- Grief & Malice • Helblinde - Grief & Ma...
- Glad you're back • Glad You're Back.
Players featured:
- Dom / dom_itg
- HotTake / hottakeitg
- Matt M / ssandman
- Yutsi / yutsi
- Natano / martinnatano
- SirDelins / @sirdelins
- Arike / @tc19
- Cozy / cozy_itg
- UVCat / theultravioletcatastrophe
- 4199 / @4199rg
- murd / inthegroove
- Mad Matt / sigatrev
- fabsab / fabsab44
- Nebel / nebelnebs
- hsarus / hsarustude
- zxevik / simplyzxevik
- sidro / sidro
- jdongs / hiei48
- Rust / rust_itg
- Vincent / vincentitg
- levitasss / levitasss
- joWng / jowng
- Steve / stevereen
- Archi / archiveflax
- Bran / krushrpants
- Ryan / rynker
Intro: (0:00)
Soft Pad: (4:21)
Legacy Hard Pad: (5:35)
LTEK: (7:44)
Precision Dance Pads: (9:09)
Travel Pads: (10:23)
Ahle's Travel Pad: (12:09)
Other Overseas Pads: (13:08)
Impulse/Rhythm Horizon Platforms: (14:48)
Re:Flex Dance: (16:28)
StepmaniaX: (17:07)
DDR Arcade: (20:22)
ITG Dedicabs: (24:30)
Conclusion: (26:18)
Can confirm my DDR pad had some Rust on it
So basically the options are use a soft pad, have one shipped from fucking Poland, become an electrical engineer, pay $800+ dollars, or don’t play at all. Cool.
Yep, for most the LTEK is the best and most realistic option right now. I wish more had changed with this situation in the past couple of years but it really hasn't.
@@domitg at least from what I've heard, they've fixed the polling issue since this video was released.
@@domitgi heard that borntolead arcade replica pads are really good currently
Im a mechanical engineer with an extra degree in electrical engineering and im gonna waste 1.4k dollars on a pump it up arcade pad
I would buy the stepmaniax pad with the 9 panels but i live 3 planets away from the usa, so the shiping would be like an extra 3k
I became an electrical engineer for the Re:Flex. It is substantially more expensive now, but it is a SOLID option compared to StepmaniaX in terms of both availability and performance.
i must say that those bilibili pads, while of course unknown, have a very cool concept of flipping over a 4 panel to reveal a 5 panel. if I had the time rn I could attempt to create my own pads kinda like those lol
I am yet to find those "bilibili" pads. The idea of 4/5 is cool because I play dance and pump.
L-tek apparently ships their newer pads with a 1000mhz polling arduino controller these days
Ngl this was incredibly well made dude, I was expecting a meme video but this was a nice surprise!
Im just here to ask if this is preffered or better then using a controller
@@TheOnlyDonut A bit late, but that is entirely up to personal preference. I personally never liked rhythm games, at least until I played DDR for the first time, then Jubeat. Then I realized I like rhythm games that require you to move. Some people like controller or keyboard play because you don't have to move your body. What ever way you play is entirely up to you.
@@DrMario- my lord this is old, i started on ddr extreme 2 but that was years ago. im on pc rhytm games
Three years late, but SUPER informative video! You introduced me to travel pads, so I must dedicate myself into getting two now! Yay!
Some soft pads are kinda slept on honestly. I use the Wii/GC official pad and I love it. It has a material on the bottom that mostly sticks to wood floors and hasn't worn out in 2 years, and the sensors are really reliable. My only complaint is it doesn't immediately release so you get hit by some tricky mines immediately after arrows -- but almost no songs have that problem.
Just to let you know, the current L-TEK pads have 1 ms 1000 hz polling rates now. I would say the performance is leveled up to B+ compared to the ITG pads.
What, they DO?! I'm sold!
Somehow this makes IIDX seem easy to get into, thank god for Dj Dao. Glad I was huge into DDR when it was at every arcade on the planet.
I'd possibly group cobalt fluxes away from legacy hard pads. The build quality is actually really durable and most old ones are still working flawless today. The penny mod on them actually doesn't really eat away at the metal unlike lteks too
There's actually a video somewhere of someone putting a cobalt flux in the middle of a road and having cars run over it and it still works after haha
Agreed, and the main issue (bad control boxes) is easily fixable since they have new control boxes available on their website again, and someone makes and sells control boxes for various pads on their own website as well.
