...guitar to make real music on the computer?
I know you can use the drumsets for either game to make music with a program called DrumMachine, but is there any programs to do a similar effect for the guitars?
ID:278143
 Jul 17 2009, 1:01 am
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Or if he's really on the guitar thing, one of these.
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Holy crap, look at the "Real guitar vs EZ-AG" table below. Makes it clear that the EZ-AG would be better named "fake guitar for whiners."
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I actually played with one of those at a sharper image store(might not have been yamaha but it was the exact same thing). To put it succinctly, they suck. I managed to play a decent rendition of Simple Man, but its a far stretch to say you could actually learn to play guitar from one of them.
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Jotdaniel wrote:
...its a far stretch to say you could actually learn to play guitar from one of them. Maybe if it made some realistic sounds, and more than 17 of them... | |
Airjoe wrote:
Or if he's really on the guitar thing, one of these.I do want to get a real guitar eventually. However, I would like to know if my Rock Band/Guitar Hero guitar can be used to (somewhat) make music. | |
My friend has one, and it's actually freaking awesome. The nice thing is, because it's MIDI, you can line it into the computer and play whatever instrument you freaking please. Can't play the piano? No big deal, line in to FL Studio!
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Bakasensei wrote:
They already said it can, but you'll barely have a wide range of notes to play.I read every post here - and didn't really see that. You mind linking to that post? Also, what program would I need to use my RB/GH guitar on the PC? | |
Considering it is just a USB control, pretty much the same as the PS3 or 360 control, yes it can. You would need to find or write a program that took USB gamepad inputs and associated a sound with the input. It's rather simple, but I'm not certain there is anything made for the job. That said, at best you could get 16 sounds(if you count the strum as a trigger) and possibly tweak them with the bar/tilt. Not exactly the stuff masterpieces are made of.
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You can in fact hook a GH/RB controller up to a PC just as you can an X-Box controller. It works just like a joypad, so it can be used for pretty much any program.
I don't remember where to get the drivers for the RB controllers but I'm sure a quick Google search will do. | |
My controller works just fine for games requiring it (Frets on Fire comes to mind), but getting it to play (limited) music, I dunno how.
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If you really want to play Hot Cross Buns on your Guitar Hero controller, download the Frets on Fire source code and look at how the controller works, and hook that up to some generic MIDI routines. There's no program to do this for you -- it's not very useful for musicians.
If you are in a band and want to do something really cool, then make 16 different sequencer presets and activate them using the guitar. It's a neat trick that looks simultaneously cooler and geekier than standing behind the synth board tweaking things. If you're looking for an easy way to make satisfying music without having to do research and write code, give up. =P | |
They bothered because the drum is a real synthesized drum kit. Meaning that you can actually play the drums on it just like you would a real set. The guitar is 100% a toy. It has the basics to make noises, but not to make real music. OK, I guess you could mix the whammy bar and the accelerometer to modify the 16 possible sounds* from the fret board. This would sound nothing like a guitar, and would be a pain to manage, but it is possible. If you want to try it, look into midi sequencing and joystick input with python. A few hours of work could get you a working prototype.
*I think I got that calculation right. 4 buttons with two possible states would be 4^2 for all possible combinations including all on and all off. | |
If you want to stretch the realm of possibility...
You have 5 buttons to press. You also have 10 combinations of 2 buttons you can press, 10 combinations of 3 buttons you can press, and 5 combinations of 4 buttons you can press. Then, work in the strummer -- you can strum up or down, and if the hardware registers those as different hexcodes, you could get a different sound for each. That buys you a factor of 2. Then let's work in the accelerometer, which can tell if you're holding the guitar horizontal or vertical. Another factor of 2. Then the whammy bar, which can be either held down or not. Another factor of 2. Now let's suppose that you can hit the star power button to enter a new mode. Another factor of 2. (1+5+10+10+5)*2*2*2*2 = 496 possible combinations Have fun trying to remember which one is which. The great thing about the guitar is it's very intuitive and logical -- once you get the hang of it, you can just feel the music in your heart and hear it in your ears and it'll come out. If you want that experience, buy a darn guitar. | |
I forgot about the 5th button. I never play on hard :P. So that would be 5^2, so 25 combos. You are right the strum bar is bi-directional, but I pictured it as the trigger for reading the buttons, so I don't count it as a bit. The whammy bar is analog, so it wouldn't be fit for an extra bit, but rather a modifier. I'm not sure about the tilt sensor/accelerometer, but my guess is it is analog as well. Star power is activated from the tilt sensor, so that's not an extra bit.
Of course, this is ignoring the start and select buttons, and the second fret on the Rock Band guitar. That would be a little harder to calculate because you can't press all 10 buttons and strum at the same time, so it would end up at 50 sound options, still with the assumption of strumming. Now if you took it more like a piano, you actually end up with a lot of options, but combining keys can no longer produce different sound than just the two sounds combined. That is to say, it is complicated. But, if we want to add another bit of options, we can take into account if you are strumming up or down, so that puts us at 100 possible unique noises. Then add the two analog modifiers(tilt and whammy), the options are nearly limitless. But still not a guitar. I can get behind the idea, however, just because I'm a geek. | |
The strum bar is a mechanism for telling it when to read the buttons -- it can read them when you strum up, or down, which gives you two possibilities.
The whammy bar and accelerometer, while being analog, could be reduced to a digital signal for purposes of this hypothetical music machine. Some Guitar Hero controllers have dedicated star power buttons apart from the accelerometer, I'm sure. And yes, the start and reset buttons could be used as well, giving a couple more hypothetical powers of 2. | |
However, with only so many buttons, there's not a whole lot you can do improvisation wise, so it's really better to buy a keyboard.