Hacking a Guitar Hero controller to do MIDI for Garageband

PeteyWM05 wrote:
I'm thinking of throwing an Apple awareness event on my campus where people come in and play guitar hero and then learn about Garageband.

It'd be awesome if I could hack together a Guitar Hero controller to work as a midi controller.

Anyone know if this is possible? I know you can turn it into a midi controller for PCs but I was wondering if anybody had any direct knowledge about Macs.

Hey, if you figure this out, could you follow up with a post about it here? I'd be curious to know about that too. Thanks!

with the proviso that i haven't tried this (i don't have any game controllers), perhaps these will set you in the right direction:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/29122

http://www.carvware.com/gamepadcompanion.html

you might also want to take a look at this excellent app:

http://www.orderedbytes.com/

Hey Petey,
check this out:
http://www.steim.org/steim/junxion.html

You Will Need:
1. the Nintendo Wii-based wireless Guitar Hero controller(not PS3 or Xbox)
2. A Bluetooth enabled Mac...+(MacIntel is apparently a much more stable Blutooth CPU platform for this program!)+
3. Junxion... a great HID translator but it does not fully support the Guitar Hero 'extension' of the Wii Remote... but it does a great job of converting the buttons,joystick and sensors of the Wii Remote and the Wii Nunchuck accessory.
_I am currently investigating the necessary steps to enable all of the controls that exist on the Gtr Hero controller to be recognized by the Junxion app._

*The rig works like this:*

The wireless Guitar Hero controller uses the Wii Remote with Bluetooth and Infra-Red to transceive with the Mac
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2792427
+note the Wii Remote slapped into the body of this white Les Paul!+
Junxion then recognizes the WiiMote as a sensor device and from that point you can convert the sensor data to MIDI, OSC with rules, tables, and other logic based conditions for the resultant output.
From there you could route the MIDI notes and controllers to GarageBand or any software or hardware that uses MIDI!

The Guitar Hero controller would make a great one-octave MIDI controller with input devices for expression, so I hope to be up and running soon with a hybrid doubleneck guitar/guitar hero collage,
hope this helps,
AL

Thanks!