Filed under: Gaming

Guitar Hero: World Tour has only officially been on shelves for a day or so now, but unhappy PS3 customers are already making a fuss — the game’s new drumkit isn’t compatible with Rock Band 2. That’s a major disappointment — having redundant guitars because Activision and Harmonix can’t play nice is annoying enough, but two drumkits is downright ridiculous — and it’s doubly irritating because Sony promised it would bring the hammer down and make sure all these peripherals were cross-compatible. The Xbox 360 kits seem to work with each other, so it’s probably just a bug and Harmonix is apparently working on patch. In the meantime, you can probably take out your frustation with this crazy Gene Simmons axe-shaped guitar controller that’s due out on Halloween — we’re not sure if we’d pay $80 for the privilege of pretending to be in KISS while playing a video game, but if you’re in the Army, Amazon is taking preorders now.

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Guitar Hero: World Tour drums not Rock Band 2 compatible; Gene Simmons guitar controller not compatible with taste originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming

Guitar Hero: World Tour has only officially been on shelves for a day or so now, but unhappy PS3 customers are already making a fuss — the game’s new drumkit isn’t compatible with Rock Band 2. That’s a major disappointment — having redundant guitars because Activision and Harmonix can’t play nice is annoying enough, but two drumkits is downright ridiculous — and it’s doubly irritating because Sony promised it would bring the hammer down and make sure all these peripherals were cross-compatible. The Xbox 360 kits seem to work with each other, so it’s probably just a bug and Harmonix is apparently working on patch. In the meantime, you can probably take out your frustation with this crazy Gene Simmons axe-shaped guitar controller that’s due out on Halloween — we’re not sure if we’d pay $80 for the privilege of pretending to be in KISS while playing a video game, but if you’re in the Army, Amazon is taking preorders now.

Read - Guitar Hero: World Tour drums incompatibility
Read - Gene Simmons Axe Guitar

PS3 Guitar Hero: World Tour drums not Rock Band 2 compatible; Gene Simmons guitar controller not compatible with taste originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

This day has been a long time coming, but Activision’s next iteration of the Guitar Hero cash cow franchise is officially available. Truth be told, the game (and requisite instruments) was sitting on a-many of store shelves yesterday, but there’s nothing like a formal announcement to really push you to take a few hours from work and rock out this evening. There’s a variety of bundles out there ranging from the game alone ($49.99 to $59.99), the game and a guitar ($89.99 to $99.99) and the full-on band kit ($179.99 to $189.99), so make sure you choose wisely when heading out to drop some dough.

Guitar Hero World Tour now rocking store shelves everywhere originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Continue reading Internal Combustion Guitar - gnarly guitar tone at a polite volume

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Filed under: Gaming

Ah, how easily phrases can be misconstrued when you’re not absolutely precise in what you say. While the intarwebz have been ablaze with speculation about the elusive “new peripheral” on the forthcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour title, Neversoft project director Brian Bright has delivered a copious amount of non-potable water to the scene in the form of this sobering news. There actually won’t be any new “instrument,” per se; rather, the PS3 version of the game will include a MIDI import feature that gives PC-using musicians the ability to import rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass, keyboards and drum tracks in as a GH Tunes song. For undisclosed “hardware reasons,” the Xbox 360 version can only handle the skins. Eh, 2 stars.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy, image courtesy of GameZone]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

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Filed under: Gaming, Robots

Not that we haven’t seen robotic Guitar Hero masters before, but Cyth Systems’ egotistically named Cythbot is just a full cut above the rest. Boasting some of the most advanced, high-dollar equipment known to mankind (okay, so maybe that’s a stretch, but just barely), the creation uses a highly sophisticated viewing method to determine which notes to hit, and it can even decide whether slamming the whammy bar is a good idea or not. Too bad you’ll be entirely too distracted by the introverted hosts to even notice how awesome this thing is, but the video’s in the read link if you care to try.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

It’s only been a couple months since we first noticed that the OpenStomp Coyote-1 guitar pedal project had started development, but it looks like it’s ready to go — the web store is up and taking orders for US and Canadian customers. Your $350 gets you an 80MHz eight-core Propeller processor, a 16×2 line LCD screen, two footswitches, four knobs, an additional input / output jack, video out, an RJ11 expansion port, and a microUSB interface, all in a purple steel chassis. Not bad for the money, especially since the available source and fully-documented hardware means this thing should be taken in all sorts of interesting directions — anyone going to throw down for this bad boy?

