Any OmegaGX/ITGX owners? (warning, long post)

[otter87]

Although not strictly sm related, this is where I'm gonna look for advice. I'm sure some of you guys know about the pads, those who don't need not apply, because I'm looking for customer testimonials.

These seem to be the only option for quality homepads now. I've been contemplating buying one off and on now for a good 6 months. In another thread I kinda bashed on the pads. Although I may have been overly-judgmental, I have a few things I'm concerned about which have made me hold off on purchasing as long as I have:

1. Pads supposedly work great when they work. But I've seen multiple people talk about having issues that have caused the to send the pads back. Albeit the guy making these seems to be very good with replacing faulty pads, $300-350 is alot to blow on something which may or may not work.

2. The guy making these pads claims to have sold at least 400 pads. He first introduced them (from what I saw) at the end of 2012 on the sm forums. I swear I've seen him say in some of his posts that it takes a number or weeks to complete 1 pad. That discrepancy is extremely off-putting to me and I would love to be proved wrong; That he has actually sold that high a number.

3. All reviews of the pads I've seen (aside from one or two) have been from people who were not grounded in the forum they were posting on. Most had only a handful of posts, and many I had seen had only joined simply to talk about the pads. I can't understand how people who are big enough into DDR/ITG/SM to blow 3 bills on a pad, as well as learn that the pad exists in the first place, are not more active in the online community.

So basically, I'm looking for someone reliable who owns one of these pads to give me their opinions on whether or not I should purchase one and any in-depth reviews. Income tax time is here.

[EtienneSM]

I have one, but I've only tried it out on carpet (haven't gotten a piece of wood to put the pad on yet, but it's pretty good from my experience.

[Wafles]

My Omega ITGX literally just came yesterday.

Initial impressions are that it is pretty damn awesome. I really am bad without a bar though so until I build a bar I'm not gonna be able to test it as much as i want

[otter87]

Originally Posted by Wafles

My Omega ITGX literally just came yesterday.

Initial impressions are that it is pretty damn awesome. I really am bad without a bar though so until I build a bar I'm not gonna be able to test it as much as i want

How long did it take to receive your pad after you placed the order? Also, would you please come back here with a review after using it for a while. All too often I've seen people say they would write one up but never follow through.

[Wafles]

Originally Posted by otter87

How long did it take to receive your pad after you placed the order? Also, would you please come back here with a review after using it for a while. All too often I've seen people say they would write one up but never follow through.

It took 8 total days for me to receive pad. Ordered on a Wednesday night and it arrived the next Thursday. I will make a full review soon but my initial impressions are that the pad is really solid. It might be a bit overpriced for some but for me my time was worth more than it would have taken to build the whole thing from scratch.


I have played about 2 hours on it so far and the sensors are very sensitive. When i get tired it's easy to accidentally press arrows because my feet get heavy. I am not used to playing without a bar though.

I will post an in depth review, hopefully with pictures or maybe a video in a couple weeks. I am building a platform and bar next weekend for it so it won't be until I have that set up for sure.

[otter87]

Do you play flat footed or on your toes? I guess they are designed more for playing on your toes because that's how Hellrazor/PrayerWarrior/the guy making them plays. He's said there may be a slight misfire issue for people who play flat footed (as I do) but I think he's also said that this isn't so much an issue now as he's redesigned the pads multiple times. Did you notice misfires only when you were keeping your feet really low or did it happen occasionally outside of that as well?

Also, hhow was the pad aesthetically? I know that's been a main complaint and tbh I don't think the justification that the pads are designed with functionality in mind is an acceptable excuse. Some people's arrows have been significantly off center but this is also something he's said he's going to fix with new printers. Seeing as you probably have one of the newer pads, was wondering how everything looks?

Anyway, yeah, I'll definitely be looking forward to your review. If you make a new thread for it please link to it in here.

[Wafles]

I play toe only. The sensors are very sensitive and I would not be surprised if flat footed takes some getting used to. That being said I was able to accurately use my toe and heels to hit arrows without much trouble when I tested it out. I'm really not used to playing this way so I couldn't do it during songs too much.

Pad looks great. I put together an album of pictures for you! http://imgur.com/a/iRKts

The overlay isn't exactly centered, its off by about a quarter of an inch horrizontally. Vertically its near perfect. This doesn't affect the play at all. Seeing as these are hand crafted I can forgive the overlay graphic being off by such a small amount. You have to remember that the graphics aren't printed directly on the lexan but rather applied later which could result in some faults. All things considered here there are no noticeable faults in the print, no bubbles or cuts, it looks very nice.

Also as seen in the pictures I found something around my house to work as a make shift bar which actually worked quite well so today was my first full session using the pad. The sensors are absolutely flawless. Far better than the pads at the arcade I used to play on. Once again I have an ITGX because I wanted to replicate the arcade feel as much as possible without spending thousands or building my own. My accuracy is far better on this pad then it ever was on the arcade. I'm actually able to FA some easier songs quite well on this pad I think! Broke 95% on a few 8's today (I'm really bad ).

