The Old Man Band (Players Over 30) [Archive] - Rock Band Forums // Rock Band®

zarlor

12-31-2008, 05:47 PM

Hey it's good to see people over 30 playing around. I myself am 45 (wow):eek: married,kids,etc. and play a lot of video games ( especially this one!) and still generally try to act like I'm still in my 20's:cool: I have a problem, I have a Wii and can get online for other things like the nintendo channel,news channel, and the weather channel,but I can"t connect to RB2 online. It always says unable to connect to Rock Band (central, server, not sure which) and thus I'm not able to get my web code or to play online with anybody. If anyone knows what the problem could be, and how to fix it feel free to contact me please! Thanks to any and all!:D

At a guess it might be firewall rules on your router, assuming you are using one. Not something I can easily help you with on a forum or in email, really. Best to pull out the manual and/or hit the site for your router manufacturer. Not sure what ports need to be open for Rock Band, though. Maybe it's in the FAQ somewhere?

Cherkov

12-31-2008, 09:33 PM

Hey it's good to see people over 30 playing around. I myself am 45 (wow):eek: married,kids,etc. and play a lot of video games ( especially this one!) and still generally try to act like I'm still in my 20's:cool: I have a problem, I have a Wii and can get online for other things like the nintendo channel,news channel, and the weather channel,but I can"t connect to RB2 online. It always says unable to connect to Rock Band (central, server, not sure which) and thus I'm not able to get my web code or to play online with anybody. If anyone knows what the problem could be, and how to fix it feel free to contact me please! Thanks to any and all!:D

As far as your network trouble goes, page 17 of the Rock Band 2 manual has some info about that. If your network is behind a firewall, you must set it to allow inbound and outbound traffic on the following ports: TCP ports: 80, 443, 13505 and UDP port: 3658.
If you are using a NAT router, you may need to enable port forwarding of all data on port UDP 3658 to your Wii's IP address. Or you can put your router into a DMZ.

Don't really know what most of that means, just paraphrasing from the manual. Good luck and let me know if you need more help, then we can jam! :D

zarlor

01-01-2009, 01:57 PM

So far I've added all of you folks, but only Pubknight seems to have added mine. Just wanted to check that everyone knew we had to both put in each others numbers or you won't show up on the listing in game or when you check Invites and such. (Of course if you've already decided you despise my taste in music by looking at my profile or something and just don't care to add me, well that's OK, too. ;))

Kev2380

01-01-2009, 04:16 PM

I've just added everyone, I'll be playing most of the day today probably between 4-8pm EST

zarlor

01-01-2009, 05:41 PM

Cherkov

01-01-2009, 06:47 PM

@zarlor: I'll add you as soon as I get a chance to sit and play. And I have to agree with you that communication is one of the bigger problems with the game. The game comes with a microphone, it would be nice to talk to the other players that you exchanged codes with at least. Plus I've run into a problem when I tried to join an invite but the instrument I was playing was already in use, so it kicked me out of the session and I lost the invite. I could go on but I'll spare you my complaints, plus the game is fun regardless.

Kev2380

01-01-2009, 08:26 PM

Kev2380/Hoodlum and I got to jam a bit today. I noticed that it's kind of hard to figure out a good way to find out what other folks might be interested in doing. I backed out to the practice space to check if any other folks may have gotten on by chance or if maybe Kev wanted to take over on his tour or challenges or something, but he left. So maybe I sucked too mcuh on picking when to get into overdrive (I was doing vocals and you can't just go into overdrive anytime you like as you can with the guitar controller and I don't always remember the more optimal paths or when a song will trap me with excess energy before another overdrive opportunity). ;)

BTW, I'm CST if that means anything to folks. (And I'll be gone for a week starting Sunday.) But I'd still like to hook up with folks if any of you are on, so feel free to send me an invite in game if you see I'm there.

Hey dude, you didn't suck at all, I thought you backed out to take a break. I want to do a set list with someone. A set of 5 songs that's at one of the venues. If you're up for that let me know. You did pretty good at singing, 100% on most songs on hard. I can't really play more then a few songs on hard, but I can play anything on medium with the guitar. Forgot to say my game name is Hoodlum not Kev2380. I'll try to change that next time I'm online.

Kev2380

01-01-2009, 08:30 PM

One thing that would be nice is if people could vote on what songs to do. I feel kind of guilty running the tours all the time and picking the songs. I don't know if everyone wants to play the ones I pick. I've had a few times where I picked a 5 song set list and people played about 3 songs we all got 5 stars but someone bails and ends up ruining the set. I wish there was a way to keep playing the song if someone disconnects.

I've noticed at the later venues you have to play on hard. I'm having a hard time on these levels. I can play anything on medium but once you add that orange button I get flustered. I guess I just need to practice more. I'll probably be on tonight until 9:30PM or so EST.

zarlor

01-01-2009, 11:37 PM

I opened most of the venues in my original band doing vocals, and I can esaily get 90+% on hard that way, even for songs I'm not that familiar with, so I hadn't noticed about the later venues. Of course the venues that are easy are going to be the ones in your hometown region, so if you start in Europe, those will be the easy ones, whereas someone who took, say, and East Coast US town will have those as their easy venues. So we can get some variety that way and still stick to some of the easier skill levels if we need to, I think.

I like doing the full band thing, but jumping into subbing on some other band randomly sometimes seems pretty hit or miss on having folks that disconnect on you. That does get pretty annoying. Sometimes it's pretty hard as well if you have someone that selects a difficulty level beyond their ability. It can be fun "saving" them, but gets very frustrating if they fail you out of the song (especially if they just try to do the thing again at the same difficulty.) Sometimes you just need some luck with getting folks who won't disconnect on you (for whatever reason... all too often it could just be a bad connection, as opposed to someone dropping out.)

Pubknight

01-04-2009, 10:33 PM

I have added everyone from this thread, except for Flyturdz as he did not supply his friend code.

Cherkov (Jerko in game) and Zarlor have returned the FCs.
Still waiting to hear back from Kev2380, Lockheed and Billy Pilgrim.

Cherkov and I had the chance to play today for a while.
It was a blast... at least for me... I'll let him speak for himself, though I would hope he shares the same thought.
It was great playing through a few sets with someone without a disconnect, and who understands how to use overdrive.

The only thing that could have been better would have been to have a full band.

MisguidedGirl

01-04-2009, 10:54 PM

hey guys. I'm up for a game any time any of you see me online. sometimes it's just me, other times it's me & my husband. Friend code is in my sig. I can sing on med & hard, do guitar on medium, & drum on medium.

Cherkov

01-05-2009, 08:42 PM

Yeah... it was a good time, Pubknight. I mostly play by myself or with my kids in no fail mode (they still don't quite get the concept), but this game is best when playing as a group. I find it's hard to find a full band too, though.

I have the same problem as you Kev2380. Once it hit the point where only hard mode was possible, I was stuck. Can't get that orange button. I have been practicing and found that if I use my thumb for green and fingers for the other four buttons, it's a little easier than trying to move up and down the frets. Now I just have to retrain my brain for the right finger for the right color. I am curious to know what technique other players use.

I'll add you on MisguidedGirl. My code's in my sig too.

Kev2380

01-06-2009, 10:02 AM

Bumping this topic,

I'll have to try using my thumb for the green button, that might resolve my problems.

I'll try to play tonight and make sure I add everyone.

Pubknight

01-10-2009, 03:35 AM

Thanks Lockheed and Misguided Girl for the longest session I've had with the same group of other people online.
That was a lot of fun.... even if Lockheed peer-pressured me into playing hard bass.
=)

And Kev, you are Hoodlum right?
I see our friends code thing finally happened.
I'll look for you online.

zarlor

01-10-2009, 12:25 PM

I'm back from vacation, so I'll add Misguided Girl in and maybe get on tonight. I should be on tomorrow if nothing else.

As for techniques for playing on hard, the big one I've heard used most is to slide the hand down so your normal position is with your pinkie on orange, and whenever green pops us get used to moving just your index finger out to hit it. I know some folks try the opposite and stay with index on green in the usual position for medium and then train their pinkie to just move out to orange, but that's probably a lot harder for most folks.

I've also heard, particularly for folks going to expert, that they will do something like use C-Clamps to hold the quitar down on a table, even going to the point of using their elbow to strum so they can use the fingers of both hands on the buttons (I think this is only used mainly in sections with a lot of HO/POs (Hammer-ons/Pull-Offs). I've never tried it. So far I've been working on the pinkie technique myself, but I'm nowhere near getting it down. I've mostly ended up sliding my hand between the two positions, but that works very poorly on some songs. I may try the thumb thing, though. It wouldn't work with a Guitar Hero controller, but it could work with with the Rock Band ones... hmmm..

MisguidedGirl

01-10-2009, 03:09 PM

Zarlor, I've tried to make the move to hard many times. So far, I haven't been very successful. Re-training my brain so it associates my index finger with red & so forth is going to take some time. I tried stretching my pinky, but my hands are too small. :mad: For me, it's going to be about remembering two separate hand positions. One for the green, red, etc. postion & one for the red, yellow, etc position.

Pubknight, you did good playing hard on bass last nite. You didn't even get booed out. I would've brought you back if you had though. :D

I had a lot of fun playing online last nite. Although many of the songs we played, I had heard but never sang. I'm sure that was obvious with a few of my scores. :eek: I think I only got one percentage that was out of the 90's though & it was a song I'd never heard before. Thanks for the game guys.

I think I've added everyone who has posted their FC's in this thread. If I've overlooked anyone, feel free to pm me.:D

Pubknight

01-10-2009, 03:44 PM

Although many of the songs we played, I had heard but never sang. I'm sure that was obvious with a few of my scores. :eek:

I thought you did a great job.

I've been looking for folks all day to play with (have the house to myself), but it's been tough finding folks.

AKWanbli

01-10-2009, 03:59 PM

46 years young here! Just started playing abot 6 months ago.....always wanted to play the drums but too busy and in my younger years, in my mothers immoral words...(you can play any instrument you want except for THE DRUMS)

Went out and purchased a Roland HD elec drum set just before the holidays.....Lov'in RB2 and my new drums ever since!!

Lookin forward to playing with you all!

AKWanbli
FC: 157557527787

MisguidedGirl

01-10-2009, 05:09 PM

Pub, we might be on later. We have to play in a GHWT tourney first though. If my hubby plays, he'll sing. Do you usually prefer guitar, bass, or drums?

AKWanbli, I'll get you added! :)

AKWanbli

01-10-2009, 05:36 PM

Thanks! :)

Pubknight

01-10-2009, 06:41 PM

Pub, we might be on later. We have to play in a GHWT tourney first though. If my hubby plays, he'll sing. Do you usually prefer guitar, bass, or drums?

AKWanbli, I'll get you added! :)

Drums is my preference, but if someone else is doing it, no biggy... I'm pretty relaxed about the whole thing.
Plus, there are a lot of times I just can't play drums, because of the noise factor in the house... so a lot of times I'll log on with just the guitar just to mess around a bit. (which is why I generally stick to medium on the guitar/bass... I have no real interest in getting much better at it... any 'practicing' I do is to get better on drums).

I'm not around tonight unfortunately, we're out for dinner... that's why I was trying to get my rock band fix in basically all day.

I'm sure we'll link up again soon though.

And AKWanbli, I'll add you next time I fire up the console =)

Lockheed

01-11-2009, 04:19 AM

Where'd my- people-- go---?

zarlor

01-11-2009, 09:43 AM

I'll probably be on today/tonight. I need a vacation from my vacation so I have no plans on doing anything other than relaxing with some DVDs or Rock Band 2 today. :)

Kev2380

01-11-2009, 01:33 PM

I'll probably be on too, before the football games start. I changed my profile so now it shows as Kev2380. My band name is Ocotillo.

