You may have heard that Valve's new Steam Controller can ring like a telephone or perform the Wilhelm scream. But did you know it can also sing songs? Let me show you. Here is the new Steam Controller performing the "Ground Theme" from Super Mario Bros. 2. Here is "Still Alive" from Portal, fitting for Valve hardware. I even made it play Doom.
How Does the Controller Produce Sound Without a Speaker?
Valve's first Steam Controller, although discontinued, was a great gadget for tinkerers. Someone even wrote an open-source program to make it "sing." Now, less than a month after the launch of the second-generation Steam Controller, some enterprising individuals have used that program to make it sing as well.
"The way the controller makes noise is through the haptic motors in the trackpads," explains CrazyCritic89, the person behind the "Still Alive" and Super Mario Bros. 2 videos. Those motors usually provide feedback as your thumb glides over the trackpads or let you "press" them like a button, even though they do not actually click down. But the haptic motors can also vibrate at specific frequencies, essentially like a speaker. Valve uses that to make the controller play sounds, and now you can make your controller sing too.
Using Steam Haptics Singer
With CrazyCritic89's "Steam Haptics Singer," available on GitHub in Windows and Linux versions, you can have your Steam Controller (either generation) or Steam Deck play MIDI tracks. These are simple digital music files that contain notes rather than actual recorded audio.
To make my personal Steam Controller play music, I found MIDI files online and followed CrazyCritic89's instructions. It took some tinkering, as I had to spend time with the terminal in desktop mode on my Steam Deck. But when I heard the first notes from my controller, I was grinning from ear to ear.
Future Customization Possibilities
Valve currently does not offer a way to customize the Steam Controller's sounds natively through Steam. The Verge asked the company about it in April, and Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais said that while it is possible there will be more configurability and customization in the future, the team is not focused on that right now. If Valve does create a sound customization tool, Griffais suggested it would be an SDK or a tool that everyone could use, and Valve might consider it if there is enough demand. There is precedent: after seeing Steam Deck users sideload custom boot videos, Valve made it an official feature and now offers a spot in the Steam store for additional boot videos.
For now, the Steam Haptics Singer will suffice for those eager to make their controller sing.
