I'm wondering if Pure Data can be used to read information from devices like the guitar hero controllers. I just finished reading about the "Guitar Zeros" and want to try that myself.

The problem is, they use Max/MSP and the [hi] object. Which doesn't seem to exist in Pd. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

any hardware hackers out there? I need a guitar hero controller built with led buttons that can be recolored in rt and aftertouch on all the triggers. Replace the 8bit input with midi values for the strum and whammy and neck wiggle.

That would be a pretty awesome project. Not sure how you'd go about getting midi values direct from it though, perhaps you could stick in a cv/midi converter, or an arduino? That would allow the led feedback.

Aftertouch might be complicated, because I would assume they just use momentary switches.
The strum is just a momentary as well.
The neck wiggle is just a mercury switch, so the only really continuous control you have there is the whammy, I'm not sure of the resolution of it.

Heres what I would do to
Firstly get an arduino(you could get a bluetooth one if you wanted it wireless)
the whammy bar should be easy as i assume its just a potentiometer with a spring system to bring it back flat. the output of this could head straight to the arduino.

For the led buttons, you could set the leds next to the buttons, keeping them intact(im not sure what you are using the leds for, so location may be more important)
keeping the original switching intact would probably be a good idea, and you could use piezo elements to get a velocity reading, while note length would be determined by the original switching.
again, this could all go into the arduino.

This same technique could be used for the strum control.

And you could replace the mercury switch with an accelerometer.

I haven't really looked inside my controls so I'm just making all my assumptions on their current workings from what I've read.

Or, you could find a cheap small midi enabled keyboard.
Used the cc's for the whammy, and the inner workings of the keys for your switching.
But i've no idea how you'd go about the leds with this one.

I want the recolorable fret switches so that different scale degrees can have assigned colors, creating synesthetic relationships between scales and palettes. I'm imagining a improvisitory light show using GEM, using midi controllers some of which directly effect the sounds (synthetic instruments) and some which directly effect the light and indirectly the music (compositional abstraction). I posted a little demo patch of scale to color at the bottom of this thread(http://puredata.hurleur.com/sujet-1930-diy-library-part-diy-perk).

From what I've read, which is very little, the arduino sounds like the gestalt of synthetic instrument creation. I guess I'll have to learn to hack one. I bet it would go really well with the NIA brain helmets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_Impulse_Actuator).

enough craziness for now.

Hey sunji,

were you able to detect the whammy bar with HID? I didn't know about this so i made my own patch for this. I couldn't find the whammy bar though. I don't know if it is because of HID or my ps2 -> USB converter.

Thanks!

I don't think I ever got the whammy working, I have no gtr ctlr to test right now.

I was not able to get any data from the whammy bar using a PS2 to USB converter on the GH controller. But on the rock band controller I got it working great. The rock band controller gives you a lot more controls to experiment with.

-Jon

what else does rock band give you? the pickup switch knob? is there anything else? i was thinking that would be a cool way to switch effects or octaves (pentaves?) or something.

also, are the extra 5 buttons separate buttons or are they wired to be the same as the first five?

lestly, has anyone tried HID out with this guitar: http://www.mywii.com.au/img/news/Guitar-Hero-World-Tour-Wii-Controllers-1.jpg

it looks like it has a touch sensitive area...

The 5 solo buttons are separate controls plus you have the 5 way selector switch and on the 360 version you get a direction pad, photo attached.

http://www.slashgear.com/gallery/data_files/1/4/6/composite_2.jpg

-Jon

I'm totally new to this. Can anyone help me out or at least point me to where to start? I'm just trying to set-up the controller with a couple of chords so I can play some songs for the youth kids at church