MisguidedGirl

01-11-2009, 01:39 PM

I might be on today until 3:45 (central time).

Pubknight

01-13-2009, 10:40 AM

Any of you folks going to be on this evening (Jan 13th)?
I'll likely be on from around 6pm - 10pm Eastern time. I'll have the drums out since wifey is out with work folks tonight.

If anyones around, interested in helping me blow through some challenges?

Cherkov

01-13-2009, 02:47 PM

zarlor

01-13-2009, 06:57 PM

Count me in. I should be on after 6pm CST until whenever (although I usually hit the sack around 10pm CST.) My preference is for vocals, but I'll do whatever you need. Just send me an invite if you see me on!

zarlor

01-13-2009, 10:57 PM

Pubknight

01-13-2009, 11:30 PM

Good playing with you tnoight, PubKnight. I know we completely missed each other on Overdrive on "Living on a Prayer" but the optimal Overdrive path on that one is a bit odd and it's a bit tight on the vocals side for when you can do it. Sorry if that seemed a little frustrating when I hit OD just as soon as I got it the first few times and then held onto it later. Some songs just work that way. ;)

I still need to get better on "Alive" by Pearl Jam. That sucker has quite a few little improvisations on the vocal line that I still need to get down. Great work on the drums, man! If you need me for challenges or tours or whatever and you see me on, just send that invite (hopefully I'll see it a little sooner next time. ;))

That was great, thanks so much for knocking those out with me.
I have a tendency after a challenge or a tour venue to go back to the Practice Space, so if a person wants to go, they can go guilt-free.
I'm glad you stuck around though... unbelievable job on vocals.

On the overdrive thing, no worries... that was my first time playing with just a vocalist, and I have NO idea on vocals... so I don't know where your overdrive paths are, when you can trigger them, etc.
Plus, if I look up at your bar, I'll for sure lose my place.
So I was basically going with: if you trigger, I'll trigger as soon as I can. Unless I am full, then I'll trigger to avoid wasting any.

I thought we did ok though.
I only recently graduated to hard drums, so a couple of those were sight reads for hard for me, like Pinball Wizard... I'm sure you could tell.

For everyone in the thread, what is your folks take on the DLC, are you planning on gettting any/some/most?

I picked up the 20 free songs, and I believe 18/30 paid songs.
I'm probably going to get a bit more selective as the back catalogue is released... but it will depend on what's there.

zarlor

01-14-2009, 12:02 AM

I expect to pick up the freebies, then probably just songs I like from then on. I didn't even check today to see that there we had DLC now! Sweet!

Vocals is a bit of a toughie on the overdrive front. You're more limited than any other instrument on when you can hit it, but at the same time you probably have a little extra freedom to let your eyes wander to all the other parts and see if anyone is getting full and such. So in some ways either the vocalist or the drummer has to be the one to cue everyone else to kick off OD, it seems to me. I try to watch drummers when they go into the freeform section to see if they are hitting anything there (so if you play around without intending to go into OD you might fool me into going into OD anyway). Sometimes the only opportunity to OD on vocals will be in concert with when the drums are in freeform, but it will be too late once the drummer actually hits that green pad to do it. So if I see drumming happening in the freeform I take that as a cue from the drummer that they are going to hit it. Although at least drummers do have a moment to see what others are doing during those freeform sections if they aren't going to hit OD (or want to check around before doing so) so there is a little freedom on that side, I suppose.

I also think that OD for the vocals is not very noticeable at all. It just kind of flashes a bit on the outer lines, not like the other parts where you get that golden section on your highway that really stand out to everyone. Golden sections for vocalists means that is when you can hit your overdrive, not that you are in it. So I normally try to cue off of other folks for when to go. Some songs, though, you're just stuck. That Red Hot Chili Peppers one, for example, has only 2 spots you can really hit OD and that's it. So not much room to join up with the rest of the band on that one, unless they know where the vocalist is going to hit it.

Not that any of that REALLY matters, as long as it's fun!

Oh as for going to the practice space, that's not a bad idea. I actually thought you were going back there to see if anyone else was on to send them an invite. It's otherwise hard to tell that other folks might be on. (I didn't even see your first invite while I was trying to improve my scores on some of the band challenges until I took a break to check.)

Kev2380

01-14-2009, 09:58 AM

I think something might be wrong with my friends list, I looked for you guys online last night but didn't see you on. I think something is screwed with my band info in general. I had unlocked everything, and I wanted to change my main name from Hoodlum to Kev2380, so you'd know who I was. I totally screwed myself. I unlinked after deleting the band data, now I can't link up to the server anymore. I don't know if that's effecting my friends list too, have you guys seen me online?

Cherkov

01-14-2009, 12:32 PM

@Kev2380: You are still on my friend list as Hoodlum. I could try deleting you then putting your friend code in again to see what happens. What do you think?

As far as the DLC goes, I was pleasantly surprised to see it come online last night. I just ordered a Kingston 2 gig SD card from Newegg for $4.50 with free shipping. Probably should have got more than one, but we'll see how much can be loaded on this one first. Right now, I don't have the cash to be buying a ton of new songs, so I'll stick with the freebies for now and pick and choose favorites as I go.

Pubknight

01-14-2009, 02:54 PM

Kev2380

01-14-2009, 05:51 PM

zarlor

01-14-2009, 06:53 PM

I didn't see you on last night, either. I've removed you as a friend, then added the FC back in. So now my pending list shows "Lockheed" "DM" and... "Hoodlum"... hmmm... well you can try to add mine back in on your list and see if it comes through at least. Or maybe you'll need to change it back. Or maybe you'll just need to get Harmonix Tech Support involved and see if they can help out on the best way to fix it up.

As for DLC, I just got a bunch of them, I'm almost embarrased to say. (I mean 2 bucks for songs I probably already paid for several times in the past and that I can't put on my MP3 player.) But, at any rate, I've probably got plenty of extra song to play around with if other folks have the same ones. Chances are pretty good, though. I still can't believe I just spent over $30 just for those... ;)

Pubknight

01-15-2009, 12:31 AM

Oh, I should mention here, if any of you folks see me online Saturday night... don't invite me... for your own good.

We're having a poker night here with some other couples we hang out with, and they will be bringing their kids over.
The kids will likely be playing on the Wii, and will likely be playing Rock Band.
They are great kids... just not very talented plastic musicians =)

Kev2380

01-15-2009, 07:23 PM

When I changed my data, my friend code changed as well.
FC-1103-1301-1383

zarlor

01-15-2009, 11:33 PM

Looks like that worked with the new FC. So hopefully I'll be on tomorrow night some and probably Sunday so if you want to knowck out some challenges, or tours or one of those Battle of the Bands, just send me an invite and I'll be happy to hook up and go!

Pubknight

01-16-2009, 02:05 PM

When I changed my data, my friend code changed as well.
FC-1103-1301-1383

I'll delete the old one and re-add you tonight.

zarlor

01-16-2009, 06:35 PM

Hey, PubKnight, not sure if this is useful to you, but I did run across these:

http://rockband.yajags.com/drumstats/ for drum paths and
http://rockband.yajags.com/pathstats/ for band paths, but that last is a bit hard to decipher for me, anyway.

Pubknight

01-16-2009, 10:19 PM

Thanks, I've seen the drumstats one before... I'm not quite 100% with my understanding of it though.
And yeah, that band path thing... so very very far over my head.

Kev2380

01-18-2009, 05:07 PM

It was fun playing with you guys, pubknight did you leave on purpose? Or did you get too much lag and got disconnected. Zarlor, I don't how you can play those songs on expert. Good Job! I couldn't play long, my wife is having contractions while I was playing. We're waiting for them to get close enough so we can go to the hospital.

zarlor

01-18-2009, 05:09 PM

Sorry on that last set, Kev. That was getting a bit frustrating for me trying to figure out when I shoudl OD. I think I need to really just try to generaly follow the vocalist OD paths, because all to often if I miss them I might get trapped with spots where I can't go. Plus on a few songs I started doing that and just missed a couple of crucial spots (I missed on the the OD phrases I needed to hit in Alive and on Down With the Sickness, love that song, I tried to squeeze kicking in that lost OD too much and I missed getting it off. Grrr.... For those who don't know what squeeze means, on the vocal line it's when you have that golden OD section and you try to wait until the very last second to activate it to get the most time you can out of it. At any rate, there were just a ton of songs I was getting 99% on because of just barely missing 1 phrase in the song. I hate when that happens and it probably just makes me keep missing 100% on other songs I know through sheer frustration. ;) Ah well. Good jam anyway!

No problem for the play length. Babies take priority! Here's wishing you a healthy delivery!

zarlor

01-18-2009, 05:40 PM

Pubknight

01-18-2009, 06:54 PM

Hey guys.
No, I didn't realize that it was me that disconnected.
I had the message that the leader had left... though I guess it gives you that message regardless who drops.
And then I guess we just couldn't hook back up again.
Would like to give it another shot sometime for sure... though I'm probably not going to be back on until mid-to-late in the week.

Kev2380

01-19-2009, 10:06 AM

BTW, one request. When you guys do something like select a song or make a setlist, would you do me a favor if I'm in the band and wait a sec for the song you're picking to play a few bars first? I don't always remember songs by their names and that gives me a sec to refamiliarize myself with which song it is and to look at my cheat sheet for optimal OD paths.

Also on things that are multiple song list (other than the Mystery Set Lists, obviously) if you could hit that 2 button for me so I can grab a glimpse of what songs we will be doing that would be helpful to. Same if you pick a Band Challenge (anyone up for doing the Storyteller's Challenge if we can get at least a 3-person band on?) At any rate, that would be a big help for me and also lets me know if maybe I should just pick hard for songs I don't know or barely know (if they have the difficulty levels listed that can help to, since I can usually get away with staying on Expert even if I don't know the song if it's under a 2 dot difficulty.)

Don't sweat the OD stuff. I would like for us to do it at the same time but I don't really care about score or what not. I just like playing. What I try to do is get my bar about 75% of the way then on the last notes that give you that last %25 I activate OD. Usually that lasts all the way until the next OD notes and I can extend it a little.

I'll give you a chance to listen to the bars next time. It was fun jamming with you. Next time we'll have to get pub involved. The thing that really sucks about RB2 is if someone gets disconnected do we all stop and try to pick them back up? We don't know why the disconnected, or what happened and you lose fans when you end a gig, not a big deal but that can add up if you keep dropping out. I have had a few people get disconnected like what happened to you PUB, I've only been able to play with 3 other online people one time. Maybe my internet connection is not strong enough to handle that many people. We'll have to test it again.

Do you guys have AOL IM? Or another messenging program, we could meet up on that first and decide who's going to host a game and what we'd like to play. I know that seems a little more complicated but it could add some communication.

My baby was born last night, so I'm not sure how much I'll be playing, she'll probably sleep a lot and I'm taking this week off, so I should be on at random times. If I am I probably won't play long, probably a hour here or there. Holler at me, if there is a set time you guys wanna play.

zarlor

01-19-2009, 11:57 AM

Congrats!

The scores aren't that big of a deal, but can be fun to try and kock up points on anyway. But esp[ecially without a full band it makes no real difference. Solo or 4-person is the only place you'll really notice scores like on the Leaderboards. (I've actually got a few in the Top 20s, I think I even have a couple of #1 spots, on solo vocals. I'm sure that will go away quickly enough, though.)

