Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Interface Connects Real Guitars to Video Games

Ediface

The popularity of video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band should create a lot of demand for systems like Ediface that interface games to musical instruments. Although the MIDI interface can do this, and has been around for years, so far it has not been used in popular games. The best possible solution would be to use an an unmodified instrument like an electric guitar and connect that to the gaming system. Learning to play a real instrument while playing video games would be a great benefit. That is what the Ediface claims to deliver in a small wallet-sized unit. No word on processor or technology being utilized to do the signal processing.

Update: A new PC/MAC game called Guitar Rising is scheduled for release in late 2008 that will use only the computer mic input for an interface to any electric guitar. Not much detail on the web site, but some early prototype demos at game conferences look promising. We will have to see how the mic input compares to a dedicated hardware interface.

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