Beatmaking on the Wii

Beatmaking isn't new to consoles. Back in the day, I made some beats using a Playstation 2 (long story short, they sounded like crap, but I did get some airplay out in California, or so they say). However, making beats on the Wii is taking things to a whole new level.

First, off, I've been a proud Wii owner since August, when my dad bought me one for the b-day, and its already replaced my PS2 as the best console...evar. If you need a demonstration, I will happily beat your ass in Wii Tennis, as long as you bring the beer.

Anyway, a bunch of computer science students are taking beatmaking to a new level with their thesis project. Basically, they take the movement from the Nintendo Wiimote (ie, the controller) and process them against beats and drum patterns. For percussions, The harder you hit, the harder the drum beat. Tilting the wiimote will also give you several variations on the beat. I've been racking my brain over the technical side of this, but it seems that most of the audio processing is done on a Mac via a Bluetooth connection, while a PC takes care of the visuals.

I'm sure Nintendo is about to pay these dudes mad cash for their work. Beatmaking might just be the next evolution of the Wii console. What do y'all wannabe producers think?

(props: XXL)

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