This is the feedback I've received the most from this video. If I was going to do it again, I probably would have either broken up the "legacy hard pads" section or spent more time discussing how some pads are better than others, with specific examples. That is definitely true, a cobalt flux is pretty good and probably shouldn't be lumped in with a DDR game. The reason they were categorized together (and something like the LTEK was broken out) is because they are all no longer manufactured. There's also a lot of pads made over the years which would fit in this category and even CF had a bunch of different variants that aren't all equivalent. But yeah, I agree with everything you guys are saying.
They confirmed they returning. They just moved to different locations. Website still same but .org
The one I had back in 2004 lasted maybe about a year. The sensors started getting corrosion on them that I had to take the panels off the clean every couple weeks, which itself isn't a major inconvenience except the screws go into a wood base and its easy to accidentally over-torque those and wear out the threads. After a while I just got tired of constantly having to clean it and started going to the arcade gain. Still, it's better than the Red Octane metal pad (I think it was called an Afterburner) that broke literally on the first song I played on it. The connector for the control box popped out and just stopped working.
23:40 WTF is that picture LUL. Very informative video by the way. Thanks for the video.
Yooooooo
I've had two DanceFit PIU pads for about a year that I've been using fairly regularly. I suspect the 4-panel versions to be similar, so I guess I can do a review. Note: I play no-bar and only up to S16/D15, so I can't say how well they'd work for higher levels.
The layout for each panel is:
- metal plate spanning the entire panel,
- 2-3mm high weather-strip around the edges,
- panel-sized curved metal plate,
- ~3mm polycarb/lexan/whatev cover. They feel more grippy than arcade panels.
- They're sunken by about ~3mm.
The sensor is metal-on-metal contact, but unlike other contact pads the plates span the whole sensor so there's much more surface area. Since they're not just comb print-board & aluminum foil (hi, Mayflash pads), I don't think these will ever break. The wooden base is solid and doesn't creak at all. The whole thing is on rubber doorstoppers and doesn't slide at all on a hardwood floor. You do get rubber stains though.
I'd say some modding is required to get the most out of them, but it's pretty easy. The biggest problem is the strip keeping the plates separate. It runs all around the panel and ruins sensitivity at the all-important edges, so my performance was terrible in the beginning. But you can easily remove part of it and could get pinky-activated sensors if you wanted. Tweaking the sensitivity can be done by adding/removing some more tape or tightening the screws.
I also added a layer of foam between the top plate and the cover to make the pad more level: you don't want them to be too sunken. The panels are secured by screws with a small flange at their bottom, which kind of sucks because they stick out a bit and you don't want to move your feet over them. I just covered them off with tape, but there might be better options.
In terms of maintenance: after I got the sensitivity the way I wanted, I barely needed to do any. Maybe adding a bit more tape after a few months when a panel got a little too sensitive (activating when I stomped on the parts beside the panel). It is a metal pad, so you do need to be careful about rust.
At present, I'm really happy with them. I get comparable or better results with them than in the arcade, though I haven't been in the arcade this past year for obvious reasons. Quite often I've been left wondering "wait, how did I hit that? I could have sworn I missed that note". Bracketing is also quite easy, although I don't need it much at my level of play.
They are _much_ better than my old Mayflash & JustDDR 4-panel pads, which creak, slide around and have small metal sensors in the center that can experience hairline fractures and need soldering to fix them. I'd probably would get 4-panel replacements from Dancefit if shipping wasn't so ridiculously expensive ... and if I didn't want learn how to make my own once this Rona business is over :)
"you can probably go find one in a dumpster for free" the way i just CACKLED.
I see my Baila Tech review vid made it in here. I'm going to update the description there too, but another owner of the pad who also owned an l-tek got in contact with me, and he reported his scores were much higher on l-teks than Bailas.
We both played a particular song and got 95.x% on it on our Baila pads, and on the same setup with an L-tek, he got 99.36.
He opened the USB converter of the Baila pad, and revealed the PCB was seemingly some sort of USB controller with wires soldered to it, as opposed to something like an Arduino.
He replaced the PCB with an Arduino and is now getting 99.x% scores on charts he was previously getting 94-95% on, which indicates Baila Tech's PCBs have some sort of polling-rate deficiency. Baila Tech's default PCB incurs higher mean timing error values.
On top of the inconveniences mentioned in my video, this pretty much confirms that Baila tech cannot be recommended right now. Buyers should not have to go through the trouble of replacing the PCB.
