Rockband Wireless Keyboard with Windows 10

I picked up one of the WII version of this keyboard from my local CEX shop the other day for €4. Initially I got it to hook up to an Arduino granular synth I had built. As I had an old copy of FruityLoops from years ago I thought I try and get it working with that.

It comes with a USB dongle for the WII which allows wireless communication to the keyboard. Searching the internet I couldn't find any drivers for this dongle. But I came across a great piece of software from Github User martinjos which allows the dongle to work with Windows and provide MIDI functionality to the system.

Installation

Download the drivers from the Github page above. Unzip and double click the "rb3_driver" in the folder.

You will be presented with a list of MIDI output devices. Windows should have a built-in MIDI synth. Just select this one to test.

Playing a few notes should play through your PC speakers.

To get the keyboard to patch through to fruity loops I needed to use MIDI Yoke .

Download and Unzip to a folder. As this software was built for Windows XP/2000/NT you'll need to get Windows 10 to run it in compatability mode. Right-click the executable and select "Troubleshoot Compatibility". It should run through the process and when finished will ask to "Test Program". Click the button and run through the installation.

Run the RB3_driver application again and you should be presented with additional options onscreen for "MIDI Yoke xx". Select one of these devices.

Run Fruity loops and select Options->Midi.
Under input devices select the MIDI Yoke device you have chosen and make sure it enabled.

That's it, keyboard should be patched through to FL.

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