PS3 music peripherals to be title agnostic (i.e., open !)

[Shifty Geezer]

It's also worth mentioing that the compatibility extends to microphones, which is a big plus. Anyone with a SingStar mic can integrate into RockStar, diminishing the cost of entry for these ensemble titles. If they were really smart they'd also support MIDI integration, allowing people to use drum pad systems as both gameplay devices and real musical instruments. Sharing the cost of a very expensive game among other titles and applications is bound to broaden the scope of these games.

 

[patsu]

If they were really smart they'd also support MIDI integration, allowing people to use drum pad systems as both gameplay devices and real musical instruments. Sharing the cost of a very expensive game among other titles and applications is bound to broaden the scope of these games.

If I remember correctly, Steve Jobs said 1 in 3 US families has a "musician".

Well, actually... sticking 5 bumper stickers to 5 players and let PS Eye watch them shake their booties on Rockband drum music should be a blast too.


EDIT: I wonder if LAN-based RemotePlay is fast enough to handle Rockband. I'd love to use a real or MIDI Piano to play the guitar track "remotely".

 

[eastmen]

This is good news all along. I was glad i didn't buy the aero smith bundle for the 360 as that controller some how did not work with rock band.

These companys would be smart to have all the instruments work together. It may mean lower instrument sales in the long run , but people will go out and buy the software. The controllers will break at some point anyway. Actually it saved me with rockband. That guitar was trash and stoped working a day after I got the bundle , thankfully my gh2 controllers worked on it.

 

[patsu]

*Oops! wrong thread*

 

[AntShaw]

Not to be outdone MS notes all the peripherals will be compatible as well for the next round of music games.

For the record, we also do that, so consider this an official announcement.

All the instruments from Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, and Rock Revolution will be cross-compatible.

http://kotaku.com/5039100/microsoft-+-all-our-instruments-cross+compatible-too

Although they don't mention Lips. Although I don't foresee that being an issue either.

 

[mister slim]

Sony's not really catching up with MS here. The reason Rock Band 360 supported GH instruments is because Harmonix built Guitar Hero II and could easily support the Guitar Hero II controller, while Activision couldn't really break compatibility with their own games to prevent Rock Band functionality, so the GH3 controller followed the same standard as GH2. Meanwhile Activision did prevent non-GH controllers working with GH. When Harmonix tried to add the same compatibility to Rock Band PS3 Activision forced Sony to block the patch. It is good that both manufacturers are recognizing that cross-compatibility is beneficial to the platform and the consumer.

 

[Xalion]

If they were really smart they'd also support MIDI integration, allowing people to use drum pad systems as both gameplay devices and real musical instruments. Sharing the cost of a very expensive game among other titles and applications is bound to broaden the scope of these games.

This is an interesting thought. The most interesting part about it to me might be this though. This drum pad system will be compatible with both systems (the XBox version is already ready and the PS3 is supposed to be coming soon). It also allows the use of your standard midi drum brain to function as a full up electronic drum set.

I was excited to purchase this for just Rockband. Knowing it will also work with Guitar Hero 4 because of the new stance Sony has taken on game controllers has upped my interest in GH4 by a huge amount.

I have to say, I think that Sony is on the right track by this unified approach to things. I would like to see more products like the drum rocker or even further along the lines you mentioned though where a game peripheral can function for other purposes.

 

[patsu]

Shifty ! You hit the jackpot
http://www.ps3fanboy.com/2008/09/17/ps3-version-of-guitar-hero-to-get-midi-sequencer/

Guitar Hero World Tour will be getting new functionality in a patch available one week after its release. Most excitingly, this feature is something that only PS3 can fully realize. According to Shacknews, World Tour will be gaining a MIDI sequencer, which encompasses rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass, keyboard and drum tracks on the PS3. (It will be limited to only drum tracks on the Xbox 360 due to unspecified "hardware issues.")

"We have full, basically, computer editing control, at least on the PS3, through the music studio," Neversoft's Brian Bright stated in a Shacknews interview. "If you're a musician or you do any sequencing, it really just makes the pathway to getting your songs in the game that much easier--once you get it down. We just really want to give people enough tools to be able to make good music."

EDIT: Then again, isolated move like this is relatively useless in garnering any attention. It has to be roped into a larger picture and concept
... like user-generated content in this case. Come on Sony, start from the goal and work backwards.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The logical extension, tying in with EyeCreate and SingStar, is a GHWT scene where people can upload their own tracks and vids. If YouTube export is working as expected, this'll happen regardless of an official channel, but its the sort of thing you'd want tied into PSLife/Home/Community activities.

I don't understand the 'hardware issues'. Sequencing is undemanding - you just record the timing the controls are being hit.

 

[Arwin]

The logical extension, tying in with EyeCreate and SingStar, is a GHWT scene where people can upload their own tracks and vids. If YouTube export is working as expected, this'll happen regardless of an official channel, but its the sort of thing you'd want tied into PSLife/Home/Community activities.

I don't understand the 'hardware issues'. Sequencing is undemanding - you just record the timing the controls are being hit.

Hardware issues I presume come from Microsoft's driver policy. You can't write/manage drivers yourself for the 360, if I remember correctly. This has been an issue with Logitech in the past. So perhaps they only had MIDI implemented for drums initially (or maybe only just supporting one single MIDI device, rather than a MIDI-THRU chain?), and then realised they could fairly easily expand stuff to all sorts of instruments. If this is the case then it will happen on the 360, just a good while later.

