Guitar Hero

This is a demo of Gannon’s awesome DIY Speak ‘n’ Spell Rock Band DIY mashup, the Speak N Spellbinder.

Check it out and leave a comment with your thoughts! Read more…

Tod Machover of MIT’s Media Lab is devoted to extending musical expression for everyone — from virtuosi to amateurs, and in the most diverse forms — from opera to videogames (Guitar Hero grew out of his group).

At TED2008, he talked about what’s coming next, from new tools for music creativity to the world’s first robotic opera. The video also features an incredible performance by Dan Ellsey, a young man with cerebral palsy who creates and performs music using tools developed in the Media Lab. Ellsey performs his My Eagle Song.

Activision announced today that it is taking its Guitar Hero franchise into new territory, with Guitar Hero World Tour:

Guitar Hero World Tour will marry Guitar Hero’s guitar gameplay, with a cooperative band experience that combines the most advanced wireless instruments with revolutionary new online and offline gameplay modes. The game will feature a slick newly redesigned guitar, a genuine electronic drum kit and a microphone, as well as an innovative Music Studio music creator that lets players compose, record, edit and share their own rock and roll anthems, along with online Band Career and 8-player “Battle of the Bands.”

In a nutshell, Guitar Hero World Tour will let you create your own tracks that can then be played within the game. Users will be able to share tracks with others online.

The game’s Music Studio lets you create digital music tracks from scratch, using all the instruments, and then use the tracks for playing in the game. Music creators will also be able to share their recordings with their friends online through GHTunes where other gamers can download their unique compositions and play them.

Pricing and release date have not been announced yet. Read more…

The MIDIator is a new synth DIY project that turns a PS2 controller into a MIDI controller.

The current firmware supports remapping of the buttons to different notes or controllers. It’s based on a PIC microchip–full, explained source code and instructions for making modifications are supplied.

Features:

• Supports official PS2 controllers, cheap knockoffs and wireless controllers… and now the guitar hero controller, including the wammy bar and tilt sensor.
• Analog joysticks control pitch bend and several controllers (or whatever you want them to do)
• Three modes: buttons play MIDI notes, send controller messages (pressure sensitive buttons), or they toggle on / off controller messages so you can mute and unmute tracks.
• LCD and menu system for mode switching and remapping the buttons. See the instructions below for more info, but you basically press start, the button you want to remap, and then up/down arrows to remap.
• 3 LEDs for feedback: power, sign of life, and/or whatever else you want.
• Requires DC power supply 7-15 VDC, positive centered barrel plug.

The kit is $60. There are currently cash incentives available for people contributing new features to the project.

Slapyak has an interesting tutorial on creating a Guitar Hero MIDI controller.

With the current version you can:

• play 2 octaves of an 8 note scale at a time
• change the starting note anywhere in the range of a regular keyboard
• change octaves
• change keys
• change tonal modes (Ionian, Mixolydian, Lydian, Dorian, Aeolian, Phrygian, Locrian)
• change the timbre of a sound
• change the resonance of a sound
• use the whammy bar to pitchbend
• play chords in the mode you have the guitar set to (major/minor/etc.)
• rock out with a video game toy

Here’s a high-level flow for the MIDI controller:

Guitar –> Arduino –> LEDs & MIDI –> external MIDI device.

Details are available at the Slapyak site.

Here’s a short video of the Guitar Hero MIDI controller in action: