This was a request. I keep a list of all requests, but JDisturb's requests are usually songs I like so I get to them quicker :-) I'm using smaller colored... more

This was a request. I keep a list of all requests, but JDisturb's requests are usually songs I like so I get to them quicker :-) I'm using smaller colored dots on the pads now. A lot of people liked the colors showing, but the full-pad coloring was too grainy and distracting. So this was my attempt to fix that. I taped a small blue circle to the corner of each drum pad so I didn't have to permanently paint my pads (thanks to Mushy2000 for his ever present wisdom). I'm basically now using a blue-screen effect with a bitmap behind it that shines through the blue "holes" to show the note colors. This wasn't my best FC on this song. I show my old (best) score at the end. As usual, I'm not known for playing optimal star power paths. But 100%'s are rare for me so here's another one! I think I have something like 21 or 22 FC's total. Thanks for checking this out. Let me know if anything about this video is still annoying and I'll see what I can do to fix it for next time. FAQ: ---- Q: How does it work? A: Everything is explained in detail here: http://egyokeo.com/midihero Q: How do you do 3-note chords? A: All "two adjacent note" power chords are mapped to the top 4 pads, so with two sticks I can play any 3-note chord except GYO. Q: How do you do whammy and star power? A: I use a bass drum pedal on my right foot to activate star power, and a hi-hat pedal on my left foot to control whammy depth. Q: How do you hold notes? A: My MIDI Hero software has an auto-hold feature for every note hit because it's more natural for a drummer to play that way. It's not a good feeling to mash sticks into drum pads to hold notes. Q: Why do the notes "hit" so late? A: I use a 145ms setting for the in-game HTDV Lag Calibration feature to counter the "controller lag" I have with my setup. I use it to make the sweet spot of the notes match the sound of the music, not when the notes cross the row of circles. That way, I play what I hear, but the notes burst into flames really late. This only applies to my GH2 videos and pre-update GH3 videos. Q: Which video editor do you use? A: My earlier videos were made with Windows Movie Maker. My latest videos are made Ulead MediaStudio Pro 8. Q: How much does this cost? A: The drumKat is a pro-quality MIDI drum pad set. These days, they run about $1k but I bought my set years ago. I also use a PC to run my custom home-brew MIDI Hero software to interpret the drum events. Then the "XIM" and "XFPS" add another $100+. This is not made for the masses. This is a one-of-a-kind setup. Q: Do you play real drums? Are you in a band? A: Yes, I've been playing drums since 1986. I have been in various bands from Jazz to Ska over the years. Right now I'm in the Detroit-based ska band The Exceptions. Q: Are you getting Rock Band? A: I got it, and should have my mod working with it soon. Then I'll probably have a lot more videos to post! Q: Is "MIDI Hero" available to the public? A: I plan on making it available for download in the coming weeks. Stay tuned. . less

This is the ultimate view based on everybody's feedback! I like it. Thanks to everyone who helped me arrive at this setup!! I think this setup is a keeper,... more

This is the ultimate view based on everybody's feedback! I like it. Thanks to everyone who helped me arrive at this setup!! I think this setup is a keeper, for now anyway. The only question would be the color overlay thing I did on the pads. It's a little distracting I think. But maybe not, if I got it so it wasn't so grainy? Typical green screen artifacts. Let me know if I should nix it going forward, and just leave the black outlined gray drum pads as usual. UPDATE: It's a toss up so far... some people like the colored pads, some people do not. Because it's fun to try and do that type of editing stuff, I might attempt one more toned-down version of the colored pads, then we'll see if it's a good compromise for new viewers who don't know the layout, yet not distracting for seasoneed viewers that already know the layout. I'd rather make my existing viewers happy. This is a pretty cool song. When I first played it I didn't like it, but once I got it down to where I could 5-star it, I started liking the song more. This was a pretty good run. One missed note early on, but after that it's 100%'d with the exception of the fast chord strumming part which is physically impossible for me. I could FC the song if I had two extra pads dedicated to the 3-note chords at the end. But I never like having to do that. I'm happy with the limitations of my 10-pad setup. I'm now using a "video matte" to get the note chart to lift up off the bottom of the screen at the beginning, and then slam in the score and rock meters. Also I fade in/out the song title from the game capture. Too much fun. Thanks for watching! p.s. finally! the high quality option is available on this video. It took uploading with 3000kbps (using DivX "720HD" profile) on the video file. FAQ: ---- Q: How does it work? A: Everything is explained in detail here: http://egyokeo.com/midihero Q: How do you do 3-note chords? A: All "two adjacent note" power chords are mapped to the top 4 pads, so with two sticks I can play any 3-note chord except GYO. Q: How do you do whammy and star power? A: I use a bass drum pedal on my right foot to activate star power, and a hi-hat pedal on my left foot to control whammy depth. Q: How do you hold notes? A: My MIDI Hero software has an auto-hold feature for every note hit because it's more natural for a drummer to play that way. It's not a good feeling to mash sticks into drum pads to hold notes. Q: Why do the notes "hit" so late? A: I use a 145ms setting for the in-game HTDV Lag Calibration feature to counter the "controller lag" I have with my setup. I use it to make the sweet spot of the notes match the sound of the music, not when the notes cross the row of circles. That way, I play what I hear, but the notes burst into flames really late. This only applies to my GH2 videos and pre-update GH3 videos. Q: Which video editor do you use? A: My earlier videos were made with Windows Movie Maker. My latest videos are made Ulead MediaStudio Pro 8. Q: How much does this cost? A: The drumKat is a pro-quality MIDI drum pad set. These days, they run about $1k but I bought my set years ago. I also use a PC to run my custom home-brew MIDI Hero software to interpret the drum events. Then the "XIM" and "XFPS" add another $100+. This is not made for the masses. This is a one-of-a-kind setup. Q: Do you play real drums? Are you in a band? A: Yes, I've been playing drums since 1986. I have been in various bands from Jazz to Ska over the years. Right now I'm in the Detroit-based ska band The Exceptions. Q: Are you getting Rock Band? A: I got it, and should have my mod working with it soon. Then I'll probably have a lot more videos to post! Q: Is "MIDI Hero" available to the public? A: I plan on making it available for download in the coming weeks. Stay tuned. . less