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

With all the incompatibility out there among Guitar Hero / Rock Band instruments, it’s a real treat to see something like this. The Director of Publisher Relations at SCEA has posted an update that promises compatibility between instruments and software for upcoming titles; for instance, Guitar Hero: World Tour’s guitars and drums will work with Rock Band 2 and Konami’s Rock Revolution software, and Rock Band 2’s guitar and drum set will work with Guitar Hero: World Tour and with Rock Revolution. Furthermore, the team is still “working hard to ensure compatibility between the Guitar Hero and Rock Band titles currently on the market,” though we are told that an announcement on that could surface “shortly.” Rock ‘n roll harmony, baby.

[Image courtesy of BeSportier]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Handhelds

For you axe-slingers who blame your inability to write a new song on the inability to afford a simple, portable recorder, your excuse is officially lame. TASCAM’s ingenious GT-R1 affords musicians the ability to simply plug their guitar and / or bass directly in and record using the built-in amp simulator and effects. Better still, the stereo condenser microphones up top allow users to record ambient noise, vocals, off the cuff jam sessions or anything else for that matter. The unit captures in MP3 or WAV format (16- or 24-bit), includes an SD card slot (1GB bundled in) and a USB 2.0 port for offloading files and charging the battery. Newbies can even queue up an MP3 and jam along, and the integrated metronome / chromatic tuner are just icing on an already über-sweet cake. Word on the street has a price of around €200 ($308), which actually sounds like quite the bargain from here.

[Via Engadget Deutschland]

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

If you didn’t think every single third-party peripheral provider would try to snag a piece of the band game pie, we guess you thought wrong, huh? With outfits like Mad Catz and Ion already jumping in, it was only a matter of time before Logitech threw on its tightest jeans, blacked out its blond hair and threw up some horns. Details are admittedly scarce, but the company has promised to provide “premium instruments” for Guitar Hero: World Tour on PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii. Rockers can expect the new gear to start shipping “later this year,” though prices, designs and pretty much anything else of importance remains a mystery.

[Via NintendoWiiFanboy]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

From all the coffee shop musicians here at Engadget, we’d like to sincerely thank Belkin for producing this marvelous device. For the rest of us who run around on stage like madmen, we have our doubts about how well this will work. Nevertheless, the BreakFree Connectors were designed to add a magnetic breakaway point in your 1/4-inch cable, meaning that things will simply snap away if too much pressure is applied. Sure, this could save you a mint in shredded cable costs, but we’d venture to say that only the calmer performers in attendance will really find it useful. Snatch (gently, of course) the BreakFree this September for $19.99 and grab a few extra tips for $9.99 per pair.

[Via Coolest-Gadgets]

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Filed under: Gaming

While we love Rock Band 2 as much as the next guy, playing that miniaturized plastic controller will forever look a little dorky (or just make us look like giant men, which is kind of cool). Nothing wrong with looking dorky — heck, we make a living of it — but Mad Catz’s new full-size Stratocaster and Precision Bass controllers for Rock Band 2 are bringing the cool back. They’re exactly what you think they are: actual Fender Squire axes turned into Rock Band 2 controllers, with the size, heft, and weight you’d expect from dad’s electric guitar. Of special note was the Precision Bass controller, which has a dual flipper and thumb rest to allow fast pickers to do their thing Entwistle-style. They are also wireless, will come with a foot pedal for overdrive, and the guitar controller will have a whammy bar, of course. Unfortunately, Mad Katz didn’t add the optical sensor for display calibration, but we’ll forgive them for now. Look for these for $199 in Q1 2009 for both Xbox 360 and PS3. We caught them live at E3, and they look as impressive as they sound. Peep the gallery below if you dare.

