Rocksmith

[Vraith]

I like the silver/gold color scheme version.
Got really good reviews, too.
I might have to check Guitar Center, see if the have it in stock
and futz around with it.

[Rigel]

My god I'm loving this game!

I'd forgotten how much I love playing music. I grew up with a piano in the home and playing bassoon for concerts and flute in the band, but it's been years since I've played anything. While I really want to get a keyboard, the problem with growing up on a real piano is you get spoiled, hence I'm picky about the action of the keys. Most electronic keyboards just don't feel right.

That being said, I found a fender style guitar on Craigslist, restrung it, and I've been playing with Rocksmith. Having a real instrument again feels great! Sure I suck right now, but I've been through this before, and I'm patient enough to put up with how bad I am at the moment!

The only complaint I have about the game is that it's very direct about "This is the next song you're playing." While it lets you choose any song to practice from, it would be nice if it had a list of the upcoming songs for you to pick from, or a list of the last few songs you performed. Even so that's a minor inconvenience.

I'm so glad I got this

[Zarathustra]

Yeah, having to hit "start" every time and go back to the songs category kind of sucks, especially since you're holding a guitar and have to grab the controller each time (usually in the dark, behind me on the couch, mixed in with all my other remotes, etc.). Maybe a Kinect makes this easier? I don't know, I don't have one. But it would be a perfect game to incorporate gesture control.

[Cagliostro]

I'm happy to hear more people are picking this up and enjoying it. Hopefully the music game hasn't died off yet with Guitar Hero dead and Rock Band pretty much calling it quits now.
And another thing that gives me hope is something I just found out about:Bandfuse: Rock Legends.
It looks like it uses guitars, basses (both the real deal) and a microphone. We'll see how it turns out, but from what I'm hearing, there is plenty of training for playing. And you can play with multiple players, from what it sounds like.
There are in-game mentors, like Slash and Bootsy Collins, which appeals, and rather than the "gem-highway" like Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Rocksmith uses, it will be using tablature, which is kinda cool as I'd be interested in learning how to play it. It still uses a kind of "highway" idea still. There's videos out there of the gameplay.
I understand that it has difficulty levels and doesn't have the constant shifting like Rocksmith, so that pleases me.
Here's the bad part, in my opinion - I haven't seen any song on their reduced songlist that appeals to me. They either already have it on Rock Band or Rocksmith, or I don't care. So, for me, hopefully the songlist will improve, or I'll have to really question whether or not I should get this. Still, it's always good to have competition. And I like several of the features even though I have nobody else to play guitar or bass with me.
Anyway, it sounds interesting, and I'll definitely be keeping my eye on it.

[Zarathustra]

Buying a second cord, enabling multiplayer, has been a blast. Guitar + bass together is awesome.

I need more songs!

[Cagliostro]

I don't know, Z, if you've heard about the upcoming Rocksmith 2014, but it looks like it is addressing my complaints with the original. I'm starting to get excited, and it sounds like it very well might allow you to transfer the songs from the original, including DLC.

www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/16/rocking ... smith-2014

[Akasri]

Awesome news!

[Cagliostro]

Ok, I picked Rocksmith 2014 up opening day. I've only fiddled with it for about an hour, but there isn't a huge change I'm seeing from the original, but it is definitely a better iteration. It doesn't take nearly as long loading between screens, and the menu system is definitely improved.
It doesn't lead you so much on a single path like the original with room to branch out. Instead, it puts the songs in front of you and lets you choose, but give incentives to try things out, and challenges to try to beat. From how easy the initial ones are (first one - hit a note successfully), I suspect that they have a heap of 'em that will keep those that care ever snapping at the next carrot.
I never used Riff Repeater, so I think I lost out on a great part of the original if it works the same. In this one, it back up a portion of the song and allows you to work on it to your satisfaction. It also allows you to choose your difficulty level in Riff Repeater, which I'm now understanding was where I got the impression that you can set your difficulty levels to remain static. Unfortunately, I found nothing in the main game to set the difficulty to one level and leave it, which is what I'd like to do to try to master it and then move on to the next level like I do in Rock Band. And this is my biggest compaint in Rocksmith, and one I was looking forward to being an option, erroneously, as it turns out.
As for DLC, I think it transferred over automatically, but I had a code for a free song so I went to the Store to enter the codes for that, and ended up just downloading the one song again, since it showed as paid for. Unfortunately through their portal, there wasn't a way to enter a code for the free song, which is dumb.
As for tranferring songs from the original Rocksmith...you can, but it is sold as an export pack for $10. Which sucks. Rock Band did it too, and I thought it was a nasty moneygrab, but oh well.
As for the song choice, I haven't gone through all of them yet, but there is a bit more name recognition than the original, but also is very metal heavy, which isn't to my tastes as much. But it is solid, and I hear some songs I might be interested in.
Overall, if I was to recommend one or the other, it would be the latest. That is, dependant on the person's taste in music. I think my dad would probably prefer the music in the first more, although 2014 is better designed.