This song was another request from awhile back. I'm getting my easier requests out of the way while I'm tweaking my camera/capture angles. More... more

This song was another request from awhile back. I'm getting my easier requests out of the way while I'm tweaking my camera/capture angles. More improvements: 1) Using higher bitrate for the video (now it's 1500kbps, was 780kbps before) so the "high quality" option should be available within a 1/2 hour or so after I upload. 2) I've added some black lines around my drum pads so it doesn't look like I'm banging on a weight scale anymore. Sharpies are beautiful things. 3) Mixed the sound of the drum taps louder with the in-game audio track since I think that's where my "value" as a youtuber lies... playing the game with drums, not just focusing on the game itself. 4) Made the note chart overlay a trapezoid again. 5) Added star power reserve meter back in. In spots I play the bass drum (which activates non-existent star power, so nothing happens) so you can get an idea of where it'll be if this were a Rock Band song with bass drum. So, which way will be better for my upcoming Rock Band drum videos? The one where the camera is high above on my right (bird's eye view)? Or where the camera is lower on my left (um... goat's eye view). There are pros and cons to both. I like the bird's eye view better because you can see what my hands are doing more but it's a strange angle. The goat's eye view crops out my hands more but there's less vertigo and the note chart can be against the bottom and generally just looks better. Tough call! Maybe a "farther away" goat's eye view? But that'd make the bass drum pedal really far away from camera. Well, you tell me if I should to try it. I THINK I'M DONE TWEAKING THE LAYOUT OF MY VIDEOS FOR NOW. I'll go back to posting videos that I think will be interesting to watch. THANKS A LOT FOR HELPING ME SOLIDIFY THE NEW LOOK! Notes: I had to film two FC's of this song for the two camera angles. My bird's eye view attempt is a few points weaker than my goat's eye vew attempt because I missed a few moments of star note whammy during that run. Boring stuff: re: "improvement #1" above, the higher bitrate really wasn't what made this video have the "high quality" link that my previous 4 or so videos are missing. The difference came down to the opening few frames! If I started the video with the game capture, even though I captured in 640x480, it wouldn't see my video as "high quality". If I start my video with a live camera scene, even just a few seconds of it, then youtube would see the video as high quality. I even tested uploading the same video privately with or without an intro and the intro made the difference. I hate how complex the world is becoming! Wow, I'm really long winded: Only hard core fans/friends will read this far into the description. But you're going to laugh. Those of you who have been following my videos for awhile know I've been battling people thinking what I do is fake. Well, this video actually *is* fake! I mean, it's mostly real, but since I FC'd the song twice in a row, one for each camera angle, I'm only using the captured in-game video from the first FC. It just made for easier video editing this time. I didn't whammy exactly the same in both attempts, but I still got 100% in both and that's good enough for what I'm trying to do in this video, which is to get some feedback on what is the preferred viewing angle for you. So, don't feel like I'm cheating you! :-) Just being totally honest here. FAQ: ---- Q: How does it work? A: Everything is explained in detail here: http://egyokeo.com/midihero (sorry, this description is too long, please see the rest of the FAQ on my main channel page) . less

This one was another request from a long time ago, but I've been putting it off because it's not as challenging as the songs I usually try to make videos of.... more

