Rock On With a Play Guitar–or a Real MIDI Instrument

Posted: 12.15.2010, 11:52am

By:

Harry McCracken

Rate this

Average rating:

Last Gadget Standing Nominees: Mad Catz Rock Band 3 Fender Mustang PRO-Guitar Controller, Rock Band 3 MIDI Pro Controller, and Cyborg R.A.T.9 Wireless ProGaming Mouse

Prices: $149.99, $399.99, and $149.99, respectively

Top 25 When it comes to Rock Band 3, gaming accessory kingpin Mad Catz is having it both ways: It offers both a fancy fake guitar and an adapter that lets musicians play with real MIDI instruments.

The Fender Mustang PRO (seen above) is a replica of a legendary real guitar. It works with Rock Band on the PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 and includes 17 frets, a six-string strumming area, and a touch-sensitive string box for muting and cutting off notes. It’s also got MIDI output for use with sequencers and MIDI hardware. Meanwhile, Mad Catz’ MIDI Pro Controller lets music fans connect standard MIDI keyboard and drum sets to Rock Band via a USB connection. It sports a D-pad and gaming controller buttons, and lets you adjust velocity to reduce drum crosstalk during play; it can rest on a table or be worn on a belt during play.

On another note entirely, the Cyborg R.A.T.9 is a wireless mouse aimed at serious gamers. The macho-looking black mouse uses a 2.4-GHz wireless connection, and the company estimates its latency at less than a second. It comes with two hot-swappable battery packs and 42 grams of adjustable weights, letting gamers tweak the mouse’s heaviness; And there are five programmable buttons and a mode that lets you temporarily slow down the cursor for precise control.

Tags:

About

Last Gadget Standing

Last Gadget Standing looks for products that are more than just a flash in the pan. They are products that will endure and are pioneering the ways in which the digital world will change. Any exhibitor at CES can enter a product into the Last Gadget Standing competition--though it must be a device, not a service or software. Products need to have shipped during 2012 or be available for shipping by the end of Q2 of 2013. We honor NDAs and we reserve two spaces for products that have winner potential but won't be announced until the show.

Special Hosts

We're extremely lucky this year to have Gary "Bababooey" Dell'Abate and Jon Hein, of the Howard Stern Wrap Up Show to emcee the Last Gadget Standing . They love products and they love the CES crowd.