Converting Xbox 360 RockBand drums to MIDI drum kit!

Converting Xbox 360 RockBand Drums to MIDI Drum kit:

Play Version:
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Required Items:
-xbox 360 RockBand Drum controller w/bass pedal
-computer software GlovePIE (Get Here: http://carl.kenner.googlepages.com/glovepie_download)
-A computer with USB support

Instructions:
1. Plug your drum controller into your PC.
It should automatically detect your hardware and install the driver, but if it doesnt,
you can go to the microsoft web site and download xbox 360 controller drivers.

2. Open the program GlovePIE and enter the following information into the code section
where it says "Type your program here."

midi.OpenHiHat = joystick1.Button2; //red
midi.CrashCymbal1 = joystick1.Button1; //green
midi.LowFloorTom = joystick1.Button3; //blue
midi.AcousticSnare = joystick1.Button4; //yellow
midi.BassDrum1 = joystick1.Button5; //pedal

3. Click RUN in GlovePIE

4. ENJOY!!!

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Further note for recording musicians. If you need a cheap electric drum set, this is your solution.

I have a modded rock band drum kit in my studio and it works like a dream when it comes to recording drum tracks, my drummer loves it and it works great.

The drum kit I have in my studio is 2 rock band drum sets.
So I have 8 pads and a double bass pedal. :D

I only spent about 80 bucks for both rock band drum controllers,
so ive basically got an 80 dollar 10 peice electric drum set!

Now, in order to get your drum controller to play midi through
your audio sequencer, your going to have to know a bit about
midi recording and learn how GlovePIE works, because, im not
going to make a tutorial on how to get it to work through your
audio software. I use a virtual MIDI keyboard and virtual MIDI
ports to rig my drum kit up to play through my software.

This is actually a fantastic idea...

I actually did this with my PS3 set, except that I use VMIDIJoY to recognize the signals, and then I send them to my hardware synth. Works pretty well.

Using the rockband remote beats the hell out of paying 500-1200 dollars for an average electric drum kit, which is virtually the same thing as the rock band drum controller anyways, just more complex. But there again, buy two rock band drum controllers... equally as complex and about 20 times cheaper. :D

I find that it sucked. I did this a while back, used different programs but the same concept. There's most certainly a lag that is much more noticable when recording music as compared to playing a rhythm game where it can afford to be a little bit more lenient. Also no velocities :(

Not a practical solution for a studio drum kit but fun to play around with

Ralphis said:

Also no velocities :(

Not a practical solution for a studio drum kit but fun to play around with

Yeah, I found that to be a big limitation as well. The lag I didn't notice so much (I think around 20-40ms on mine, same as my soft synths), but I did notice a difference in sensitivity. If I were to use them in a live setting, I'd probably use them to trigger certain events rather than sounds.

The reason the MIDI laggs is you have to use appropriate audio drivers for real time MIDI recording, 16/24 bit ASIO work quite well, depending on your soundcard.

The same could be done with piezo transducers and a couple mono jacks. Solder the positive to positive/negative to negative and run quarter inch cables to an existing drum module. A lot of the times the triggers will be much too sensitive and cause a stutter, triggering 2-3 samples per hit.. the best solution is to use double sided foam tape to attach the triggers to the drum head. Attaching them to the under-side of the pad or the rim will also help. You can score a module for cheap, I have a Yamaha PTX-8 that works fine for under 80 dollars US.

Ed said:

The reason the MIDI laggs is you have to use appropriate audio drivers for real time MIDI recording, 16/24 bit ASIO work quite well, depending on your soundcard.

I use asio for all and all of my other midi input devices work pretty much spot on. I've only experienced problems with the drum set, perhaps as a result of the USB connection

The only reason your having a problem with latency is because your computer isnt processing the audio properly. You just have to have a good set up.
2 gigs of ddr2 should eliminate that delay. I use 4 gigs to help process all my other instruments at the same time and still maintain high audio quality.
It also has a lot to do with your sound card. I'm using a SoundBlaster Fatality. It works great.

But of course if your big time into music you dont want to stick with this as a permanent solution, but my setup works fine for me until I get the money to afford better equipment.

Corrupted Marine said:

The only reason your having a problem with latency is because your computer isnt processing the audio properly. You just have to have a good set up.

I'm not sure I buy this. I have 1.5gb DDR2 ram and a Core 2 Quad with an Audigy 4 using ASIO drivers (and sometimes ASIO4ALL, which reduces latency even more). I can run multiple instances of Arturia's Moog Modular V, Prophet V, and multiple instances of NI's Battery 2, as well as control two external hardware synths, all at once without any delays or hiccups. When controlling my soft synths with my MIDI keyboards, I have no noticeable delay (again, I think it's like 20-40ms). I really think it's just the way Rock Band's drums are designed.

You have to remember, MIDI messages are only that, messages. They're a couple of bytes in length. I'm not saying Rock Band's drum kit is having huge multi-second latency problems on my computer, just that the latency feels a bit like 80-100ms, which is in the "difficult" range.

This sounds neat. Almost makes me want to try it except I don't have a 360 and I really doubt that the results that I, not knowing the first thing about drumming, produced with this method would be any better than what I would with a keyboard controller. But definitely on my ToDo list for when I do get a 360!

DJ_Haruko said:

I'm not sure I buy this. I have 1.5gb DDR2 ram and a Core 2 Quad with an Audigy 4 using ASIO drivers (and sometimes ASIO4ALL, which reduces latency even more). I can run multiple instances of Arturia's Moog Modular V, Prophet V, and multiple instances of NI's Battery 2, as well as control two external hardware synths, all at once without any delays or hiccups. When controlling my soft synths with my MIDI keyboards, I have no noticeable delay (again, I think it's like 20-40ms). I really think it's just the way Rock Band's drums are designed.

You have to remember, MIDI messages are only that, messages. They're a couple of bytes in length. I'm not saying Rock Band's drum kit is having huge multi-second latency problems on my computer, just that the latency feels a bit like 80-100ms, which is in the "difficult" range.

Mine is running as 4.4msec. Pretty much, theres no delay in latency, it works just great for me. The only problem we have found so far is that the rock band set is taking a beating. lol We put electric drum pads on it but its just not made for that kind of playing we do, of course were a metal group.

You can get an EMU 0404 for less than 100 bucks these days. Two analog in/out, coax, s/PDIF and MIDI in/out. Even without the ASIO drivers I can get midi latency down to less than 2ms. Providing background applications are down to a minimum, there's no VSTs running. Also the GUI can affect your MIDI latency quite a bit. Cakewalk does a horrendous job handling jitter. Sonar is pretty solid. FL Studio is pretty sturdy actually, oddly enough being the biggest toy of the three.

You could always get a Mac. Even my little G4 does a better job recording MIDI than my Pentium 4.

Clever stuff.

done this. works decently to trigger samples until i can afford my tr808.