This one was another request from a long time ago, but I've been putting it off because it's not as challenging as the songs I usually try to make videos of. But I'm still tweaking my new video setup so I thought I'd give it another go. I took more of your advice: 1) Note chart is bigger. 2) No more rock meter. 3) Most importantly, captured the in-game audio, wore headphones, recorded the drum tapping sounds, and mixed it all together to get the best of both worlds. And I also tried to capture the game video in higher resolution, so that those of you who have high-quality-when-available enabled in your youtube settings, it'll show the higher quality vid automatically when you watch it. I'm still experimenting here to find out just what youtube needs in order to do that automatically (otherwise you just add "&fmt=18" to the end of the url). So if it doesn't work this time, I've still got more ideas to try. (update: nope, not working, I'm going to up the bitrate on the video next time) Again, I got less on this FC than when I originally FC'd it. I got 934 points less this time. I show my old score at the end of the vid. Thanks to everyone for helping me tweak my setup to make better quality videos. EDIT: Wow, because I did such a good job capturing the in-game audio, I got a copyright claim from someone. That means there might be advertisements on this page. Either that or the man will shut me down, but I hope not. I'm not making any cash doing this. FAQ: ---- Q: How does it work? A: Everything is explained in detail here: http://egyokeo.com/midihero Q: How do you do 3-note chords? A: All "two adjacent note" power chords are mapped to the top 4 pads, so with two sticks I can play any 3-note chord except GYO. Q: How do you do whammy and star power? A: I use a bass drum pedal on my right foot to activate star power, and a hi-hat pedal on my left foot to control whammy depth. Q: How do you hold notes? A: My MIDI Hero software has an auto-hold feature for every note hit because it's more natural for a drummer to play that way. It's not a good feeling to mash sticks into drum pads to hold notes. Q: Why do the notes "hit" so late? A: I use a 145ms setting for the in-game HTDV Lag Calibration feature to counter the "controller lag" I have with my setup. I use it to make the sweet spot of the notes match the sound of the music, not when the notes cross the row of circles. That way, I play what I hear, but the notes burst into flames really late. This only applies to my GH2 videos and pre-update GH3 videos. Q: How much does this cost? A: The drumKat is a pro-quality MIDI drum pad set. These days, they run about $1k but I bought my set years ago. I also use a PC to run my custom home-brew MIDI Hero software to interpret the drum events. Then the "XIM" and "XFPS" add another $100+. This is not made for the masses. This is a one-of-a-kind setup. Q: Do you play real drums? Are you in a band? A: Yes, I've been playing drums since 1986. I have been in various bands from Jazz to Ska over the years. Right now I'm in the Detroit-based ska band The Exceptions. Q: Are you getting Rock Band? A: I got it, now that there is a mod out there that'll allow me to use my MIDI pads on it. I refuse to play on the stock drum controller. It's awful. Once I can play the game on my MIDI pads, I'll probably make some videos. Q: Is "MIDI Hero" available to the public? A: I plan on making it available for download in the coming months. Stay tuned. . less

Thank you again subscribers. I'm taking all your great advice. You're really helping me here! Thank you! This vid was a request from a long time ago. But... more

Thank you again subscribers. I'm taking all your great advice. You're really helping me here! Thank you! This vid was a request from a long time ago. But my main goal here was to try out some of the suggestions I've gotten from some of you. 1) I'm now capturing the video from a capture card, rather than a cheap-o webcam. This will help those of you who hate blue. :-) And I admit, wow, way better color. 2) I did a GH3 vid because they have calibration settings that allow me to make the notes burst into flames right on the row of circles. Many of you hate the lag, so let me know if I've fixed it in this vid. re: the lag... It's really still there. Stop reading if this stuff is boring, but here's what's happening in my case. My mod has a 145ms lag. That means when I hit the drums, 145ms later, the game "sees" that I hit the drum. So, I have a 145ms lag setting for audio. I have a 0ms lag setting for video. This means that GH3 is delaying the notes on screen by 145ms, later than what the audio is. That way, when I hear the music and see generally what notes are coming at me, I hit the notes in time with the music, and 145ms later, the notes are at the row of circles, right when the game "sees" I hit the notes, so they burst into flames. This makes it more difficult for me to play, but makes for a better youtube video. When I go to make the vid, I actually don't sync the captured video to when I hit the notes in real life. If I did that, you'd hear "tap tap tap" *before* the notes crossed the row of circles. Instead, to make the video easier to watch, I shift the captured video so that when the notes are bursting into flames, that's when you hear and see me hitting the drum pads. Well... alright, I got that out of my system. Thanks for watching and if you have any more suggestions, let me know. I will definitely seriously consider all of them. For my next vid I plan to capture the in-game audio and mix it with my drum tap sounds. That should make the vids more quality because the audio will sound better, but you'll still get the realism by hearing the taps in the background. I'll also capture at a higher resolution so that you can see the score and note streak numbers better. Oh, I got 200 points less on this FC than when I first FC'd this song. I show my old score at the end of the vid. FAQ: ---- Q: How does it work? A: Everything is explained in detail here: http://egyokeo.com/midihero Q: How do you do 3-note chords? A: All "two adjacent note" power chords are mapped to the top 4 pads, so with two sticks I can play any 3-note chord except GYO. Q: How do you do whammy and star power? A: I use a bass drum pedal on my right foot to activate star power, and a hi-hat pedal on my left foot to control whammy depth. Q: How do you hold notes? A: My MIDI Hero software has an auto-hold feature for every note hit because it's more natural for a drummer to play that way. It's not a good feeling to mash sticks into drum pads to hold notes. Q: Why do the notes "hit" so late? A: I use a 145ms setting for the in-game HTDV Lag Calibration feature to counter the "controller lag" I have with my setup. I use it to make the sweet spot of the notes match the sound of the music, not when the notes cross the row of circles. That way, I play what I hear, but the notes burst into flames really late. This only applies to my GH2 videos and pre-update GH3 videos. Q: How much does this cost? A: The drumKat is a pro-quality MIDI drum pad set. These days, they run about $1k but I bought my set years ago. I also use a PC to run my custom home-brew MIDI Hero software to interpret the drum events. Then the "XIM" and "XFPS" add another $100+. This is not made for the masses. This is a one-of-a-kind setup. Q: Do you play real drums? Are you in a band? A: Yes, I've been playing drums since 1986. I have been in various bands from Jazz to Ska over the years. Right now I'm in the Detroit-based ska band The Exceptions. Q: Are you getting Rock Band? A: I got it, now that there is a mod out there that'll allow me to use my MIDI pads on it. I refuse to play on the stock drum controller. It's awful. Once I can play the game on my MIDI pads, I'll probably make some videos. Q: Is "MIDI Hero" available to the public? A: I plan on making it available for download in the coming months. Stay tuned. . less

