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ACE Adapter Quickstart Guide

Supported Platforms and Games​

Note: Only Rock Band 3 and YARG support Pro Keys.

  • Clone Hero
  • YARG
  • Guitar Hero World Tour Definitive Edition
  • Gitadora
  • Emulators
    • RPCS3
    • PCSX2
    • Dolphin
    • Xenia (not tested)

Setup​

Requirements
  • ACE Adapter
  • A computer that uses Windows, macOS, or Linux
  • The latest revision of RCM Programming Tool
  • A compatible controller or electronic drum kit

Programming​

The ACE Adapter requires specific presets for different controllers/games.

Rock Band games require the RB Pro Drums/RB Pro Drums (Swap Cymbals) or RB Pro Keys presets.

Guitar Hero games require the GH Drums preset.

To change the preset of your ACE Adapter, you must use the RCM Programming Tool. Click here to be taken to the download page.

  1. Open the RCM Programming Tool.

  2. Plug your ACE Adapter into your computer. You will see it appear with "Configure" and "Reset to factory" buttons.

  3. Click "Configure"

  4. You will be brought to this screen in the Programming Tool

    If you are attempting to change to a different preset, click the dropdown on the left side, then select that preset. After, click "Save Settings".

  5. Wait until the bar at the bottom reaches 100% and says Status: Done.

  6. Final notes: You may need to adjust the hit sensitivity of your instrument. The following section will help you through that calibration/tuning process.

Instrument Setup​

ACE Adapter Ports

To use the ACE Adapter with your input device, you must connect the device to the adapter using either USB-MIDI or standard MIDI. Some devices may be compatible with both.

Red circled input is standard MIDI

Green circled input is for USB-MIDI

Calibration and Tuning​

  1. Before even attempting to play a game, make sure you're on the preset for your intended game. Click here to be taken to the programming section. You can find out what preset you're on in the main menu of the programming tool.

  2. Click Configure.

  3. Plug in your controller or electronic drum kit.

    • If you are using USB-MIDI, you should see "1 Devices connected" next to USB Host Inputs.

  4. Click the MIDI Inputs dropdown, then start tapping on your drums while looking through the inputs to find if they are appearing. It may be useful to write down the MIDI note value for each of your pads/cymbals for easy future reference.

  5. Refer to the picture above. Value shows the signal sent from your drums to the ACE Adapter. Hit the pads to see the bar move and number go up! There are two modifiers you can change, Threshold and Sensitivity.

    • Threshold is how hard you have to hit before the game detects an input. Raising this requires you to hit harder. You want to change this if your light hit starts at a high number.
    • Sensitivity defines the max range of detection. It determines the loudness or hardness of the hit that the game detects. Lowering this allows hits with less strength to hit louder. You want to change this if your hard hits do not get close to maxing out the Value meter.

  6. Some pads are more sensitive than others, so we suggest going through each pad/cymbal/input and adjusting to your liking.

  7. Once you're satisfied with calibration, click "Save Settings" on the left side of the window. Once the programming tool has finished writing the firmware, it will show "Status: Done" and 100%. Close the software.

  8. Load up your favorite game and play! Or plug into your console and play!

    • If you are attempting to play Rock Band 4 on Xbox One/Series, you will have to authenticate. Click here to learn how to do that!

  1. Before even attempting to play a game, make sure you're on the preset for your intended game. Click here to be taken to the programming section. You can find out what preset you're on in the main menu of the programming tool.

  2. Click Configure.

  3. Plug in your keyboard.

    • If you are using standard MIDI connection, make sure that the keyboard you're using it plugged in either by a battery, USB power connection, or wall power. It will not function without that.
    • If you are using USB-MIDI, you should see "1 Devices connected" next to USB Host Inputs when you plug it in.

  4. Click the MIDI Inputs dropdown, then start pressing keys down and look around the inputs to see if inputs are being detected.

  5. Once you've verified that inputs are going through, there is nothing to calibrate in the programming tool. You can now plug into a console and start playing!

    • If you are using the Rock Band 3 keytar with standard MIDI as opposed to USB-MIDI, you will have to navigate the menus with the ACE Adapter buttons as opposed to the ones on the controller.

Authentication​

To play Rock Band 4 on your Xbox with a ACE Adapter, you will have to authenticate the ACE with a licensed Xbox One or Xbox Series controller.

  1. Turn on the Xbox One/Series, then using your Xbox controller, load into Rock Band 4.

  2. Disconnect the Xbox controller from your Xbox One/Series. (Pop out batteries)

  3. Connect the licensed Xbox controller into the female USB-A port (circled green) on the ACE Adapter.

    • Xbox One – models 1537, 1697, and 1698
    • Xbox One S – models 1708 and 1797
    • Xbox Series S/X – model 1914

  4. Plug the adapter into the console with the gamepad plugged in.

  5. Wait a moment, then press start on the gamepad to verify the connection is made. On the "Join" screen, a drum player should appear. If your controller is connected under the profile you want to use for the drums, you’ll need to “drop out” the controller before assigning that profile to the drum kit.