If you can get a Baila for a good price used as I did, and you have time to put in work to fix the issues that may occur, go for it. I play casually, don't care enough about the timing issue to replace the PCB with an Arduino, and I've gotten used to my pad. I play up to ITG 12s on it and it works *okay*, but it is definitely a project pad and I spent a lot of time trying different mods to make it to work properly.
If you're looking for a pad to buy new and are paying the full price, stay away from Baila.
Very well-made video. I was curious about Baila-Tech as well and wondered if I was just overlooking any reviews of it. You kind of reignited my desire to make a travel pad.
Thanks for this, I've been peripherally watching your progress over the past few years with your machine / streaming setup / diversity of content and absolutely love what you're putting out there. Once it started hitting peak leg-cam and "where else can I put a bar", I was sold for life. Keep it up!
I've been slowly chipping away at my basement arcade project for years but haven't made 1/10th the progress you have, cheers!
"Congratulations! You made it through 25 minutes of Dominick's opinions. No doubt I've made some mistakes, left stuff out, or had some bad takes. Feel free to just fuck my shit up in the comments." 💛
Thanks so much for this video! The time and effort you put in to make it is appreciated. It's a very helpful summary resource, and I'll definitely link people to it in the future.
Thank you so much for making this video. This is exactly the breakdown I needed to make a decision on whether to buy or make a controller.
"You can probably go find one in the dumpster right now for free :v" Best comment ever XD
You got insight. I hope the community in Australia will see this.
Theres a community in Aus? Hook me up.
This helped me a lot. There is so much misinformation around DDR pads, and your info regarding sensors used in each DDR pad really made me desire to either mod an old pad or build my own.
Never even heard of the Stamina playstyle before, seems like a super passionate group of DDR fans!
Awesome! Building your own pad has never been easier.
Grief and Malice during the ITG Cab segment was perfect lmao. Really informational video but also really entertaining! Will be a great resource to link people to :)
incredibly detailed, and informative. Thank you for this!
I have the dancefit pad for DDR (they also make it 5 pannels) and it is great. It works with 2 metal sheets sensor, something more or less l-tek like but I recently modded it to FSR.
oi kkkk, eu sou lá do sul do brasil, onde fazem os pads da dancefit, e na minha cidade tem um arcade/bar onde eles tinham uma maquina de PIU (Pump It Up), dps de muitos anos apanhando um dos pads quebrou... Os donos do arcade tavam pouco se fudendo e por eles eles só metiam uma fita crepe aleatória, mas como n tinha jeito - e eles n qriam procurar conserto - eles trocaram o pad por um da dancefit usando um leve mod. e meu deus, parece O MESMO DE ANTES, É SÉRIO É MT BEM FEITO // hi lmao, im from the south of brazil, where they make the dancefit pads, and in my city there's a bar/arcade where they got a PIU (Pump It Up) machine, after years and years of abuse, the pad broke... the place owners would'nt give a f*ck and if it was'nt serious enough they would have just put some random scotch tape, but bc there had no way - and they did not want the dificulty of finding fixing - they used some modding to change the original pad to a dancefit pad. And omg, IT FEELS JUST LIKE THE ORIGINAL, IM NOT KIDDING ITS RLLY GOOD
Great video, man. Definitely gonna be linking this a lot.
amazing video that covers a lot of questions i had about different dance pads, but in a cleanly put together, organized, and thorough way. :) trying to read through and search for stuff on my own with my adhd hell brain has been a mess, so this is a great resource and is very accessible + helpful. im pretty late to the online ddr community and pad DIY, so this broad covering of options etc was so incredibly wonderful to see in 2020. tysm !! :D
ive been using a soft mat on plywood for 2 years now and i decided to try stamina for the first time and it is hard but im still playin it
Thinking of making that mod. Seems like it stands the test of time?
If get really interested i'll just buy s proper pad then.
@@ApeBlin I'm a pretty casual player but the improvement is substantial imo.
L-tek 2 now had 1khz and 32mb, and fsr installment is much easier and they have a wireless option now, and sell their bus and sensor seperately w custom prints. Take from it what you want
Cool video. I bought a jcab DDR extreme cab back at the start of covid and it’s the best thing I’ve ever bought lol.
@Tom Wilson are you going to start making some yt vids of you playing on your Cab?
Not all Legacy Hard Pads are alike. There's a reason Cobalt Flux resell for the same price they were originally sold at. Also they last damn near forever with barely any maintenance. CF are still better than any other pad in that price range.