I'm so close to being able to FC this sucker! But after 9 run throughs tonight, the goal of FC'ing becomes more and more frustrating (for me). So, this take... more

I'm so close to being able to FC this sucker! But after 9 run throughs tonight, the goal of FC'ing becomes more and more frustrating (for me). So, this take is my best score to date, but not my best run in terms of missed notes. Still, 1006/1013. I'm happy. Thanks to JDisturbed for requesting this one yesterday. I write down all requests, but this one hit me like... "yeah! I remember that song, that one is awesome!" So I did it right away. Thanks everyone for the feedback on my last video where I was trying out different overlay options. I took most of your advice and came up with this one. Let me know if it's better or worse (if you care ;-) THANKS!! FAQ: ---- Q: How does it work? A: Everything is explained in detail here: http://egyokeo.com/midihero Q: How do you do 3-note chords? A: All "two adjacent note" power chords are mapped to the top 4 pads, so with two sticks I can play any 3-note chord except GYO. Q: How do you do whammy and star power? A: I use a bass drum pedal on my right foot to activate star power, and a hi-hat pedal on my left foot to control whammy depth. Q: How do you hold notes? A: My MIDI Hero software has an auto-hold feature for every note hit because it's more natural for a drummer to play that way. It's not a good feeling to mash sticks into drum pads to hold notes. Q: Why do the notes "hit" so late? A: I use a 145ms setting for the in-game HTDV Lag Calibration feature to counter the "controller lag" I have with my setup. I use it to make the sweet spot of the notes match the sound of the music, not when the notes cross the row of circles. That way, I play what I hear, but the notes burst into flames really late. This only applies to my GH2 videos and pre-update GH3 videos. Q: How much does this cost? A: The drumKat is a pro-quality MIDI drum pad set. These days, they run about $1k but I bought my set years ago. I also use a PC to run my custom home-brew MIDI Hero software to interpret the drum events. Then the "XIM" and "XFPS" add another $100+. This is not made for the masses. This is a one-of-a-kind setup. Q: Do you play real drums? Are you in a band? A: Yes, I've been playing drums since 1986. I have been in various bands from Jazz to Ska over the years. Right now I'm in the Detroit-based ska band The Exceptions. Q: Are you getting Rock Band? A: I got it, now that there is a mod out there that'll allow me to use my MIDI pads on it. I refuse to play on the stock drum controller. It's awful. Once I can play the game on my MIDI pads, I'll probably make some videos. Q: Is "MIDI Hero" available to the public? A: I plan on making it available for download in the coming months. Stay tuned. . less

When I was a guest on the StarPower Podcast, the guys requested a few songs. This was one of them. I remember playing this on the guitar controller (before I... more

When I was a guest on the StarPower Podcast, the guys requested a few songs. This was one of them. I remember playing this on the guitar controller (before I injured my finger) and just struggling in those repetitive bridge sections. Well, I still struggle with them. My left arm just tenses up in those spots. I freaked out and lost my multiplier in there (and plenty of other places), but I still got my high score on this run and I just want an excuse to play with my new video editing software :) I went a little gonzo this time with overlays, so let me know if it's annoying. But this is similar to how IBitePrettyHard does it and people don't seem to mind, or maybe even prefer it, since you can see the drumming and the game screen pretty well. But let me know if you hate it. I'm still experimenting. Thanks for checking this out! FAQ: ---- Q: How does it work? A: Everything is explained in detail here: http://egyokeo.com/midihero Q: How do you do 3-note chords? A: All "two adjacent note" power chords are mapped to the top 4 pads, so with two sticks I can play any 3-note chord except GYO. Q: How do you do whammy and star power? A: I use a bass drum pedal on my right foot to activate star power, and a hi-hat pedal on my left foot to control whammy depth. Q: How do you hold notes? A: My MIDI Hero software has an auto-hold feature for every note hit because it's more natural for a drummer to play that way. It's not a good feeling to mash sticks into drum pads to hold notes. Q: Why do the notes "hit" so late? A: I use a 145ms setting for the in-game HTDV Lag Calibration feature to counter the "controller lag" I have with my setup. I use it to make the sweet spot of the notes match the sound of the music, not when the notes cross the row of circles. That way, I play what I hear, but the notes burst into flames really late. This only applies to my GH2 videos and pre-update GH3 videos. Q: How much does this cost? A: The drumKat is a pro-quality MIDI drum pad set. These days, they run about $1k but I bought my set years ago. I also use a PC to run my custom home-brew MIDI Hero software to interpret the drum events. Then the "XIM" and "XFPS" add another $100+. This is not made for the masses. This is a one-of-a-kind setup. Q: Do you play real drums? Are you in a band? A: Yes, I've been playing drums since 1986. I have been in various bands from Jazz to Ska over the years. Right now I'm in the Detroit-based ska band The Exceptions. Q: Are you getting Rock Band? A: I got it, now that there is a mod out there that'll allow me to use my MIDI pads on it. I refuse to play on the stock drum controller. It's awful. Once I can play the game on my MIDI pads, I'll probably make some videos. Q: Is "MIDI Hero" available to the public? A: I plan on making it available for download in the coming months. Stay tuned. . less

