Easy guitar hero synth

some people mod the guitars to be able to play guitar synth notes. some people pay big bucks for a really good midi program. but i like many other cheap-o's out there dont like to pay for stuff and so i give you my instructable.

tools needed
-you (ha)
-pc (sorry mac owners. you can do it to but you will need to find another joy to key)

things needed
- xbox 360 guitar xplorer controller (sorry)
- or rock band strat

Step 1 Get the software

Google "Electronic Piano 2.5" and download it (mac users can use garage band)
next Google "Joy2key" and download the software ( web sight looks a little old but its good)

install Electronic Piano 2.5 and you now have the software

(i recommend making a folder on the desktop that is called joy to key or something an have the joy to key in there and a shortcut to Electronic Piano 2.5.)

Comments

[hazzywazzy]

heyy bro will it still work for guitar hero??

[punkhead58]

Unfortunately, Electronic Piano 2.5 is not compatible with the 64 bit version of Windows 7. Damn it.

[cdousley]

i have windows 7 what can we do?

[punkhead58]

Unless you're an experienced coder who can write driver software, there's nothing to do unless they decide to update the software. They may still do that, considering Windows 7 is still considerably new.

[cdousley]

well ive got my old xp

[metal-matt]

ohh god do i hate these ppl who spend there time playing 5 notes on a plastic guitar! and tell othres to do it too!. get a real guitar. not saying GH isnt bad ( i play it a bit) but srsly get a real guitar.

[icepick244]

Let them eat cake, my friend. If they don't want to put in or don't have the time and effort to learn guitar, they shouldn't have to. It's a game, and something completely different. It's cool that you play guitar, but just cause you do others don't have to. and if that picture is of you, that's a pretty badass jackson you got there.

[metal-matt]

my comment was 2 years old..
anyway. not me in the pic, thats alexi laiho of children of bodom, however i think in that pic he was playing for Klamydia, not sure tho.

[pixeldotz]

this is a nice instructable. one thing i'd like to point out though. joytokey was the most awesome program for keyboard binding to controls. i used it for years. however, xpadder is the way to go now. it had such a nice professional interface, no more needing to know what xaxis raxis etc etc, your control buttons are on. try it out. guarantee non of you will be disappointed.

[icepick244]

BUT DOES IT WORK ON MAC D:

[cdousley]

stupid windows seven electronic piono wont work what do i do

[Andybren8690]

I have windows vista and When I try to download the "Electronic Piano" It installs no problem, but when I try to run it, I get an error message that says " Cannot find file C:\PROGRA~1\Electronic Piano 2.5\Pianoo25.exe (or one of it's componants.) Check to ensure the path and filename are corect and all that required libraries are available." anyone know what I am doing wrong????

[aedrummer]

Which guitar controller would be better for windows XP xbox 360 guitar xplorer controller or rock band strat? are their any differences?

[ShadowChaosControl]

yes, get the xplorer, not only are they cheaper, but the rock band guitar is a piece of crap

[aedrummer]

Yeah, I went ahead and got the Xplorer. It is pretty cool. I used MIDItar hero to turn it into a MIDI controller then I used Fruity Loops for my MIDI output. It has a bunch of preset sounds and I made a Vocoder with Fruity Loops.

[ojochris]

Can I di it with a Wireless PS2 COntroller!?

[kagenin]

I forget - does the PS2 wireless controller have a PS2 controller connector dongle or a USB dongle? If it uses a PS2 controller connector, you should be able to use most PS2-controller to USB connectors. I have a wired PS2 controller wired through a fairly cheap USB adapter - the whammy bar doesn't seem to work with it, but other than that, it works fine.

[Spense09]

do u have 2 use an explorer?, i only have the les paul also, could u use a wireless

[hockeybuggy]

all les pauls that i know of are wireless the only one that i know will work with some tweaking is the wii les paul will work

[stefannasehi]

what tweaking do i do to my wii gh controller?

[kagenin]

To use a Wii GH controller with a PC, the PC will need to be bluetooth-capable. You can get a USB Bluetooth dongle for that, but make sure you get one that comes with a BlueSoleil driver (although I hear the built-in Vista Bluetooth driver works well if you're running Vista, but if you're running XP or 2k, you'll want BlueSoleil).

Instructions for syncing a Wii remote to a PC are available at http://www.wiili.org

You'll then need a program called GlovePIE (also available at Wiili).

