I had bad luck if both were set to the same thing.  I advise setting the one you don’t want to use (for me that was the bass) to anything else that’s available other then PS3 guitar.  Then set the other one to the PS3 controller.  Now do it again!  The order that you set them seems to be important sometimes but if I was careful to always set them both twice to the same values everything worked fine.

First we need to configure the instrument.  Just below the input choice for the instrument you’re using you’ll see an oval labeled “buzz_setup_ps2” (or 360).  Double click on that to bring up the setup window.  If all of this looks scary to you don’t worry too much.  The lines and shapes are basically just showing a logic or electrical flow, you won’t have to mess with any of that.  All you are tying to do is tell the software which buttons on your controller generate which numbers on the USB port. 

To setup your controller, start by clicking on the large square next to the words “Config Controller Buttons”.  That puts the software into sensing mode.  If your menu selection on the main screen “took” you should notice a yellow dot in the upper right of the diagram flash each time you press any button on the controller.  This is your feedback that you are configuring the settings for the controller you’re actually using.  If you set the input selector to keyboard or something else then the yellow light would flash anytime that device is being used.

If your light is flashing you’re ready to record the values.  On the left side there are a series of checkboxes next to a list of button names (colors/start/select/etc).  Check the box next to “1. Green” and then press the green guitar button.  The numeric value to the right of the word “Green” should have changed to the value your PS3 controller sends for the green button - for me this was “3”.  The check box should have unchecked itself once it detected the button push.  If for some reason it didn’t, then uncheck it and repeat for each of the other buttons.

I ran into some problems with the “flipper” setting.  This setting needs a value for “pushed down,” “Not used,” and “Pulled Up.”  Moving the flipper around while the checkbox is checked should show you the three values, but for me the “rest” and “up” settings didn’t want to set properly.  This is not an issue.  You can click on any of the 3 numeric areas and type the number that it should contain once you observe the correct value. 

You may also be confused by the “Star Powah” setting.  To set the value for this one, check it’s checkbox then move your guitar from the normal horizontal position to a vertical position like a rock star would do while showboating during a guitar solo or something.

Once all the values are set, uncheck the big “Config Controller Buttons” checkbox and then click on the small circle in the upper-left labeled “Save Config”.  This saves the values for you.  You can close this window now.

Now you should be back on the main screen, and you should see checkboxes checking and un-checking automatically as you hit the various guitar controller buttons.  At this stage I still had no sound.   There may be two or three more things for you to do.

1) Check to be sure the value in the “bass volume” or “guitar volume” is around 50 or so.  You can do this by clicking on the value and typing the number you want then hitting return or tab.  It’s important that you hit return or tab afterwards so that the software knows you are done typing and it should update it’s internal settings.  This is true anytime you try to change a value by typing it.

2) Notice the speaker icon in the bottom center of the screen?  Click on that and it should turn vaguely purple to show that sound output is enabled.

3. 3)Make sure the value in the box labeled “synth mode” is a number between 1-4.  This setting  and the volume setting are supposed to be configured via the instructions that show when you click the “HELP MEEE” button.  If all else fails... try following those directions.  I didn’t think much of them.
   

I hope you are making music at this point, but if not it’s most likely something to do with:

1. 1)the input device popup menu setting
   

2. 2)a conflict between the two instruments (both popups set to the same thing?)
   

3. 3)the volume for the instrument you’re using is set to a number below 10 (possibly even a negative number).
   

4. 4)The “audio” button at the bottom center is in the wrong state - click it again.
   

5) The value of the “synth mode” area is not a legal value... numbers 1 thru 4 work well.

Hopefully now when you flip your flipper on your guitar controller beautiful music should pour forth from your computer.  If not, contact me and I’ll try to help you thru it.

EXTRA CREDIT:

You may have noticed that when I explained how to configure FretBuzz I included a picture showing my bass set to “scott’s keyboard.”  If you’re wondering if you can use your mouse or keyboard or other USB input device as a fun new type of musical instrument then the answer is a resounding, “Yes!”  This stuff should work with any USB input device out there.  You have to choose which values will mean what and your adventures may require modifying the pat file extensively after a while.  I’ve found that playing with different input devices as a means of generating musical tones often spurs on neat new song ideas much the same way that using a non-standard guitar tuning can help you out of a song writing rut.  The first obvious choice as an alternate input device is the PS3 drum kit that comes with Rock Band.  Follow the same setup steps as you did for guitar and you can be jamming away on your “fake” instruments and making “real” music in no time!

