Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last several years, you have heard of Rock Band and it’s popular competitor Guitar Hero. These video games took the entertainment world by storm and turned countless game addicted kids into wannabe rock stars. But one thing was certain – real guitar players would not emerge from simply playing a video game. Until now.
The new technology in Rock Band 3 offers a level of sophistication and realism that has not been available for games until recently. Guitar players and other rock musicians have long hoped for the day when computers or video games could be attached to their instruments to help them play better. In the 1980′s a technology known as MIDI entered the scene and forever changed the way music was played and recorded, but it never entered into the game world. Until now.
For decades musicians have used MIDI technology in recording studios or in live stage productions, but now they can use it in video games as well. MIDI, introduced in 1982, means “Musical Instrument Digital Interface”, and it was a way to connect real instruments to a computer for communication between the two devices. The common use of MIDI for musicians was as an interface between electronic keyboards or drum kits and computers or sound modules.
Today, the technology in Rock Band 3 takes MIDI into the new millennium by letting video game players put a real guitar into their hands and play in a video game. In previous versions of Rock Band and Guitar Hero, electronic drums had the capability of somewhat taking advantage of MIDI by letting users play on a different drum kit than the standard drums in the game. But never before have the guitar players been able to fully utilize the power of MIDI to play a more realistic video game.
Guitar players the world over have complained that although Rock Band is a fun game, it is by no means realistic to playing a real guitar, but more like playing air guitar with a cheap plastic toy. No more complaints from guitar players now!
Rock Band 3 will come with a video game model of the classic Fender Mustang. It really looks like a Fender Mustang, but different as the “strings” are only for plucking and strumming – they do not extend over the fretboard. Instead of strings there are 102 buttons placed appropriately up and down the fretboard. The Fender Mustang is the entry level guitar for Rock Band 3, and those who have never played guitar before should find this game controller sufficiently fun and challenging.
However, real guitar players want a real guitar, not a toy video game controller. Enter the Rock Band 3 Fender Squier Stratocaster made by Harmonix. This Squier Strat is a fully functional MIDI guitar. You can play it in the video game or plug it into your amplifier and rock out in your garage band! It uses real strings and pickups and from a quick glance you would be hard pressed to tell if it is a video game guitar.
Upon further inspection the Rock Band 3 Fender Squier has some oddities that a normal guitar would not have – video game button controls on the face plate. Guitarists will also note that it has only one pickup with no switch, no tone knob and no whammy bar. A standard Strat has 3 pickups with a toggle switch and a place to attach whammy bar. Aside from these differences, the Rock Band 3 Fender Squier looks and plays just like a normal guitar.
With Rock Band 3 the day has finally come when parents can tell their kids to go to their room and practice their instruments while playing a video game. Rock on with Rock Band 3!