The pad actually handles sweat better than the arcade counterparts too. Lexan doesn't seem to get as slippery as plexiglass like the arcade variety used. I used to have a big problem with this at the arcade, and actually the metal parts of the arcade pads were the worst, though naturally I didn't touch those as often.

So yeah, right now I'm willing to argue that this is the best pad I have ever used. My experience has been mostly with arcade pads, mostly older pads and on a rare occasion I got to play on a newer ITG machine near Milwaukee. I have also used crappier versions of home soft pads which obviously don't even come close to the quality of this beast.


I am still planning on doing a video review after I build my platform but I'm not sure what new things I'll uncover with the pad in a couple weeks when I have time to make that.

[otter87]

Really appreciate it man. That whole hyper-sensitivity thing regarding playing flat-footed is the most concerning thing to me. That's how I've always played and tbh I worry switching to playing on my toes would cause foot problems (for me at least, I've had issues with plantar fascistic in the past). Also, with the ITGX, do you play in shoes? And if not, do you imagine the boards in the pad would still be noticeable enough if wearing some to justify spending the extra $50?

Anyway, thanks for all the info. I'm guessing I won't have income taxes til late Feb so feel free to post any updates like you said if you come across anything else worth mention and when the base is completed.

[Wafles]

I play with shoes because it helps my accuracy. Playing without shoes works fine too.

I'm guessing the version without the risers would possibly be better for flat footed play. That's pure conjecture on my end though.

[Wafles]

Built stand/bar for it, pretty excited to give this thing a whirl now.
ignore messy room pls

[otter87]

Looks good. What did you use for the base? I know people were saying there were sturdier, reasonably priced substitutes for plywood. Could you test out a few songs flat-footed and let me know how that works out?

[Wafles]

You definitely don't want to use just plywood. It's really shitty and really rough.

I used two layers, one layer of MFD (Medium Density Fibreboard - basically the stuff cheap-ish furniture is made out of) and one layer of OSB (Oriented Strand Board, basically shitty plywood). MFD was 3/4" and OSB was 1/2" giving a total base width of 1 1/4". I used a staple gun and some high strength wood glue to bond them together. MFD is basically really heavy and really smooth but it doesn't necesarily make for a good base to attach the railing to, but that combined with the OSB gives me a bit more strength (the bar basically is attached via some T-nuts and screws that go through the whole base this way).

Obviously you can sub OSB for some higher quality plywood, I just happened to have a half sheet of OSB laying around that I could use for this so I saved $10 lol...

I'll try flat footed but I don't even know how to play flat-footed lol, I'll make another post tomorrow after I play or something.

[Wafles]

ok after a monster 2.5 hour session (i'm so tired rofl) I have some further insight

I tried playing flat footed a little bit but I'm so bad at flat foot that I just couldn't really make it work. That being said I was able to successfully activate the other switches pretty easily using my heels but my accuracy is so shit with that style that I can't really comment on it that much. I still think that you might want to consider an Omega ITG rather than an ITGX for flat footed play

Its also worth noting that I weigh a whopping 230 lb and that bar barely wiggles under even my full body weight, so I may very well put together a tutorial for how to build a platform if people have some interest.

[Mollocephalus]

that bar feels like it's wider than the normal DDR size.

if i remember correctly, the bar is 92x42 cm, and is around 10-12 cm far from the back arrow.

[Wafles]

its slightly wider (by a couple inches)
measurements I found said the bar was this

The top of the bar rises 36" from the top of the pad and the legs on the bar are 17.5" apart, measured outside edge to outside edge. The pipe is 2" diameter steel with approximately a 3/4" pad on the top part of the bar. The 36" measurement was without the pad.

I used 1" galvanized steel pipe (internal diameter, its closer to an inch and a half on the outside I guess). 1x 18" for the horrizontal part and 2x 36" for the vertical part. That being said it feels great to play on. The extra couple inches in width don't really matter to me.

[otter87]

Yeah I'm sure flat-footed would be able to hit arrows from corners without much effort. I was actually concerned that maybe playing that way would cause misfires because of how ultra-sensitive these pads are let's say I go to hit the up arrow but my heel touches left or right arrow too so it registers that instead.

I think I'm just gonna have to take a leap of faith and buy the pad and see for myself. I need to talk to the guy making them first tho

[otter87]

So how has the pad been treating you? I gave in and ordered one, but they are taking some time to get it out to me. Ordered it on the 8th and after not hearing anything besides an order confirmation I sent an email. After some correspondence I was told it would ship Friday (yesterday) and I would get a confirmation email, but I still haven't received an email.

Anyway, I'm sure it'll come in sooner or later, but I'm still wondering how it's all gonna work out.