[Akasri]

To confirm, from my experience - downloadable content from the original can be used in Rocksmith 2014 free. It's only the original songs from the Rocksmith CD that have to be paid to translate.

As for the riff repeater - it is greatly upgraded from what I hear. I didn't use it that much because it was a pain in the original, but I hear the new version is much better. As for the skill level - check out this video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQopsRvK24k

He shows some settings in there that let you repeat speeds/skill levels even if you master them (I think). That might be what you are looking for?

The menu system is SOOOO much better now! And the load times are drastically reduced. Those were two great enhancements.

My only concern so far is that my guitar sounds out of tune when I play a song, even though the tuner says it's tuned. I even tuned it with a portable tuner that I normally use and Rocksmith agreed that it was in tune, but when I played in-game it sounded out of tune. Not sure what's going on with that.

So far I love it though.

[Zarathustra]

My wife is looking forward to picking this one up, mainly for The Who (she's a big fan).

The Riff Repeater on the previous version allowed you to practice certain portions of a song three different ways. You can work your way up from easy to hard, from slow to fast (for any given level of difficulty), ... and one other way I can't remember.

What I'd like in a perfect riff repeater would be like Band Hero's practice mode: you could choose any portion of a song to play on any difficulty level, at 4 different speeds, until you reach full speed. It wouldn't back up for a missed note (like Rocksmith), but just keep going. I find the stop-and-rewind messes me up even more, because I lose the rhythm.

I wish they could fix the lag. How's that on the new version?

I've noticed the tuner issues with the first Rocksmith. It's not perfect. You can buy a separate tuner fairly cheap. But most of the time it seems to work fine for bass. A 6-string would perform differently.

One thing about tuning: every time you change the tension on a particular string, it changes the overall tension on the neck. If your guitar has a very thin neck, or it's a cheap guitar, every string adjustment can change the tuning for the previous strings you've just tuned. So sometimes (in the real world) you have to go back and do it several times, as all the strings converge upon the correct tuning, and each change affects the others strings less and less.

[Akasri]

I played around with the Riff Repeater in RS 2014 last night. It doesn't stop for every missed note. It plays whatever section you tell it too, all the way through. Then you can set it to repeat, or to speed up or whatever. It seems better than the repeater I remember from RS 1. In the Riff Repeater options you can set how many times to repeat a section, what speed you want, what section you want. It seems really flexible.

Lag doesn't seem to be a problem on my XBox, but I never had problems with lag on RS 1 either, so that may be something system-dependent.

[Zarathustra]

The lag might have something to do with how i've got my receiver/TV/Xbox hooked up. [To make sure we're talking about the same thing, I mean the lag between the time you strike a note and when you hear it, after it has been processed through the software.] I've got my Xbox hooked up to the TV via HDMI, and then I've got analog outs on my TV hooked up to the receiver, so that whatever I watch on TV (over the air, cable, games, etc.) can all be routed to my stereo system with the touch of one button, without having to worry about different inputs to the receiver. The only thing I've got hooked up directly to the receiver are my blu-ray player and my universal DVD player (to listen to SACDs, DVD-As, etc.).

So you're right, there could be a lag going from bass to Xbox to TV to receiver to speakers.

How does everyone else hook up their Xbox to their stereo? Directly? Or do you just use the TV speakers?

[Akasri]

My XBox is hooked up directly with an HDMI cable to the TV.

For speakers, I usually use a set of wireless headphones hooked to the XBox - so the rest of the family doesn't have to put up with my horrible playing

No lag that I've noticed. Just the out-of-tune sound which I've seen some others complain about here and there. It's almost like there's a tone being applied to the guitar sound that just doesn't quite belong or something.