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Filed under: Gaming

Sure, Guitar Hero and Rock Band have fake plastic Gibson and Fender controllers, but cheap plastic ain’t exactly rock’n'roll — which is why this new StarPex PS2 / PS3 guitar controller looks pretty sweet. The ersatz Strat features a hardwood body and neck crafted by “a leading guitar manufacturer” (we’d bet $100 it’s made by Samick), as well as solo buttons, an Overdrive / Star Power button in addition to the tilt sensor, and both wired and wireless capabilities. On top of that, the electronics are modular, so you’ll eventually be able to swap parts and build your own custom axe. Sounds great — but you better start singing in the subway, since this thing’ll set you back $179 when it goes on sale late next month. Yeah, maybe we’ll stick with the plastic axes after all.

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Whoa, wait a minute — Mad Catz signed on to produce Rock Band instruments? Sure enough, the deal was announced shortly before CES 2008 consumed our lives, and now we’re hearing whispers that the first products from said agreement could hit stores as early as next week. We’re talking a Fender bass ($69.99), Telecaster ($79.99), microphone ($59.99), portable drum kit ($49.99) and a premium drum set ($149.99). From what we can glean, everything listed above will be tethered, but we aren’t writing off wireless versions just yet. Oh, and be sure you consult with the SO before you up and purchase a second kit for the den — you can’t afford for that first one to get defenestrated.

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Filed under: Portable Audio

With a name like Moog, it has to be good, no? The creator of all types of unusual and wondrous music makers has stepped up with the Paul Vo Collector Edition guitar, a fanciful six-string that does quite a bit more than just light up whatever amp is lucky enough to receive its vibes. Constructed from premium grade mahogany, the instrument affords players full sustain, controlled sustain and mute modes to crank out all sorts of atypical tones, and just in case those few don’t get your juices flowin’, you’ll be happy to know that there’s loads more where that came from. Granted, this gem will cost you a stiff $6,495, but considering the amazing amount of utility found here, true musicians are apt to deem it a bargain.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Gaming

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gadgets/Wii_Guitar_Hero_axe_transformed_into_MIDI_controller’; Whatever the DS can do, Wii can do better, right? Apparently Dave agrees with said mantra, as he has converted a Wii Guitar Hero axe into a full-fledged MIDI controller. As in, there’s a 5-pin jack down there and everything. In its current state, you can play two octaves of an eight note scale at time, alter the keys / octaves, change tonal modes, use the whammy bar to bend the pitch and blow the minds of electrical engineering buds you still see on a regular basis. Granted, this mod isn’t exactly for the faint of heart, but feel free to hit the read link if you’re hacker enough to handle it.

[Via MAKE]

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Wireless

The wireless Rock Band guitar’s in the FCC (again), this time supposedly for the Wii. Oddly, the images depict it running on a PS3 (which we’ve already seen), so what we’re really looking for at this point is confirmation of Xbox 360 hardware. Bring it on, Harmonix, it’s hella difficult to do power slides when plugged in via USB.

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Wireless

The wireless Rock Band guitar’s in the FCC (again), this time supposedly for the Wii. Oddly, the images depict it running on a PS3 (which we’ve already seen), so what we’re really looking for at this point is confirmation of Xbox 360 hardware. Bring it on, Harmonix, it’s hella difficult to do power slides when plugged in via USB.

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Filed under: Gaming

If you thought a Colorware’d DS Lite was the new heat, get a load of this. The company famous for making gadgetry of all kinds look its best has turned its talents on the iconic Guitar Hero axe, and we must say, we’re infatuated. Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 thrashers are all invited, and while users can join the revolution for as little as $198 (that includes the title and a painted instrument), current slingers can send their guitar in and get it colorized for as little as $99. For those on a budget, we strongly recommend not clicking the links below. Those completely unafraid of purging their wallet on impulse buys can go ahead.

[Thanks, Adam]

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