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Guitar Hero Hacks

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the really-extreme-programming dept.

Edge Online has a short blurb mentioning a project at the University of California turning the Guitar Hero guitar into a real instrument. From the article: "For the final project of their Computer Audio course, University of California students Travis Chen and Sunny Chan have created Guitar Hero Hack, a plugin for sequencing software Max/MSP that lets players assign switchable banks of samples to each of the controller's buttons, utilizes its tilt switch as a way to clear current audio on any given track, and, the two hope, might be on its way to a fully functioning live instrument." His incredibly impressive demo video is well worth watching.

5 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. Sequencing software, eh? by croddy · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Sequencing software" wouldn't be my first choice for describing Max/MSP, but at any rate it's much more than that. Max/MSP is a very powerful modular synthesis environment, allowing the user to assemble very interesting and complicated instruments and processing chains using a graphic interface. Miller S. Puckette (the MSP in the name of the software) has also released a similar package called 'pd' under an open source license (or, at least, it is distributed as source code).

    1. Re:Sequencing software, eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      You're close, but I'll offer a bit more.

      Max/MSP is essentially a graphical programming environment, built primarily to coordinate interaction between a live performer and a computer. It was originally written for composers and musicians, but has since proven general enough in functionality to be used for dance, video, and other genres.

      It *can* function strictly as a sequencer or a synthesis environment, but using it that way is somewhat unusual, as its forte is interactive performance. Check out http://www.cycling74.com/ for more info.

  2. OT:Your sig by Joe+U · · Score: 3, Informative

    His loss.

    Read at -1. The site is much more entertaining that way and I recommend it for everyone.

    Seriously, there's a lot of interesting stuff going on below 1. Modding at higher levels does Slashdot a disservice.

  3. Re:University of California? by TheGuano · · Score: 2, Informative
    I guess a big difference is that "University of California" is actually real.

    Isn't saying "a project at the University of California" kind of like referring to the "country of Europe"?

  4. Re:University of California? by zfalcon · · Score: 2, Informative

    Nope, the University of California refers to the original.

    University of California = UC Berkeley = Cal