How to Turn Your GH Drums Into Electric Drums
Electronic drum sets are a blessing for today's musicians: drummers can practice without being a nuisance, try different setups without having to buy new set pieces and alter the tone of their instrument to precisely match their desired sound. However, drum sets can be quite expensive, typically running upward of $1000 dollars. For those on a low budget, it's possible to transform the drum set included with Guitar Hero into a usable electronic drum set.
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Things You'll Need
- Guitar Hero World Tour Drum Kit for Wii
- Wii Controller (WiiMote)
- Mac Computer running OS X
Instructions
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Setting Up and Configuring the Electric Drums
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1
Assemble the Guitar Hero: World Tour drum kit according to the directions included with it. Snap the Wiimote into its spot on the front of the kit.
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2
Using a Macintosh running OS X (works well with MacBooks) open GarageBand. Click "Choose," then under "New Project From Template" pick "Create." This should create a new project with a Piano track open. Click the small button with a lowercase "i" near the bottom-right corner of the screen, click "Drum Kits," then select the drum kit you'd like to use. The kits recommended for this are the Rock Kit and the Headbanger Kit. Once you see the Piano track change to a drum kit, GarageBand is set up for live jamming.
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3
Download OSCulator using the same Mac. A link to download this program can be found in the Resources section below. This program allows you to link various devices to MIDI triggers. Open OSCulator, and you should see a message saying "Press Buttons 1 & 2 To Connect To Wiimote." Do this. You should see your Wiimote identified within the program, and a list of inputs should appear.
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Configure the drums to their respective sounds. To begin, strike the red drum while watching OSCulator. You should see the trigger "/wii/1/drums/pad/R/trig" flash. Highlight this row, and set the event type to "MIDI note." Then set the value to "40 E1" - this should be a snare drum. You can play with these values to get different drum sounds from the kit. Lastly, change the "Channel" value to "1." When you strike the red pad, you should hear a snare drum. Repeat this step for each drum pad, cymbal and pedal, using different values to link the pads to the appropriate sounds.
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5
Set up the velocity settings for each pad. This will allow the drum to be louder or softer depending on the force the pad is struck with. To set up velocity for the red pad, highlight the row labeled "/wii/1/drums/pad/R/velo." Again, change the event type to "MIDI note," but this time set the value to "Channel Velocity." Then make sure the Channel Number matches the Trig Row (if it doesn't, change the Channel Number). Repeat this step for each drum pad, making sure the Channel Numbers match the Trig Rows.
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Tips & Warnings
It is possible to create "presets" for your new electronic drum kit. You've already set up the default preset for this kit, but by clicking the "Preset" drop-down menu, you can create new settings for the drum kit and link them to the buttons on the kit near the Wiimote. To do this, find the input for the button you wish to use, change the Event Type to "Presets" and change the value to the Preset you wish to switch to. This will allow you access to a wide range of drum sounds with quick switching located right on the set.
Be careful while playing drums. Stay well hydrated and take a break if you begin to feel dizzy or lightheaded.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit drums image by agno_agnus from Fotolia.com
