Today's craftiest video: Rock Band drums as real drum kit
by Ross Miller 
{ Nov 30th 2007 at 12:59AM }
We're sure other people have done it as well, but for those aspiring electronica performers who haven't yet made the plunge, YouTube member luksy has posted a video explaining how he used a handful of programs to turn the Rock Band drum kit hooked up to a PC into a working electronic drum kit.Remember, this is just one example of how you can do it. We're working at finding the perfect setup for using our MacBook (via OS X) as a sound module for our 22-key midi keyboard and Rock Band drum set simultaneously - any suggestions would be appreciated. With the proper drum kit sound silencers, this can make for a pretty handy (although fairly minimal) portable gig setup. Video after the break.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DarkNessBear @ Nov 30th 2007 1:22AM
That was so Fudging boring. I just want to see him play them...
Ramifications @ Nov 30th 2007 1:39AM
Agreed. I was like...come on....come on....let me hear them! But he never did :(
Edog Lost @ Nov 30th 2007 2:18AM
wait.. did the video end? Did I miss the cool part?
TrenchyC @ Nov 30th 2007 5:59AM
NO MORE DAMN ROCK BAND POSTS Please!
It's like a daily thing here. Enough! Stop doing them for a good week, please.
We get it, Joystiq loves the game.
License to ill @ Nov 30th 2007 1:40PM
@TrenchyC
Here's a concept you see something that has Rock Band in the title, DON'T CLICK ON IT...
TrenchyC @ Nov 30th 2007 4:10PM
Here is a new concept, they flood the site with dumb rock band topics. They have added two new ones since my post. They talk about it every single damn day for like 2 months now.
Cesaria @ Nov 30th 2007 1:27AM
I like english muffins
DemonGSides @ Nov 30th 2007 2:46AM
This is the best thing about this 'article'.
Tony Bowman @ Nov 30th 2007 1:32AM
when you find a workable solution for Macs and the 360's Rock Band drums, let me know!
Capt. Castellanos @ Nov 30th 2007 1:36AM
sweet zombie jezus.
he just wouldn't stop talking would he!?
sounded like he was reading a script,
and ad-libbing, badly.
so much for a demonstration.
can't we use an application such as GlovePie for the wii remotes to work with the Xbox controllers?
i mean, there was a drum kit thing for GlovePie, and it wasn't hard to edit and play with?
ah oh well.
looks like i'll have to wait to get Rockband myself and playing around with this stuff!
dozazz @ Nov 30th 2007 1:51AM
too bad the pads and pedal arent velocity sensitive.
Hakobus @ Nov 30th 2007 3:48AM
Indeed.
"this can make for a pretty handy (although fairly minimal) portable gig setup"
Only if you want to play the whole gig at a set volume, or turn a knob to change the volume. Instead of, you know, just hitting the drums at a different velocity.
Poisoned Al @ Nov 30th 2007 4:50AM
Yes, you're far better off using a midi-keyboard from drums ironically. Far less fun of course.
dozazz @ Nov 30th 2007 5:27AM
of course, soon instrument simulation games are gonna focus on more dynamic features like velocity sensitivity to add more challenge.
elle @ Nov 30th 2007 9:47AM
You could maybe use a VST plugin that converts an analog signal to MIDI velocity information (like Digital Peak Meter Pro http://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_DPeakMeterPro/ - tutorial: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2819168.)
Mic the drums, record the MIDI signal and mic output, and use the plugin to convert the sound of you bashing on those apparently loud-ass plastic pads into velocity.
Once you get it all rigged up as a MIDI drum set, use it to 5-star Raining Blood on expert in Guitar Hero 3. (http://egyokeo.com/midihero/) Then send it in to Joystiq and we'll all make fun of you.
If you really need something more accurate than that, you could cut open your Rock Band drums add some piezo transducers to the pads and get a cheap drum brain (http://members.cox.net/ampage/triggers.htm). But that kinda cuts on the USB plug-and-play convenience even more.
Neither solution solves the bass pedal very elegantly, though.
ThornedVenom @ Nov 30th 2007 1:59AM
Far from the real thing, but indeed, nice way to get your hundred bucks for a full bang.
Frank @ Nov 30th 2007 10:09AM
I'm interested to see if I can get this working with Drumagog (the best drum sound replacer on the market). I've got insane drum samples that I could trigger from this thing.
nipcho @ Nov 30th 2007 2:25AM
Well, to do what you stated on the post, if the controller is a standard HID, you could use Max/MSP and the IAC Bus routed to your favorite audio program (even garageband). Maybe PD-extended has a HID external for OS X, but I haven't checked recently.
Macroy @ Nov 30th 2007 6:09AM
I only understood about half of this, and it wasn't the half that explains how to get the drum kit working with GarageBand. :(
nipcho @ Nov 30th 2007 12:32PM
IF the controller is a standard HID joystick via USB, OS X will recognize it automatically. IF you have Max/MSP, that program can convert HID joystick information into MIDI any way you can conceive of. Max/MSP costs money, so there is a similar program called PD which is open source and may have the same functionality.
You would need to send MIDI between two applications to get this working, so, in comes Apple's IAC Bus. You can turn this on in OS X's audio MIDI setup. In Max or PD, you can then send MIDI out the IAC bus, and in Garageband, you can make a new track and set its input to that same IAC bus.
Tina\\\'s Cry @ Nov 30th 2007 11:39AM
Wow, I am totally going to try this out.
Easo @ Nov 30th 2007 9:39AM
If you fell like you just cant leave behind garageband for a better program like cubase or reason, try cakewalk's demension pro.
Still, I dont know why you would bother. Getting rid of the latency and working around the velocity issues could be more trouble than the nerd cred is worth.
Kevin @ Nov 30th 2007 10:36AM
The only major problem I see with this is the ~200-300ms delay between hitting the drum and fruity loops playing the sound.
That's gonna require the drummer to play a little bit ahead of any normal instruments. Though, it's possible his laptop is just slow and a better computer would translate faster...
Poisoned Al @ Nov 30th 2007 10:50AM
Yeah, yo need a good sound device to use FL Studio well. A laptops noise farter probably won't cut it.
Jamie @ Nov 30th 2007 2:47PM
Use the ASIO4ALL sound driver. Zero delay.
mrjason @ Nov 30th 2007 1:39PM
I looked into the OS X solution last week and found this post on the ControllerMate forums:
http://www.orderedbytes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=445
That's someone detailing how to use the drummania kit on OS X, for the xbox 360 rock band kit you should just need to use Colin Munro's awesome xbox 360 os x driver in place of the ps2->usb adapter mentioned in the post above:
http://tattiebogle.net/index.php/ProjectRoot/Xbox360Controller/OsxDriver
The basic setup that should work would be the following:
Xbox 360 OS X drivers -> controller mate mapping from HID joystick buttons to keyboard output -> midi keys program mapping keys to a midi channel in OS X, then you should be able to load up garageband and see everything work.
Bob The Mexican @ Nov 30th 2007 2:39PM
Dude, invest in a tripod.
Jonas @ Dec 5th 2007 7:51AM
There's a pretty elegant OSX solution for using ANY USB-based controlled for musical purposes. The program is called JunXion, it's made by a foundation in the Netherlands called STEIM (http://www.steim.org/steim/junxion_v3.html).
JunXion actually lets you map the controls on USB devices directly to MIDI, so you could theoretically use your X-box controller to operate an external synthesizer if you so desired.
The only down side is that it costs money. STEIM is a non-profit electronic music research lab. Though if you're really into this sort of stuff it's a worthwhile investment - yesterday I used a wacom drawing tablet to control the envelop parameters on a synth.