EXTRA EXTRA CREDIT:

Now that you have a musical instrument you’re next thoughts are probably starting to turn to, “I wonder if I can record this somehow?”  I’ve got good news for you.  There’s plenty of software out there that can capture any sound coming out of your computer.  Programs to record sound are plentiful on both Mac and Window, but Macs come with a really good piece of free software called GarageBand that is just what you want.  GarageBand is a recording studio in a box, and comes with extensive features including: effects (a.k.a. stomp boxes), multi-track/multi-take recording, built-in back-up instruments (including automatic generations of instrument parts based on your description of the song), and tons more.   You can use your PS3 guitar or PS3 drum kit as a live GarageBand instrument to build entire songs. 

If anybody does record anything using this, please share... I’d love to hear what you and yours have come up with.

Ok, so my kids and I won’t be getting a recording contract out of this - it’s still fun!

This started for me when my latest issue of MAKE magazine arrived.  It contained an article about how to use an old PlayStation 2 guitar controller as a real musical instrument.  You buy a little hardware adaptor, and you plug your controller into it, plug it into your PC, and do a good deal of software wrangling and you’re off.  Not bad, but since I didn’t have a PS2 guitar and didn’t care to buy the PS2 to USB adaptor either, I figured it wouldn’t help me until I noticed that the hack didn’t require mod-ing the guitar.  “Well Hell!” I said.  If you don’t need to mod the guitar then the PS3 wireless USB guitar should work just fine and it’ll make this a cheaper and cooler hack.

Here’s a short explanation of why you can do this without mod-ing your controller.  Your PS3 controller uses an industry standard USB plug for it’s wireless adaptor just like your regular computer does; the PlayStation and PS2 used a proprietary wired connector.  If you plug your wireless adaptor into your USB hub or directly into you computer, your computer “sees” the controller just like it “sees” your mouse or keyboard.  When you press buttons on the guitar, signals are sent thru the air via Bluetooth to the adaptor which sends them down the wire to little pins on the computer’s USB port.  Each pin on the port says if a certain button is being pressed down or not.  The computer uses the little pins as binary numbers and therefore the state of the guitar (which buttons are currently being pressed) can be expressed as regular base-10 number like 4 or 14, or 32.  Your computer doesn’t care if the numbers are generated by a PS3 guitar controller or a keyboard; all it sees are the numbers.  Using public domain freeware programs that allow you to generate logic flows based off of realtime USB inputs you can easily start jamming away in a few minutes once you’ve installed everything.

First download and install: http://www.cycling74.com/downloads/max5. Follow whatever directions that apply for the computer system you’re using.  On the Mac the steps consisted of: clicking a link, double-clicking an icon, and then stepping thru the installer screens.  All  of which occurred without incident for me.

Next you need to add a plugin to Max5 called “PeRColate”.  Download the version for your OS from: http://www.music.columbia.edu/PeRColate/

The install instructions for PeRColate where less then ideal but here’s what I did:

1. 1)Put the “PeRColate_UB” and the “PeRColate_support” folders into the “Cycling '74” folder located within the Max5 folder.
   

2. 2)Put the “PeRColate_help” folder in the “java-doc” folder within the Max5.  This was a guess on my part and could be wrong, but it will not interfere with the functioning of the hack.
   

3. 3)Move the “PeRColate_overview.pat” file from the “PeRColate_extras” folder into the “examples“ folder. This is another guess but also appears to either be correct or be non-harmful.
   

Now you’ll want to go to: http://www.theguitarzeros.com/download_fretbuzz.php

This website is by the guy that wrote the MAKE magazine article. He also plays with a band called “The Guitar Zeros”.  The band consists of a singer, a drummer and two PS2 “guitarists.”  He’s got the last and most important piece of the puzzle.  Download the version of FretBuzz for your gaming system.  Then use Max5 to open the “buzz_ps2.pat” file (or the “buzz_360.pat” file if you’re using an XBox controller).

Now is when you might want to call upon your “computer skills/natural good luck/persistent personality.”  This part requires whacking the software with a stick a few times until music comes out of the speakers.  Persistence pays off with dividends - just wait until I talk about adding PS3 drums and using Apple’s GarageBand to record your songs!

Let’s start with the user interface.  FretBuzz is setup by default for two instruments (Bass Guitar and regular Guitar).  At the top of the screen you will see popup menus that allow you to select the “input device” you want to assign to each instrument.