XBox 360’s Rock Band Drum Kit in Apple’s Garage Band
I got Rock Band for XBox 360 last night, and started playing it tonight. Its a lot of fun playing the drum set, but I realized almost immediately that it seems to be missing a ‘freestyle mode’ that would let you just wail.
The drum controller is a wired USB device, so I figured I would try getting it to work on my Mac with Garage Band. Turned out to be pretty easy. To get it working you’ll need:
- A Mac
- Garage Band
- Rock Band for XBox 360
- XBox 360 Controller Driver - Open Source & GPL
- Gamepad Companion (makes it so you can map the keys on your controllers) - Proprietary / Shareware
First step is to leave your drum set unplugged from your Mac (if you plugged it in you’ll realize it is recognized as a Harmonix Drum Kit for Xbox 360). Install the Xbox 360 Controller Driver and Gamepad Companion. The 360 Controller Driver installer will say you need to reboot–but it worked for me without rebooting.
If you launch System Preferences you’ll notice a few new panes at the bottom.
Click on XBox 360 Controllers first. Plug in your drum kit, and it should locate the controller immediately. Go ahead and belt out a few hits to make sure that the buttons are lighting up as they should.
Once satisified, go ahead and click “Show All” to get back to System Preferences. The controller is working and recognized, but we need to map the buttons to keys that Garage Band can recognize. To do that we’re going to click on Gamepad Companion.
The driver maps the buttons like so:
- Button 1 = Green
- Button 2 = Red
- Button 3 = Blue
- Button 4 = Yellow
- Button 5 = Kick/Pedal
When we set up the keyboard interface in Garage Band later, certain keys will activate certain instruments. Here is a good key-mapping setup that works for most of the drum kits in Garage Band that features a bass/kick drum, a snare, two toms and a cymbal.
- Button 1 Map to U
- Button 2 Map to S
- Button 3 Map to J
- Button 4 Map to F
- Button 5 Map to A
There are tons of other instruments and configurations you can use, but this will get you started. Once you’re done mapping the buttons, go ahead and click “Start” to enable Gamepad Companion.
Just to make sure everything is working, I’d recommend opening up TextEdit or some other editor and wail a bit on the drums, to make sure that it is mapping the keys properly. If it is, you should see a bunch of letters typing across the screen. The repeat rate seems like it would be a problem in Garage Band, but it works fine the way it is.
Now it is time to launch Garage Band. Start a new song, which will have a default instrument of “Grand Piano”. Double-click “Grand Piano” to show the Information/Instrument drawer. Browse to “Drum Kit” and then select “Rock Kit”.
We now have to configure the keyboard. Hit Command-K or Window->Keyboard to bring up the keyboard interface. Basically the Mac keyboard is just to small for all the musician’s keys. So we need to select the C1 octave range either by dragging the blue selected keys, or hitting the plus/minus octive buttons (either on-screen or by hitting Z / X). Once you have C1 selected, you’re ready to rock!
Added note: It is possible to get the Rock Band Drums working with software on the Windows Platform as well, and apparently the PS3 controller works in a similar fashion.
January 2nd, 2008 at 11:00 am
You are the man! Thank you for this post!!!
January 4th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
It still doesn’t work for me correctly in GarageBand and I cannot figure it out. When I open a text edit, it recognizes when I drum and produces the letters, but Garage Band won’t recognize it. Any suggestions?
January 14th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Make sure that you set up the keys to map to the correct letters and that you have the correct instrument selected. Check the last part of the tutorial again (last three pictures).
April 16th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Do you know how to hook up the drum set to a windows platform?
July 4th, 2008 at 12:52 am
thanks. I had the same problem as Eric. got text edit to recognize. chose C1 on keyboard. no luck. pressing the keys on the keyboard gives the nl drum sound. went back and checked that i mapped the keys correctly, now text edit doesn’t recognize the keys either. puzzled. help?
August 4th, 2008 at 11:37 am
I am as curious as Jaihr. I do not have a Mac, I have PC. Is there a way I can get the drums to do the same on Windows Vista or XP instead of buying a Mac?
August 27th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GN1zb4G76s
For those of you rocking Windows vista, you can use this link to figure it out.
If you have XP, you’ll have to download the XBOX360 accessories driver.
There’s no installation required for these programs, btw.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:12 am
I’m curious if anyone has actually gotten the rock band drums to work as MIDI, not just as an alternative to the keyboard for musical typing.. the delay is disgusting.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Hmm, pretty nifty. BUT. Who the hell uses mac?
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Really? I don’t have any delay at all. Maybe your machine needs more ram or something.
@ those with problems. Make sure you actually hit the “Musical Typing” icon in garage band when you have the keyboard config open. It’s not entirely clear in the instructions above.
This is awesome, many kudos! I thought Andrew Rudson’s Drum Machine was amazing (not that it’s not, that is awesome too) but this setup is much better for anybody already using garage band to record.
I just bought another rock band 1 drumset to use with my computer. As soon as I have some drum mutes this is gonna be the best ghetto kit ever!
September 25th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
does anyone know how to fix the delay. i tried sum keyboard sensitivity d
stuff in preferences but it doesnt seem to work
September 25th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
[...] while back I wrote a blog topic on how to set up Rock Band on your Mac, because Rock Band didn’t have a “freestyle” mode. There is now a pretty cool [...]
September 28th, 2008 at 5:53 am
i’m having the same delay issues. anyone get around them? I’ve tried midikeys (free download) and it improves it slightly, but i feel everything’s a 1/4 step behind. i have 2gb ram on a core 2 duo 2.0ghz blackbook, so my specs are more than adequate
October 17th, 2008 at 7:39 am
Hello: Can I use the PS3 controller and drum kit instead of the XBOXs?
Thanks!
December 6th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
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February 14th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
I wrote a program called MIDItar Hero that does this same sort of thing, but has way more customizable options, works with any GH/RB guitar or drum controller, and as opposed to GamePad companion there’s absolutely no lag.
February 22nd, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Thank you so much. . . best hack ever