To that end, the blue shark seems like a very different pad
For anyone who can't wait to get the smx pad or has failed everytime I reserved a pad and monitor bundle but of course it'll cost more but it's worth it
I appreciated Igorrr's Humous intro song part during the start of the LTEK overview.
I've had or had experience with a few of the ones mentioned here. Feel free to reply to this comment thread if you have questions on stuff I mentioned (or even didn't mention) and I'll try to reply promptly. (oh wow this was a wall of text. enjoy, or just scroll past IDC)
I had some softpads when I started playing and a foam pad I found new in box years later. The softpads were definitely low tier, but I got good use out of them. I taped them tightly across some plywood and that made them a bit more sensitive but also stopped them from bunching up or scooting around. The crinkly Konami ones are great, the no-names were usually awful (I think I had some Naki ones that quickly went to shit), the Mad Catz Beat Pad Pros were almost as good as Konami's but one died after about a year of nearly daily play even with the plywood mod.
I didn't see foam pads mentioned here. They're mostly constructed like a softpad but have a dense foam insert. The "soft pad" part has a zipper to insert/remove the insert and can fold up, and the dense foam comes apart like a jigsaw puzzle, so if you can't store it intact as a whole pad you can pack it back into its box which wasn't too terribly big. I had a Red Octane Ignition 3.0, which had some nice features like native support for PC (USB)/OG Xbox/PS2/GCN/Wii, large sensor areas under the arrows, and what I liked best, some stiff material under each arrow which I felt improved sensor sensitivity and also let you feel where you were on the pad. A friend of mine mashed through the SP 18 of Elemental Creation on it before, using a couch as a bar, so I guess there's potential. I only had a few tens of hours of use on it before I gave it to a buddy of mine, so I can't speak to their longevity. If you can find an Ignition in good shape and it's cheap enough to your liking, I can definitely recommend it.
Oh and one thing to note, unless you do some modding to cover the pad with some durable material, you cannot use shoes to play on a softpad or foam pad.
(Continued...)
I've briefly played on TX Series pads (the first standalone picture in legacy pads is an example) and my biggest complaint is that the arrow panels are super thin, and while they're meant to sink downwards as you compress foam under them, they bend under your weight too and they feel really crappy. I've seen arrows on these broken frequently. The bars on them are flimsy too.
I also have played on a Red Octane Afterburner which is like an improved TX pad, which had thicker arrows, and better metal contact sensors, and I remember it feeling okay and the arrow panels not flexing. My friend who owned the Afterburner is a much more skilled dance gamer than I am, and he liked his. I feel like that, like the Ignition, they also had a versatile control box, but don't quote me on that.
Some random Cobalt Flux musings... I owned one for a few months that I played on a few times a week, then when I moved it to an apartment on the second floor I used it for about 15 guilt-riddled minutes and got rid of it afterwards. One important thing is that the panels are attached by wood screws that just screw into the MDF base. Over time, opening the panels up repeatedly will wear out the holes, then you'll need to repair them (wood glue and sawdust, etc, or possibly look into threaded insults or T Nuts). It's also surprisingly heavy due to the use of MDF, but it does hold itself in place very well on the floor. IIRC there's a famous video of a car driving over one and it surviving fine, so other than the screw issue they must be pretty durable. The metal contacts sometimes become undersensitive from crud building up so you'll need to remove them and wipe the surfaces with alcohol or other cleaner. BTW I never did the penny mod on mine, can't comment on it. All 9 panels can be made active by removing an insert in them, so if you really want to play stuff like PIU (albeit with incorrect panel sizes for the corners) or Stepping Selection (2 columns of 3) or even Technomotion (somehow??) then it's possible to use them for stuff like this. Also, owing to how ubiquitous these are, a friend gave me his a few years ago, he just had it lying around collecting dust. I will 100% use this as a Stepping Selection pad!
Blueshark pads use 2 arcade sensors per panel, not metal contacts, though IIRC they just get mashed on by the arrow on top (...maybe there was a little bracket?). However the construction is the typical cheap wood and crappy sheet metal cladding with foam to push the arrow back up like you'd find in a TX series and similar. Arrow panels are plexiglass I think, and IIRC they're a bit thicker than an arcade arrow, but are known to break. I owned one briefly and actually never used it since it needed a little work (unrelated to the build quality) and I ended up buying a DDR cab before I worked on it. BTW I am told that the bars for them are flimsy and wobble a lot.