I don't really use any IM clients. I do like to use Team Talk 3, though. It's free for the server side as well as the client and I've used it with friends for MMORPGs before. I could set that up if folks wanted to try it out. Just send me a PM or email me at zarlor at acm dot org if anyone wants to try that and I can give you connection details. Or we could use the main server in Denmark, but it is oversees so sometimes there is a bit more lag that way. I can at aleast set up seperate speakers and a mic for that, though, so unlike having to switch my projector between PC and Wii I can just stay on the Wii and still communicate that way.

As for set times, that's a bit harder. Thursdays are bad for me (choir practice) and Fridays are a bit iffy, as are some times on Saturdays. Most of the rest of the week I usually fit some gaming in, though. For me it will usually be after 4pm and before 10pm Central time. Sundays I'm usually pretty open for anytime.

Pubknight

01-19-2009, 01:59 PM

Congrats Kev!

Set times are tough for me too.
Drums are my main thing, so I am limited a bit by the spouse.
If she's around, I'm usually stuck with something like bass... I suck at it (medium), but I'm happy just to play along.
Other than that it's a couple hours here and there.
Probably the best thing is just to look for each other when we're around.

On the dropping thing, it just seems to happen.
I've had sessions where I've gone hours with no drops, and others where someone drops, but as you said Kev, the main problem is knowing where the problem was. I keep tweaking my wireless router as well, hoping things get better.

We could always bounce around trying different hosts to see what is generally the most reliable.

the other thing I will do, if we are all trying to play together, is if say I get disconnected, I'll fire off an invite letting you know I'm still around.
Then I can just wait for a return invite.
I will never ever leave mid set or mid song... so if that has happened, it means a disconnect.
The problem I think we were having Sunday is I would jump into another game, then your invite would come, and when I got out of the other game your invite had expired.
In future if we are playing and say I drop out, I'll give it like 20 mins or so (figuring you're in a set) before I jump into anything else. (or I'll kill time with the beat trainer or something I can get out of quickly)

IM wise, I haven't got many options... my computer is on a different floor from the Wii so I have to kind of wing it.

Kev2380

01-19-2009, 02:13 PM

Pub, great idea!!!!!

Let's plan on that, if we're playing a set and one of us gets disconnected, wait for an invite. The people who are still playing will end the set or song then return to the matchmaking area to send out the invite. That should resolve the issue. I tried to do that the other night but I think I was patient enough.

I waited maybe like 4minutes before starting the tour again. I like your idea, Zarlor are you ok with this?

suebee3340

01-19-2009, 02:58 PM

Hey if you guys don't mind adding another older person??? My FC is in my signature. KEV2380 posted on another board that y'all are older...I'm almost 44 - there I've said it. Now everyone can see I'm not 21.....but, I act it....I have no kids because I am one :-) Oh well...I really like RB2 online. So addictive... Like to know I'm not just playing against a computer.

Kev2380

01-19-2009, 03:55 PM

No problem suebee, I'lll be happy to add you.

zarlor

01-19-2009, 05:08 PM

I'll add you too when I get on later.

On communications, actually that was what I was trying to do when I quit out of the band right after PubKnight was disco'ed. I figured either you could send him and invite to come back in, or maybe he wanted to send an invite so we could work on options in his band (nicely named as "Free Beer Tomorrow", btw.) I'm just as happy to join rather than run folks in my band so it's no biggie for me.

Some things that can also work are if you have two guitarits at the selection screen if someone has been doing guitar or bass for a while and would like to change around, just flick between the two choices to let the other person know you might like to change out if they are willing. Also, I'd say that some screens we should accept that occasionally someone will hold the others up on but that if they do so it's fine because it just means they needed a quick break (grab drink, hit the bathroom, deal with the crying baby) but if it's expected to be an extended break, then dropping out may be the better option and just doing the invite thing when you're done to get back into the band.

I'd aslo say that it's not a bad idea to send multiple invites just because sometimes, expecially in the middle of a set, it's easy to miss. Oh, and obviously that means the band leader will have to occasionally drop back to the invite screen to check if there are new invites (or even if someone else just happened to log into the game and we hadn't noticed them yet.)

Also another option if you'd prefer to let someone else drive and you sent an invite, just drop the band after the other person joins. Whoever that was can then send the invite in return. (That's what Ill probably do most of the time, especially since I've advanced my band, Electro Hogs, to the point where I think it may be on the Hard only parts.) Or if you want to drive but get an invite, then join, drop and then send your own invite.

Pubknight

01-19-2009, 05:31 PM

Suebee, I'll add you tonight as well... I might be on for a couple of hours.

One other thing I wanted to mention since Sunday was my first time playing with Kev... I'm typically on Hard drums, but for our very first song, you picked Call Me... and that song just kills me.
I'm playing hard drums on almost everything now, except the impossible stuff... but there are some lower tier things that I just can't figure out. Call Me is one of them, Jagged Gorgeous Winter, and E Pro are some of the others.... basically erratic beat patterns mess me up.
I'll pull off 90% on them, but it's not exactly lighting it up.

As for which band we use, makes no difference to me... if someone else has already started a session, I am fine with joining in. Advancing my band isn't that big a deal for me.

zarlor

01-19-2009, 10:22 PM

One thing that occured to me playing with Pub tonight on the communications thing. It's probably best if you need to take a quick break to back out to the waiting room area and just hang there until you get back. Then when you get back you can either see where everyone else is easily from that screen and go there, or you can jump into the practice space (or go wherever you want other folks to go if you're the leader). We basically did something like that when I had to take a quick break and it seemed to work pretty well, I think. (What can I say, I drink a lot of water when singing so I have semi-frequent trips to get rid of and/or get more of it. ;))

Also I noticed that if the leader add you to their band and for some reason you or they get disco'ed you can jump right back into their band that way. Or if the leader was the one you can just wait in their band "waiting for leader" until they get back. I did that with Pub tonight after he added me and then got disconnected and it worked great!

Oh, and PubKnight, if you want to do those vocal challenges when I'm on to get the costume or whatever, I have no problems with doing that stuff. Then again I'm pretty much up for anything. And it felt to me like we were getting into a bit of an overdrive groove a bit later in the night. Pretty cool!

EDIT: I saw another thread (and one of the posts above where you guys talked about a set time) that got me thinking that maybe a 2-3 hour block on just one night where we can all try to make an effort to get on might help us to have a full (or close to it, anyway) band at least once a week. Maybe try out a few of the band challenges that way or what not. Maybe Wednesday evening? Not sure what the most convenient time zone would be, but maybe 6pm-9pm Central as a starting point? If nobody's interested it's not a problem, of course, but if anyone wants to give it a try with a day and/or time that works for them I'm up for giving it a shot.

Pubknight

01-20-2009, 12:11 AM

I like the concept of a set night, I just don't know if I would be able to do it.
For example, without boring you with too many details, I go visit my Dad once a week for dinner... he's an hour and a half away. Some weeks that's Wednesday, others it's Thursday... it depends on what's going on at work, etc, as to what day I can get down there.
Spouse wise can be also be a challenge, since I'm on the drums.
Let me work on some ideas and I'll get back to you.

I know Friday night and Saturday both this week are good... if anyone wants to do anything.

Zarlor, sorry about that one battle of the bands thing.. that storyteller one... I didn't realize it was a longest streak thing... which was kind of silly with the songs it had. I shouldn't have joined it with you and wasted your time. A longest streak challenge should be a solo challenge.

Well, after my hard sightread on Spoonman from our session this evening, I have now decided I'm only doing hard. Sometimes I get a little freaked out, since there are some songs I just don't do well, and I drop down to medium because I don't want to look like I suck... but I figure there are a lot more I do well than those I don't... and I'm never going to improve without pushing myself... so that's it. Just hard from now on. It might mean the odd bail out by you folks on something like Painkiller, or Visions.

But if you want to do something to put up a big score, I'll drop to medium. I tested medium versus hard on one of the battle of the band challenges... the hipster one I think, and doing it on medium I crushed the score I got on hard. Part of that was I suck at Jagged Gorgeous Winter on hard, but I think the other part is because I can do most songs on medium and might only drop 2-3 notes, max... so I get much longer streaks going, and max out my overdrive, etc. It might be song/set dependent on what my max score option could be.

Zarlor, I'm going to let you drive that. Since I know you do everything at Expert... if you want me to do a challenge/battle/song or something on medium, highlight Medium difficulty on your difficulty select screen. I won't register my difficulty until you've locked in. But if I see you flip to Medium, then back to expert, I'll take that as my signal to play at medium. If you just lock in at expert, I'll go with hard.

As for the vocal challenges for the costumes... I don't really care about that stuff. I haven't changed my characters outfit or anything since my 3rd day with the game. I like my dude the way he is.

The way I play, I just kind of bounce around from one thing to the next, depends on my mood. I haven't spent a ton of time on the World Tour thing... I guess I probably should start spending more attention on that.
I do like doing the battle of the bands challenges though, since they always change.... and I figure if I don't do one, that I've "missed" something.

And Zarlor, I really like playing with you. I'm leaving you in my band, if that's ok with you. I think it will make it much easier to link up online. And you're right, the staging area thing we were doing works quite well. The other thing that also worked, is from that screen, if one of us drops out... using that as a signal to 'switch bands'.... unless of course the drop out was due to having to go... which will be obvious since the person will no longer be online if they needed to go. And the switching bands periodically I think is only fair, to knock off challenges/venues/battles, etc for each.

I think the only thing hurting any OD stuff we do is that I have absolutely no idea on vocals. That link you gave a couple pages ago with the drum paths. Did you have something like that for vocal paths? Then I can at least give it a once over to try and understand your side of things better. I think drummer/vocalist is the hardest pairing to try to match up OD, since we are the only ones limited with when we can engage it. Given the difficulties with it, I thought we did ok.

ok... that's a lot of typing... and I'm all over the place.
so I should stop now.
Another fun night Z, thanks again.

(And I would be up for trying the endless setlist with you by the way... though I don't know what happens with that if someone disconnects. And I would have to try it on hard, otherwise I would get bored out of my mind.... and that could make some of the last few songs dicey. Up to you. I would totally understand if you wanted to go at it solo)

zarlor

01-20-2009, 08:33 AM

On the Storyteller battle, it's actually a pretty fun battle, but if you didn't realize the "band" we were playing against was mine! (I think it selects the lowest score if you've never played it OR the lowest friend score for you to compete against.) So doing that solo (at least on vocals) isn't worth it at all. I think it combines streaks and that's how you rack up the score there, so I think that one is actually better with a full band. At any rate it wasn't a waste of time. I do all the battles as well myself, and doing many of them solo (or sometimes just doing them on Medium like I tend to do when doing instruments) is more of a time waster then that, but it's still a lot of fun so I'm always game!

As for the Hard/Medium thing, I wouldn't sweat it at all. Just always push yourself with Hard (there are more than a few songs I do that with on Vocals! If I get less than 95%, chances are I don't really know that song but decided to try it at Expert anyway. I think I had one song where I actually went red on you.) If we have to do bailouts or whatever, that's cool. It's not a problem at all for me. I like playing with the OD stuff, but I just enjoy jamming more than anything. It's just not that big of a deal.

