www.megadrum.info

Someone on the Megadrum French forum is currently trying to figure out how to connect (and set pad parameters) from Megadrum to a Playstation 2 console.
That would be awesome!!! The game Rock Band and Guitar Hero World Tour could be controlled with an electronic or A to E drum set!

I've searched for a solution, but I'm not sure I completely understand how that could be achieved. Just for the information.. the official Rock Band controller is connected via USB on the console, which I guess makes things easier!

Here are all the sources I have gathered (but most of them are showing how to use the actual RockBand controller and modify it with an electronic drum set without using a drum module). The goal would be to use the MD to control the pads :

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20420

http://edrums.info/rock_band.htm

http://egyokeo.com/midihero/

http://www.otronicon.org/InDash_Display.aspx?PGID=440

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11403741@N00/2308277964/

http://theflashspeaks.wordpress.com/200 ... er-how-to/

http://www.bytearts.com/midi/index.htm

http://rockbandkickbox.com/store/index. ... roductId=2

http://rockbandkickbox.com/store/index. ... roductId=6

I am very interested in this topic. I have Rockband but no Rockband drums and I think it would great to be able to play on some diy drums. I've seen several options that require the Rockband drum controller, but none that are completely diy.

My guess is that the Rock Band drum is emulating a USB HID joystick device. If my guess is right, I think there could be done something.

Can RockBand be played with a PS2 controller? If so, buy a cheap (5€) controller, open it, built one Keith Raper circuit for every piezo pad of your kit and connect each output to one button switch of the controller. It should be easy.

With the Keith Raper circuit you convert a piezo signal to ON/OFF signal. If PS2 controller buttons are only switch buttons, you only have to replace the buttons with each pad

elrules wrote:Can RockBand be played with a PS2 controller?

Unfortunately no.
I tried running the game with just a Ps2 controller, but it asks for a microphone to be plugged. If I plug the USB drum that message automatically disappears.

The Keith Raper circuit could be part of the solution, but that specific game requires a USB device.

Just in case that could be any help...
I thought I had found a solution to use Elrule's suggestion, but it failed.

I tried connecting my Ps2 controller to a Ps2controller/USB converter but the console does not recognize the controller at all.

I normally use that converter and exploit it the other way arround : i plug any ps2 controller to that converter so I can plug it into my computer and use the game controller as a MIDI device (with the help of a third party software).

So I guess we cant say that just any device plugged into the USB slot of the console will be recognized. Unless it's only the converter's fault?!

How could we do it?? (without buying a RockBand drum set and kill it just to get the circuit out of it)
Maybe by running a certain program and Megadrum at the same time to simulate a Ps2 device?
Maybe by building another circuit
Maybe I'm still looking the wrong way

The big problem that you might also face with this is that the rock band controller has seperate grounds for each pad. If you use the megadrum setup as is you will get cross talk. I made my megadrum / rockband controller with my kids in mind and had to be able to remove the grounds from the inputs to the MD module to fix the problem. Made a simple plug that would connect the pas when playing with the computer and remove it for rockband.

There's a PC clone of rock band called Frets on Fire... you need FoFix and the Rock Band 2 theme... then you can use GlovePIE or key2midi... I'm trying to find something to work on the Mac though.

clock2113 wrote:There's a PC clone of rock band called Frets on Fire... you need FoFix and the Rock Band 2 theme... then you can use GlovePIE or key2midi... I'm trying to find something to work on the Mac though.

Frets on fire already exists for Mac, then you have Steim Junxion or different "Midi translator" software applications http://www.macmusic.org/software/cat.ph ... n/id/7038/

And soon I believe we'll get Etrigger (next coming version of Edrummonitor) for Mac.

I have no idea what "FoFix" is.

I really hope to use my drumset with my Ps2 though, and not with a RockBand clone on my computer!

Made a simple plug that would connect the pas when playing with the computer and remove it for rockband.

Could you explain this in more details?

So in the end, does it work? I mean is your setting fully working and compatible? If so, may I ask on which console it works (Ps2, Ps3, Wii, Xbox, etc....)?

In the end does it work.... well yes and no. The more details is, i simply cut my RB drum controller up, took the insides and put them in the same box as the megadrum boards. i ran the grounds all to a db25 connector on one side and then jumped everything together on the otherside so that i could remove the ground for rockband by removing the external db25 plug. I wired the other 4 wires into the connections for the drums i wanted to use. then just turn on the rb controller and play away. they dont work together at the same time. im sure there is a better way of doing it but it works for my kids and is easy enough. this was with the 360 btw. seems to work great. havent had a single problem so far.