I helped work on A-Kon's game room's Ion Pad Pros before, they also use arcade sensors instead of metal contacts, and have no bracket, but there is some little piece of metal on the underside of the arrow panels that helps focus your force on the sensor (dunno how well it works). They are even more crappily constructed than the Blueshark, with wood pieces that didn't fit all that well together and typical crappy sheet metal. I don't remember if they had foam inside or solely used the sensors to push the arrow back up. The arrow panels are wood with sheet metal on top. It's super heavy and rather loud when people play on it. Maintenance is bad - the wiring from the sensors goes through a hole and then into the bottom compartment which is inaccessible since the bottom wood panel is stapled/nailed on! There was a wiring fault in one of these pads and I had to veto repairing it since I did not have the time to rip the bottom panel off and reattach it.
I played one song on an earlier gen SMX pad with the holes in the non-arrow panels, and didn't really develop an impression on how it plays. It didn't drop anything though so sensitivity was fine in my 2 min with it. Construction is very good and it looks really cool. I didn't try the bar.
I've got a Korean DDR cab (CRT cab not a white cab). It has 400K+ credits on the counter. The pads are still in great condition, with the worst of it being one bar needing to be welded. Even after their long life in the arcade, my cat has puked into them multiple times, I've had around 10 people on the pads simultaneously at times (such as for using it as a platform to watch an expert IIDX player over their shoulder ;)), people have played on it in heels or in really dirty shoes, and it Just. Keeps. Going. I replaced my arcade sensors last year-ish with new arcade sensors (from ASP) before FSRs were well known (to me), and even with these brand new parts it has taken occasional maintenance to address an over or undersensitive sensor as things break in (the sensors and the modding material), but it's not something that needs addressing constantly if you start from a good baseline of modding. I could have tried tweaking the existing sensors further rather than buying new; about half of them were stuck on or off which you can try to fix by slicing them open and doing some things, but I just wanted a fresh start. My pads are not modded for Stamina, however, so you will likely need to address the modding more often to get those feather touch up arrows working perfectly. For the cab itself, I was lucky and the crappy Korean JAMMA connector was replaced with a better one, by a competent repairperson before the cab's previous owner bought it. The shitty Hong Eun CRT died, but it's such a crap monitor, it's not worth fixing when they die anyway. I have a replacement RGB CRT monitor in it that I love. If you need a cheap RGB monitor, look into RGB modding TVs and then track down a 29" CRT TV if you feel up to it (it's not hard). I might also add that I love the iconic look of the pink and blue arrows and artwork on the pad decals. People love seeing my cab when they come over. Almost every time I play I promise myself to only play for a certain time limit and then blow way past it. Zero regrets.
fwiw, i bought a blueshark in 2006 brand new and have only had to change out about half the sensors once - it uses arcade sensors and isn't a simple contact deal like other hard pads. i haven't used it in a while but it still works amazingly and has held together well. for a long time i was playing ~13s on it almost every day. if you can find one of these at a good price (sadly unlikely) it's a no-brainer. they're in a league all their own without a doubt. cobalt fluxes are also pretty good, but i really don't like their overall feel and form factor. really solid video otherwise!
Blueshark pad from MyMyBox before they discontinued them are the Holy Grail. The only way they would get better is if you bought pump it up sensors and replaced the head connectors with DDR. Basically it's pump sensors (Way more sensitive and responsive that DDR Sensors) but you need to know wiring and more on that sort of thing. Bluesharks are insane and I would pay $700 for one if any still existed for sale.
I'm not a high-level player (yet; working on stamina 14s) but my PDP has worked well for the 5 years I've owned it. I bought it second-hand for cheap and it came with inserts to make the top completely flat, as opposed to the 0.5cm recess that (I think) comes standard due to the velcro panel lining. These are necessary, as the cheap, thin acrylic top covering will stress and probably crack over time otherwise. The USB controller is good but has to be protected, since it's literally just wires coming from the top of the pad into a tiny plastic box. Build quality is the major complaint with these, but if you take a little bit of time to DIY a solid base and a heavy steel bar, it performs quite well with Decents and Way-offs turned off. The wires for each panel run under the Velcro lining, so you DO NOT want these to be cut or torn off, and unfortunately it's a little difficult to remove the acrylic top without damaging the Velcro, so the lifespan of this pad kinda depends on how many times you fuck with it.
I doubt that it would be good for stamina play in the long term as the sensitivity is pretty fixed, but I'm able to get consistent scores and no stuck/mis/double fires, which is pretty much the bare minimum requirements for a good pad anyway. I'm not sure I can recommend buying them new because PDP has a bit of a track record, but if you get one in good shape, it can be a quality intermediate level pad with some work.