As for the Vocal pathing: http://rockband.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14707&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=5af2b15623e6ce80c3f0c494fa4fa08e

That's the trhead I've been working from. I haven't even started to try to optimize any of those paths further (and some of them definitely can be optimized further, if the scores other folks are posting are any indication) and I haven't even started on the DLC stuff at all, yet. Sometimes you need to do something like that not just for an optimal path, but just for a sane one because some songs will lock you into not being able to use any saved energy if you don't use it in the right spot or if you do something like use it before you go into the tapping sections (the big round dots instead of vocals is for tapping out that rhythm on the mic) then it pretty much gets wasted. Those are good sections for the rest of the band to use their OD on, though, if they are long because it's a definite section where the vocalist just won't be able to go into OD. My problem is getting down the squeeze. Sometimes I'll try to kick off OD but it doesn't go off on time. So I miss it and then get stuck with hitting OD lines that I won't be able to use because I'm already full and such. I had plenty of those screw-ups earlier in the night.

Finaly on set days I just threw out Wednesday as someplace to start from. If Wed., Thur. is though for you (Thursday is definitely a no-go for me) Then maybe Monday or Tuesday or Sunday. Fridays are tough for me and Saturdays I can only do every other Saturday evening (and that is if nothing else pops up.) But Sunday-Wednesday I'm usually free, especially now that football season is over, or at least now that the Saints are no longer playing for this year. ;)

Oh on the Endless Setlist, thanks for helping me unlock that. But I'd be really worried about trying to do that online. I mean it's all 84 songs in one set. So that would be around 2-3 hours depending on load times, I think. Chances of a disco happening I would expect would be pretty high. Although I suppose I could just it that + key and save the set to continue later. I noticed you had that on one of your Challenges. I wonder if I can do that on a World Tour setlist...

Pubknight

01-20-2009, 10:19 AM

yeah, was scouting around a bit, and it seems as though people advise against doing the endless setlist online, due to disconnects.
I'm just starting with my world tour stuff, so I don't know if you can save sets mid-progress like you can with the challenges.

I'm going to negotiate with the wife about a set rock band time.
May want to wait on including me in those plans though... Feb 4th I have a hip surgery scheduled (original thread title is the Old Man Band after all), so I would imagine I'm off drums for at least 3 weeks.

zarlor

01-21-2009, 07:10 PM

Good luck with the surgery! However that souldn't stop you from playing the drums. Just shorten the set so you can play from bed and have your wife hit the kick pedal for you. That way she can join in on the fun too and you can get her hooked on playing Rock Band with you! >:)

I checked on saving mid-set, though, and the tour mode doesn't let you do that, I'm sorry to say.

Kev2380

01-23-2009, 12:15 PM

Hey guys, glad you are still having fun. I've been MIA for awhile with the new baby. Not sure when I'll get to play. Hopefully in a week or so when things get on a routine.

Pubknight

01-23-2009, 05:26 PM

Hope things are going ok with the new baby.

If Rock Central ever comes back up, is anyone around tonight?
Wifey is away for work, so I was planning a marathon session.

As a side note, I'm making some pretty good progress.
I'm only doing Hard drums now, and doing pretty well.
The only songs where failure is a threat are some of the more insane level 6 drum stuff (I'm looking at you, Ace of Spades).
There are a couple lower tier ones that screw me up (Jagged Gorgeous Winter-3 star), but otherwise, I'm almost an automatic 5 star... with some 4 star songs where I "just miss" 5 stars.
So, I think I'm only Hard drums from now on... unless there is one of those big end World Tour type sets that's all level 6 drum songs... or a battle of the bands that measures on streaks or something.

Haven't played with anyone else this week though, I'm missing playing with you folks.

Some random things: I picked up a 4gb sd card, and there is a "padding" trick that works well, so you can trick your Wii into using a 4gb card. I'm using it and it's working great.
Here is the link I followed to figure out how to do it: http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=199730

And if you guys are interested in tracking your personal scores/stars at all, there is a really cool filemaker program a guy came up with... it works standalone even if you don't have Filemaker.
Takes a bit to set up for the songs you have initially, but the time investment is worth it, IMHO.
Here is the link to the thread, with the instructions, etc.
http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116243&highlight=career

megatron

01-23-2009, 05:38 PM

zarlor

01-23-2009, 05:56 PM

No applications needed, megatron. Just add all the freind codes you like from this thread and we'll be happy to do the same. It's not like we've really got a real regular band here, or anything, just folks who are willing to hook up, not disconnect on each other (not deliberately, anyway) and have no problems with folks playing at varying levels of abilities. I'll add you to mine when I get a chance.

Unfortunately I won't have that chance tonight (gaming night with the guys... think of it as Poker night, if you prefer). Tomorrow I have plans around 3pm-6pm or so, but I may play some during the morning and probably in the evening. Sunday I'll probably at least check in throughout the day. All of that is assuming my disc drive doesn't die on me in the interim (it's starting to sound rough). If I get a replacement drive I that that might change my Wii's address, so I may end up with a new FC (hopefully not, though.) We'll see. As for after 10pm EST, though.... I might be on at that time for about an hour, but 10pm CST is my bedtime. :( Gotta get up early for work and all.

PubKnight, nice link on that 4GB SD card. I've got a 2GB card in there now, but I think I will definitely have to try that one out!

EDIT: Apparently I spoke too soon. Looks like a couple of the guys are sick, so game night is cancelled. So I should be on for tonight.

Pubknight

01-23-2009, 08:02 PM

Hey, just saw the thread & I think I qualify (over 30, 3.3 kids). Play mostly expert guitar/bass, was looking to start playing more drums but only on med for that. Vocals give my wife the final push to have me committed. Usually can't play until 10pm est. If you're still taking applications let me know

Heya megatron,

Tried to add you, but it said your FC was not valid.
I entered 4152-5555-5796
Don't know if that's a Rock Central issue, a typo on my part (will try again), or the wrong number in your sig.
Can you verify your FC?

Zarlor - I'll look for you.
What time are you figuring you will be on, and what do you feel like doing tonight?

megatron

01-23-2009, 08:33 PM

oops, its:
4152-5555-6800
sorry for being an anchor
I'll add you guys when I get up and running tonight

zarlor

01-23-2009, 09:24 PM

No problem, I'll add your new code when I get back in shortly.

PK, I had to laugh when you picked that mystery setlist and Ace of Spades popped up, since you had just mentioned it on this thread as one of those nemesis songs! (And then I couldn't sing it straight enough to keep you in... boy did I feel stoopid. I was having a blast with it, though!) Of course, the next mystery setlist you picked had one of my nemesis songs on it... Shakler's Revenge. I'm not fond of Axel Rose as it is and finding what friggin' note the game thinks we're supposed to sing never seems to match what it sound like Axel is doing. I just hate that song!

At any rate I'll be back on in a bit and just about up for anything. Keep playing it on Hard, man! You'll get those killer songs (although I think I'd be exhausted after drumming some of those.) Now if only I could get my vocals together tonight. I was doing bad for me on more than a few of those. :(

BTW, I swapped out to a working drive on my Wii and it didn't affect my FC or anything, so it's all good now.

Pubknight

01-23-2009, 09:28 PM

Don't know if you saw my PM, but I had to bail as my entire right leg started to cramp up during Bad Reputation.
I'm back around though.
Oh, and I thought of a code, tell me if this would work... at the start of any song, it's always kind of a freeform for drums... I know you can't hear anything, but I'm hoping you can see the flashes.
If a song coming up is one I should be good on, I'll hit green a bunch of times in a row to signal I'm good.
If it's an evil song for me, I'll do the same with Red, so you know I might be looking for some help.

Yeah, couldn't believe that with Ace of Spades... that just ticked me right off.
Literally one of a handful of songs I just can't even pass, and it comes up in the first set we play.

What time do you think you might be back on?

megatron

01-23-2009, 09:34 PM

i can play for a few right now but will have to drop when kids get home.

megatron

01-23-2009, 10:21 PM

sorry, had to drop, will be back on later

Pubknight

01-24-2009, 01:58 AM

Heya Megatron,
Kept trying to invite you back in after your disconnect.
Zarlor and I play together a lot, you should try another session with us sometime.
Usually with me on hard drums and him doing expert vocals, we're an automatic 5 star... only rarely will we four star something.
With a fuller band, we could probably put up some pretty good numbers.
Hope you try to play with us again sometime.

zarlor

01-24-2009, 02:03 AM

Sorry we missed you after that first set with the disconnect, megatron. Hopefully next time. You could also just send any of us the invites to join on your band if you prefer. I personally prefer to get into other bands rather than do my own, so feel free to send me invites anytime.

PK, on the code thing, yeah I suppose that could work, although to be honest if you start to have problems on a song it's usually pretty noticeable, at least when I'm doing vocals, so I'll just try to kick in with the OD boosts sooner if I can. Not really a big deal (it's kinda fun, actually.)

I did think, though, that one cool thing I think I enjoy is when someone does the Create a Setlist thing if you pick the downloaded songs that we happen to have in common. At least those songs (the ones that are not the Freebies, anyway) you can be pretty sure are songs that we'll all like since we bothered to pay to download them. I also noticed that they added a few songs to the Wii setlist, but didn't really post it anywhere. I picked up the Jimmy Buffet songs (something of a secret shame for an otherwise committed metalhead, I suppose. ;)) Not that anyone else needs to get them, mind you, I just noticed that they were not there when the store first opened.

Good long set tonight! I should be on some tomorrow and definitely on Sunday (though definitely not this late on Sunday.)

And 5 starring... yeah we can usually do prety well with that, although I have trouble with a few songs (especially those Freebie DLC songs... I just don't know them at all yet!) Shakler's Revenge and Rob the Prez-O-Dent are two pains in my keester that come to mind, though. (I can;t believe I did so bad on some of those songs tonight, though. Under 97% on Psycho KIller and Mountain Song for crying out loud? That's really bad for me on those songs.)

megatron

01-25-2009, 11:31 AM

Wasn't able to get back on the other day until late. I'll always be in danger of having to drop anytime I play before 10 est so sorry in advance. Will be out most of the day today but will will be on tonight if anyone else is up for some sets.

As far as dlc goes, I've got all the free stuff and a few others (simple & working man, ajfa, a few others). My biggest issue is I have track pack 1 & with the issues w/HMX I'm not real excited about re-buying those songs just yet.

ennis1437

01-25-2009, 05:03 PM

I turn 32 tomorrow and have played real drums for many years even went to school for music but am farley new to rockband I just got it at the begining of the year and it took a while to get used to "video game drums but it came around pretty quick and can play mostly hard and some expert depends on the song . If anyone would like to add me to play or start a tour or whatever I am in! My friend code is 123197801922 pm me if you add me and I will add you.

zarlor

01-25-2009, 05:59 PM

Megatron, Yeah I hear you on essentially paying for those songs again. But, at least the RB2 versions have online play, so if you want to jam in a band and your friends or family aren't around to pick up the other instruments at least you can do so with the RB2 versions. It still annoys me paying $2 per song, though. BTW, if you have the need to drop out at a moments notice it's probably best if you get an invite to accept, immediately drop out and then send an invite in return. That way we play in your band and if the leader drops out it doesn't leave everyone hanging with an insturment gone and having to fail out and loss of fans and all of that. It'll just dump everyone without losing all of that.

Ennis, I'll add you. PubKnight has been playing drums pretty heavily with me, but a lot of us on this thread seem to have varied times when we play so there are always a need for a variety of folks, I find. Personally I just add everyone on this thread as folks who don't mind if people want to play at lower difficulties at times, who won't normally drop out in the middle of songs (waiting until the ends of sets and such, instead) and are otherwise not obsessed with score (even though PubKnight and I have recently started trying out some stuff on optomizing drums with vocals for Overdrive paths but that's just for fun and our own edification.) So feel free to add me in and invite me if you see me on!

megatron

01-25-2009, 06:23 PM

Ennis, I'll add when I get back on tonight.

