Using Rockband XBox 360 instruments/controllers on a Mac
Comments(4)
This could very well be the geekiest post and endeavor I ever did. I don’t even play Rockband much nor am I a musician (other than playing the bass guitar very occasionally). While Rockband and Guitar Hero probably do nothing to encourage kids to pick up a real instrument, I thought it’d be fun to play actual music with them.
It’s actually fairly easy to do. The Rockband instruments (drum & guitar) are actually fairly standard USB XBox controllers but they’re not seen by Mac OS X as HID devices. Installing a Mac OS X driver for Xbox 360 controllers worked well on Leopard with me. Using Controllermate which I think is a must have for anyone tinkering with strange USB devices on Mac OS X, I was able to map the different buttons (and levers and direction pads and drum pads) to a different keystrokes. After that, fire up GarageBand, use the keyboard mode to record music and off you go !
From what I read Controllermate will soon interface with MIDI events which might open up even more possibilities. Keep in mind that you can use Controllermate to fine tune repeat, key combinations, the effect of some levers, etc…
PS: “A,S,D, F,G,H,J,K,L ” are good examples of mapping for Garageband and the drums
Hey, I was wondering if you could send me a screenshot of your Controller Mate INSERT Window. I am trying to sync up the drums as best as possible, i have them working, i just want to see what your set up looked like. Also, do you know if it is possible to be able to hit a pad, lets say for instance the RED pad, i want it to switch everytime it is hit, from the S key to the D key and back again. Do you know if that is possible? If possible, do you know how? Thank you.
Signed- Another Odd USB Geek. lol
kool
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Very interesting
. I never thought of hooking of the controllers to a Mac, great idea!