Pads good for use with Stepmania

[kirusaki]

so basically i dont have the money to buy an arcade cab as much as i want to and im wondering what people think are generally the best USB based pads for stepmania

[dougshell]

Hands down, i would have to say that the OMEGA GX is best best pad that IS or EVER WAS on the market aside from arcade pads. The creator of these pads is a super humble guy and builds KICKASS pads. Yes they are "Home Made" but function>form and to be honest, he has dumped a lot of money into his equipment to make them look pretty nice over the last few years.

http://www.precisiondancepads.com/index.php
Below is my amazon review. Keep in mind I had a 1st Gen pad and his product has only improved since then, definitely in the looks department.

This will serve as a truthful, critical, and in-depth review of the OmegaGX by Prayerwarrior.

This review will be broken down into various categories in no particular order or precedence.

CUSTOMER SERVICE:

First and foremost I feel the most important aspect of any business model is to adequately and effectively communicate with customers in a way that both makes them feel valued as well as sought after, PrayerWarrior (who i will now refer to as PW) is a professional and passionate individual. He was willing to answer my many questions and discuss ad nauseum his design implementations, materials used and other various characteristics of the Omega GX (now refereed to as the GX). His promptness in messages (the majority of which were via Facebook, which may or may not be his preferred method of communication) was very impressive as were is obvious dedication and enthusiasm regarding his product. First and foremost PR is a consumer of his product. He owns and plays every day on the ORIGINAL GX. The pad arrived in a Home Depot shipping box with a fair amount of box tape sealing the edges of the box. (the box was laid flat so the tape served as weather proofing as well as security. Shipping took about 4 days and arrived undamaged and ready to play.

PAD BUILD QUALITY:
This is certainly the most impressive aspect of the pad. The pad is constructed from a 35X35 inch piece of 1/4inch thick hardboard attached to a sheet of lexan. This material is optimal for a dance surface as it is highly impact resistant, flexible, and extremely durable with respects to abrasions and wear. A full surface image is under the lexan where the sensors rest sandwiched between the two main surfaces. The border of each pad is attached internally without screws and the pad is completely sealed from moisture and foreign debris entering the pad.
I honestly can not think of a way in which this pad would become damaged unless the user intentionally attempted to damage the pad in some way with either a sharp object or by putting the pad on its side and bending the pad until it snapped. The pad certainly has a homemade quality to it, but i am confident that it will stand up to the rigors of normal play and would experience no degradation from normal wear.

Aesthetics:
This is one aspect where the pad suffers slightly. This is partly a function of cost as well as not having access to a fabrication process for the pad. The images do not entirely line up, and the use of a home printer on what appears to be normal bond copy grade paper. There are instances of banding in the printed image especially in the black none arrow sections. The lexan is sealed around the edges which what appears to be black duct tape, but this only serves to seal the pad and is not the primary method of attachment and structure for the pad. This seal serves to eliminate the possibility of material becoming lodged inside the pad as well as maintaining a moisture barrier. Additionally where the image has been adhered to the lexan surface there are places where inconsistent amounts of spray adhesive was applied then appears to be wiped away. This in NO WAY affects the performance of the pad, and i believe can be fixed by raising the temperature of the adhesive (inside the can) by way of submersion in hot water (bath temp) before application. The overall different in appearance from the source images is best described as being less saturated and a bit inconsistent from the printing process. Again, these aspects are entirely cosmetic and will not have any material effect on game play

*The moment you have all been waiting for*

Performance.

For the sake of full disclosure, while I do play the majority of my songs on EXPERT, I am not an "expert" player. I am slowly AAing every song 9foot and below on ITG and working on my perfect attack (two aspects of my game that have increased since receiving this pad)

AMAZING!
I could simply end the review at this point and it would be entirely accurate, but this would not due the product justice. Some people are use to a raise or even recessed pad design and this pad is neither. The pad surface is entirely flat, but as opposed to a COBALT FLUX pad you can tell at ALL times where you are stepping due to the way the lexan is attached to the hardboard. Due to the full sized 11 inch sensors there are ZERO dead areas on the pad and only about 3.5 lbs of pressure are needed to activate the sensor. Passages where multiple steps occur in a row should pose no difficultly and the player should only be limited by his or her own skill level. I must say that at first the pad took a bit to get used to but the learning curve was almost nonexistent. I initially thought it would take a week to adjust, but within about 30 minutes i was passing songs i had not passed before, and scoring new personal bests. I struggled at first because using a soft pad i noticed that instead of a consistent pad surface there are places of extreme sensitivity and insensitivity. I felt as if it took a bit more to activate the sensors, but i later realized that this was only because i was not now playing with shoes and i was relying on the weight of the shoe rather than my own body weight and pressure to activate the sensors.

While my skill level is in no way representative of this pads ability i would like to however link to PW YouTube channel where you can find various videos featuring the GX as well as a bit of an insight to the style, and character of the creator.