Thanks for the info on dropping, I'll do that from now on.

zarlor

01-25-2009, 09:38 PM

Ennis, fun jam man. I think you should push yourself a little more, though. I think you could have done just fine on Hard on a couple of those songs (unless you were just trying to tell me you didn't like that song and wanted to do something else. I started to back out to the selection menu a couple of times, but you went ahead and selected your difficulty anyway. So sorry if I misread any of that.)

I have to admit, though, that having done the online Quickplay now that I don't think I'm as fond of that. It seems with using a Band in tour mode you have a little more flexibility to get back to the top menu and see if anyone else got on that you could invite in and sit there for a short bit if you need a break or anything like that. (Hmm... maybe going into the Rock Shop would be a good indicator that someone wants to stay in the band but needs a quick break, now that I think about it...) So yeah, I think I prefer band mode. I'll do ANYTHING on Expert (even if I only get into the upper-80s, low 90-th percentile on some songs... I know because PubKnight MADE me play them on Expert once. Apparently he is a bit cruel that way. ;)). So I'm fine with being in someone else's band and doing tours or challenges or battles. I'll usually send invites just to let folks know I'm on, but otherwise just feel free to send me an invite and I'll be happy to join in and help out wherever.

Pubknight

01-26-2009, 10:50 AM

It isn't cruelty. ;)

I had gone through most of the dlc stuff once or twice already, and I knew with your vocal abilities that none of it would give you much of a problem.
Plus I have a theory that it's better to try a song at your regular difficulty, and only drop down if you fail it.
Hence the reason I dropped down on Prequel to the Sequel... I have failed that one miserably before (30 and 32% respectively).

Kev2380

01-26-2009, 12:12 PM

You guys gonna play tonight? I'm going to try to get on between 6-8pm EST. I haven't looked at the store recently is there any new content? Besided the 20 songs and some other random ones?

Pubknight

01-26-2009, 12:41 PM

Kev, there were 6 songs last week.
Outside of that it's just been what was there at music store launch.
Probably going to get another 6 tomorrow... though we don't officially know what they will be yet.

As for tonight, I will probably be on for that same time frame, 6-8pm est.
I'll look for you for sure.

megatron

01-26-2009, 02:17 PM

Kev, I'll add you shortly (can you say that on these boards anymore?) Don't usually get the opportunity to play at that time but who knows. If not today than in the future.

The best way I've found to improve is to warm up with a few songs on a higher level or with overdrive on. Play some of the easier songs you like and then moved down/overdrive off and the board will look like it's moving in slow motion. This helps me out a lot, especially if I play the same song once with OD then normal. Anyone have any other tips they'd like to pass along?

megatron

01-26-2009, 02:28 PM

Also, I think we're all roughly the same age, we have kids 5 & 4 that love Mario Kart. Our local library has a large catalog of wii games to check out (for free!!!!). Any game suggestions for me and/or them?

Larvitar7

01-26-2009, 02:29 PM

Hey, I just got Rock Band 2, and I'm looking to add people.
My FC is 3379 4624 2919.
If you added me, tell me and I will add you.
I'm expert guitar, by the way.
Thanks.

zarlor

01-26-2009, 03:56 PM

I was feeling a bit under the weather today so I stayed home, and while I was at it decided to tackle that Endless Setlist 2. I'm halfway through. So I may be on tonight if my voice isn't fried. Although if it is I'll just jump in on Bass or something instead.

Larvitar, I'll add you tonight, so long as you don't mind folks that won't always play on Expert and who don't fully know all the optimized OD paths and such. We do try not to disconnect in the middle of sets and such, though (although megatron has mentioned that he has a need to do so, so we may want to make sure we play in his band when he's on.)

As for age, I'm 42, happily divorced for almost 10 years now and no kids (well, 1 dog.) But I'm a computer geek for a living so playing games is um.... a uh.... it's practice for work! Yeah, that's the ticket! It improves my troubleshooting skills. ;)

For game suggestions, I like Tiger Woods '09. It works for you and them, since it has an assist mode that will work great for the young ones. WarioWare Smooth Moves is oddly addicting. It's nothing more than a massive collection of nutty mini-games that use the Wii control to really good effect. I also hear that Super Mario Galaxy is supposed to be very good, but I haven't played it. Of course the default Wii Sports that comes with the Wii is still something I pull out, especially at partys. There are some others out there, but unfortunately the Wii has been something of a red-headed stepchild of consoles for a while now, despite consistently high sales of the platform, so most of the time the Wii just gets some not so great ports of otherwise good games from other systems. You might check some of the games sites, though, like www.gamespot.com and such to see what they rate highly and give those a try.

Pubknight

01-26-2009, 04:44 PM

Larvitar, I'll add you tonight as well as ennis.

Mega - while my wife and I don't have any kids of our own, all our friend couples seem to, and they always come over and love the Wii. the big hits for them are Mario Kart, Rayman Raving Rabbids and Elebits.

On the warm up front, before I ever go online for a session, I do something similar to what mega mentioned. With the drums, I find I'm a little particular on how things need to be set up (positioning, height, etc.), and I don't want to be fussing with stuff when I'm online.
I'll pick a 2-3 song set of lower tiered songs on Expert... after that when I go back to my 'regular' hard drums, the chart looks like its going in slow mo, and I've got myself in a comfort zone.
It usually takes me a few songs to kind of hit my stride, so this deals with that pretty well.

I'm at a wierd point now.
I'm fine with generally everything on hard drums except some of the level 6 stuff.
And I find I don't have too much difficulty with most songs on expert... but I just won't move to expert until I can at least pass/do well on everything on hard first.
And some of the stuff (Ace of Spades, Painkiller, Battery) are auto-fails for me on hard at this stage.
Otherwise, I consider myself a pretty solid Hard level drummer.

And Zarlor is unreal as an expert vocalist by the way.

ennis1437

01-26-2009, 05:13 PM

pubnight , I will add you when I get on later I also play hard /expert drums but can do a little guitar on medium. and I can second what you said about Zarlor I played a set with him last night and he was always on expert and always 98 99% Pubnight maybe we can do a little tug of war or score challenge or whatever it is called. Sounds like you have simillar problems on some of the same songs I do. I have got through Ace of spades on hard but it was not pretty!

megatron

01-26-2009, 05:31 PM

Good luck with the ESL, Z

Thanks for the advice

zarlor

01-26-2009, 08:13 PM

Just finished that marathon session of songs. Yowsa! Only 3 songs I got 4 stars on. "Tangled Up In Blue" I should not have 4-starred at all, but I always catch myself trying to sing like Dylan, and if you do that you'll mis a bunch of notes (Dylan is all too often a bit flat, and definitely so for the notes RB wants you to sing. And I'm not that fond of the song or the singer anyway). 'Master Exploder' is just a royal pain to get to 5 stars on and I forgot the other song I only 4-starred on. On of the harder ones that we just don't do very often...maybe "Panic Attack"? I could get it if I listen to it a few more times, I think, but I can't remember which it was. Somewhere around 5th from the end. I gold-starred a bunch of them, so that should tide my star status on the band for a while even if we just 5-star stuff. ;) BTW, that's probably the one thing I would like to eventually invite folks to do would be to help me finish out the Band challenges since I can't solo those. Sometime later, though. I'm busy Wednesday, but I'm one right now for folks that want to get in. (And to be perfectly honest, vocals just aren't that hard compared to the other instruments if you have any kind of decent pitch, the hard part is finding the best overdrive paths to maximize the score and get those gold stars. I know there are plenty of folks doing vocals out there that are far better than me.)

EDIT: Looks like I was wrong about the gold star thing. It must just be based on ratio of score or something. Despite all the GS songs I basically added doing hte ESL2, it only took playing around on drums and getting a couple of 4 and 5 star songs on the Challenges to take away GS status on the band. Oh well. No biggie.

Pubknight

01-26-2009, 09:27 PM

Congrats Z.

I had a curveball thrown at me with work, so I couldn't make it on tonight.
I'll add everyone later this week, or at some point when I can get on for an hour or so.

zarlor

01-26-2009, 10:09 PM

That's cool. My schedule for this week is pretty tight. I may be on some tomorrow night, but Wednesday & Thursday I won't be on. I might be on Friday night and I might be on Saturday before 2pm. Sunday is the most likely day for me to be on during the day and maybe that night, too. Actual schedule may vary. ;)

ennis1437

01-27-2009, 08:41 AM

Hey guys I work shift work so there is a lot of times I am home during the day. If anyone else has any times when they can play during the day Look for me. I have lots of time when the kids are at school and so forth.

5ivewire

01-27-2009, 12:29 PM

Hey all - just thought i'd say hi & check out the "old man band" group.

Kev2380

01-27-2009, 02:14 PM

Everytime I think I'm gonna play, something comes up, I'm so jealous of you guys. I have an other issue too, I can never view my messages in my inbox. When I try to view them, I see the message for a second then it dissapears. Anyone else have this issue?

It's super annoying. Sorry to anyone who left me a message and thinks I'm ignoring them. I am able to accept freind requests.

BTW, I'm 32 and have a wife and a newborn who is adorable but sucks away my free time. I have to surrender to her cuteness. But I think I may be able to muster up an hour tonight for some daddy rock band time. I want to see if anything was updated on the music store as well. I'm going to try to play right when I get home from work. 5:30-7pm EST or somewhere around there, I'll add everyone who I haven't added already, ennis, megatron, I think i have mostly everyone else, I'll have my laptop up and try to synch everything. I feel like I haven't played in ages, it's only been like two weeks. lol

megatron

01-27-2009, 03:39 PM

Hey Kev,
Congrats on the new baby, you're going to be in my boat with having to bail at a moments notice but everyone here's been understanding of that. I usually can't play until at least 10 est so I'm jealous too. I did get an opportunity to play yesterday during daylight hours, slight improvement to the skill set when I'm not half asleep. Don't know about the inbox thing, haven't had any issues with mine other than messages that are a few days old still come up "new".

ennis1437

01-27-2009, 03:47 PM

hey guys looks like todays dlc is a bust 4 of the 6 songs are curropt and they are working on them . I downloaded "gimmie three steps" just to find out that it will not play locks up the wii etc.. and I am on my way to tampa so no rockband for me untill I get back thursday. Kev i also am 32 just turned yesterday looking forward to playing some sessions with all of you when I get back. I played for a couple hours today man it's fun!! I know I mentioned I work shift work earlier. I am a locomotive engieer , "I drive trains" but if anybody is home from work or whatever look me up, my hours vary drasticly.

zarlor

01-27-2009, 06:49 PM

Ennis, I usually get off of work around 3pm CST, although I usually check email and such and don't often hop on RB2 until later (when more folks tend to be on) but I can try to make an effort to get on early some days. Indeed on some of those days I said I won't be on, I may be able to get on for a little bit at around 3:30-4:00pm-ish CST.

5ivewire, you looking to get in on the action with the rest of us old (well, ok, mainly just over 30s) folk? If so just post a friend code (you won't get inundated with friend request on your Wii because you and the other person have to already have each others' codes in your system to see each other, so it's not a big deal to post it since you can still be very selective on your own with who to add.) It's not like we've got a committed band or anything, just folks who'd like to jam together whenever they happen to be on and try not to disconnect in the middle of songs and such, like you often get in the pickup bands. Other then that I think we're pretty casual and have no problems with folks playing on whatever difficulty settings they like! If that's a fit for you, just let us know. My FC is right down below if you want to add me.