Lots of new stuff: 1) My old TV died and I got a new one. When on film, my old TV had a greenish band across it and was darker at the bottom. My new one is... more

Lots of new stuff: 1) My old TV died and I got a new one. When on film, my old TV had a greenish band across it and was darker at the bottom. My new one is a DLP and looks a lot better when I film it, but I didn't use my normal over-the-shoulder position this time because... 2) ...I used a cheap-o web cam to capture the video off the screen. This way you can see what my feet are doing. I'm preparing for my upcoming Rock Band videos! I'm hoping to have my mod working with it soon. 3) I got some new video editing software. Gone are the days of Windows Movie Maker for me. I'm now using Ulead MediaStudio Pro 8.0. It's fun to make videos, and I'm glad that there are a lot of you who enjoy watching them. Thanks a lot! BTW, I'm going to use a different character if I ever make another GH2 vid. Pandora's guitar neck is too distracting and you can't see the notes on film too well. But hey, it's Free Bird. Don't we all have it pretty much memorized anyway ;-) More rambling: Yay! I got 500k on this. This is the ONLY song/take I've ever gotten over 500k in GH2 other than doing it once on X-Stream. Also, subscribers: this is all about you guys. I've stopped comments on all my old videos (over a month old). I just like to hear what you guys have to say. My new plan is to keep comments open for a few weeks so subscribers can say whatever they want, then I'll close it. I'm sick of hearing "fake" and "how do you hold notes" over and over again. Thanks for watching! FAQ: ---- Q: How does it work? A: Everything is explained in detail here: http://egyokeo.com/midihero Q: How do you do 3-note chords? A: All "two adjacent note" power chords are mapped to the top 4 pads, so with two sticks I can play any 3-note chord except GYO. Q: How do you do whammy and star power? A: I use a bass drum pedal on my right foot to activate star power, and a hi-hat pedal on my left foot to control whammy depth. Q: How do you hold notes? A: My MIDI Hero software has an auto-hold feature for every note hit because it's more natural for a drummer to play that way. It's not a good feeling to mash sticks into drum pads to hold notes. Q: Why do the notes "hit" so late? A: I use a 145ms setting for the in-game HTDV Lag Calibration feature to counter the "controller lag" I have with my setup. I use it to make the sweet spot of the notes match the sound of the music, not when the notes cross the row of circles. That way, I play what I hear, but the notes burst into flames really late. This only applies to my GH2 videos and pre-update GH3 videos. Q: How much does this cost? A: The drumKat is a pro-quality MIDI drum pad set. These days, they run about $1k. I also use a PC to run my custom home-brew MIDI Hero software to interpret the drum events. Then the "XIM" and "XFPS" add another $100+. This is not made for the masses. This is a one-of-a-kind setup. Q: Do you play real drums? Are you in a band? A: Yes, I've been playing drums since 1986. I have been in various bands from Jazz to Ska over the years. Right now I'm in the Detroit-based ska band The Exceptions. Q: Are you getting Rock Band? A: I got it, now that there is a mod out there that'll allow me to use my MIDI pads on it. I refuse to play on the stock drum controller. It's awful. Once I can play the game on my MIDI pads, I'll probably make some videos. Q: Is "MIDI Hero" available to the public? A: I plan on making it available for download in the coming months. Stay tuned. . less

Go buy this album: Radiohead / In Rainbows News for my subscribers who want GH/RB vids: My TV broke a few weeks ago. I just got a replacement. I'm thinking... more

Go buy this album: Radiohead / In Rainbows News for my subscribers who want GH/RB vids: My TV broke a few weeks ago. I just got a replacement. I'm thinking of making a video of some song, just to see how the new TV films (hopefully without that greenish band across it like my old one). I still haven't gotten Rock Band playable on my MIDI pads. No ETA other than soon, hopefully. I won't be buying GH:A since I don't like A. In other news, did you see that Mushy2008 (aka Mushy2000) is the first USA player to get 1000/1000 gamerscore in GH:A? Checkout mygamercard.net, he's at the top of the GH:A leaderboards. . less

Quick lil' mini drum lesson for ya. I gloss over a lot of things, but hey, it's free. A great book for practicing paradiddles and all sorts of variations of... more

Quick lil' mini drum lesson for ya. I gloss over a lot of things, but hey, it's free. A great book for practicing paradiddles and all sorts of variations of sticking patterns that can be applied to a drumkit is "Stick Control". Here, it's this one: http://tinyurl.com/4nekat I've probably spent more hours staring at the pages of this book than any other as I practiced drums over the years. Happy Diddles! . less

Who's the boom king? I'm the boom king. Song is Boom by Flight of the Conchords. A great talent and a great show on HBO. Catch some reruns if you haven't seen it. Yes I am in my PJs. .