  6. Unplug the licensed Xbox controller from your device.

  7. Plug in your e-kit, if needed.

  8. Play the game!

If your controller is connected under the profile you want to use for the guitar, you'll need to "drop out" the controller before assigning that profile to the guitar.

Fortnite Festival​

  1. Download the latest RCM Programming Tool.

  2. Open the RCM Programming Tool

  3. Check that your ACE Adapter is in "D" mode

    Plug your ACE Adapter into the computer

  4. Click Configure, then click Save Settings on the left side of the screen

    Wait for that process to complete

  5. Once it is complete, unplug the ACE Adapter from the computer

  6. Move the mode switch on the ACE Adapter from D to K

  7. Plug your drum kit into your adapter, via USB MIDI or standard MIDI

  8. Load up Fortnite, then navigate to the settings menu

  9. Click the 4th tab, GAME. Then scroll to the bottom

  10. Turn on the Display All Pro Parts setting

    If you are using cymbals, scroll further down and turn on the individual cymbals

  11. Plug your ACE Adapter into your console/PC, then use either a gamepad or keyboard/mouse to navigate the game!

  12. Once you've loaded up a song, the drum kit should just work, as it is mimicking the Pro Drums keyboard inputs.

Windows Games and Emulators​

Setup on Windows is usually easy as plug-and-play, but sometimes things have to be mapped manually.

  1. Open Clone Hero.

  2. Press the SPACE BAR on your keyboard to open the controls/binds menu.

  3. If you haven't already, plug in your ACE Adapter attached. You will see the ACE Adapter appear here:

  4. On the right side of the main binds menu, there are blank spaces for each input. Click on the inputs that apply to your instrument and follow the setup instructions. Once you've bound all applicable inputs, click Done at the top left of the screen.

  5. Once binds are set, press start in the home screen to pick your profile, then jump into a song and test out your inputs!

  1. Plug in your ACE Adapter

  2. Open the YARC Launcher, then open YARG

  3. Once the game is open, head to the Profiles section

  4. Create a new profile if you don't already have one, then click "Connect" on that newly made profile. It will ask you to pick a device.

  5. If you are using an instrument aside from a guitar, change the "Game Mode"

  6. Click the Edit Profile and Binds button, then click on the Binds button at the top of the screen.

  7. Go through each applicable input and create a new bind for each one, setting up the buttons as you go! Some instruments might not need this, so do as needed.

  8. Once you have the binds set up, you're ready to play!

Inputs should be bound automatically when using the GH Drums Preset (default).

If not, refer to the Definitive Edition Binding Controllers guide.

To use Rock Band Drums/Pro Drums on Dolphin, we will need to set up a USB Passthrough in Dolphin.

  1. Open Dolphin.

  2. Click Config in the menu bar.

  3. In the Wii tab, there is a box titled "Whitelisted USB Passthrough Devices".

  4. Click on the "Add..." button.

  5. You will see a list of devices, ignore them. At the top of the window there are two boxes for Device VID and Device PID.

  6. Enter the following IDs in. The first set of 4 values are the VID and the second set are PID. You will have to enter each set in one by one.
    1209:2882
    12ba:0210
    1bad:0005

  7. Once you have added these three IDs in, boot the game you intend on playing.

  8. Plug in your ACE Adapter.

  9. It should work natively. Have fun!

  1. Plug your ACE Adapter with drum kit already attached into your PC.

  2. Open RPCS3.

  3. Click the Pads button in the menu bar.

  4. At the top left of the menu, change the Handler for whichever player that will be drumming to Null.

  5. Click Save at the bottom right of the window.

  6. Open your game.

  7. It should just work!

Troubleshooting​

There are various reasons that the ACE Adapter may not be appearing in the RCM Programming Tool. The following are possible remedies:

  • The ACE Adapter must be in "D" mode to appear in the RCM Programming Tool. Make sure that the switch on the adapter is set to that.
  • Sometimes just unplugging it and plugging it back in will help or restarting the programming tool.
  • You may need to hard reset the device. Holding the reset button (small little button on the bottom right of the face) while plugging the adapter in will put it into recovery mode, which you can then open the RCM Programming Tool and erase and reset to factory.

If this doesn't work, send us an email at support@retrocultmods.com

You need to swap the preset to "RB Drums (Swap Cymbals)" in the RCM Programming Tool!

Or RB3 Drums (Swap Cymbals).

If you are experiencing the following pop-up, macOS is detecting the RCM Programming Tool as a false-positive for being malware.

To fix this, open your System Settings/System Preferences.

Then navigate to the Privacy and Security tab in the left side menu.

Once you've entered this tab, scroll down to the Security section, then you'll see that the programming tool was blocked. Click Open Anyway. It will ask you to either enter your password or input Touch ID.

Once you've completed this, the programmer will open. However it is only for this revision.

Say you had 10.7.11 instead of 10.7.10, you would need to do this process again.

If the RCM Programming Tool is not seeing your device, it is likely due to a permissions issue in Linux.

You will need the following file:

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD 68-RCM.rules

Navigate to /etc/udev/rules.d/, then drop 68-RCM.rules into the folder.

Once you've done that, open the RCM Programming Tool. Your device should appear now! If not, try unplugging and plugging back in.