Kev, I hear you on the when you can play thing. Part of being in that old folks crowd tends to mean limited time to get on, so lots of us will often miss each other, unfortunately. Still I should be on tonight, I hope, so look for me. They are supposed to have added 6 songs, see: http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117163

"Here's a list of the DLC coming to the Wii on Tuesday Jan 27th.

Smashing Pumpkins - Siva
The Cars - Just What I Needed
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Gimme Three Steps
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Tell Me Baby
Oasis - Live Forever
30 Seconds to Mars - Attack

Each track will be 200 Wii Points."

I think I will need to get a few of those. Definitely "Gimme Three Steps" and "Just What I Needed" if nothing else.

As for the blank page thing, I sometimes get that, but I find all I have to do is hit the back button on my browser and it will all pop up just fine. Optionally you could try another browser, if you are on Internet Explorer, for example, you could try Firefox or Opera instead. (I mostly use Opera, just for the lower resource footprint, but I like Firefox quite a bit for functionality and the add-ins.)

Kev2380

01-27-2009, 10:04 PM

Zarlor, it was fun playing with you and Pubknight

The wife kicked me off after a couple hours, sorry I sucked so bad on You Can Go Your Own Way. I like that song, but can't seem to get the hang of it on hard.

I downloaded Just what I needed, it worked fine for me. I like the Cars a lot so I was happy to see it on there. I'm looking forward to No Doubt stuff next.

zarlor

01-27-2009, 10:23 PM

Yeah, I was upset on You Can Go Your Own Way because if it let us go for just another beat I could have hit overdrive to save you. I wish PubKnight would have let us go one more time on it. No biggie. Next time we need to hop into your band instead. (EDIT: THat's not a knock on PubKnight, BTW, I just meant that in your band you could pick some of the songs you like playing and/or are comfortable with and such.)

I also got Live Forever on the DLC, so I've got a pretty good song list so far. I like doing the DLC stuff when someone makes up set lists. At least we know that, olther than the freebie stuff, it's all songs we probably like well enough.

Pubknight

01-28-2009, 12:44 AM

That was frustrating on Go Your Own Way... I could literally see the fill section coming, and I think after that we would have been fine... sorry I pulled the plug on it, I thought twice was enough.
That's one of the downsides though to having someone drive a band over quickplay... at least with quickplay everyone can take turns picking songs.
(Although, in my defense, that was a Mystery Set List... I didn't pick those songs)

That was fun though, I'm glad I had a chance to play with Kev again.
(And of course Z, it's always a pleasure to play with you)
Earlier, I had just logged on, and Kev had sent me an invite... no warm ups, went in cold... and the last time I played 2 days ago, I played on Breakneck Speed.
So, I proceeded to fail out on Chop Suey twice in about the first 40 seconds of the song. (had never failed it before)
I was glad of the chance to play with him again and redeem myself a bit.

I would have no problem in playing with others bands... it doesn't have to be mine.
In fact, I would prefer to play in others bands at different times, so I don't feel like I"m hogging everything.

I added Larvitar and ennis tonight by the way.

Kev2380

01-28-2009, 08:19 AM

I didn't know on quickplay people can take turns and play different songs. That is pretty cool. I kind of like that. Either way, I wouldn't mind you guys coming and playing in my band. Zarlor, you're already a member of it. :D

I meant to add PubKnight when we were playing together last night but I had t leave, some friends came over. I think I need to try playing just the bass on hard, and stay with medium for the guitar for awhile until I get my rhythm back. I am super rusty. You guys really helped me when i was playing on hard, by getting the overdrives. On one song I totally did a bonehead move, pub had a solo and I was watching him then didn't realized some notes started coming on my side, I had to go into overdrive and hit some notes so I wouldn't fail out.

As for DLC I have
Just what I needed
Snow
Call Me
The 20 free ones
Thinking about getting Margaritaville, that will be a good one for when we have really old people over. :p I guess I'm just trying to hide I like that song too. :cool:

It was fun playing with you guys, I look forward to playing again. I hope they release the AC/DC songs as DLC as well. I want to play Thunderstruck BAD...

Kev2380

01-28-2009, 10:45 AM

I thought of another thing, instead of us just guessing what everyone wants to play, let's lis the songs we really like, then we'll have an idea of what to play when we're all online. I like them all really but I do have my personal favorites.

Beck "E-Pro
Beastie Boys "So Whatcha Want
Alanis Morissette "You Oughta Know
Alice in Chains "Man in the Box
Billy Idol "White Wedding Pt. I
Bon Jovi "Livin' on a Prayer"
Disturbed "Down with the Sickness
Duran Duran "Hungry Like the Wolf
Fleetwood Mac "Go Your Own Way-even though I can't play it on hard.
Jimmy Eat World "The Middle-kind of played out
Journey "Anyway You Want It"
Kansas "Carry On Wayward Son
Megadeth "Peace Sells
Modest Mouse "Float On
Norman Greenbaum "Spirit in the Sky
Pearl Jam-Alive
Rise Against "Give it All
Silversun Pickups "Lazy Eye
Smashing Pumpkins "Today
Social Distortion "I Was Wrong
Soundgarden "Spoonman
Steve Miller Band "Rock'n Me
System of a Down "Chop Suey
Survivor "Eye of the Tiger
Let there be rock is cool, but I don't like that break in the song, when he's like let there be light, sound, drums, I get impatient.

I like the ones I've downloaded as well,
Cars-Just what I needed, I'm really tempted to get Boston's More Than a Feeling,
Blonde-Call me is good.
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Snow
I need to look at what else is on DLC

Pubknight

01-28-2009, 11:25 AM

That's a good idea Kev, about the song preferences.
I actually like almost every song in the game, but there are a handful I don't.
The free dlc songs I don't like, I deleted... but there were only about 5 of them... I *really* like the rest of the free dlc songs that I kept.
Other songs I don't like are:
- A Jagged Gorgeous Winter
- Spirit in the Sky
- Rob the Prez-O-Dent
- Ace of Spades
- Visions
- Painkiller
- Battery

And maybe I'm slow and everybody else already knew this:
- if you're in quickplay, or even the 'make a setlist' thing, when you are looking at the full list of songs... I'm sure everyone knows you can sort it different ways. One of the sorting ways is "by location", so it splits up your dlc and your on-disc songs. (the dlc is at the top)
- now, as for what I just realized last night (again, I'm a little slow) is songs that everyone in your current band has as listed in white lettering... where songs that not everyone has are listed in grey. So you don't have to do what I usually do which is continuing to pick songs and getting the message that "You can't play that song until everyone in your band has purchased it". It's easy to tell what dlc matches between everybody.

Kev2380

01-28-2009, 11:52 AM

I found that too, when I first downloaded the DLC, I wanted to play Snow with someone, but no one had it. I hear you about Ace of Spades, I did like that song but the radio station played it way too much.

I didn't now about the sorting thing until you did that last night while we were playing. I'm going to sort mine like that too.

suebee3340

01-28-2009, 12:01 PM

What time you guys play, again???

I thought I had some of you in my Friend list, but maybe I don't. The only people I ever seem to catch up with are 5ivewire and FurryIceCream.

By the way, I played with 5ivewire and his wife Candy the other night, he is strictly bass and she prefers drums. I prefer guitar. The three of us made a good band and were racking up so many points and kept hitting unison. We were constantly in overdrive. It actually became difficult to follow my notes with all the flashing and the background clutter.

I just need to get off playing Medium all the time. I think I am ready to try playing Hard on some songs. I score 90 something all the time, now. But, when people pick a multiple song set I won't play Hard because I am afraid to get stuck on a song that I can't play at all.... and fail over and over again - ruining the whole entire set...

Kev2380

01-28-2009, 12:17 PM

Hi Sue,

Usually the playing begins around 6-7PM EST. I doubt I'll be on tonight, but maybe some of the others will be. Have fun.

megatron

01-28-2009, 12:32 PM

Sounds like an epic jam session, the crowd was still going crazy when the second act hit the stage at 11. Tried to get my stuff done to accept PK & Z's invites but didn't want to join until I knew I was free and clear, unfortunately you guys were out by then. Please keep sending the invites, I usually turn RB on once the kids are off the wii so it's ready to go when I am (& to add dlc before I play). Thanks for the invites M & 5string, E-Pro is one of the easier songs I struggle mightily with, crazy that you each picked that as the opener (sorry for my performance which stunk but I will master it eventually).

Kev, the AC/DC pack is awesome (and I'm not a big AC/DC fan, can't get past the schoolboy outfit). If you don't have it I highly recommend it. All the songs are challenging but still fun to play with tons of energy (being live tracks doesn't hurt either). Thunderstruck's opening is very challenging, I have to use a clip to hold down the green just to get through it on expert.

Got Lost tonight but will try to get on after, let me know or send me an invite if you're going to be on (10:30 ish est)

megatron

01-28-2009, 12:43 PM

Hey Sue, I'll add you when I get on later. Know what you mean about overdrive getting in the way, more times than not I lose my streak when kick it in.

As far as difficulty goes, I cool with whatever anyone wants to play. No big deal if you fail, I'm not in it for the fans/points, just to have a good time. All the better if we're challenging ourselves, the points will come as we all get better (except for Z's vocals, sounds like he's maxed out there).

zarlor

01-28-2009, 06:05 PM

Oh I still have plenty of songs I could do better on. Consistency isn't always there on some of them. I've done pretty good on Tangled Up In Blue before, for example (and I think I'm even in the Top 10 on Shakler's Revenge, go figure) but I can't consistently keep it above 95%. A few of the free DLC songs I just haven't heard enough to keep it in the 90th percentile and none of them am I familiar enough with to get 100% on.

PubKnight and I were discussing ways to try and coordinate Overdrive, since both Vocals and Drums are limited on when they can kick it in, but that's about the extent of point hunting I've done. I'd just like to figure out a good rule of thumb and so far I think just trying to watch for when drums are at half-full is the time to try and kick it in if I can. We've been thinking that another option might be for the vocalist just to stick to the optimum vocal path and generally ignore the drums on taht front, but taht the guitar would kick when the drums do and the bassist would kick when the vocalist does. Don't know. Just some thoughts, but when all is said and done as long as its fun who really cares.

As for what I like... Some of the DLC freebies are pretty good, but I'm not really all that comfortable with any of them. Any of the pay DLC stuff I have I got because I really enjoy, though, although Perfect Drug is nasty on Vocals, they actually set pitches to stuff that Trent Reznor is whispering for crying out loud! (I've thought of getting Snow and maybe ...And Justice For All, but I'm still on the fence for getting those, but know that I know you've got Snow, Kev, I may get that one.)

Of the regular songs I guess I don't like Alabama Getaway (never been a Grateful Dead fan), Tangled Up In Blue, Shacker's Revenge, Peace Sells, Rob the Prez-o-Dent, Visions (I like the driving drum beat and guitars of Death Metal, but the non-existant vocals are downright annoying) and I despise anything by the Beastie Boys (but at least they are mind-numbingly easy,so I can live with it, plus I just change the "lyrics", if you can call them that, to exclaim how much I despise the Beastie Boys. ;)) Most everyting else I'm at least OK with (not so hot on how I do with E-Pro, but I kinda like the song anyway), but most of the song selection pretty much rocks in my book.

Megatron, on the invites, I didn't want to keep sending them thinking you might get annoyed with any more. But now that I know you are cool with it I'll just send them at occasional intervals. I figured when you were ready you'd send one in return and we'd hook up in your band and go that way. My voice was a bit fried from doing the ESL2 on Monday, though, and I was a bit tired to I bugged out a bit early yesterday.