Who's the boom king? I'm the boom king. Song is Boom by Flight of the Conchords. A great talent and a great show on HBO. Catch some reruns if you haven't seen it. Yes I am in my PJs. . less

Too many mutha'uckas, uckin' with my... shay. The drum mix is really high, sorry about that. Song is Mutha'uckas by Flight of the Conchords. A great talent and a great show on HBO. Catch some reruns if you haven't seen it. Yes I am in my PJs. .

Too many mutha'uckas, uckin' with my... shay. The drum mix is really high, sorry about that. Song is Mutha'uckas by Flight of the Conchords. A great talent and a great show on HBO. Catch some reruns if you haven't seen it. Yes I am in my PJs. . less

Sure, I could FC these with probably another play through, but you get the idea ;-). Plus, I'm a 98-99% kinda guy. 100% is just too stressful. This was my... more

Sure, I could FC these with probably another play through, but you get the idea ;-). Plus, I'm a 98-99% kinda guy. 100% is just too stressful. This was my 2nd time playing through each of these songs, no practice. Yeah, they're kinda easy. These 2 would be great for anyone still going for the Enlightened Guitarist achievement. Piece o' cake. The songs are: "Exo-Politics" (238k) and "Supermassive Black Hole" (166k) from the latest GH3 DLC Muse pack. Be sure to check out my other Muse vids: "Stockholm Syndrome" (from the same pack) and Knights of Cydonnia (another 99%-er). FAQ: ---- Q: How does it work? A: Everything is explained in detail here: http://egyokeo.com/midihero Q: How do you do 3-note chords? A: All "two adjacent note" power chords are mapped to the top 4 pads, so with two sticks I can play any 3-note chord except GYO. Q: How do you do whammy and star power? A: I use a bass drum pedal on my right foot to activate star power, and a hi-hat pedal on my left foot to control whammy depth. Q: How do you hold notes? A: My MIDI Hero software has an auto-hold feature for every note hit because it's more natural for a drummer to play that way. It's not a good feeling to mash sticks into drum pads to hold notes. Q: How much does this cost? A: The drumKat is a pro-quality MIDI drum pad set. These days, they run about $1k. I also use a PC to run my custom home-brew MIDI Hero software to interpret the drum events. Then the "XIM" and "XFPS" add another $100+. This is not made for the masses. This is a one-of-a-kind setup. Q: Do you play real drums? Are you in a band? A: Yes, I've been playing drums since 1986. I have been in various bands from Jazz to Ska over the years. Right now I'm in the Detroit-based ska band The Exceptions. Q: Are you getting Rock Band? A: I got it, now that there is a mod out there that'll allow me to use my MIDI pads on it. I refuse to play on the stock drum controller. It's awful. Once I can play the game on my MIDI pads, I'll probably make some videos. Q: Is "MIDI Hero" available to the public? A: I plan on making it available for download in the coming months. Stay tuned. . less

I tried playing with my hands instead of sticks this time. The reason is because of those fast chord strumming parts. Those are just beyond my top speed for... more

I tried playing with my hands instead of sticks this time. The reason is because of those fast chord strumming parts. Those are just beyond my top speed for each hand so I can't keep it up for repeated measures like you need to. If you played those sections on the guitar controller, try doing them with all down-strums to get an idea of how difficult it would be. Then imagine doing down-strums with two hands in sync! So then it dawned on me: if I used my hands, I could use index and middle fingers to do "rolls" on each hand, and keep up with the fast chords easier. One hand per note (pad). Well, with some more practice, I think it'd work pretty damn well! This video was just after figuring out the technique, and this was my best take after a few tries. My fingers started to get really tired so I'm going to throw this video up. If I just rested another day, I bet I could get a better score by not breaking the multiplier in the "fingery" sections, but I'm getting GTA4 and Mass Effect tomorrow so I won't be playing GH3 :-) See my Take This Life video for another song that has these "just out of my league" fast chord strumming parts. Thanks for watching (and reading!) FAQ: ---- Q: How does it work? A: Everything is explained in detail here: http://egyokeo.com/midihero Q: How do you do 3-note chords? A: All "two adjacent note" power chords are mapped to the top 4 pads, so with two sticks I can play any 3-note chord except GYO. Q: How do you do whammy and star power? A: I use a bass drum pedal on my right foot to activate star power, and a hi-hat pedal on my left foot to control whammy depth. Q: How do you hold notes? A: My MIDI Hero software has an auto-hold feature for every note hit because it's more natural for a drummer to play that way. It's not a good feeling to mash sticks into drum pads to hold notes. Q: How much does this cost? A: The drumKat is a pro-quality MIDI drum pad set. These days, they run about $1k. I also use a PC to run my custom home-brew MIDI Hero software to interpret the drum events. Then the "XIM" and "XFPS" add another $100+. This is not made for the masses. This is a one-of-a-kind setup. Q: Do you play real drums? Are you in a band? A: Yes, I've been playing drums since 1986. I have been in various bands from Jazz to Ska over the years. Right now I'm in the Detroit-based ska band The Exceptions. Q: Are you getting Rock Band? A: I got it, now that there is a mod out there that'll allow me to use my MIDI pads on it. I refuse to play on the stock drum controller. It's awful. Once I can play the game on my MIDI pads, I'll probably make some videos. Q: Is "MIDI Hero" available to the public? A: I plan on making it available for download in the coming months. Stay tuned. . less

