Introduction: Connecting Your Guitar Hero or Rock Band Controller to Frets on Fire

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This will teach you how to connect your usb guitar controller to your computer using Xpadder for use with Frets on Fire.

Step 1: Materials

For this project you will need:
-A usb guitar controller (Xbox 360 Xplorer or PS2/PS3 Rock Band Guitar.) (If you want to use a wireless Xbox 360 guitar, you will have to get a wireless adapter from the official xbox website. ( http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360wirelessgamingreceiver/ ))
-Frets on Fire ( http://fretsonfire.sourceforge.net/ )
-Xpadder ( http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/Xpadder.shtml )
-Xpadder controller images ( http://www.xpadderwave.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=59&func=select&id=6 )

Step 2: Controller Setup

Now we will start to setup the controller to use it with frets on fire.
Open Xpadder. Click the gamepad image at the top left corner, then new. Go down the tabs following the instructions. (You can skip the sticks and triggers tabs.) Theoretically, you only need the buttons (Frets), the D-pad, and tilt sensor, but you can also add the start button, and whammy bar (for use with fofix, which we'll go in to more detail on later.).
First add a controller image. You can get them from the link in the last step. Just click on open and find it. Next we put the directional pad. Check the enabled box and then follow the directions on the screen. Your strum bar up and down should be the same as the up and down on the d-pad. Now to add the buttons. Just press the button on the guitar, and when it appears, move it to its correct place on the image. Start with the frets and then do the whammy (if applicable), and the start button. Lastly tilt the guitar for the tilt sensor. (It will recognize it as a button) Move the button wherever it makes sense to you. the button moving is critical for the next step so don't forget it. If you press the strum bar, it should just do up and down on the d-pad. Press all the mapped buttons to make sure you have them aligned correctly. They will light up green when you press (Or tilt) them. When done it should look something like the fifth picture. Then go to the finish tab and close the window. Be sure to save the controller. (Gamepad-save as)

Step 3: Mapping

Now we will assign the buttons to keyboard keys. Click each button and select a key to be used. theoretically, it doesn't matter which keys you pick, as you can change them in fof's options anyway. When you are done with all of them, save the key profile by clicking the paper button and then save as. When you have the controller plugged in, and you open xpadder, it will automatically find the first profile made, and use it.

Step 4: Fofix

If your tired of frets on fire's look and feel, and you want to up the guitar hero experience, i suggest you download FoFix ( http://fretsonfire.wikidot.com/fofix ). Its the upgraded version of fof, that has many new features to make it feel like guitar hero or rockband. (Multiplayer mode, Star power, killswitch (whammy), and themes to complete the guitar hero / rock band feel, or whatever other feel you want. (Mario, Microsoft Paint, etc.)) The rest of this instructable is done using Fofix, but its fairly easy to figure the rest out on your own if you don't want it. Here is a link for themes. http://www.fretsonfire.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=24976

Step 5: FoF Control Setup

Now to setup the controls in Fofix. In fofix go to options-controls-p1 keys. It's really simple actually. Just change the controls to whatever you made them on your xpadder profile and your good to go. Don't use buttons like backspace and enter though, and don't use the same button for to different one 'cause it will mess it up. (Probably should have said that earlier.) The instructions are pretty much the same for the regular frets on fire, except that the menus have different names.

Step 6: Finish

Now your good to go. Shred up some frets on fire using your guitar controller. As you may have noticed, xpadder can be used for other controllers to, as long as you can connect them to your computer. You can also use it to control your computer with a game controller, since you can use any function on a keyboard. You can import songs from the internet into frets on fire, too. That means you can also get all the guitar hero and rockband songs if you want. thanks for reading.