Guitar Hero Hacks

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.

Comments

The hack we really need is

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

a device that electrocutes the guitarist as soon as it detects the first notes of Smoke On The Water...

Re:The hack we really need is

[RandomPrecision]

You might not like this program then...I thought it was funny at the time.

#include <windows.h>

void main()
{
Beep(392,500);//G
Beep(466,500);//Bb
Beep(523,1000);//C2
Beep(392,500);//G
Beep(466,500);//Bb
Beep(554,500);//Db
Beep(523,1000);//C2
Beep(392,500);//G
Beep(466,500);//Bb
Beep(523,1000);//C2
Beep(466,500);//Bb
Beep(392,1000);//G
}

Sequencing software, eh?

[croddy]

"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).

Re:Easy?

[gEvil (beta)]

I wish I had that much talent - if I tried that it'd just be a random sequence of sounds.

Hmm. I just watched the video and it pretty much is a random sequence of sounds. It's really hard to go wrong when you only have five tones to choose from for each instrument, especially when they're all in the same key. The rhythms/beats of the different tracks he was laying didn't match up at all, though. So, ummm, yeah. Still, an incredibly cool hack for the guitar hero controller though. I gotta give him tons of credit for that. And I'm sure some of the tracks he's spent more time honing sound great too.

OT:Your sig

[Joe U]

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.