[Cagliostro]

I've also never had issue with lag, but I have typically used headphones plugged into the TV, or used the TV speakers, although I sometimes use a soundbar that I have hooked up. Never a lag. And I use the PS3.
I hope to get more time in with this during the week. I expected I'd have a chance over the weekend, but with Halloween stuff and my wife's birthday party, it never happened.
But I have to admit that I've been having a problem with staying in tune as well with this game. I'll have it all perfectly tuned (and if you use the full tuner, it does have you go back through the strings to check that it is still in tune), and during the song, the lowest string (low E) tends to get out of tune. I try to tune it later, and it usually says I'm fine, and honestly, it sounds fine while playing it open, but if I'm holding down a fret, I often have to slide my finger up and down within the fret to get it to register that I'm playing the right fret. It worked fine when I first got my guitar, so I've been thinking of replacing the strings to see if that makes any difference. There have been several updates to the software since I started using it, and it didn't occur to me to think it was the software.

[Akasri]

That's the same thing I'm seeing Cagliostro - the low E string mostly. It sounds fine out of game, and it shows in tune, but during a song it sounds off. I thing the sound is getting distorted somehow

[Zarathustra]

Old strings do sound like crap. And they go out of tune easier (get stretched out). But it's odd that it's only your low E string. Maybe it's because you have to tune down to D so often in many of these songs? Therefore, it's constantly being stretched out of its tension for E?

Cag, it could also be your playing style. If you bend the string just a little (side-to-side), it will sound out of tune. This is easier to do on a lower tension string, like low E, especially if you're stretching to play a hard chord. You say that you have to move your finger within the fret, but that doesn't make much sense to me, because on a fretted guitar, if you're making the string contact the metal fret, it shouldn't change the note at all to move it back or forth within the fret (without note-bending). It might change how well you've got it pressed against the fret, but in that case it will just rattle and/or produce harmonics. While that might make it sound out of tune--because harmonics produce entirely new notes--it sounds quite different from going slightly out of tune.

Another possibility: low E is the string that gets hit first when you strum a chord, so it's taking the majority of the force, which can kick it out of tune. Also, if you string your own guitar and don't leave enough wire to wind around the tuners before you cut it, it could slip out of its tension.

And those lower notes are harder to distinguish. When I'm tuning my bass by ear, the E string is the hardest to tune. Sometimes it never sounds right to me. [Honestly, I don't play on it nearly as much as the other strings, except for a few notes that I can't get any other way. The same note on another string always sounds better.]

Akasri, when you say that it sounds fine out of game, do you mean plugged up to an amp?

[Akasri]

Akasri, when you say that it sounds fine out of game, do you mean plugged up to an amp?

Yes

[Cagliostro]

Actually, from running a google search on the issue, it appears it might be software related. Since I'm at work, and most of the sites are game sites which are blocked, I could only see one thread about it, and so hopefully they will fix it. That's a pity.
I have noticed my guitar stays better in tune when I'm not playing Rocksmith, so that must be it. But since I've had the same strings since I received the guitar last year, it's probably time to replace them anyway.

[Zarathustra]

We got RS 2014 this weekend, and I couldn't be happier. Well, I wish it had more new songs. I thought there was going to be more Who than one song.

The session mode is a blast. Having a band to jam with is so cool. It follows your lead, builds off your chords, your speed, your intensity. It feels very natural and organic.

I like how the Riff Repeater is built directly into each song as one of the options for learning that song. And it's so effortless, rewinding after a realistic time, just as you'd do if you were trying to learn a particular passage. It speeds up just enough each time, and then repeats the whole process at a slightly higher difficulty. That's exactly how I would have made it.

I like modifying the sounds by choosing actual amps and effects. It's like having an entire music store warehouse at my fingertips. I can use Geddy Lee's gear (Orange amps) for every song, if I want. Or I can load a bass sound from any song, choosing by song.

Jamming side-by-side with my 12-year-old son was awesome. Standing in our living room like rock stars, high fiving after we're done. I love this game.

[Edit: if the tuning issue is software related, we must have got the working version. We didn't have a problem.]

[Cagliostro]

[Edit: if the tuning issue is software related, we must have got the working version. We didn't have a problem.]

Maybe it is the PS3 version, or perhaps the guitar model. I haven't seen anything to suggest what might be the problem.

I tried the session mode out this weekend. It was a lot of fun.

Something I'm noticing is either I have not been good enough to progress in difficulty, or because each song starts you off low, OR after setting Riff Repeater to one skill level, it keeps me there, even outside of Riff Repeater. I'll need to tinker to see if this is the case, and I really hope it is. If so, I will be enjoying this more than I initially thought I would. But as the tuning sucked for the first half of the time I played, then suddenly held the correct tuning for the next 5 or 6 songs, it's more than a little frustrating when you are "missing" things you nailed.
I might try changing the strings out soon and see if that makes any difference.