As for times, Suebee, I think we talked about that in PMs. Sounds like you are mostly on later than I am, but I like to be outta the house by 6:30 am, so I've got a fairly early bedtime (but at least I get off work pretty early, too!) So on any given weekday I might be on as early as 3:30pm CT until as late as 10:00pm CT. Though probably not on Thursdays or Fridays (although I may be on this Friday anyway). And tonight I'm booked as well. Saturdays are varied on when and if I can be on. Sundays I'll usually be on in the evenings, but I may be on during the day at times as well.

Don't forget if you send an invite but don't get a quick response that it may be because I'm with someone in a set of songs (or I may have even missed seeing it.) So don't worry about sending other invites to me every now and again.

You also mentioned 5iveWire, but he hasn't posted an FC here, has he? If so I can add him in, might give us more chances to get a full band going on occasion, after all.

ennis1437

01-29-2009, 12:33 PM

Kev2380

01-29-2009, 12:49 PM

For those of you who did not know when you added me to your friends list my online name is v3. Great duel pubknight! I sent you a pm . I look forward to playing some more later tonight. Maybe there will be enough of us to get a full band going!

Ennis, I tried to invite you a couple times last night. I never saw you come into the match making place.

Pubknight

01-29-2009, 01:51 PM

For those of you who did not know when you added me to your friends list my online name is v3. Great duel pubknight! I sent you a pm . I look forward to playing some more later tonight. Maybe there will be enough of us to get a full band going!
Yeah, you caught me a bit offguard switching to Expert.
I've never really score dueled before... it's kind of different.

I'll be on tonight for sure.

ennis1437

01-29-2009, 05:28 PM

I apreciate the invite Kev , But That was not me last night my kids where playing. So If I do not answer that usually means that the wife or kids are playing rock band.

zarlor

01-29-2009, 08:01 PM

Ah. I sent a few invites to you as well earlier in the afternoon, but I just figured you were already busy or had another pick-up band going or something. I've been trying a bit to get on a little earlier to catch you since you mentioned that as a pretty decent time. I'm sure we'll get it sometime.

Pubknight

01-29-2009, 09:11 PM

I'm still going to play for a bit tonight... nice games Z and Kev.
I just need a bit of a break (Teenage Riot wipes me out).

I'll be back in 30 mins or so.

A bit of a general thought though, since I think we all have each other added now... regardless or whomevers band we are playing in at the time... we should get in the habit of going back to the lobby periodically to see if anyone else is around that we can invite.

And maybe if you get an invite, but you are in a set... when you get out of your set, fire an invite back as a signal you are available again.

I dunno... just brainstorming... what do you folks think?
It would be great to play with a true full band... I think so far I've only done it like twice since I got the game.

zarlor

01-30-2009, 12:11 AM

I've done the full band thing, but only on pickup bands and usually I got a lot of disconnects that way. Not so much fun. Although I've done full band with friends over playing locally, which is always fun. Full band with you guys would probably be a blast!

As for dropping back the the lobby, I think that's always a good idea. Even if it's just the leader dropping back, doing a quick check for anyone else being on and then right back down into another set. I also thought dropping to the Rock Shop to say you needed a short break worked pretty well, too. Good visual cue, I think (although when I did it, PubKnight, you disconnected for a bit and I wasn't sure if that was deliberate or not.)

Not sure how to signal, as a non-leader, you got an invite from someone as a reminder to the leader to check who else might be on. It happened the other day when I was doing a set with PubKnight and Kev sent an invite, but of course he must have sent the invite to PK as well because one the set was done he pull Kev into the band so it worked fine. The other thing is if you see someone on AND they'd previously added you to their band, you can always just try to directly connect to the band and you're good to go when the back up from their set (which I forgot to do today when I saw PK on and sent and invite, when I probably should have just tried to join "Free Beer Tomorrow" instead.

Pubknight

01-30-2009, 01:06 AM

If I'm going to be gone for a bit longer than a short break... like gone for 10-15 minutes... I'll disconnect so whomever I'm playing with isn't sitting around waiting for me.

I know a lot of us don't have a ton of time to play all the time... so if you only had an hour or two, you wouldn't necessarily want to sit around for 15 minutes waiting on someone who's away from the game.

I like the Rock Shop 'code' for taking a break... that works pretty well.

Kev2380

01-30-2009, 09:07 AM

Hey Pub, Good times playing with you last night. Sorry I sucked so bad trying to play on hard. 85% on some of the songs. Sheesh. I need to practice bad. I guess I'm not the best person if you're trying to rack up points.

Pubknight

01-30-2009, 02:11 PM

I don't care about points in the context of how we were playing last night.
Not. At. All.
You did fine. You are much better on hard bass/guitar than I am. (Z has seen me try hard guitar/bass at the end of a long session when it was too late for me to be playing drums.... let's just say it wasn't pretty... *cough* loss of 2 million fans *cough*)

Z and I talk about points just for kicks n giggles... and for some general strategies for any BotB stuff. And because he and I have played together reasonably often now (I've played more online with him than everyone else combined)... so trying to improve our scores when we play is a way to tell if we are doing better or not.

I'm thinking I need to push myself a bit more and go from hard to expert... but I'm really torn over the whole thing.

Kev2380

01-30-2009, 05:12 PM

I hear ya, I have enough fun on hard, I doubt I'll ever ben on expert.

zarlor

01-31-2009, 12:29 AM

Hey PubKnight, you just missed out. Right after you logged I hooked up with Cherkov for a set and then Kev popped in. We played in my band, mainly because I wasn''t sure if Kev and Cherkov had each other in as friends or not, yet. (And Cherkov, sorry about the inviting you in and then kickin you out part, I was trying to suggest that we play in your band instead of mine, was all.) So we just worked on some of my band challenges.

It looks like working on overdrive with two guitar controllers running it's best for the vocalist, in general, to just stick to the optimal vocal path, I think. It seemed to work out pretty good overall (except when I missed a window or got lost or on something like Lump which has annoying hard to activate windows.) For a bit there I though Kev had my vocal cheat sheet in front of him since he was often activiating right as or even a tad before I did (or even a useful amount earlier if he had more energy built up.) Sometimes, though, I think you guys didn't trust me to go off if you 3/4 full before you next OD bars popped up, but sometimes that worked out pretty well. Not to mention when vocals are coming to a tapping section it seems like it's better for the guitarists to kick into overdrive and just pick up more energy by the time the taps are done. Those were my observations anyway. (Oh, and most often if I'm at a full energy bar and didn't hit the very next activation, I probably missed my activation. Some windows are just harder to activate than others and only in a few instances do you fill to full and then activate one or two windows later. Just in case you might be wondering about that.) Lots of fun, though, guys! Thanks for the session!

And megatron and I kept missing each other. Sorry dude, I eded up catching your invite inevitably when I was in the first or second song of a 4 song set. I guess after the first invite I should have gone into Tour mode and done just 1 song at a time so I could have backed up quicker to catch you. Ah well, maybe next time.

Kev2380

01-31-2009, 09:26 AM

megatron

01-31-2009, 09:50 AM

It was fun playing last night zarlor, I'm not sure what you mean by the OD thing. I was hoping to keep a 100% streak up on medium. I had about 5 sons in a row but couldn't nail the last one.

Megatron, I'm having issues with your friend code, I keep getting a message saying it's invalid.

I did have the wrong code in my original sig, but it's working now. Sorry about that. Probably gonna be on again around 10ish tonight, I'll send invites when I can jam!!!

zarlor

01-31-2009, 09:52 AM

I got the same invalid on megtron's invite as well, but I think that happens if he drops back out to a non-online section or at least out of the Tour or wherever he sent the invite from.

As for the OD thing. What strategy were you using for when to kick off your Overdrive mode?

EDIT: megatron I thought Kev meant an invalid request from your invite, but rereading it you might be right about just having the old FC. I was getting some invalid requests, but I think that was just because we kept missing each others invites.

megatron

01-31-2009, 10:12 AM

yeah, sometimes I just send out the invites to give a shout. I'll play anything so I don't care to be the band leader so I bounce around quite a bit. I only put a band together if I see a couple of different friends that are basically only linked by my FC. If I join and then quit right away that's what I'm doing & hopefully you'll probably an invite from me fairly quickly that I've found others to fill out the band.

I tried to join a few times last night but you didn't have any openings, just one of those days

zarlor

01-31-2009, 10:52 AM

I just realized, you were probably playing a guitar, right? Both Kev and Cherkov were on guitar already, so that was probably why you couldn't get in. It never tells me that you tried, though. That figures. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Cherkov

01-31-2009, 11:51 AM

It was great playing with you guys last night. Much better rocking with a group of people! Overdrive for me is just whenever I get full or someone else activates. Sometimes I will save it if I notice someone is struggling with a difficult song and needs saving. It's easier to do as a guitarist.

Candy442

01-31-2009, 01:49 PM

Hi there group, I am an "old lady"...smile. I sent Zarlor my friend code to invite when you need a drummer or singer? I am a solid medium level drummer with trying to get better than 94 percent on the Hard level. I can also sing on Hard level with pretty good results.

Look forward to playing!;)

Pubknight

02-01-2009, 02:21 PM

Hi Candy442,
Welcome to the Rock Band geriatrics wing (kidding).
Why don't you post your friend code here so we can all add you.

On a personal note, I know no one cares, but I needed to share this somewhere... and when I tell my wife this sort of stuff, she just gives me one of those confused kind of looks:
- Just passed Visions on hard drums.

Now, only Battery and Panic attack left.
I'm figuring next to visions, with a couple of practice runs through them, they should be cake.

zarlor

02-01-2009, 02:49 PM

Congrats, PK!

Candy442, I kinda agree with PK on just posting your FC. The nice thing about the FCs is that they are nothing like email or anything. Just giving it out doesn't all of a sudden mean you start getting invites from who knows where or that anyone will be able to figure out how to hack your Wii from it or anything. If someone add your FC on their Friends list then all that happens is that you would go onto their pending list. It wouldn't notify you or do anything at all to let you know someone added you to their Friends list or anything. In essence the only way the FC is useful is if you both exchanged FCs beforehand so that both you and the remote Wii put them in, then you'll show up on each other's Friends lists. So it's not like you run the danger of spam emails or anything by posting it. And even if something like that were possible all you'd have to do is rename your RB2 game (ask Kev for the details if you ever need them) and it apparently generates a whole new FC for you and all your old friends will only see your old, defunct name on their list. Up to you, of course, but thankfully it's nothing like posting your email or something.

ennis1437

02-01-2009, 04:13 PM

hey guys anybody plan on playing tonight or in the morning I will be home tomorrow between 10 and 3 est. And tonight as well not really in to the supperbowl

Pubknight

02-01-2009, 06:55 PM

Now, only Battery and Panic attack left.
I'm figuring next to visions, with a couple of practice runs through them, they should be cake.

