Mad Catz Rock Band 3 MIDI PRO-ADAPTER for Wii and Wii U

Using with a Yamaha DTXPLORER kit, was able to dial it in to work exactly how we wanted it. Wish the RB 3 game used the foot pedal for the hi-hat (it detects it, but none of the tracks make use of it).The only complaint is this is new-old-stock (from ~9 years ago), and the "soft touch" coating the mfr put on it turned to sticky goo. I tried rubbing alcohol, which was working but painfully slowly, and ended with using goo gone (which was faster). I was able to remove the sticky stuff with the goo gone and some rags, being careful not to rub aggressively around any of the printed markings. They all stayed, and sticky mess is gone. This is not the seller's fault, just the reality of buying something manufactured years ago (it was sealed, new in the box).Don't forget to also buy a MIDI cable if you don't have one, this doesn't come with that. We used rubber bands and zip ties to secure this to the drum kit in an unobtrusive place (it needs to be accessible to run the menu, and to dial in the sensitivity).

Wanting to add keyboards to Rock Band 3, you have a choice between the keytar and this unit. Since we already had a MIDI capable keyboard, and the adapter was the cheaper option, this was the one we chose. This is for the Wii version, by the way.The unit is a little lightweight (but since I'm in Australia that helped with shipping costs, I guess...) but then it isn't going to get pounded like a guitar controller or drums. It connects to the console using a long USB cable (about 3m) and to the MIDI instrument using a standard MIDI cable. One is NOT supplied with the unit, but these are quite cheap to buy if your MIDI instrument did not come with one. From a Wii perspective, it's nice that the unit doesn't use up a wiimote.On the back is a bi-directional clip that can be set to either clip on a belt (for guitar use) or to make a right angle with the case (for placing it on a ledge, such as with a keyboard). This seems reasonably sturdy.Buttons mimic the standard wiimote ones: A, B, 1, 2, +, -. As well there is a power button (labelled with the Rock Band "RB"), a direction pad, a volume wheel and an overdrive button on the lower right corner. This latter may be a questionable design choice, since it is quite easy to knock the unit off the keyboard in the heat of the moment. A possible solution is to look at attaching your adapter more firmly, perhaps with velcro dots? There is also a switch to set the unit to Keyboard, Guitar or Drums.Had no problems with the unit connecting and using it, but did discover a limit on Rock Band 3 itself which was NOT documented in either the game or the adapter. In normal play mode you are limited to any two of guitar, bass and keyboard. To play with all three at once you need to set "all instruments mode" (which the game DOES ask you about as soon as you connect the third instrument - it's user friendly that way), but that itself has a couple of limitations. Firstly, no online play, though you can access other modes fine. Secondly, and more annoyingly, vocals are set to Easy mode and lose both scoring and overdrive. Sure, you no longer need a wiimote for them, and you can have three people (lead and two backups), but that doesn't help if you wanted to have (scoring) Vocals, Keys, Guitar and Bass. Harmonix should fix this. However this is not a point against the unit itself, but the game, and a minor one at that.In use, the unit works fine. Since most of the actual hands on stuff is with your connected instrument, mileage will vary. As usual you can tweak the response times within the game, anyway. Easy keys are just one note at a time with five keys (c through g) assigned to each of the five notes. Medium adds chords. Have yet to try higher levels or Pro mode (I'm a wimp).The adapter can also be used to make your keyboard play guitar or drum parts - have not investigated this in detail yet since we have all the other instruments.In all, a very good little unit that does exactly what it is meant to. I also see it as the blueprint for future music games in bringing together real instruments with the game itself. In theory there's no reason something like this couldn't be made cross platform, too.

I pre-ordered this adapter with the assumption it will support any MIDI keyboard (or drums or guitar) and was a little shocked when I read in the manual it was only tested and guaranteed to work with 5 keyboard and 4 drum sets. That was not mentioned in the product description, and my keyboard is not even a synth like you see in electronics stores, it is a silent MIDI controller I bought in the late 1990s with which to write music on my computer. I began to worry.I really started to worry when I first hooked it up and nothing happened. Had I been paying more attention I would have noticed the adapter's MIDI activity light was blinking "SOS" in Morse code (cute!), and had I read the manual I would have known that meant it wasn't getting an Active Sense signal from my keyboard. Once I changed a setting on my keyboard to look for an external MIDI device it worked perfectly. After that the activity light blinked for every key down, key up, and pitch change.In Pro Keyboard mode the keys map from C3 to C5 which is the top half of my keyboard, but even my ancient keyboard lets me move up and down octaves so you can probably locate the notes further down if you prefer. The manual says that in Keyboard mode the 5 keys map to C4 to G4, but in my experience they also map to C3 to G3 with one extra green note at C5 (which is where my keyboard ends, perhaps there are more notes if I shift octaves?). The pitch shift wheel lets me gain more power for overdrive, much like the whammy bar in guitar.RB3 includes lessons on how to play the keyboard and I've gone through a few of them. They teach you the basics and don't get impatient with you. Between that and the guitar lessons I may be a real musician soon! I still find it easier to play keys on the RB guitar, and easier with my left hand than right, but hopefully that will change. After a few days of using it, the only problems have been from accidentally shifting octaves during play and one momentarily stuck key.

This arrived as promised but you could not be ready for what you get.... It smells like the things toxic and the stickiness of the unit is insane! If you have to have this thing but a vinyl wrap kit and something to kick that smell!