My guide for building a base+bar setup (excuse the formatting):
docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSfp7vPnKMDZb9Z1wjl7L5tOIbpQXqs_uLa_u7mWNlSxMMCtVlmXGOCJ41LPsVMBs-jz5GWBgnrziOZ/pub
Since the video didn't have a review on the DanceFit pads, I'll write up a short one about my experience with both DDR and PIU pads that I've owned in the past:
*Availability:* A+ for people in South America, their website is 100% automated and will get you a brand new pad in a matter of weeks. C is reasonable for everyone else since shipping costs really doesn't make the product viable for its price.
*Setup/Maintenance:* A, the pads have a built in USB board so everything is hassle free, it can run at 1khz if forced and I have many PFCs and FECs from using it. Maintenance is simple, requiring you to only clean the contact plates from black spots and any dust. The owner will also always assist you on issues, even if you bought the product many years ago. There are still pads working flawlessly to this day that were made nearly 7 years ago, including a Pump pad which I've owned earlier this year and passed onto a friend.
*Performance:* B+ overall. I've climbed from low DDR levels (childhood skills) to ITG 13s and DDR 18s without having to mod the pad. I've been able to stage pass level 22s from Pump as well. Excellent for DDR, Pump, FA and low level stamina with shoes. I haven't seen anyone doing high level stamina on it and would honestly not recommend judging from the overall feel.
*Sensor:* Large steel plates that covers the entire arrow panel, easily modifiable by sandwiching a layer of EVA foam (highly recommended!). Sensitivity gets really good and you are able to trigger it from everywhere.
*Bar:* Extremely solid and with the perfect height! If it weren't for the thinness, I'd dare to say it's comparable to arcades bars in sturdiness and materials used.
*Lights:* None at all, I've seen prototypes but they end up looking hideous.
*Upgradability:* Enough room for FSR, velostat and possibly arcade sensors from Aliexpress. Wiring is very well done so controller board replacements are easy. If you want to, you can disassemble the entire pad as well.
In all honesty, I genuinely wish I still had both of my previous pads after I moved to Canada, since their reliability and performance blows other legacy pads out of the water. I've also worked with DanceFit in the past to sell a few products, and it's fine to consider me biased towards their pads, but there are a few videos on my channel that demonstrates both DDR and PIU pads if you're curious.
Can’t find the videos in your channel.
Great video. My only complaint/criticism is I would have put the cobaltflux and blueshark a tier above the pads such as DDRgame because they are definitely way way better.
thank you so much for making this detailed video, I learned alot about ddr pads option. After almost 20 years Id like to get back in the game and your video helps alot in educating myself on current pad market
In colombia have a guy who make a very quality ddr pad similar like dance cabinet. Simply amazing look so nice and i can play with shoes
infooooooooooooooooo
Imagine lumping Cobalt Flux in along with "DDR Game" pads...
and good luck getting one for under $300
I use Precision Dance Pad and is still alive even when I play hard & freestyle. I purchased it many years ago and it still works (and I hope that they keep working), I wish they don't fail because I live far from the US and shipping costs me dearly.
About StepmaniaX, still sold out. 😕
The cost of an L-Tek pad to New Zealand goes up to over $800 NZD including shipping... It's high, but I guess people probably spend the same on gym equipment so when putting it into perspective like that it doesn't seem so horrible.
On the plus side, getting a computer to install StepMania (or your fork of choice) on is the cheap part - any second hand refurbished PC will run it. Buy yourself an old HP or Dell mini PC and go to town. I run it on an old Wyse 5060 thin client that I found for $40, and with the magic of nerd shit I was able to set it up as a dedicated StepMania machine running ITGMania.
I'd say at the very least, start yourself off with a cheap second hand PC and a soft mat to see if this is something you'll want to get into and then go from there.
Extremely useful video! Thank you for making this
Where can I find the player at 7:21?
I think Dom say niddys??? But don't know the channel name and ita my first time hearing of them
maybe 2020 was the good time to create this video since there's a list of pads compared to over the years. thanks for explaining because I just give up explaining to other players 😅
Re:Flex dance pads are now open to the public, with the full designs available to start building your pads. The project is very much alive and active. The discord/github links are on the Re:Flex pads site right now.
