Turning a Guitar Hero controller into a MIDI controller

> I’ll probably replace this with a bit of proto board with a couple of similar switches on it, but it might be nice to consider some kind of piezo sensor to give the instrument some expression

Guitarfreaks (the original guitar game) uses an optical encoder for this, as it's meant for arcade use and sees a ton of abuse. They basically last forever. They also use custom sanwa buttons with omron switches. A third party company (gamo2, gitaller) makes a really high quality home version.

Fun follow up might be swapping the crappy rubber domes with mechanical switches, doesn't need to be anything fancy, the gitaller uses gaterons.

This is fascinating, thanks for sharing.

As someone who had classical training and learned analog instruments (guitar and bass) growing up, making music with MIDI controllers is starting to make sense to me after years of feeling frustrated and not getting it. Having the tech skills made it easier, and now that I started learning about software modular synths I'm really curious about the tech behind it all, like how someone implements the MIDI standard.