Rock out with Guitar Hero, sans game

by Christopher Grant { Jan 23rd 2006 at 5:45PM }

Now that you've gone and freed your Guitar Hero controller from its wired bondage, it's time to free it from the repetition of working with just the game. It's time to turn that controller into a real guitar!

Using a USB to PS2 controller converter, a couple programs, and a PS2 as a makeshift foot pedal, Jason has fashioned an entirely new beast. He writes, "... this new nerdstrument has distanced itself from a guitar. Strumming is not used to generate tones -- fret button presses do this. The strum bar is instead used to change octaves. The controller's start and select buttons are mapped to cycle through instrument voices. " It's seems more like a keytar in this capacity.

A warning to prospective jammers: this will remove the illusion that you're a rock god. Jason laments, "It's kind of humbling to go from playing Helmet's 'Unsung' at Guitar Hero's expert level to playing 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star', you know?"

[Thanks, Jason]

Tags: Guitar Hero, GuitarHero, Harmonix

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

JodyAnthony @ Jan 23rd 2006 5:51PM

That's pretty cool.

dihrdgamer @ Jan 23rd 2006 6:36PM

.....and when the REV arrives all the fangirls can play air guitar.[snik!]

JRM @ Jan 23rd 2006 7:47PM

why don't you just get a real guitar? it's the gift that keeps on giving.

p-diddy @ Jan 23rd 2006 9:16PM

pfffbbbbttt. Unsung is one of the easiest songs on hard/expert. All repeats. I think Take It Off is way harder.

-p-

Deth @ Jan 23rd 2006 10:08PM

I agree JRM.
BTW- this game is amazing. I have finally started playing on hard mode, and man, that 5th fret is killing me! Any tips p-diddy? (aside from practice)

Cheers!

Jason @ Jan 23rd 2006 10:33PM

It's not really supposed to be comparable to playing a real guitar, it's just for fun, or for making interesting loops, rhythms, etc. A real guitar doesn't come with 60+ different instrument voices, does it?

jonboy @ Jan 24th 2006 12:46AM

This thing sounds like it might be similar to the MOOG SYNTHESIZER that was quite popular back in the late 60's [I remember] It could be used by itself [really neat,freaky outer spacey music] or as an accompaniment.Lots of musicians tried it but I think it cost lotsa $$'s to buy.

Dave C @ Jan 24th 2006 5:46AM

Deth -

In hard mode they're still easing you into using the 5th fret (orange button). You'll usually find that for long sections of a song you'll not need to use either the 1st or the 5th fret allowing you to keep your hand in one position and play as you did in normal difficulty mode. Of course this leads to problems if you forget which position you've left your hand in...

Speaking of guitar hero, I finally beat Bark at the Moon on Expert last night, and I've not managed to get it to play a single song without locking up since, have I rocked the game into submission? Bizarre...

p-didy @ Jan 24th 2006 6:33AM

I agree with Dave C. On Hard when you get to sections that use the 5th fret you can typically slide your hand down to 2345 because you won't hit usually hit 1. But this is exactly why I think Unsung is easy: it is a lot of chord repeats. Many of the other songs require you to do pull-off runs or jump around the frets. I was stuck on Iron Man for a while because of the solo. Even so I usually get only 3 stars on the Hard songs. :-/ Unsung just happens to be the song I'm best at.

-p-

Chris @ Jan 24th 2006 9:25AM

7. This thing sounds like it might be similar to the MOOG SYNTHESIZER that was quite popular back in the late 60's [I remember] It could be used by itself [really neat,freaky outer spacey music] or as an accompaniment.Lots of musicians tried it but I think it cost lotsa $$'s to buy.
_____________________

This is a midi controller. It has no "sounds". Analog synths (and the Moog) have an incredible complexity of sound due to their unpredictability, changing tones based on how they've warmed up, practically going out of tune based on the phase of the moon ;)

Anyway, before being blown away by the overabundance of poor moog playing and the stale predictability of the DX7, they have nearly nothing to do with this soundless controller :)

Jason @ Jan 24th 2006 10:58AM

For the record... Unsung is easy! But it's one of my favorite (thrashier) tracks in the game. I love the ending... it's quite melodic and surreal IMO. Especially if you activiate star power at that point... everyone clapping... oh to be a rock star! hehe