The main roadblock for ordering the aluminum parts is the fact that the parts were originally sourced from a uk seller so guys across the pond are currently having some issues using the reference from the uk aluminum seller to then get identical parts from more local sellers. The PCBs can be ordered from Jlcpcb or any other made to order PCB manufacturer. 3d printed parts could be an issue, but the parts look like something even the cheapest printers and some sandpaper could handle, but most people are probably gonna opt for a service or a middleman for Re:Flex itself to provide those. Software is more/less done as far as I can tell.
Be cool if we had a middleman to order a full kit of the aluminum parts, PCBs, and 3d printed parts from so as many people as possible can get a good hard pad up and running as fast as possible. Acrylic is really easy to source, just the other 3 are issues for most people.
A proper build log would be cool too, I'm gonna be researching the parts and the best sellers for my area (midwest) and try to document as much as I can if the project is feasible for me.
Would you happen to know where to find the bypass for the changing calibration in StepmaniaX Stage? I've tried searching around but I'm a bit new to the community and not sure where to look heavily.
My l-tek EX Pro 2 pads did not hold up. I have ghost hits when my foot leaves a panel on all 4 panels after about 4 months of use. Tried cleaning per manufacturer's instruction and no good. I don't do anything super crazy. A handful of pop songs that I may hit level 10 on but nothing insane.
5:50 “you could probably find one in a dumpster for free”
Funny enough, i saw one out in the wild several weeks ago lmao, destroyed and really nasty.
working on my own home-made pads to potentially commercialize... there's such a gap in the market for this kind of thing I find it insane
Great round up of information here. Thanks for putting this out and helping other users.
I really appreciate the info, particularly about the different types of sensors used in a couple of the pads I'd been looking to buy.
40k views! Congrats!!
5:07 “you can find one in the dumbster for free” 🤣🤣🤣🤣
DDR is played only in the middle of the pad now? Huh?
DDRGame pads suck. I remember getting one for Christmas and it immediately broke down after playing Sakura once. Most frustrating present ever.
I had the idea of building myself a FSR based pad like the Re:Flex Dance one you've shown here.. omg, my idea was stolen! but I guess he had the idea before me :D
that will be a fun project!
thanks for the comparison of the pads!
at start I've had the softpads but the ghost-steps were annoying. then got a hard-foam one, replaced foam with wood, made a semi-hardpad which worked about 3 years!
been playing DDR/ITG for a few years in some major cities for fun.. now it's time to build a real one myself!
lmao that's me on the p2 side at 17:51
**DID NOT EXPECT TO HEAR $UICIDEBOY$ IN THIS VIDEO
soundcloudstreamz for groovestats 2020 🇺🇸
@@domitg should we start a change.org petition
@@domitg uhhhh soundcloudstreamz?
This was a great roundup! I just recently rediscovered my love for DDR and want to get my hands on one of the SMX pads, but I know that's going to be a challenge. So I'm looking for something "decent" to hold me over until I can get one. Probably one of the DDR Energy metal pads. I know they have mixed reviews, but it seems like anything that's widely accepted as good is nearly impossible to find, and those are probably the best pad I can just go out and order easily without having to go on an epic journey. And if I'm already trying to get the SMX, I don't think I want to have to work hard just to find an "interim" pad.
Nice video. I'm gonna go with a plastic one as I'm just trying to get some exercise lol.
best video on pads i've ever seen thank you for making this. I've had an l tek and gotta say they suck ass, got one in may 2019 when they started becoming popular and the sensors in it hit the shitter after 4 months. I now use homemade velostat sensors in which are also kinda a pain but there much better then the L teks metal contacts.
Any updates to this after 2 years? If I want a heavy duty metal dance pad that works (I'm not a pro player just want to play with friends and family) are any of the metal pads still around?
Not interested in buying a pad anytime soon but this is a good video
Thanks for saying that. But this video makes me cringe now. I need to remake it.
@@domitg Yes plz make the re released enhanced version!
@domitg I appreciate this video. Nothing has changed really except that availability of some of these options are even worse (unfortunately). Some either never came into existence or fizzled out. It’s a shame because it’s a big barrier to entry.
I’m probably gonna pull the trigger on the Ltek to replace my current Wii soft pad. Thanks again for the info
My Ddr game pad is pretty good! I foiled modded mine and put cardboard under the arrows to ride the arrows up.
Im in an condo. The building is concrete but I still want to try out a 'cheaper' pad before I get a hard pad. This would be for PC ITGmania. Manybe any suggestions for a foam insert pad
Today I ordered my DDR arcade pad, im going nuts haha
13:32 Laughs in already being brazilian
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Ayy, you used my penny mod video. I really need to make a better one sometime.
