Turning PS3 Guitar Hero World Tour Drum Kit (GHWT) into Midi Input Device for Garageband ’11

My whole life I wanted to play drums, I wanted a drum kit in school and in university. I never got one. Now that I’m older the dream hasn’t disappeared, it just changed a little. I saw that an electronic drum kit was more sensible it’s soft, you can play it with earphones, and you can record from it easily. Unfortunately they also cost $1000 +. So I settled for the next best thing. Guitar Hero World Tour on the PS3. I at last had drums. And they weren’t as bad as I thought them to be. You can get a pretty decent drumming experience on them. The only thing I didn’t like was that they only work within the game, with a song playing. I wanted to practice drumming on my own time.

It struck me. I’m sure this PS3 drum kit can be converted into a midi device that send signals that Garageband ’11 for Mac can turn into drum sounds, changing the dull dead PS3 play set into an electronic drum kit.

I googled vigorously but could only easily find how to do it with a Wii drum kit. I wanted to do it with the PS3 drum kit.
Most of the info down here is thanks to Brian Westbrook of Miditar Hero. I’m just going to explain the specific way to get the PS3 drum kit to work through Garageband ’11.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Download Software (all free):

• Max/MSP Runtime from http://cycling74.com/downloads/ . You don’t need Max 5 (which you have to pay for) only the runtime.
• Miditarhero from http://miditarhero.wordpress.com/download/ ( .mxf file)
• PS3 Controller drivers for Mac from http://tattiebogle.net/index.php/ProjectRoot/Ps3Controller

2. Install Software:

• Install Max/MSP Runtime on Mac
• Install PS3 Controller driver

3. Hardware

• Connect the USB PS3 wireless dongle you got with drum set to your Mac.
• Turn on drum set and connect to dongle. There should only be one red light shining on the kit and the dongle light should be on (not blinking).

4. Software configuration

• Go to the miditarhero.mxf file (where you saved it after downloading), right-click on it and Open With > Max/Msp 5 Runtime. This should open Miditarhero’s control screen.
• Set the Controller Box to Guitar Hero World tour PS3.
• Set Control Type to PS3 GH Drum kit (unsupported).
• Set Midi output to Max/MSP runtime
• Click on the circle that says Drums
• Open up Garageband and start new project. Choose “Piano”.
• On the right hand side info panel those “Drums > Rock kit” as instrument.
• Click on the edit button and select controller as “Drum Kit” and below as Default.
• Hit the drums and you should hear a sound. That’s it.
• To edit the sound each pad makes press setup on Miditarhero in the drums box and follow the instructions.

 

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