Seth's midi Adapter (aka Use Electronic Drums to play Rock Band)

[dagware]

I have been meaning to write this review for close to a week now, but I kept putting it off because I wanted to make sure my review did justice to the product, since I think the product is absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately that was causing writer's block, so I decided to go ahead and write the review, and quit trying to make it perfect. So, here it is.

Ever wish you could use a real electronic drum set with Rock Band?

Well, now you can, by using sethmeisterg's Rock Band EDRUM-USB Adapter. It's this simple:

1. Attach the adapter to your electronic drum's brain (drum module) using a MIDI cable.
2. Attach the adapter to your PS3 or PS3 using a USB cable.
3. Play Rock Band.

Here's some pictures.

The adapter has all the buttons you'd find on a regular controller, plus a couple of extra ones. It's small, measuring 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" x 1".

The adapter works by assigning various MIDI notes to each of the RB pads. So, for example, the default mode maps snares to the red pad, open and closed hi-hats to the yellow pad, etc. If you don't like the mappings, you can easily change them. The adapter has lots of ways to customize it, and I won't go into all of that here. But suffice it to say that it has probably everything you'll ever need, and if it doesn't, you can upgrade the flash memory easily if Seth sends you new firmware.

I have noticed no difference in controller lag using this adapter, versus my stock RB drums (SL model). It just plain works.

Bottom line: It works. Get it. (see contact information at the end of this post)

Here's some details:

• PS3 and PS2 only. Why not XBOX 360? It's not for lack of trying, or some misguided fanboy love of one console over another. It turns out that the Rock Band controllers for the PS3 and PS2 use relatively open standards, and Seth was able to reverse engineer them. However, thanks to Microsoft, the controllers on the 360 use encrypted communications. Unfortunately this means that Seth has not been able to reverse engineer them. As of this writing, he has sent emails to Microsoft but unfortunately hasn't received a response. If you want to use electronic drums with other platforms, see the thread Rock Band with Electronic Drums (HOWTO) that deals with how you can build an interface between an electronic drum set and Rock Band.
• Lovingly hand-made. Among other things, this means the labels are hand-written, and the buttons are a little odd-feeling. But it works well and most likely will hold up pretty well.
• Nice manual. The manual is clear and well-written, and explains all the things you can change.

Contact Seth for pricing information.

On the Rock Band forums, he's sethmeisterg. You can PM him here.

Email: rbusbadapter at gmail dot com. I didn't want to type the email address exactly, just so spambots would have a harder time picking off the email address. The first part stands for "Rock Band USB Adapter" in case you couldn't figure it out.

Conclusion

If you have questions, go ahead and ask. I'll try to answer them as best as I can, and I'm sure Seth will chime in also.

Dan