Hi everybody. I've been putting off playing Rock Band drums because I hate the drum controller. I'm so spoiled with my MIDI drum pads. I can hit them very... more

Hi everybody. I've been putting off playing Rock Band drums because I hate the drum controller. I'm so spoiled with my MIDI drum pads. I can hit them very light and they are 100% reliable. Any mistake is my fault, not the controller's fault (unlike the RB drum controller). Anyway, IBitePrettyHard has asked me a few times to play some score duels with him. If you don't know him, he's one of the top RB drummers in the world. Check him out: http://youtube.com/ibiteprettyhard So, here's the thing. Both of us have ustream.tv accounts. Egyokeo: http://ustream.tv/channel/egyokeo IBitePrettyHard: http://ustream.tv/channel/ibiteprettyhard And so if you're ever bored at night, come check one/both of our shows out. I'm usually on at 9:30 or 10:00 Eastern time. If you don't see me on by 10:00, then I probably won't be on that night. But IBitePrettyHard has a pretty huge following and is on almost nightly, from what I can tell. So, tonight (May.6.2008) I might finally take IBitePrettyHard up on his offer to do some score duels. He'll probably play with Lefty Flip on, because tonight will be the first time I'll have ever played Rock Band drums. But if we can't meet up, then maybe stop by my ustream channel anyway. I'm thinking I might try to just blow through Solo Career tonight and over the next week or so. You can see if I'm any good ;-) UPDATE: I finished solo expert drums tour in two nights of ustream broadcasting, so I haven't been on recently. Thanks for being a subscriber! I play rhythm games for my own enjoyment. But if people like to check out what I'm doing, that's reason enough for me to broadcast/upload videos of it too. Thanks again. . less

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/egyokeo I'm thinking of broadcasting a ustream show tonight of me practicing Jordan on the MIDI drum pads. I thought some of you... more

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/egyokeo I'm thinking of broadcasting a ustream show tonight of me practicing Jordan on the MIDI drum pads. I thought some of you might be interested to see what it's like (with the lag, playing it on slow, working out sticking patterns, etc). Tune in if interested! I'll be practicing anyway. This will be my first broadcast so I hope it works. Sorry if it doesn't. . less

You may have seen some of my other co-op videos with gongon1050. We would always try to beat Co-op TTFAF after a night of shredding. This was our first win.... more

You may have seen some of my other co-op videos with gongon1050. We would always try to beat Co-op TTFAF after a night of shredding. This was our first win. Notice the use of the "carpet woods"! I mapped the 3 additional pads to the 3 chords: GY, RB, YO, so I could pass the fast chord-strumming part which only appears in the lead guitar part if playing co-op. This run was the first time I actually tried using these additional pads for this song. So you can see my playing isn't as tight as my solo TTFAF runs, and I flail a bit in spots... but hey, we beat it. At the end of the video I show the carpet woods in more detail. gongon1050 will probably post this same run from his perspective, so be sure to check that out! http://youtube.com/user/gongon1050 Thanks for watching!! FAQ: ---- Q: How does it work? A: Everything is explained in detail here: http://egyokeo.com/midihero Q: How do you do 3-note chords? A: All "two adjacent note" power chords are mapped to the top 4 pads, so with two sticks I can play any 3-note chord except GYO. Q: How do you do whammy and star power? A: I use a bass drum pedal on my right foot to activate star power, and a hi-hat pedal on my left foot to control whammy depth. Q: How do you hold notes? A: My MIDI Hero software has an auto-hold feature for every note hit because it's more natural for a drummer to play that way. It's not a good feeling to mash sticks into drum pads to hold notes. Q: How much does this cost? A: The drumKat is a pro-quality MIDI drum pad set. These days, they run about $1k. I also use a PC to run my custom home-brew MIDI Hero software to interpret the drum events. Then the "XIM" and "XFPS" add another $100+. This is not made for the masses. This is a one-of-a-kind setup. Q: Do you play real drums? Are you in a band? A: Yes, I've been playing drums since 1986. I have been in various bands from Jazz to Ska over the years. Right now I'm in the Detroit-based ska band The Exceptions. Q: Are you getting Rock Band? A: I got it, now that there is a mod out there that'll allow me to use my MIDI pads on it. I refuse to play on the stock drum controller. It's awful. Once I can play the game on my MIDI pads, I'll probably make some videos. Q: Is "MIDI Hero" available to the public? A: I plan on making it available for download in the coming months. Stay tuned. . less

This was a request, but not as co-op, and especially not on Rhythm. But the last few sections of this song on Lead are basically impossible on drums. The... more

