His guitar's got game

Rob Morris uses a Nintendo Wii controller to alter the sound of his guitar. (Photos by John Bohn/Globe Staff)

For the most part, Boston band Vivian Darkbloom looks like most other three-piece rock groups - three guys on guitar, bass, and drums. But if you look closely, something might catch your eye: the Nintendo Wii controller attached to Rob Morris's guitar.

Morris's mom bought him a Nintendo Wii for Christmas a year ago because she wanted to give him something, anything, that wasn't related to music. So what did he do with it? He plugged the video game's motion-sensitive "Wiimote" into his guitar and made music out of it.

With the help of a laptop, some software, and a bit of Velcro, Morris can move, shake, or tilt his souped-up guitar to change its sound on the fly - altering the pitch or adding echo. It's like a foot pedal without the foot, or the pedal.

Morris's Wii guitar has created a buzz in both the technology and music worlds, he said, with a feature on the popular techno-blog Engadget and interest from guitar giants Gibson and Yamaha.

Why go to all the trouble? Because he can. The Princeton-educated M.I.T. Media Arts and Sciences grad student is a bit of a tech nerd. Here's (roughly) how he did it:

1. Attach the remote to the guitar Duct tape works. Velcro is a little fancier. Morris says the important thing is to make sure it doesn't fall off in the middle of a performance.

2. Make the Wiimote and computer talk Morris runs "Bluetooth Setup Assistant" on his Mac to synch up the Wiimote to the computer.

3. Get the right software Morris uses the Max/MSP multimedia suite to translate the controller's motions into any guitar effect he wants. Besides pitch and echo, he likes the "granular synthesis" effect, which can create blips and beeps that sound like old video games.

4. Convert to audio Plug the guitar and laptop into a PreSonus Firebox, which converts the computer signals into audio signals and spits them out through a guitar cable.

5. Turn it up Plug the guitar cable from the Firebox into your amplifier, and you're ready to rock.