Strangely enough, I find that those black marks are actually just...I dunno what it is, but I can wipe them off with a paper towel. I've had my L-TEK penny modded for 8 months now and it's not showing any signs of wear; haven't even opened up the panels in like 3 months now because it hasn't had any issues.
Really awesome video man
what about 2024. Im a heavy guy that just want to work up to moderate.
imagine having built a 300eur wooden pad that works so great ;)
Well said thank you
Why can't someone just find the engineers who made the original DDR/ITG pads and see if they are willing to make pads of that quality for the community market or reverse engineer the DDR or ITG Pads and find a way to get them produce with newer materials?
God cursed me with hobbies that require a minimum investment of $400.
What are your other expensive hobbies? :)
L Tek has released new pads that apparently fix the polling issues - any thoughts on those?
Excellent video
Wow there really aren’t a lot of good options :(
On the DDR SOLO cab pads, for the extremely handy, isn't there a (fairly old) reddit thread that discussed modding these pads to use 4 sensors/arrow?
Any thoughts on the red octane ignition pad? Its sort of a middle ground between soft pad and Legacy Hard Pad with a foam insert. Hard to get now but its at least a better option than the Soft Pad for a beginner I think.
Just found this video.. very informative pad information. Still doing homework on a great home pad . I wonder if Lara mentioned in the video was the same Lara that was on an ep of shipping wars involving a dance cab. If soo small.. world I met her a few times back in the day from playing ddr n pui
bro I can't get over the fact that you played a goreshit song at the end 💀
I am still waiting for my impulse updates haha
I was using a softpad for so many years which I got from Gamestop over a decade ago before I took a break. Am I insane?
Love my blueshark ^_^
spbre el tiempo de respuesta al apretar un boton se peude mejorar?
I BOUGHT THAT PAD LMAO it performs really well for my level of play 14:15, also great video!
What is your level btw? I was thinking of buying this pad and I'm around Ddr 15-16 range
@@renpharos unfortunately I'm only like a 12 to a 13 on that scale, so anything higher I'm not familiar with, but if it's for any reassurance it's the best pad I've tried so far, better than my local arcade and a red octane hard pad
@@renpharos I will be making a video review about it, just need to use it for a bit longer
Do you have a link to where to buy these pads?
Make sure to add a note to the order on which pad you'd like
the yoda clip made me laugh out loud. great video!
Very informative, I'm considering an SMX pad!
Good luck! Make sure you're ready to buy it. I heard some folks pre-enter their payment information in their online store so they can do it faster.
Thanks Dom! I'll be ready with my fingers crossed. I'm looking forward to more of these type of videos. I'm surprised there's so little content about dance games.
Thanks for posting this review. Leaning heavily on picking up a Pump it Up L-TEKish (maty-t) pad and be motivated to finally build a set up. Then if it works out, I will go from there whether to invest in AC pads, DDR Pads, etc as price and availability is still an issue... mostly availability.
i still have a soft pad, been wanting to upgrade but am not sure what to go with. Thank you for this video. i've been using the soft pad with the gaming controller as one of the arrows stopped working at one point
Guys where is the best place to get a dance pad in the UK? For a mac/ pc :) any help would be great :)
I'd just like to echo what people have been saying about the LTEK: Quite good pad, shipping took a while, bar is worthless.
When did you get your bar? Apparently they've changed the design of them to make them more sturdy
@@beckystanley5452 last may
@@beckystanley5452 do you own the bar? I'm looking for more information on this because they claimed that they fixed them nowadays but nobody is talking about it for some reason
7:49 Oh hey, my review is there! (I'm wrsw)
pls make a 20 minute in-depth review of soft pad with video and quantitative analysis. Not to help anyone decide to buy one, but for memes. Preferrably pay less than $5 for that soft pad.
This is the first time I've ever seen anyone use a DDR pad like that, and it took me a second to comprehend and also stop laughing.
😆
Nice video Dom!!
Im having problems trying to get my hands on a legacy hard pad for ps2 everywhere I check its sold out or given a crazy price.
Yeah it can be tough. Doesn't hurt to ask in the buy/sell/trade group. If you do find a cobalt flux, the company is actually still selling control boxes for PS2 cobaltflux.org/collections/cobalt-flux-control-boxes
cheers mate thanks for that. I'll go see if I can snag the DDR cab from the local arcade that's on their last legs. no one come to my neighbourhood! :P
I know a local arcade that had their itg dedicab CRT shit out and they had to gut it out completely and replace it with a tacked on modern smart TV lmfao