Community Hack Turns Steam Controller Haptic Motors Into MIDI Players

The Verge reported on May 30, 2026 that the second-generation Steam Controller can play recognizable songs by vibrating its haptic motors at specific frequencies. Jay Peters demonstrated the feature with the “Ground Theme” from Super Mario Bros. 2, “Still Alive” from Portal, and music from Doom.

CrazyCritic89 created the videos and told The Verge that the controller makes noise through the haptic motors in the trackpads. The motors normally provide feedback when a thumb glides across the surface or simulate a button press, but they can also vibrate like a speaker when driven at the right frequencies.

CrazyCritic89 released the open-source Steam Haptics Singer program on GitHub with versions for Windows and Linux.

The program converts MIDI tracks into haptic motor vibrations on either generation of Steam Controller or on a Steam Deck. Jay Peters tested the program on his personal Steam Controller connected to a Steam Deck. He spent time in the terminal in desktop mode to load MIDI files and run the software before hearing the first notes.

The same approach now works with the second-generation controller, which launched less than one month before the May 30 article. Valve does not currently offer a native way to customize the Steam Controller’s sounds through Steam. In April 2026, Pierre-Loup Griffais told The Verge that more configurability is possible in the future but the team is not focused on it at present.

Griffais added that any future tool would likely be an SDK usable by everyone. Valve previously made custom boot videos an official Steam Deck feature after users began sideloading their own files. The company later added a dedicated section in the Steam store for additional boot videos.