MIDI Rocker LX2? Yes, it's a real thing! (e-Drum adapter for Rock Band)

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Why is the MIDI Rocker still a good idea?

I get requests all the time from people wanting to buy a MIDI Rocker LX to use their electronic drums (e-drums) with Rock Band. The MIDI Rocker has a lot of advantages over the MIDI Pro adapter (made by MadCatz or PDP):

  • It doesn’t suffer from the “roll limit” issue that can cause notes to be dropped when playing fast.

  • The MIDI Rocker can emulate a Rock Band Pro drum set, as well as a Guitar Hero World Tour (GHWT) drum set. It can also be used as a MIDI-to-USB adapter for programs such as Garage Band.

  • It eliminates the ‘double-hit’ issue when using a Roland drum kit as a GHWT drum set.

  • It includes powerful software for diagnosing and calibrating your drums for optimal performance. You can see the data in real-time and quickly troubleshoot any problems.

  • The note mappings are completely customizable.

  • The MIDI Rocker can work with Playstation or Wii.

Unfortunately some of the parts used to make the original MIDI Rocker are no longer available so I can’t make any more. (I do have a small stock of spare parts so that I can still service/repair any old MIDI Rockers).

So, I’ve decided to redesign the original MIDI Rocker LX as the MIDI Rocker LX2 — it will have all the same features as the original, but also use a more modern design and include a small OLED display for setup and monitoring.

Here’s a rendering of the prototype:

MIDI Rocker LX2 prototype

MIDI Rocker LX2 prototype

Unfortunately because of the licensing situation on Xbox, no support for Xbox (any version) is possible. Believe me, I would love to make an Xbox version but it’s just not possible to do so legally.

When will it be available?

I’ve decided to try doing a KickStarter project to fund the development/manufacture of the MIDI Rocker LX2. The KickStarter project should “go live” sometime this month (April 2019). Assuming we can get enough funding, the LX2 should be available in the early part of the summer. I don’t need to raise much funds — I’m able to “donate” my engineering time and also leverage much of the existing software/firmware from the original MIDI Rocker, so mainly I just need funds to buy enough parts to make a reasonable-sized production run and keep the costs down.

I will make more details available as we progress.

Best regards,
Scott (Byte Arts)