Metal vs "plastic" buttons

I havent been dancing much the last 3 years due to living in the top of an appartment building. Now I get the chance again with my own basement and I have a question.

I currently have a TX6500 which has metal buttons that require some pushing to be done(not touch sensitive). Some time ago I tried arcade machines and the pads dont require almost no force to be pressed and even though I got horrible scored it feelt like it was much better(with practice).

What do you guys feel, is the touch pads better? If yes, can you recommend one of good quality. I guess I will start playing only stepmania(I have xbox with 3 ddr games as well as xbox 360 and ps3/ps4 so compatability with these is a plus)

I haven't been able to try them myself yet, but I think the best you can do short of acquiring pads from a cabinet is to get Omega pads from Precision Dance Pads. They're listed under the "Controllers" section of this site, so just click that menu item up there.
Whenever I see people posting about hard pads, it seems like every other high quality hard pad manufacturer has gone under, so it seems like Precision is the only one actively manufacturing new pads.

ddrgame.com does seem to be selling as well. I guess Ill look into some reviews then. Do you know if it is a big different between the metal pads and the plexiglass? I just connected my old pad and big surprise, windows 8 won't accept it but windows 7 does!

Everybody says ddrgame pads are crap though, so I wouldn't say to get one. I only have CFs from 2007 to play on, so I'm just going off what other people have posted.

The omega does seem to have a good review, reasonable prices as well. Also seem to be very sensitive.

I can vouch for the Omega pads if you don't mind spending the money for them. They're responsive and feel nice. I've had one for a couple years now. I don't use it every day so I don't know how it'll hold up over the years, but it seems solid enough. I had a $60 foam insert pad from DDR Game. It was fine but after a few months, one of the arrows stopped being as responsive. I'm not sure about their more expensive pads, but I haven't heard very good things from others.

Cobalt Flux makes good pads, but it's going to be a chore to find one nearby that's still in good shape these days.

The reason the pads in arcades are touch sensitive is because they don't use a circuit connection like the home pads do, they actually have pressure sensors in each button (three in each actually, just in case one or even two of them fail)

If you have money to throw away, a DDR arcade machine could be purchased for 5k and with proper know-how the dance pad could be retrofitted for USB.

My personal suggestion is to buy one of the metal one, I have had this one for, I don't know, 3 years?
It's important to make sure you're using the correct drivers with it though, if you're using the incorrect drivers the buttons can lag, they especially struggle when you have MotionJoy or DualShock drivers installed.

Furthermore, I would replace the arrows on it with Polycarbonate Sheets, which you can get for pretty cheap here. Just be aware of what dimensions you need them cut to and be prepared to affix the foil to the bottom yourself. You could probably even do this with the pad you already have and it would increase the sensitivity a ton.



There are better pads out there, but I feel like this strikes the perfect price/performance ratio. You can find the pads on e-bay for about $200. But if your current pad is still in good shape I'd suggest just replacing the arrows with poly carbonate.

"The reason the pads in arcades are touch sensitive is because they don't use a circuit connection like the home pads do, they actually have pressure sensors in each button (three in each actually, just in case one or even two of them fail) "
Arcade pads are NOT touch sensitive, they often require stomping to register. They use simple circuits just like home pads, two pieces of metal with foam between them and a wire on each piece of metal, not some pressure sensor but that's fine because pressure sensors wouldn't last long and we don't care about how much pressure is applied anyways. There are several in each arrow so if you step on a different part of the arrow it can still register, I believe four per arrow. It's an old design that requires alot of maintenance and makes most arcade pads terrible to play on, plus replacement parts are costly and the panels can crack because they used acryllic. The only reason they are better than most home pads are because they are heavier duty (thicker acryllic / thicker foam / thicker metal contacts). If you played on one that was sensitive to touch it was modified so that a thin piece of foam separated the two metal pieces that required less pressure to connect.