Guitar Hero: World Tour's secret "instrument" really a MIDI import feature

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]

[TeddyLikesComputahs! @ Sep 18th 2008 4:13AM]

For every playstation game, i love them!
In using midi peripherals to guitar hero is just awesome
Right now, i have the X360 it's ok
So, i'll definitely get it for the PS3
Tomorrow i shall
!

[Josh @ Sep 18th 2008 4:24AM]

I think you might be dyslectic bro.

[swingin' dick hero @ Sep 18th 2008 4:35AM]

TeddySureLikesHisConshules!

[Rob Bourne @ Sep 18th 2008 4:39AM]

+10 points for the idea, -20 points for the execution.



Oh, and another -20 points because my eyes are now bleeding

[dec to the max @ Sep 18th 2008 4:51AM]

iPhone is better!
iPhone is better!
iPhone is better!
iPhone is better!
iPhone is better!

[Josh @ Sep 18th 2008 5:02AM]

Ban-hammer pleas! ^^^

[Arran @ Sep 18th 2008 5:09AM]

This feature will hardly get used, NEW SONGS...

[Wii60 @ Sep 18th 2008 5:08AM]

You can say "meh" but I see this for what it truly is- a chance to play the power rangers theme in Guitar Hero.

[eddy @ Sep 18th 2008 7:06AM]

Go-go-Guitar Heroes?

[Jarhead2012 @ Sep 18th 2008 11:01PM]

1. Lol

2. This sealed the deal. I will not be buying Guitar Hero World Tour. I am a 360 owner that was looking forward to messing with the new peripherals and music creator. When they released the setlist containing not one but FOUR Tool songs, they pushed me away big time. Now that this has been announced I'm officially done with Guitar Hero. Neversoft did a good job of ruining a great franchise.

[Arran @ Sep 18th 2008 5:11AM]

Hell Yes.

[Taylor @ Sep 18th 2008 6:02AM]

The issue is that not very many MIDIs of recent songs are being made...
except maybe by karaoke companies.

And a lot of recent ones that I've heard have really bad transcriptions.

I hope, at the least, that Guitar Hero's sampled guitar sounds for the instrument creator are better than General MIDI guitar sounds.

[NoAndThen @ Sep 18th 2008 8:32AM]

um, guitar pro?

Has midi transcriptions of almost anything, including some of your shitty fall out boy-era 'recent' POS music.

[Jay @ Sep 18th 2008 6:12AM]

ahhh, what about the Wii? Probably nothing :(

[Eldiablo @ Sep 18th 2008 7:20AM]

For 'Undisclosed Hardware Reasons' read MS won't let them. Gits!
Oh well, Im still going to pre-order it for the 360.

[J Dogg @ Sep 18th 2008 10:29AM]

As long as it works in conjunction with my CINCO MIDI Organizer, I'll be happy. Otherwise, I'll be searching endlessly to find the right MIDI in my collection!!!

http://www.itsbeach.com/blog/2008/06/cinco-midi-orga.html

[DavesThinkin @ Sep 18th 2008 11:12AM]

I can't wait to hear my favorite MIDI, Camptown Races.

[Jeff @ Sep 18th 2008 11:51AM]

I'm not sure some people here really understand what MIDI is or how important this feature *could* be.

MIDI is just an interface for one computer (and I mean that in the generic sense) to say to another "this piece of data means this instrument and this note." That's extremely powerful, and in fact most professional recordings are made using MIDI somewhere. A lot of popular recordings are 100% MIDI (though not usually the guitar parts). No real recording studio exists that doesn't support MIDI.

MIDI is not just those dumb little recordings that sound like circa 1992 ring tones. It is a type of recording interface. And it's as powerful as you want it to be. I don't know exactly how they're using it in GH, but if you can import your own instrument sets and then use the game as a sort of MIDI controller, it could be pretty amazing. Not as amazing as a real recording studio, but pretty cool for a game.

[water.and.sand @ Sep 18th 2008 2:08PM]

yes! second that.

This opens up a Ton of customization in GHWT that would otherwise either be impossible (I haven't used the editor yet, obviously) or just annoyingly difficult to try to program with the ten button + guitar tilt method they have.

They expect most people to completely ignore the custom song mode completely, so it's cool that they're really making it for the musicians who know what they're doing.

[gimpy @ Sep 18th 2008 4:32PM]

Don't some games like Frets on Fire use midi? hmm....

[ifoughtfate @ Sep 19th 2008 12:35AM]

Well shit, now I've got to get a playstation 3 before I can get guitar hero world tour. I was going to get one eventually anyhow, but not this quickly... stupid Microsoft.

[David Dryman @ Dec 10th 2008 11:12PM]

It has been 3 months since this feature was announced and I don't see it in the game anywhere nor do I see anything online explain how to use it.