Use the Rock Band drums with your PC

by Ross Miller { Nov 23rd 2007 at 9:00AM }

This is more of a proof of concept than a practical application, but one ingenious gamer/programmer has decided to configure the Rock Band drum kit to work with your Windows PC. You can follow the relatively simple steps at his blog or download his self-made installer that reportedly does most of the work for you.

Right now, though, there's nothing else to do with this pseudo-hack but hit a drum pad and watch it register in a configuration window. We don't expect we'll have to wait long, though, for drum-controlled flash games: platformers, Tetris clones, maybe even a rhythm game (if we're lucky).

[Via Engadget]

Tags: drums, ea, electronic-arts, harmonix, rock-band

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Roddie @ Nov 23rd 2007 9:13AM

You could use JoyToKey and have it work with the likes of FL Studio.

B1gC72 @ Nov 23rd 2007 12:58PM

i was just about to ask if it could be used for FL Studios or similar software. so thats how you do it huh? well i will certainly try that out when i finally buy Rock Band.

Roddie @ Nov 24th 2007 12:20AM

I read on the supplied link about joystick-to-midi drivers with it; think that would have even more possibilities for using the kit with FL Studio.

Rob Accomando @ Nov 23rd 2007 9:16AM

getting console peripherals to work with a PC is Soooooooooo facinating.

:oP

Jeff @ Nov 23rd 2007 10:38AM

It's fascinating when we get a free version of guitar hero, with countless downloadable songs.

rivaldi22 @ Nov 23rd 2007 9:17AM

I'm pretty sure Total Game Control would have done the same thing, as I used that to help me play a software synth with the Guitar Hero controller.

ChrisW @ Nov 23rd 2007 9:55AM

It wouldn't be a big feat to change the sprites in StepMania to show drum symbols, and map the drum to the arrows... And create some drum-ish song-mappings for it...

Charles @ Nov 23rd 2007 10:02AM

YAY!...Who cares, it was gonna happen anywa, it'll only be a few days before someone does the microphone too:S

Nudgenudge @ Nov 23rd 2007 10:44AM

Well, since it is a USB microphone (no special buttons and/or sensors), it works as any USB mic sold in stores.

Charles @ Nov 23rd 2007 12:32PM

I know, i was just saying that this will happen with any USB peripheral so i was saying the lamest one that would come to my head...

ima747 @ Nov 23rd 2007 10:43AM

I threw together a dirt simple drum synth last night in about 5 minutes. Anyone with any sort of programing skill can use the Rock Band controllers out of the box. they recognize as xbox 360 HID compliant joysticks, then further load harmonix xbox 360 controller drivers. Just plug it into XP and you're good to go. Access it as you would any joystick. Make a program that plays drum sounds (search for high hat sound on google, you'll find tons of drum sounds) when you hit a button and you're set. Since it's a standard controller you could put that together with just some normal joystick->keypress stuff and any program that'll play sounds for you.

You could easily make some songs for Frets on Fire (which works perfectly with the RB guitar BTW) to have a drum part instead and use the controller out of the box. only tricky bit would be getting used to the foot pedal being on the side instead of a bar.

Jeff @ Nov 23rd 2007 11:50AM

Wait, the rock band guitar is USB?

I wonder if it'd work with guitar hero III for PC. In which case, I need to find a way to get the game without the stupid bundled xplorer... and get a friend with surplus controllers to sell me his rock band guitar.

ima747 @ Nov 23rd 2007 10:47AM

follow up comment in response to the video. by "pretty easy to do" in reference to his "hack" (he uses quotes to, watch the fingers :0) he means plug the thing into your computer. that's it. Load up the game controllers controle panel and go to the advanced configuration for the game pad and you'll see the diagnostic window in the video.

natureboy46 @ Nov 23rd 2007 10:47AM

Whatever happened to just playing the game? I could see how one would start screwing around with the hardware after they were bored but the game has just come out.

llamagoelz @ Dec 30th 2007 5:14PM

well if your like me and my friend we have only one xbox 360 and its at my friends house but i payed for half of the game so i wanna be able to play it when Im not at his house... so i looked it up as i was installing the drivers for the 360 controller on my pc

YO-Q @ Nov 23rd 2007 11:35AM

slow news days? This is lame.

Knoxximus @ Nov 23rd 2007 12:05PM

Hmmmm....as an electronic musician, the possible MIDI application intrigue me.

Knoxximus @ Nov 23rd 2007 12:05PM

Hmmmm....as an electronic musician, the possible MIDI applications intrigue me.

E.J. @ Nov 23rd 2007 1:11PM

Does the drum controller work with Boom Boom Rocket?

ima747 @ Nov 23rd 2007 1:32PM

I haven't tried using the drum controller in boom boom rocket but it should work fine. It behaves just like a regular controler, just without the bumpers, triggers, or sticks. it still has the D pad, letter button, start select, guide button and the drum heads work as another red, yellow, blue and green set. you can navigate the dash boar and media center just fine with it, or the guitar controller for that matter.

For those who don't know, all 3 intstruments with rockband for 360 are standard USB. the drums and guitar are USB joysticks, same as a wired 360 controller. The microphone is a standard USB mic. The documentation for the game even says you can use any USB mic with the game so you can use the mic as you would any other USB mic on your computer etc.

FYI I don't think anyone's bored with the game yet, but those of us interested in hardware or software are interested in more than just the game to begin with. I bought RB with the intent of justifying the price by using the controllers for more than just my 360.

As far as RB guitar in GH3 for PC I don't see why it shouldn't work. Unless they've written GH3 for PC to specificly require a GH peripheral it should work with any controller. And even if it doesn't it work with the keyboard. You can map joystick input to keyboard keys and just force it to work that way.

jesus_bon_jovi @ Nov 23rd 2007 5:37PM

What? He didnt load up Reason and fire up DrumKits? Sacrilege! I wish i had a midi drum kit then i wouldnt need to use my DS to play drums :\

Maci @ Nov 23rd 2007 8:12PM

This isn't lame. This is helping get the news out which will inspire people to develop a free game for it. Power of the press!

nes @ Nov 24th 2007 2:58AM

I think this is awesome. I haven't tried out the drum pads on the rock band set, but i'm betting they are going to feel better than any midi controller in the $100-200 price range. To someone who makes music with their computer, this essentially means you get a free music game with a drum controller. hell yeah.