GHWT drum tuning app now available, Red Octane shipping midi-USB cables for free

by Griffin McElroy on Nov 1st 2008 8:00PM

Well, dear readers, we've got good news and we've got bad news ... and then we've got good news again. The (first) good news -- the promised Guitar Hero: World Tour drum tuning application is now available for download on Red Octane's customer support site. The bad news is that the application requires you to connect your drum kit to your computer using a midi-USB cable, which we imagine few of you actually possess. The (second) good news -- Red Octane is shipping these cables, free of charge, to anyone who requests one on their support site.

We suppose it's bad news that we'll be waiting for these cables to ship before we can give our drum kits some much-needed sensitivity training -- on the other hand, the fact that we won't be dealing with any suggestive, RealDoll-sized replacement boxes (or the resulting judgment from nosy neighbors) is good news indeed.

[Thanks, Eric G.]

Source

Tags: activision, drum-tuning-kit, drums, guitar-hero-world-tour, midi-usb, PS2, PS3, red-octane, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (65)

"the fact that we won't be dealing with any suggestive, RealDoll-sized replacement boxes (or the resulting judgment from nosy neighbors) is good news indeed."

Wow Joystiq. What has been on your mind recently? ;)

RealDoll giveaway for Joystiq readers?

Oh, and there haven't been a lot of people using this yet, but the one that I had seen who used it said it completely fixed his problem and the drums were working great now. Anyone else already have a cable and have experienced the fix?

Ordered mine on Thursday, and I wasn't given a tracking number so I have no idea when it'll be arriving.

Just requested one, don't even have Guitar Hero WT LOL
Hopefully my karma is not too adversely affected by this, I truely needed it, to hook up my ancient MIDI keyboard :)

They ask you for your drum serial number.

Really? They didn't ask me.

Free cables for everyooone! ;D

Didn't ask me either, and I requested one for the same reason.

If I don't get one because they ran out of them, I know who I'll blame >_>;

This is great. I want GHWT and if the MIDI to USB arrives before I purchase it I won't have to wait around to tune the almost guaranteed to have a problem drum set. Red Octane has just guaranteed a purchase letting me get this without buying the product first.

You pretty much have no room to ever complain about getting screwed over by big business when you do things like that to screw them over. You can explain it however you want, but that's just stealing right there.

first thing that i did was order the cable just to have one as i dont even own the game ahaha

then i tried the disk but it asks for proof of purchase lmao!

I could use the cable, but I'm not going to steal from them over it. That just doesn't seem right to me, especially since this is probably part of the reason so many companies are a pain about actually fulfilling their warranties.

@ Tank

Earlier in the week they required the serial number, but they're processing it differently now.

You and me both, Alex. :x

and... now they're asking for serial again.

Okay, I'm still standing behind what I said, but I want to apologize for being kinda rude about it. They aren't that expensive. You can probably get one for 15 bucks at your local music supply shop.

$15 was too much for some people to buy Braid, so I fear you're wasting your time here :P

And the Mac and Linux (and C64) users fix this how?

The package didn't say having a computer was a requirement to play this game did it?

Well, for Mac users, they should have known that many softwares still lack mac support. They can also install vista using those emulation software.
Linux, emulation software.

Computer isn't a requirement, but fixing it is.

I'm sure *somebody* you know out there uses a PC...

Mac owners also didn't know they would be buying defective drums that would require a PC to fix before they bought the game.

Mac users should learn that they've had under 6% market share for well over 10 years. That's more than enough time to realize that (fuzzy math) 94% of programs released won't work and to find work-a-rounds.

I have a G5 mac workstation that can't run windows under emulation. Actually it might, but I'm not going through all that trouble to tune some drums that come broken. Activision has lost this sale.

"Mac users should learn that they've had under 6% market share for well over 10 years. That's more than enough time to realize that (fuzzy math) 94% of programs released won't work and to find work-a-rounds."

I agree about the work-arounds - there is an active dev community that will likely create a 'home-brew/shareware' OS X solution to this. But subtracting Mac's "6 percent" (actually more like 8 percent it seems: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=9 ) from a full 100 percent representing all the personal computers in operation doesn't equal the percentage of all programs that are available for Windows. It only equals the relative percentage of remaining personal computers.

Many companies support both platforms, so it's not as clear-cut as subtracting Macintosh market share from the total to determine the percentage of software available.

By the way, the 'tuning your drums' here is not really what I expected when I read that headline. I thought it meant you might be able to change the pitch of your drums in the 'make your own song' mode.

Gotta love the PNP (+ - +) Sandwich. I just put my order in for the cable. Hopefully it comes pretty quick as I can't play this on medium drums without it.

But seriously, RealDoll? Why'd you have to go there?

Owner: Take this object, but beware it carries a terrible curse!
Homer: [worried] Ooooh, that's bad.
Owner: But it comes with a free Frogurt!
Homer: [relieved] That's good.
Owner: The Frogurt is also cursed.
Homer: [worried] That's bad.
Owner: But you get your choice of topping!
Homer: [relieved] That's good.
Owner: The toppings contains Potassium Benzoate.
Homer: [stares]
Owner: That's bad.

ok....

Uhhhhhhhhh, ummmmmmmm, what the fuck?

For those that don't get it it's a quote from the simpsons Halloween special (either season 4 or 5). Homer buys a krusty doll for bart that trys to kill him. Another quote I like from that same episode is:

"Marge, the doll's trying to kill me and the toaster's been laughing at me."

Is it bad I knew all that from heart?

No, it's not bad you knew that all by heart. I think I died a little inside when seeing the first two responses.

"It was worth sneaking in to town. That was some good corn."

hahaha! I love it! One of the best Halloween quotes.

Are there actually some young 'uns on here who are too young to know this quote? *gasp* That's a little scary 0_0

Still say they should have released a patch that puts this app in the game so you don't have to hook it up to your PC.

Very good point. The 360 has a USB port. If it can't be done over the wireless connection get people the cable and let them calibrate it on the 360.

I'm sure they did that because they don't want to patch for PS3, Wii and 360.
This way they release only one patch.
But they forgot MacOs and Linux (maybe wine will help here)...

I sure wish there was something like this for the Rock Band kit. I need to squeeze out a bit more life from mine before I get the Ion kit in December.

Damn you! That wikipedia link sent me on a rather creepy series of wikipedia links that I'll not repeat here.

Does anyone know when the standalone drum set and guitars will be shipping?

i already got my USB MIDI cable..I ordered it Monday.

Thanks for sharing!

tell us how it works.

ok I will post some pics and impressions tomorrow. I am so busy with studies.

will this work the same for the Wii drum kits?

It works with the drums from any version since they all have MIDI ports on them.

Well glad I just bought the game and used my original RB drums. I was considering upgrading but it's just way to much money to fork over on fake instruments. I already have 3 guitars!

You think the Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows will work for this application, or is the midi to usb required?

they probably use different protocols.

Do you need the midi-usb cable if you already have midi in on your soundcard?

1) Crank all pads to 11
2) Fix everything
3) RAWK OWT

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GHWT drum tuning app now available, Red Octane shipping midi-USB cables for free

Reader Comments (65)

Posted: Nov 1st 2008 8:15PM zachavm said

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