Summary
Steam Controller can ‘sing’ using haptic motors to vibrate at musical frequencies.
Steam Haptics Singer plays MIDI files through the controller—drag a MIDI in to hear songs.
Surprisingly recognisable—vibration motors can render tunes like Super Mario Bros 2 well.
As people are getting their hands on the Steam Controller, they’re discovering that it’s better at making sounds than a controller has any right being. First, people discovered that the Steam Controller played the Wilhelm scream whenever it was dropped. Now, someone has made a program that allows the Steam Controller to play entire songs through its vibration motors alone, and you can try it too if you like.
The Steam Haptics Singer turns your controller into a miniature music box
It’s pretty good at hitting those notes too
As reported by The Verge, this cool feat was performed by CrazyCritic89, who discussed their discovery with the publication. As it turns out, if you make specific motors within the Steam Controller vibrate at specific frequencies, you can make it ‘sing’ whatever song you like. You can hear it play the Super Mario Bros 2 theme in the video above; it’s surprisingly recognisable for what’s essentially just a vibrating controller.
Here’s how CrazyCritic89 did it:
“The way the controller makes noise is through the haptic motors in the trackpads Those motors usually provide feedback as your thumb glides over the trackpads, or let you “press” them like a button, even though they don’t actually click down. But the haptic motors can also vibrate at “specific frequencies, essentially like a speaker.”
If you want to give it a try with your own Steam Controller, be sure to head over to the Steam Haptics Singer program on GitHub. It’s a continuation of the SteamControllerSinger app that did a similar thing with the original Steam Controller model, and it’s super easy to use. Download the app, turn on your controller, then drag a MIDI into Steam Haptics Singer to make it play the song.
Related
HID Remapper now lets you use the Steam Controller on the Switch, and the trackpad actually works
More choice is always good.