Rock Band 3 Wireless Keyboard for Wii and WiiU

Without usb

Ive had the RB3 keyboard for almost a week now and my experiences are quite good. I have prior music experience with guitar and similar instruments, and some basic theory/vocal/keyboard training from when I was in college (much of which Ive forgotten). Because of past music experience I probably start with a slight advantage over your average person. Ive wanted to learn keyboard for a while, and RB3 moving into the realm of more realistic instrument play is a welcome change for me. Construction: The keyboard is built quite well. It looks and feels like a real two octave keyboard should. The keys have just the right amount of spring and resistance. The touch sensitive whammy effect also works well in game. I dont have a midi sequencing device so I can only assume that it works as expected. Game-play: If you are interested in getting this device, know that going into it with the correct mindset is key. Unless you have keyboard experience, dont expect to become a virtuoso the first time you pick it up. If you are interested in pro mode you will most likely need to put in a lot of time practicing alone (at the moment I find playing with others while in pro mode a bit distracting). If you lack patience the keyboard may not be for you. The game allows you to select between standard mode (only 5 white keys are activated like the standard RB/GH guitars) and pro (the entire keyboard). Both modes allow you to select a difficulty, so pro mode is not necessarily prohibited from the start. I found that I was able to jump right into career/quickplay at a medium pro level (mostly single notes with some 2-note intervals on more advanced songs). Not everyone will be able to do the same. Ive had several friends that wanted to try at a party, and all of them started off in 5-note (non-pro) mode. The built-in lessons are handy. I went through several of them to get comfortable with the keyboard (simple scales, intervals) before moving into career mode. Ill probably go back and finish them someday, but I found myself wanting to just play some music. Watching the partial keyboard on screen takes some getting used to. Rather than using the strap Ive been placing the keyboard on my lap, which allows me to glance down occasionally. Other than that I am finding where notes are primarily by feeling around (locations of black keys give you some guidance). Ill admit that this is occasionally frustrating, particularly when intervals and solos are moving faster than I can keep up. Again, patience seems to have a key role in game-play. Conclusion: The device itself is great. Game-play is a lot of fun if you are willing to take the time and energy to learn, or you must be satisfied with easy or non-pro mode. While this device may not be for everyone, it adds a ton for those of us who desire more realistic game-play (and the potential to pick up a new instrument).

The gameplay is awesome. You can choose between playing keyboard in a Rock Band, professional guitar, bass ... Best Buy in recent times!

The keyboard has a good quality feel to it. The MIDI features are useful, I suppose, but I doubt Ill ever use them.

I pre-ordered this, and was really excited for it, but after a night of playing, Im less than thrilled. If you want to play it like a keyboard rather than sling it over your shoulder like a keytar, its hard to find a surface to play it that wont make your hand hurt after a couple of songs. (Maybe the Mad Catz stand would help? I wanted to try the keyboard out before deciding whether to get the stand, and based on my experience so far, I doubt I will be playing it enough to make the stand worthwhile.) There were no real instructions that I could find, in-game or in the accompanying documentation. It didnt take long to figure out through trial and error, but failing the first few bars of a song while you figure out what buttons do what is not a great user experience. The interface is not very intuitive (like the rest of the over-shell in RB3), and some basic I see youve plugged in a keyboard for the first time. Do you want a quick tutorial? in-game would have been very welcome. I play a little piano, so I expected to have a head start on pro mode. To some extent that was true, in terms of knowing my way around the keyboard without having to look at my fingers, but the way the notes are represented in pro mode was really frustrating. Theres an on-screen track for every single note, and I found it really difficult to tell which notes it wanted me to play. If RB3 had an option to switch to standard sheet music, I would have taken it-- had I spent the same amount of time at my piano with the sheet music to Imagine as I spent trying to figure out which notes Rock Band wanted me to hit in that stupid bridge, I would be able to play the song from memory today. The regular non-pro mode seemed a little silly: since you must play it one-handed, it does not have the same level of involvement as guitar, bass or drums. I went through three of the pro-keyboard lessons, but the software kept glitching to the point that it was unplayable and I had to reset the console. Not impressed. And, although you couldnt call it a surprise, if you have imported your RB2 tracks or have a lot of DLC, there are just not that many songs that have keyboard parts to play to begin with. On tracks without a keyboard part, it gives you the option of playing guitar or bass parts on the keys, which I tried, but found that I would rather be playing the guitar part on the guitar. In short, I am not really eager to rush home to a second night with that keyboard-- which is a shame, because Id been counting down the days until it was delivered. Oh well. I still love my drums best!

Good experience

After purchasing Rock Band 3 and seeing the the promotional videos about this keyboard, I was really excited to purchase the keyboard to go with my game. I got my keyboard this evening and played the practice mode for about 30 minutes. During that 30 minutes, the video in the game stopped but the audio continued. About 10 seconds later, the video resumed. I shrugged it off as a one time glitch. Then when I started playing some more, the video froze again and after about 3 minutes I had no other option that to turn off the Wii and restart. After that, I put the keyboard back in the box and pointed my browser to the amazon online return store to get my shipping label to send this back for a refund. Something else that was annoying about this controller is the you couldnt use it until you were in the game. So you have to get another Wii remote out to start up the game, then once the game is launched, you can join using the keyboard. The instructions that came with the keyboard were very weak too. They basically told you how to put the batteries in, hook on the shoulder strap and sync the device (via a USB dongle that has to remain plugged into the back of your Wii while using this controller).

The product came in decent amount of time, and was exactly what I ordered with no issues. Would use again.

A Proud owner of a couple of those Keytars or Keyboards, they are lovely. First, Keys Size and Feel are perfect, performance and response in co-ordination with the Wii or Wii U console is flawless. Weight and handling is easy and simple. Price wise, you can’t beat that, a normal hand held Keytar will cost at least a couple of hundred dollars and more for the ones that actually play music rather than being just a Midi Interface. You can’t go wrong with the Wireless Keyboard and Rock Band3 to play real music and enjoy it. You do need to build your skills from Easy Difficulty to harder levels. Enjoy !

Daughter has wanted this for a while. Shes having fun learning to play it