Use Your Rock Band / Guitar Hero Drum Kit as a Midi Controller!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guilty J
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Guilty J

Guilty J

www.GuiltyJ.com
I did this yesterday with my Guitar Hero drums, its dope! Cheapest midi drum kit you'll find.

I use them with Reason 4. Do all my drum layering, processing etc in the ReDrum, then just knock out the recording on the drums. Practically zero latency.

I did upload a video of me using it on Youtube yesterday but it dissapeared for some reason.

The Guitar Hero drums are velocity sensitive but i havent found a way to use them as such yet, must be a way though.

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http://benjefferies.com/2008/03/18/using-rock-band-drum-kit-as-midi-controller/
 
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do u just plug thm in to usb port or did u hv to do smthing special to set them up to work?
 
that's pretty sick, lol. i'd like to try that one day

i read an article about using the wii remote as a midi controller, it looked very very confusing though.
 
1st up said:
do u just plug thm in to usb port or did u hv to do smthing special to set them up to work?
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They're wireless. You just plug the bluetooth receiver into your USB port and install the software and it converts the data to midi data.

Trenchant said:
that's pretty sick, lol. i'd like to try that one day

i read an article about using the wii remote as a midi controller, it looked very very confusing though.
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Yeah there was like a 4 page article on that in Sound On Sounds last year, looked like madd work for such a useless, novelty studio tool lol.

This was pretty simple, had it working within an hour..Would have been less if my computer wasnt so slow.
 
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Guilty J said:
They're wireless. You just plug the bluetooth receiver into your USB port and install the software and it converts the data to midi data.


Yeah there was like a 4 page article on t

This was pretty simple, had it working within an hour..Would have been less if my computer wasnt so slow.
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oh ok withxbox360 the wireless is built in
 
Now that does seem really useful for a cheap alternative. Nice find, great work.

-Nolij
 
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i saw this a little while ago. i gotta get that game now just for the drum kit. hahaha
 
Its not hard. I taught myself the basics in about a month and a half. A lil more practice and I'll be beastin.
 
No velocity though, right?
 
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Seen this on the same site:

Hi Guys,

Just as a side note, if you have GH:WT Drums, and a wireless receiver for your PC, you may want to take a look at http://drop.io/360mididrummer

This is a piece of software written by a young enthusiast in C# which retains velocity sensitivity information, but otherwise works in a similar fashion to the technique above.

Cheers
 
I read this and ran out to get a USB Bluetooth adapter, I picked up the only one I could find, the RocketFish BT Adapter from Best Buy. Still having trouble getting Vista to recognize it, maybe I'm doing something wrong, could you write out a step-by-step because it doesn't seem as cut and dry as you made it seem hahaha thanks for any help!
 
I think I figured it out, Xbox 360 sells a wireless receiver for $20.00 USD @ Gamestop. This will allow you to get the correct bluetooth connection with ease and should be just a matter of converting controller data to midi data for Reason, Cubase, etc.

I'm purchasing one today, when I get it working this weekend I will come back and post the step-by-step. And shouldn't something like this be in Hardware? A mod should move this thread.
 
u talkin bout the xbox thing that hooks up to the back u use for x box live if u have wireless?
 
swear to gob i was just looking at my rock band drums and was like i need to use these for something... are they velocity sensitive tho, and does it work with the original RB drums?
 
I've just about locked down the whole process, if anyone wants me to throw together a step-by-step say so... and I'll post it in the Hardware - Midi Controllers Sub Forum
 
That idea crossed my mind when I saw the game because the set looks a lot like the sets you see at Sam Ash or Guitar Center
 
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