I bought this separately from Rock Band 3 because I wasn't sure if I wanted yet another plastic instrument. The pro mode intrigued me enough to pick it up later.
About the controller: It's built pretty solid. I think MadCatz have redeemed themselves with the Rock Band controllers from the days of their crappy gamepads. The keyboard has a two octave range, standard Xbox 360 buttons on top, a big button on the 'neck' for Overdrive, and a little pad that you touch to do effects for long chords which is pretty cool. It also has MIDI out if you are so inclined to use it as a real instrument. There's also a strap if you want to use it as a keytar, but I prefer it on a table or on my lap. The keys respond well and have an OK weight. I would prefer them a little heavier as I am used to that more from piano and sometimes sliding my fingers to feel for the next key I would accidentally hit another key. There are also a couple raised notches on the side of a couple of keys to help guide you on your finger positioning, but I haven't gotten used to using them at all. Overall it works as it should and doesn't feel cheap.
About the gameplay: Having played Rock Band since 1 and Guitar Hero before that, regular keys mode is a breeze. None of it pose a real challenge on expert except a few fast paced songs with a lot of chords (hand gets tired :(). Pro keys is where it's at and it's really hard. I play a little piano and still find it difficult reading the falling keys on screen and judging where I am on the keyboard. I find a lot of the times I just get lost on where my hand is. It takes some practice and for expert mode you basically have to learn the song, which isn't a bad thing. The keys you play are the actual keys used in the real song, albeit only the right hand in most cases. One gripe is the game doesn't seem to have a freeplay mode for keys like it does for drums. Would have been a nice option to just mess around with if people don't have a piano or other keyboard at home. Only about 60 something songs out of the 80 something have keys support in Rock Band 3. And none of the DLC and imported tracks prior will have keys support.
If you already have a keyboard with MIDI out you can get an adapter to use in Rock Band 3 instead of this, though depending on how much trouble it would be to set it up and tear it down, this keytar may be more convenient. I recommend getting this if you are looking for a new challenge in Rock Band and interested in learning some basic keys. However if you are someone that plays on Easy/Normal and very casually, the standard guitar will work with standard keys mode and you don't need to get this.
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