Dance Dance Revolution Pads

[Tempest]

Here's a question for all you experienced DDR'ers: Which floor pad works the best? If you do a quick scan of eBay you can see a ton of them all by different manufacturers. Anyone have a particular choice?

Tempest

[Kroogah]

Ignition pads are the best. Really doesn't matter what brand name (though Redoctane is the most trusted).

Metal pads....don't bother unless you like stomping on aluminum.

Cheap soft pads are actually not bad if you don't plan on playing that often. Just tape them to the floor. ^_^

[davidbrit2]

As long as you anchor a soft pad to something heavy and sturdy, and cover it with plastic hard wood floor covering, it should work well enough. And just for reference, I've played on MyMyBox pads before, and found it quite pleasant.

[Sylentwulf]

Get the cheap, soft pads, and nail them to a piece of plywood. Not a joke. Use Nails, and Use plywood. I bought the more expensive hard plastic dance pad, and I did NO better than with my $15 pad nailed to a piece of plywood.

[WiseSalesman]

I use MadCatz dance pads, evben though I hate the brand name, and they've been absolutely excellent. I stapled them to pieces of particle board I picked up at my local Home Depot and covered them in hardwood floor covering. I also made a few other modifications, which I might get into if anyone shows interest. In any case, they've been great. I can AA and AAA songs on a failry consistent basis.

[Six Switch]

I have the offical one,but I don't really like it.I want that nice Ignition pad,but it is $100. :(
Hmmmmmmm......plywood :/

[scooterb23]

I have a very generic pad. Whatever TRU sells for $15. It does all right except for one thing...I have size 13 feet, and I can pretty much hit three buttons at once with one foot :/

Are there any pads that are a touch larger than the others??

[kingpong]

Cheap pads are the way to go if you do the plywood mod. My preferred method of late replaces the hardwood floor covering with two layers of the thickest clear vinyl sold at Wal-Mart (if you dare venture into the fabric section). The Wal-Mart vinyl is wide enough that you don't have to overlap and tape two pieces together like you do with the hardwood floor covering, and it is significantly cheaper - $1.something a foot, and you only need 3 feet for one pad. Total cost of the mod should be $10 or so.

The only other thing I would suggest is to put some padding between the pads and the plywood, or else your legs will kill you. Get the most firm foam you can find, as you only it to take the edge off the stomp, and not feel soft. Some camp mats I found at Wal-Mart work well, as do kids Step2 play mats (though those are quite expensive).

FWIW, my current setup is a 2 pad configuration using the above modifications and Mad Catz pads I got for $6 (guess where... yeah, Wal-Mart). I actually use that more than the arcade style metal/wood pad I built.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone tried sandwiching a soft pad between, say two sheets of hard plastic, or a hard rubber pad and a sheet of clear plastic? I'd love to be able to use shoes on my pads, which work great otherwise. I don't have much trouble with the pads moving, but then I haven't played much of the hard stuff yet.

[WiseSalesman]

I don't have much trouble with the pads moving

trust me....you willl

[Dahne]

I haven't been playing DDR much just because, even after putting some of that anti-skid stuff they sell for rugs under it, it still ends up in nicaragua if I try anything that involves lots of jumping around. The plywood thing sounds perfect. Can you really put nails through the pad without hurting anything?

Oh, and I may be being really obtuse here, but why put hardwood floor covering over it?

[anotherfluck]

well, if you put clear plastic on top of it, then you don't run the risk of scrunching the pad up and messing up the sensors, plus you could wear shoes on the pad, and it would feel more like a real pad. I could be wrong though, since I haven't tried it...

[Tempest]

So people actually put vinyl on top of the pad? Wouldn't that mess up the sensors? What's the point in that anyway?

Tempest

[kingpong]

The vinyl basically just provides a thicker, more durable surface to step on. The typical construction of soft pads includes a very thin top layer which is easily torn. It doesn't provide much protection to the flimsy wiring inside from the impact of your foot, and since it is so thin that when you step, the compressing foam in the pad tends to scrunch the whole thing up (this is of course much worse on carpet).

Fixing it to a piece of plywood eliminates the scrunching. Most people use tape around the edges, but I suppose it could be nailed/stapled if you're daring - just make sure you get the very edge of the pad. I find that you don't need to have the pad affixed incredibly solidly to the plywood, as the vinyl layer will also help hold it down. Of course, the plywood will also take care of most of the problem of the pad moving around - if you're on carpet it may still move, but not noticeably during play.

The vinyl layer on top then provides a thick enough top surface to allow you to wear shoes. It also prevents the last little bit of scrunching - the regular top will not lie entirely flat as you play, but the thicker vinyl will stay flat. There's no problems with the sensors, as they're basically just 2 layers of conductors with a perforated insulator layer between them, and stepping on it just presses them together. Very flimsy stuff - more or less metal film sandwiching a plastic film, at least in the ones I've seen torn apart.

The end result is a pad that stays flat, stays in place, and will last months or years when playing with shoes instead of days like a regular pad would. Just add a thin but firm foam layer between the pad and the plywood in order to save your legs.

[kingpong]

Has anyone tried sandwiching a soft pad between, say two sheets of hard plastic, or a hard rubber pad and a sheet of clear plastic?

Based on what I've read about past attempts, if the top layer is too rigid then it won't allow the layers of the soft pad to move enough to make contact. A very thin polycarbonate (like that used in remote control car bodies) would likely work, but it is very expensive - just found a custom order place and a 36 inch square sheet .030 inch thick is $65. The types of clear plastic you find at home improvement stores would be far too thick, I would think.

[JWKobayashi]

I haven't been playing DDR much just because, even after putting some of that anti-skid stuff they sell for rugs under it, it still ends up in nicaragua if I try anything that involves lots of jumping around.



Well, even though I don't play at home very often (almost never), I've had my modded pad for over a year now, and it still works halfway decent when I bring it to a friend's house.

The cheapo soft pads aren't bad at all when you're a beginner. It's when you're starting to need the rapid movements on Maniac/Heavy that the soft pads fail. I'm not sure of the exact placement, but in the forums at http://www.ddrfreak.com have a topic on how to build your own metal pad. If I played home more (psssh who needs Max USA when you can drive an hour and play extreme? :P ) I'd definatly consider this mod.

As Yashiro said, the Ignition (I think it's 2.0?) is probably the best soft pad I've played on. I can actually beat songs like Rythym and Police Maniac on a soft pad, a feat which I never thought would be possible. If you've got $100 and don't feel like building your own hard pad, this is what I would suggest.

However, if you decide to go the cheap pad route, here's what I did. You just need to get one of those computer desk chair mats; the ones with the spiky stuff on the bottom. You just simply take your tape of choice (I used that clear packing tape, but duct should work fine) and tape the pad to the chair mat. It doesn't move, and it's a firm surface for stepping on the arrows. After time, the foam inside the pad (there is foam in there!) might start to bunch up inside the pad itself. If you're comfortable cutting your pad up, you can make slashes in the top layer of plastic in the pad, smooth it out, and retape it down. A friend of mine had done this to his Konami official pads; they worked better than after the initial mod.

There are many options to playing at home; but NOTHING I've played on at home even comes close to the arcade. :(