I'd assume there are also relevant articles here on that topic. It's not hard.

After that, you probably wouldn't need Joy2Key, since GlovePIE would basically do that job.

[stefannasehi]

(wireless contoller)

[Spense09]

I have a 360 one dang, thanks though

[makeagetaway]

For mac users.
Just grab a wii guitar hero controller.

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2008/08/26/osculator-magic-bullet-for-mac-alternative-controllers-updated/

[stefannasehi]

i have a pc can i use a wii controller too?

[bounty1012]

Btw Joy2key doesnt work for me :(

[REA]

for mac users: use MIDItar Hero. you wont need joy2key with it.

[Izokay]

http://www.pianoeletronico.com.br/index-en.html
http://www.electracode.com/4/joy2key/JoyToKey%20English%20Version_files/jtk374en.zip

[130rne]

It's just signals. You can use your guitar to play Frets on Fire, use it with software to trigger MIDI signals, etc. You can also use your Rockband drums and trigger MIDI in order to record songs with audio software (Ableton, Reason, etc.-it's a game controller just like the guitar). I'm pretty sure it will be touch sensitive, but I haven't tried it. And for those looking for a Rock Band clone, Frets on Fire is great. You can rip the songs off the game discs. You can dl all the songs in Ogg Vorbis, just stick them in the songs folder. You can make your own song with DAW software, create a MIDI file, and play back your own song. Basically, you can play any song. They have 2P and there was another game (forgot which-free) that let you play online. It was a frets on fire clone. There's career mods, and the MFH Alarian mod is just like rockband, without motion in the stages. Did I mention the drums? (Usually for rock band songs). Better have decent graphics for 2 player. My laptop slows down sometimes. (There's also an 8-bit mode which is easier on the graphics card. Oh yeah, and no vocals. They haven't programmed it in. Just some FYI.

[zstamey84]

Very cool Instructable! I used this with the 360 guitar from Guitar Hero 2 and it worked perfectly. However I used Xpadder as pixeldotz suggested. It really is an amazing program to use. I opened up my Fruity Loops program and it was really fun to make the drum beats and all the other instruments with the guitar. In addition to that I found a guitar hero knock-off game to play on your computer that is fun for about 5-10 min, haha. Here is the link to download: http://fretsonfire.sourceforge.net/http://fretsonfire.sourceforge.net/

[taco_guy93]

u know that if u have guitar hero u can import ALL the songs to frets on fire!

[sashadalton43]

Any guitar hero songs, or if its not allready tidied up, the import the audio converted to ogg vorbis (*.ogg) and imput the notes yourself!

[jajabyron]

(removed by author or community request)

[hockeybuggy]

rockband strat works too (not the drums though {there is a delay}) you can try any guitar controller the wii controller i know you can do but you need a com with bluetooth and some cool extra software What controller were you thinking

[MilotisX]

the drums work, u need a good sound driver, use fl studio and asio for all

[Spense09]

i used my standard xbox 360 wireless controller and i noticed u don't have to strum. is there any way you could make this so you have to strum. i like struming, and pie. mmmmmmm.... pie.....aple with bannana nut pie.....

[sashadalton43]

you sound like my friend, he is alwoys eating and has a strange obssesion with...mmm...PIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[duckythescientist]

Yes there is. When pushed down a button is TRUE ( 1 ) and released FALSE ( 0 ). Multiply the value of the button and the value of the strummer. 1*1=1 so note=(button) * (strummer.down) With the boolean logic that glovepie or any other joy-to-key program uses it should work.

[Spense09]

im not trying to be rude but, could you explain that in english. i would appreciate it.

[duckythescientist]

Sure, When you strum the computer sees the strum button as a 1 and when you leave it alone it sees it as a 0 similarly with the fret, when the fret is pushed down it is seen by the computer as a 1 and when it is not pressed it is seen as a 0. Also if you make a noise command equal 1 then the computer will make the sound. So using the simple math property that 0 * anything == 0 (0xANYTHING=0) you can set it up so that the noise equals 1 and happens only when both the fret and the strummer equal one. In your program you will probably see a line somewhere that looks something like this note.1a = joystick.button.1 it needs to be changed to note.1a = (joystick.button.1) * (joystick.button.{strummer button number}) or you could just use the AND operation in your line of code like this note.1a = joystick.button.1 AND joystick.button.{strummer button number} I hope that helped...