Rock Band 3 instruments, screens

New controllers revealled, MIDI drums, Keyboards supported

It likes like Rock Band 3 might actually live up to its promise of teaching you to play an instrument, as Harmonix reveal details of the new peripherals and how the game will support MIDI devices.

First up, theres the new keyboard controller. A 25-key keyboard, the peripheral works just like you'd expect, and has an optional handle so you can use it as a keytar if you wish. For normal Rock Band players, the central block of keys are mapped to colour-banded keys, and for tracks that don't have keyboard you'll be able to use the instrument to play lead or bass guitar.

There will also be an expansion for the Rock Band drum kit, adding three cymbals - these will be mapped to separate cymbal tracks in the new Pro mode. Best of all, Harmonix will also be releasing an adapter so that you can plug in any standard MIDI Keyboard or Drum Kit to use with the game.

Finally we come to that new guitar peripheral. The Mad Katz created device has 102 (!) buttons, (beating Steel Battalion's Controller...), including  17 frets and six strings. Playing in Pro mode will certainly be a challenge, but -like the keyboard- the guitar also functions as a full MIDI device.

Finally, improvements to the game itself include separate menus for each player (so no more muddling around in the menus when everyone presses buttons), drop-in, drop-out play, and improved navigation for the hundreds of songs now available.

Harmonix plans to ship over 80 tracks on the disc, and all the previous downloadable tracks will be supported. Whether these will be updated to include keyboard and Pro mode support is yet unknown.

Rock Band 3 is due out this Winter.

Written by :

James Hall