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Rock Band Drum Kit Modded
Brett "Buzz" Dawson writes "Seeing all of the Guitar Hero guitar mods I thought it would be an interesting change of pace to mod a full-sized drum kit for use as a Rock Band game controller. With everything that I build I take lots of pictures to document the build process so here is the full build of my drum kit." Fortunately at my house Kathleen has been doing the drumming, so I don't think I need to go to these extremes to handle the abuse. I'm more interested in mods that let you use the original drums as a real instrument like the guitar mods that are floating out there. The tiny bits of drum solo time in Rock Band don't satisfy my internal Keith Moon.
If you have the PS3 version of Rock Band, then here's how to mod your drum kit:
Step 1: Plug drum kit into PC.
Done. Your PC will detect the PS3 drum kit as a MIDI device.
Check out this link for details for the Xbox-360 version:
http://news.filefront.com/rock-band-drums-for-pc-xbox-360-vs-ps3-kit/
In response to the editor comment: I hooked up my drum controller to my MacBook and used GamePad Companion to feed keystrokes into Ableton Live. I was able to use it as a real drum kit for a bit but I'm not a drummer, so instead I started using pitched tones for each of the pads.... much more interesting!
I posted the results on my blog.
Post-rock/Ambient/Drone and other noise.
And here I thought I was a bad-ass hanging a cow bell from mine.
And this made the main page of /. as a story?
Come on...
This HAS to be one of the coolest game controllers out there. And it lets you get your rock on extra special loud I bet. Hate the neighbors? Get their kids one of these.
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
And everyone looked at the drumsticks proclaiming their excitement over REAL drumsticks... Those toothpicks they give you with rockband wouldn't last one set. Actually having a drum set, full sized... might make it a better experience for people who have played real set in the past. I know I'd break the little "set" that comes with the game without trying...
Then again, Rockband has as much to do with playing music as Dance Dance Revolution has to do with dancing. You do better if you CAN'T actually do it.
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
When playing the drums on Rock Band, keep your thumbs in the weak position, wrapped around the sticks, and not in the strong position on the top, despite the temptation to do the opposite. It didn't even occur to me until I woke up this morning to find my right thumb's knuckle was on fire.
Maybe it said that in the manual. I wouldn't know, I'm male.
What's not to like?
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
users', B1gAAz, minutes. If that.
Modding real guitar to be guitar controller, friend has modded drums for a drum controller... given how much lip syncing is done in music now, at this point you'd basically be in "real" band!
stuff |
Mods are great, but hard work. I designed my GHX software to work with an unmodified guitar hero controller.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkyRRSSKHLU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8do51fVRyzY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMTHozq4XPI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3ohtqvF33c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2wk70ZSZNc
I think the sky's the limit on this whole guitar hero/rock band thing. Practically every kid I know got Rock Band for Christmas, and every one of their parents took a turn on the drums or microphone.
for a video showing someone fraggin in COD4 with a drumkit controller...
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
me thinks the link's been /.'ed
This thread is to suggest who should be considered best drummer ....
I nominate Neal Peart from RUSH
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
And here I was thinking this site was "news for nerds" and not "news for wannabe Dance Dance Revolution type games experts."
Perhaps if they released Code Code Revolution where you design UIs in time to a beat or something, but Rock Band?
of Jordan Huubard
You mean, they don't satisfy your desire to be an energetic and entertaining, yet alcoholic drummer with only a vague sense of rhythm?
Cool we can't stop playing Rock Band at my house. Too addicting...
The crazy kids over at the rockband.scorehero.com forums have been modding the drum controller since like a week after the game came out: http://rockband.scorehero.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=1038&sid=d1748155f6f141a8f805db1bf5df84b3
Double bass pedals, yamaha midi kit mods, alternative bass pedals, analyzing how the piezos in the drum kid actually register hits and improving on them... List goes on.
I've modded my pedal after the cheap one that came with the kit inevitably broke after the third day of playing. Since the bass pedal connects to the rest of the kit using a mono audio plug, it's easy for someone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of electronics (me) to rig a real bass pedal to work with the kit. Documented here: http://rockband.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2029
My only mod so far is to replace the bass drum pedal. I'm a "real" drummer (though I don't play much)... and I couldn't stand the included drum pedal. It has a huge springy travel, and it triggers somewhere in the middle of that travel (rather than right at the end like a real pedal would).
I have a Yamaha DTXPress electronic drum kit, and was able to use a cymbal pad from that, mounted (on a cymbal stand) right in front of the DTX's bass drum trigger. The bass drum trigger itself doesn't work for some reason, but it does have a nice mount point for the real bass pedal. I had to remove one of the crossbars at the bottom of the Rock Band kit so that I could have all the stuff under the kit where it should be -- the remaining crossbar passes between the pedal and the vertical part of the bass trigger, right on top of the clamp.
To actually connect it, all I needed was a 1/4" female --> to 1/8" male mono adapter (which I already had for playing guitar into the computer).
The Rock Band drum kit seems a little flakey when first hooking up another trigger. I even thought I had broken it because for a while, the included pedal didn't work. I was able to fix it by repeatedly unplugging and plugging it into the port on the main drumkit.
Important tip for testing the triggers... go to the song list in quick play. It lets you change the sorting of the list by hitting the bass drum.
SlagheapFirst against the wall when the revolution comes
You have played Guitar Hero long enough to earn one million points!
YOU
ARE
FAGS!
Drummania players have been doing this for years with a Yamaha DTX or similar. Just plug it into the usb socket.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Dennis Chambers. 'Nuff said.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
...for them to come out with French Horn Hero for Xbox 360 in order to make a mod I want to play on. Don't know that I want to put limit switches on the valves on my horn, though...maybe all it would need is a mic.
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
I've played bass for 25 years, and playing on Rock Band is quite fun, but really different than the real thing. Many of the notes are absent , and so when you play the notes that you know are there - the game dings you. SOme of the fingerings are screwy too, since the difficult/difficult+ levels just move your hand around to use 5 "frets", which doesn't always make sense from the chords used. I hear a major 4th interval, and the fret the game wants me to hit is waaay up the neck, instead of just moving your finger up one string.
..........FULL STOP.
No Hi-Hat? You can't be a real rock drummer without a hi hat. That set of glorified quad toms just wonon't do.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
What is this guy on?
This stuff is so strong that I played one song on the drums using two crescent wrenches and didn't even leave a scratch on them.
I bet I could break them easily.
Show a man some news, distract him for an hour. Show a man some mod points, distract him for the rest of his life.
When did Presidential humor stop being funny? It was funny when Clinton was in office... remember all the jokes about how Hillary controls him? And then all the jokes about how Hillary *doesn't* control him? There was some good stuff there, and very few people were offended by it. What changed?
Actually I sing more than anything else. I'm a Karaoke type, and it works real well. The trick is to sing like you actually want to sing and not like someone forced you to hold the microphone. Get up there and have fun. If you know the song and can anticipate what's coming up you are ahead of the game. Some people hum to get through songs which is really boring IMHO. If you have to do that to maintain pitch, turn the mic sensitivity up, and practice. The software recognises pitch, and not specific notes, so if you can't hit a high note then drop it an octive an you'll be fine.
I'm hoping they bring the Band World tour online soon, my friends and I do awesome sets, but can't get 1,000,000 fans unless we are all on expert. Currently we have 2 Guitars on hard, Drums on medium, and vocals on expert.