A friend of mine who is fond of garage sales, thrift shops, etc. brought me a small-scale plastic replica of a Fender Strat, made for Harmonix; it is apparently for use with a game called Rock Band. (or possibly Guitar Hero.)
Prong one: Can this intriguing device only be used in the context of the game?
Prong two: Would it be legal to hack it to interface with another music program?
Prong three: If so, does anybody know how? Or where somebody is who does?
** … And there you have your pitchfork. poke, poke!**
It’s just an oddly shaped controller for the X-Box/PS3/Wii (depending on which version you found). The various buttons map to those on a standard controller. There’s no reason to “hack” it as such; it produces the same outputs as any other controller.
As tanstaafl states, it’s just a regular controller with the buttons rearranged. You could technically play any of that system’s games with it, though that’d likely make it harder for no reason.
It is not a musical device at all. As mentioned, it is a game controller. It does not produce any output that can be interpreted as musical notes (e.g., MIDI). For the Wii, you have to plug in an actual Wiimote to allow it to communicate with the game console, and the signals are nothing more than “Press button A, press button B” etc.
It would be legal to interface it with anything you want. You own it.
There are bands out there that play with the old-school Rock Band controllers (before they became more like real instruments) tied to synths/custom PC setups (just for the silliness factor).
You can also use it to play with free PC-based Rock Band/Guitar Hero clones.
But … it has a twang bar!
So it’s just a glorified joystick. Dang.
However, Chessic Sense, what I had in mind hack-wise is something like Reply mentioned. It sounds like I could probably use it with Anvil Studio, my music composition program, but so far my PC hasn’t recognized it. I wonder if you’d have to have the game to get the drivers, and then it would interface with other MIDI-based programs?
Oh-one more thing – the cable is a USB. I notice that the platforms listed above are all console games. Does that mean it won’t work with a PC at all?
It has five buttons. In theory, you could create an interface that aligned each button to a guitar chord. Five chords is probably more than most garage band guitarists would ever need.
Question: Does it have buttons on it or actual strings? I think Rock Band makes a guitar with strings for more advanced and realistic play. I don’t know much about it, though, other than it is NOT the five button, strum bar controller that normally comes with the game.
The real fun of Rock Band (3) shines through when you play the advanced drum kit with the cymbals and foot pedal and everything. You actually feel like you’re playing music at that point. (I realize you’re still a far cry from actual drum playing, but the “fake experience” is more realistic.)
If it’s the Xbox type, it is USB and can be used with a PC. Many people do use Xbox controllers to play PC games, but if the game isn’t designed to work with one you’ll need to run a remapper like the one from http://pinnaclegameprofiler.com/
When I was working at a certain video game store we used to use either the Rock Band or Guitar Hero controllers to play Gears of War. I remember that for some reason tilting the guitar (like you would to activate star power) caused your character to fire his gun so you can imagine how amazing we all looked playing each other.
Try downloading the 360 controller drivers for Windows, then use something like Pinnacle (mentioned above) or Autohotkey to map the buttons/actions to keyboard keys.
*Oh-one more thing – the cable is a USB. I notice that the platforms listed above are all console games. Does that mean it won’t work with a PC at all? *
I used my XBox 360 controller to play a freeware Guitar Hero knock-off game called Frets of Fire on my laptop, so it’s possible.
That’s what I understand by a “small-scale plastic replica of a Fender Strat”. The normal guitar controllers have huge honking buttons on them, and I wouldn’t call them replicas. This thing is unique, so much of the advice above would not apply.
If it does, then you’ve got yourself a real electric guitar that works only with Rock Band 3. This guitar does not work with other music games, does not work with all games in general, I doubt your PC would work with it too. You can however plug it into an amp if you so choose.
