[LAU] Rock Band 3 Keyboard Controller (was: live performance, midi program change from the keyboard)

[Luke Peterson]

On Thu, Feb 10, 2011 at 6:40 PM, Leigh Dyer <lsd at wootangent.net> wrote:

> On 11/02/11 06:00, Luke Peterson wrote:
>
>> At my last show I decided to experiment a bit and use a Rock Band 3
>> keytar via a MidAir wireless midi adapter. The RB3 controller is
>> midi-compliant but completely undocumented, and while I have figured out
>> how to do most useful things on it such as octaves, pitch bend, and
>> modulation, I cannot figure out how to use any channel except channel 1
>> (and splitting to channel 10 on the lower half of the keyboard by
>> pressing one of the buttons -- I forget which). So I ended up playing
>> the B3 with my keytar, but had to sit back down at my controller to play
>> anything else, which is a bummer.
>>
>
> It sounds like you've figured out most of it anyway, but CDM did a write-up
> on the RB3 keytar that covers its MIDI functionality:
>
>
> http://createdigitalmusic.com/2010/10/hands-on-rock-band-3s-keytar-a-surprisingly-serious-80-midi-keyboard/
>
> Unfortunately it looks like it's stuck on channel 1 with the exception of
> that drum split mode you mentioned.
>
> How has the keytar been for you otherwise? I have one myself, but I haven't
> done anything serious with it yet.
>

RB3 keytar has been good. I've used it at one show and three practices thus
far. It is really nice to have something small and portable that I can use
without having to deal with a stand, etc. It's taken my rig from something
that requires a large (at least) four-wheeled vehicle to get around to
something I can toss into a backpack and transport on a bicycle. The most
significant decrease in the amount of regular exercise I get since I went
from an 88-key weighted board to my Axiom 61. I've been drooling over
Roland's AX-n for a while now, but ultimately the Rock Band game controller
is far more portable than any of the "pro" keytars I've run across. From
specs it looks like the RB3 controller is 11" shorter than the Lucina AX-09
and has about half the heft.

The hardest thing to get used to is switch-handed accompaniment: clicking
the down-octave button a couple times before playing a left-handed part with
my right hand while our guitarist or horns are playing, then clicking
up-octave twice to pick up a lead is a bit awkward.

This article you cite is interesting; I figured out all the same features
through tooling around with the keyboard for 30 mins in kmidimon. I'm not
sure I agree with the complaints about the pitch bend (I have other
complaints about the touch strip). If you've played the game at all, you get
quite accustomed to holding the button down while hitting the touch strip
and playing at the same time (you get bonus points for doing this). If
anything, I find that I will accidentally hit the pitch bend and not notice
that I've de-tuned myself against the rest of my band, then upon hearing the
de-tune through a monitor spook myself into thinking I forgot how to play a
song. The upside of this is it may train my band to think it is more likely
my instrument's fault than my own when I'm playing wrong notes :P

The article didn't note that the controller has active sensing -- quite
important for a battery-powered device.

I find the simple powering-on-and-off of the device to be a bit of a pain.
If I haven't manually powered down the controller by holding down the Xbox
button for a couple seconds before I disconnect the midi cable or power-down
my laptop, it will sit there and blink til infinity, looking for an Xbox
connection. If I want the green flashing light to cease and I'm not in
vicinity of my Xbox, I have to plug a hot midi cable back into the
controller (this doesn't work if I just plug a disconnected midi cable in),
hold the Xbox button, then shut everything else down afterwards.

I'm familiar with the importance of connection order already with my rig: I
learned to plug my Fast Track Pro in to USB before any other USB midi device
or else I have to change around my JACK config to point to a device other
than hw:1. But now I have to remember to manually power down my keytar
before unplugging and disassembling my rig, too.

Otherwise, everything else is great. The only change I'd make is to have the
25 keys go from F to F instead of C to C, but I suppose that's something I'd
have to take up with the entire industry.

Luke

-----
Luke Peterson
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