This was a request, but not as co-op, and especially not on Rhythm. But the last few sections of this song on Lead are basically impossible on drums. The only way I could do them is if I got extra "chord pads" out and used those, but then it wouldn't be as good. No, Lead on this song is like Lou's part in TDWDTG for me... not gonna happen. gongon1050 tears it up, though. We both have had better runs at this song on our own, but we've been trying to get a video of this up for a long time so I'm taking this one! :-) FAQ: ---- Q: How does it work? A: Everything is explained in detail here: http://egyokeo.com/midihero Q: How do you do 3-note chords? A: All "two adjacent note" power chords are mapped to the top 4 pads, so with two sticks I can play any 3-note chord except GYO. Q: How do you do whammy and star power? A: I use a bass drum pedal on my right foot to activate star power, and a hi-hat pedal on my left foot to control whammy depth. Q: How do you hold notes? A: My MIDI Hero software has an auto-hold feature for every note hit because it's more natural for a drummer to play that way. It's not a good feeling to mash sticks into drum pads to hold notes. Q: How much does this cost? A: The drumKat is a pro-quality MIDI drum pad set. These days, they run about $1k. I also use a PC to run my custom home-brew MIDI Hero software to interpret the drum events. Then the "XIM" and "XFPS" add another $100+. This is not made for the masses. This is a one-of-a-kind setup. Q: Do you play real drums? Are you in a band? A: Yes, I've been playing drums since 1986. I have been in various bands from Jazz to Ska over the years. Right now I'm in the Detroit-based ska band The Exceptions. Q: Are you getting Rock Band? A: I got it, now that there is a mod out there that'll allow me to use my MIDI pads on it. I refuse to play on the stock drum controller. It's awful. Once I can play the game on my MIDI pads, I'll probably make some videos. Q: Is "MIDI Hero" available to the public? A: I plan on making it available for download in the coming months. Stay tuned. . less

One of my favorite songs in the game. Like Reptilia, it's a shame it's only in Co-op Career mode (update: i know you can play it in quickplay, i guess i meant... more

One of my favorite songs in the game. Like Reptilia, it's a shame it's only in Co-op Career mode (update: i know you can play it in quickplay, i guess i meant it's a shame it's not part of solo career). The rhythm part on this song is challenging on drums, so I thought it might make for an interesting video. Thanks gongon1050 for helping me out! FAQ: ---- Q: How does it work? A: Everything is explained in detail here: http://egyokeo.com/midihero Q: How do you do 3-note chords? A: All "two adjacent note" power chords are mapped to the top 4 pads, so with two sticks I can play any 3-note chord except GYO. Q: How do you do whammy and star power? A: I use a bass drum pedal on my right foot to activate star power, and a hi-hat pedal on my left foot to control whammy depth. Q: How do you hold notes? A: My MIDI Hero software has an auto-hold feature for every note hit because it's more natural for a drummer to play that way. It's not a good feeling to mash sticks into drum pads to hold notes. Q: How much does this cost? A: The drumKat is a pro-quality MIDI drum pad set. These days, they run about $1k. I also use a PC to run my custom home-brew MIDI Hero software to interpret the drum events. Then the "XIM" and "XFPS" add another $100+. This is not made for the masses. This is a one-of-a-kind setup. Q: Do you play real drums? Are you in a band? A: Yes, I've been playing drums since 1986. I have been in various bands from Jazz to Ska over the years. Right now I'm in the Detroit-based ska band The Exceptions. Q: Are you getting Rock Band? A: I got it, now that there is a mod out there that'll allow me to use my MIDI pads on it. I refuse to play on the stock drum controller. It's awful. Once I can play the game on my MIDI pads, I'll probably make some videos. Q: Is "MIDI Hero" available to the public? A: I plan on making it available for download in the coming months. Stay tuned. . less

I updated my MIDI Hero software (that I use to play Guitar Hero on MIDI drum pads, see my other videos if you don't know what I'm talking about) to be able to... more

I updated my MIDI Hero software (that I use to play Guitar Hero on MIDI drum pads, see my other videos if you don't know what I'm talking about) to be able to play the game using a MIDI Keyboard. I don't plan on ever playing Guitar Hero, or any other rhythm game, using a keyboard again after what you see me doing here in this video. It does make the games too easy, and it's border line (if not full-blown) cheating. Plus, I much prefer a standard guitar controller or better yet (for me, and I argue it's comperable in difficulty) my drum pads. But getting it working with a keyboard was the next step after drums to achieving the ultimate goal of PLAYING GUITAR HERO WITH A REAL GUITAR! (Yes, some people have done that, but they all involve hacking a guitar. Wth MIDI Hero, you just plug in a MIDI guitar, map some notes in an .ini file, and away you go). YES I KNOW householdhacker can play guitar hero with a real guitar, but his requires hacking your guitar, and his solution has some limitations. With my solution, you can map any note you want to any of the 5 in-game fret buttons, even different notes could map to a single fret, and you could even have different "tunings" per song if you wanted. I don't own a MIDI guitar, so I can't show it working, but I plan on letting this software out into the wild in the coming months so if anyone out there has a MIDI guitar, you can try it and see if it works. Oh, one important thing here: this only works on Xbox 360 and you must have a "XIM" (buy one or build one yourself). See my website for details. FAQ: ---- Q: How does it work? A: Everything is explained in detail here: http://egyokeo.com/midihero Q: Is "MIDI Hero" available to the public? A: I plan on making it available for download in the coming months. Stay tuned. . less