Gizmodo: wii music

Wii Drum High Turns Your Controllers Into a Shaky PC Drum Set

John Herrman — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 07:29:06 EST

Wii Music set up a solid control scheme for drumming with the console's various attachments, which hacker He Zhao has basically replicated. Except this time it's free, customizable and on your PC.

Just like in its Wii progenitor, this program follows a simple pattern: feet control bass drums, while the swinging hands take care of each other components, depending on which button is depressed during movement. For such a simple hack it's kind of impressive how accurately the sounds are matched to movements, and the possibility of endless drum sample customization means that with some refining, this could actually serve as a passable—if minimal—electronic drum kit. [He Zhao]

ezGear Wii MusicPack Rocks Entire Orchestra of Wiimote Peripherals

Mark Wilson — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:00:00 EST

Sure, the Wiimote alone is supposed to work as one of any 60 instruments featured in Wii Music. But what fun is the Wiimote without a plastic violin, saxophone and pair of drumsticks attached?

The eGear WiiMusic Pack includes all three instrument attachments (four, if you count one drumstick doubling as a conductor's baton), which while still putting you 56 pieces short of a full Wii Music symphony orchestra, gets Man ever so closer to filling the entire ocean entirely with fake musical devices designed to make us feel like we have the talent and commitment to make real music. $30. [ezGear]

Wii Music Parody Really Gives Nintendo What's Coming

Jason Chen — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:50:00 EDT

Wii Music, Nintendo's "answer" to the music and rhythm games, is considered by many (including us) as one of the worst things Nintendo has ever put out. Good thing Sarcastic Gamer of Wii Fit and Microsoft Surface parody fame is on the job. Even though the general tech audience has resigned themselves to the fact that the public will buy any piece of crap with the Wii label on it, we're still holding out a sliver of hope that even idiots won't want to flail around while a guitar + xylophone + trumpet version of Yankee Doodle blares from their TV set. [Sarcastic Gamer]

Yamaha's Muro Sensor Wireless Music Controller Looks Familiar

John Mahoney — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Unfazed by Nintendo's Wii Music going over like a lead balloon at E3, Yamaha is introducing its own accelerometer-based motion-controlled music interface that look oh-so familiar. The slightly more adult-looking wands use three accelerometers to feed movements to music software on a PC, and the 2.4GHz wireless receiver can accommodate up to 24 wands at once. It seems as if Yamaha is developing these more for music therapy for the elderly and disabled than entertainment, which sort of puts Wii Music in whole new context. [Tech ON via Fareastgizmos]

Nintendo Announces Wii Music: Look Out, Beamz!

Adam Frucci — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:04:07 EDT

Nintendo just announced Wii Music, a new music game that lets you use the Wiimote, Nunchuk and Balance Board to create music. Unlike Rock Band or Guitar Hero, this one isn't based on precise timing. Rather, it lets you basically hit buttons and swing the remote around to create original tunes. The Wii interprets your motions and button presses to make music for you. Essentially, this is like Beamz but instead of lasers, you use the Wiimote and Balance Board. Awesome?

Different people can play different instruments, and you have the option of playing a wide number of them, from guitar and drums to the saxophone and violin. You'll be able to create music videos of the music you create, too. There will also be an orchestra conducting game included. It'll record your performance, but it won't rate or grade you. We don't want another story like the Wii Fit calling kids fat, now do we? You're all brilliant, children!

It'll be coming out this holiday season. [Gizmodo's Nintendo E3 Liveblog]