However, I'm not even sure I understand what the functionality is exactly just yet! Where does the sequencer live? If I read it correctly, that's on the PS3. So what happens here - do we output the MIDI signal again also, or is the MIDI input purely for use of built-in Guitar Hero samples? If we have output, does that mean the peripheral comes with MIDI IN and MIDI out ports built in? Do we output some stuff to midi-out, some stuff to Guitar Hero's sampler/synth? Etc.

Lots of questions but at any rate, it sounds interesting!.

 

[AntShaw]

However, I'm not even sure I understand what the functionality is exactly just yet! Where does the sequencer live? If I read it correctly, that's on the PS3. So what happens here - do we output the MIDI signal again also, or is the MIDI input purely for use of built-in Guitar Hero samples? If we have output, does that mean the peripheral comes with MIDI IN and MIDI out ports built in? Do we output some stuff to midi-out, some stuff to Guitar Hero's sampler/synth? Etc.

Lots of questions but at any rate, it sounds interesting!.

My understanding of reading it was that it is simply gaining the midi sequencer (software) portion that will reside in the Music Studio portion of the game. I don't think a hardware peripheral is going to be needed. If so, it would put this in an even further niche category then it already is.

 

[patsu]

It's for people to put original music into RockStar, another early attempt at user-generated content. But you're correct, it's like 1% of the gamers serving 99%. I have GarageBand (part of iLife on Mac). So there should be some way to hook them up together. To get the artists' attention, they need to spread this news among the musicians, not the gamers. Might be a way to rope non-gamers into the community.

However, What I am looking for is for the consumers to play the game using MIDI instruments (and eventually real instruments).

 

[RobertR1]

For those who care. No trophies support in GH:WT.

 

[patsu]

Buahahaha ! Trophies can go to hell. Bring a unique gameplay experience and Home integration. I will buy it. I wasn't interested in GH at all until this MIDI idea pops up.

My 3 year old kid already uses GarageBand to make his own Birthday song (He even sang into the mic ;-) ). I might just hook the system up for him to fudge with. We are trying to think of one project every week to engage him in life.

May be the younger kids are more savvy in this sort of things than we think.

EDIT: Come to think of it, they can start a LittleBigPlanet-like community here too for musicians. In fact, just get them to submit to both GH and LBP. Both can use some original music.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Okay, as I understand it from the interview, the game supports MIDI In, taking MIDI data and passing that into its internal instrument synthesiser. Whatever's playing on MIDI channel 1 plays rythmn guitar, Channel 2 is lead, 3 is bass, 4 is keys and Channel 10 is drums. The game records the note data and you can edit it in the sequencer.

I don't see how the MIDI In is provided. I'm guessing there's need for a USB adaptor. AFAIK there's no official MIDI over USB standard, and everything's still using the antiquated 5-pin din connectors. If the system requires USB MIDI devices, it'll see little compatibility with the myriad of instruments out there!

I still can't see any reason for a 'hardware issue', especially when they say XB360 works with Channel 10. How can it not work with any other channels?! It's just packaged serial data.

 

[betan]

I don't see how the MIDI In is provided. I'm guessing there's need for a USB adaptor. AFAIK there's no official MIDI over USB standard, and everything's still using the antiquated 5-pin din connectors. If the system requires USB MIDI devices, it'll see little compatibility with the myriad of instruments out there!

From the interview:

"We're fortunate that on the hardware side, we're able to put the MIDI import jack in and get the MIDI data into the console, which was no easy task."

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I guess that is a USB device then. Don't see what was so hard about it though, unless they meant hitting a low cost? USB MIDI convertors are pretty commonplace, but not particularly cheap on the whole, though I don't doubt the music companies have a healthy markup. And it still doesn't explain XB360's issues. If they can receive MIDI data tagged as Channel 10, why data with the channel value set to any other number? It's not like Channel 10 has a different format, or even that drums have to be on Channel 10 - they only are by convention.

 

[eastmen]

I have a question. Which controller is going to be better to invest in. G uitar hero world tour or Rockband. Purely on the guitar .

I plan on buyin for the 360 but i'm sure the instruments will be the same on both systems (perhaps simple comsetic changes) I already have the full rockband set and two guitar hero 2 controllers. However all 3 are wired and I want to move away from that . The only thing i want to keep wired is the rockband drum set.

What are your thoughts on this guys?

 

[patsu]

I guess that is a USB device then. Don't see what was so hard about it though, unless they meant hitting a low cost? USB MIDI convertors are pretty commonplace, but not particularly cheap on the whole, though I don't doubt the music companies have a healthy markup. And it still doesn't explain XB360's issues. If they can receive MIDI data tagged as Channel 10, why data with the channel value set to any other number? It's not like Channel 10 has a different format, or even that drums have to be on Channel 10 - they only are by convention.

Might be security related... or non-standard hardware interface ?

 

[mister slim]

Doesn't the drum set have a MIDI jack built in? I think Neversoft mentioned at some point that anyone with a MIDI drumset would be able to use it by plugging it in to the drum kit. Doesn't explain the 360/PS3 thing though.