Yeah, ok, I lied.
Panic Attack is brutal.
Good song... but brutal tough.

zarlor

02-01-2009, 08:02 PM

I'll be on shortly. Not much of a Superbowl guy myself, either. Well, maybe if the Saints were playing and I guess if the Cards could get in we might have some hope... well within the next 70 years, anyway.

zarlor

02-01-2009, 09:17 PM

Dang, Ennis, Master Exploder? Just whip that one out on me why don't you. ;) That's one oof those songs that takes listening through a couple of times before I do it, and even then I don't always remember where to change my ocave to get it all the time. My problem is that JB is eseentially a first Tenor, whereas I am a second Tenor. I've got a few more notes on the bottom end than he has, but he has about as many above... well, that's not completely true, I can sometimes get up into that whistle register, but not without grabbing an extra breath in there, I just lose far more air than JB does in the real thing. It usually takes me a couple of run-thorughs to catch my stride on it and switch registers (and catch breath) at the right times. Tought song and you were wailing at it on Expert. Very nice, as was Chop Suey. (I love that song anyway, so taht helps.) Now if I could just hit the OD at the right times and remember that Everlong has all those darned early activations that are such a pain to get....

ennis1437

02-01-2009, 09:36 PM

Sorry ,Z I only had time for one set and I figured I would really give you the full on vocal test! Sorry for tanking on that Steally Dan song Man I don't know why I had such a hard time with that, whew thanks for the help. That first Zildgian mystery setlist was not really my cup of tea. So I am glad we got to do some make your own setlist stuff, man If you and I could practice just a little more I believe we can gold star Carrry on Wayward son. That was the highest duo score I have ever had and I missed several sections at the end because I started looking at the score , that is a really cool vocal showcase for you. Well done! I accedintelly deleted you from my friends list so I sent another request.

zarlor

02-01-2009, 09:58 PM

Hey megatron, one request. When you pick a single song would you let it just play a few bars for me first (it helps me to get the tune and key into my head which can be pretty helpful at times), and when picking a set list just give me maybe 15 extra seconds, if that, to check it out. Just a quick pause, really. I got so lost on what we were doing on that 3 song setlist you picked that I completely lost count on those songs of where I should have been trying to kick in OD. Just a few extra seconds, not a lot, will give me a chance to glance through my cheat sheet so I'll know where I'm at.

zarlor

02-01-2009, 10:06 PM

Ennis, yeah, I think Carry On My Wayward son is a pretty easy song, really, at least for me on vocals. Luckily I like it so I don't mind singing it over and over, since it does seem to come up quite often. Most of the time if you see me get a 99% on a song it means I'm probably beating on myself for not getting 100% on it! Most of the ones I wasn't getting fully were songs I should never have gotten lestt ahn 100% on. Like Cool for cats. There is just the ver end of one phrase where I just sometimes go for the wrong note when I really know better. Of course that's knid of the problem, I'm so convinced I should just get 100% that I I just play along with singing it and sometimes forget that I need to watch what the heck I'm doing there since that one phrase is just ever so slightly different from what I expect. I hate when I miss it. It was fun, though! And you just missed the session with megatron. Not sure who DJDam (I think that was the name) was, but he was doing might good on expert guitar. I kind of felt like I let them down some with my inept OD timing.

And no problems on the stuff folks run into issues with. It happens and doing the save thing or trying to time kicking some overdrive to prevent someone from going into fail to begin with can be a lot of fun in its own right. I'm glad we got through it, though, because that song doesn't leave a whole lot of opportunity for the vocalist to do much saving.

megatron

02-01-2009, 10:06 PM

yeah, sorry about that. I'd rather not be the leader (hence my continuous use of "random song"). Once everyone else was out I thought you might want to take over those chores.

megatron

02-01-2009, 10:16 PM

DJDAM is crazyinsatiable1 from the current wii info board

zarlor

02-01-2009, 10:35 PM

To be honest, I hate being leader too. :) I'd much rather just do everyone else's stuff. Even when they make me sing Alabama Getaway. Yuck.

Candy442

02-02-2009, 12:04 AM

Zarlor and Megatron, you guys are fantastic! Thank you for the boost in the battle of the bands and especially for saving my hinney in that last set!!! Thank you and look forward to another session soon!

Candy :D

Candy442

02-02-2009, 12:14 AM

Oh, and here is my FC for all the oldies and goodies to jam. I am so addicted I am usually on every night after 7pm EST.

megatron

02-02-2009, 12:15 AM

had to take a break, i'll send an invite when i get back on. i'm terrible at e-pro, that's the 3rd time i butchered it tonight.

zarlor

02-02-2009, 12:23 AM

So tonight was my first gig with Friends of the Family and what's the first song they make me do? My utter nemesis, Rob the Prez-O-Dent, then followed by Master Exploder! (Although I got a 99% on it this time!) Then a set of some of the harder vocal songs in the game (other than Chop Suey, which I can usually ace every time.) And then we did the Battle where Rob the Prez-O-Dent crops up gain! Talk about a work out!

Sorry about failing out on that one Paramour song. Thanks, whoever saved me. I got a phone call from the office and was practicaly trying to sing my responses to them. :D Anyone else I would have let the answering machine get it. Ah well, at least I was able to get back on so we could keep going. Thanks for the session, it was lots of fun!

zarlor

02-02-2009, 12:26 AM

had to take a break, i'll send an invite when i get back on. i'm terrible at e-pro, that's the 3rd time i butchered it tonight.

It's an oddball song for me as well. I don't think I've ever gotten 100% on that one. There are just a couple of phrases where I can only seem to get a Strong out of them and it messes me up everytime. That song is even more tough because it doesn't give you a lot of room to breath, so breath control seems to me to be very, very important in it.

Oh well, off to bed for me. G'night all and thanks again for the invites.

5ivewire

02-02-2009, 12:37 AM

Sorry 'bout that - wasnt trying to "test" you . . . . . (but Candy was! LOL. . . . . just kidding!) Just happened to be the song choices in the setlist. i kinda didnt do as well as i should of - tried some of the songs on hard, when i should've stayed w/medium. Missed a few notes searching the colours on the "fretboard" & some should of regestered, but they didnt for some reason; so 50% mechanical & 50% operator error (alright, maybe more like 25/75 :D). Had a blast anyways. Alot of these songs i'm certain i could do much better if i could plug in my real bass into the game & play that way.

Candy442

02-02-2009, 06:53 AM

Zarlor, you are so funny! I can just imagine you singing to the call from your office...:)
You are excellent with the singing!!! *picture Candy saying "we're not worthy, we're not worthy"...* and you aced my test!!!

have a great day and see everyone soon.

megatron

02-02-2009, 09:06 AM

sorry guys, never made it back. sat down for what I thought was going to be a 10 min break, there was no life force when I went to get up so I turned in for the night. after a weekend of rockin' my fret hand was pretty much hamburger anyway, see ya next time.

megatron

02-02-2009, 09:36 AM

Z, couldn't help but be impressed with the platinum mic symbol. I assume that's the reward for completing the ESL? Does anyone know how that works? Is it platinum for xpert, gold for hard, etc?

zarlor

02-02-2009, 06:07 PM

Yeah, I apparently got it finishing the ESL2, but I didn't know there were different colors. I did do it on Expert though, so maybe there are other colors and I just didn't realize is.

5ivewire, I have problems using that controller trying to play it like a traditional bass as well, I think the Guitar Hero: World Tour controller works better for that. But PK mentioned to me the following mod: http://www.bytearts.com/strummer/index.html

I'm thinking I will order it for one of my controllers and see if it fixes some of those missed strums, although taht won't help the occasional miss on the fret buttons, where I find I have to be a little more careful about appling pressure directly back on the button. It seems if you have some side pressure going it doesn't always contact all the way down, or "click" in. The hardest part I find is having played some bass as well that I catch myself at times anticipating the note by holding up the strum bar (since the real thing only makes the noise when you let go of the dtring, not when you pull it up!) I have to remind myself that ALL notes should be plucked quickly and that rectifies that problem normally... well on the GH:WT guitar, anyway. This RB2 one just doesn't seem to handle finger-plucking well at all, so I just revert to, essentially, thinking of thumb slapping it instead. Meaning I seem to do better playing it like the regular guitar. But doig it the bass way just feels SOOO much more right! If I order that mod I'll let you know how it works out.

And as a side note, here's tomorrow's DLC for the Wii:

Blondie - Hanging on the Telephone
All American Rejects - Dirty Little Secret
Boston - Hitch A Ride
Boston - Peace Of Mind
Boston - Smokin'
Boston - Something About You

I'll probably get everything but the Blondie song. It's just not one of her better songs, IMHO.

5ivewire

02-02-2009, 06:23 PM

i'm excited about the "p-bass" controller when it becomes available. it would feel somewhat more natural to use/play. . . . . or so they say. . . . .

Kev2380

02-02-2009, 08:26 PM

Nice job doing the ESL Zarlor, how long did it take you?

zarlor

02-02-2009, 10:20 PM

It took about 6 hours, I think. You can't stop the setlist to save for later, like you can with Challenges, but I would pause it after sets in songs and such to get water and take breaks as needed.

Ennis,

Sorry about that setlist with Ace of Spades as the last song. I was flipping back and forth between Hard & Expert on there and kind of waiting before I chose so I could get you to take a look at the setlist for that set just in case there was a song like that in there. Still, we might ahve gotten through it. I was trying a couple of different things on the save stuff and I think that if you hold off on the save as long as you can it makes no difference to how high up that green bar pops up. So I think that in a section where I can hold off saving you until the last second it would have meant more time for you to recover and maybe get back in. I did try to hit one section before you failed when I got it so you would be able to get through it without failing out, but the next section I didn't hold off on the save like I think I should have and I think that stopped us from being able to finish the song out. I've heard it's just horrendous on Hard drums to make it though that song (and Painkiller, I've heard is a nightmare as well.)

5ivewire & Candy, I was feeling really out of sync, especially at first, on when you guys wanted to kick in Overdrive. What is your strategy on that? It looked like you guys were trying at least to make sure everyone was at least half, but I couldn't tell if you were wanting to try to hold until someone was full, or if you were trying to key off of me or something. I think I got lost a little because I usually try to key off the drummer and I figured since drummers seem to, in a sense, lose points (and play time! Well sort of..) on those fill sections until they kick into overdrive that I usually see when they are at half and maybe try to see if they have a fill section coming up and if they do I kind of assumed they would just kick it in. It's worked pretty well when I've tried that method with PK before. But adding in the Bass/Guitar it looks like it shouldn't hurt to make sure that they are at least at half as well. Or were you guys looking more to go to full or something (which can sometimes be pretty advantageous for the bass/guitar or vocal line, but not always, it just depends on the note/phrase density you'll be playing while in OD, I think?)

Not that it matters much, mind you, I was just curious. It's pretty cool when we got those synced up sections and I figured if I knew what you guys were doing I could work on matching it up better.

Oh, and thanks for picking I.V. on that setlist you made up at the beginning. I haven't really played with it much, so I'm still not that good with it, but I really like the vocals on it and it's a pretty good range for me, too. I'm starting to like that song more and more.

zarlor

02-03-2009, 12:07 AM

I just realized something. Bassists and guitarists have an easy way of saying they would like to switch out instruments, they just flip between bass and guitar on teh difficulty selection screen. But what about vocalists and drummers, or even guitarists that just want to switch out? I was thinking maybe if in the "waiting Room (or whatever you call it where you see and select your characters) we should just flip between several characters to say "hey I'd like to switch out" and see if anyone else flips characters with you to show they would be amenible to doing that?

Then again I'm probably getting way to complicated with all this. ;)

Pubknight

02-03-2009, 11:03 AM

Well folks, wanted to give you all a bit of a heads up.
I'm going to try to play tonight for a bit if I can, but after tonight, I'm out of commission for a while (at least with drums).
Having a hip surgery done, so I don't know when I'll be able to sit at a drum stool next.
Going to try to use the downtime to move to hard bass... but if you see me around over the next little while, I'm likely just cruising on medium bass or guitar.
(there is also a good chance I'll be heavily medicated... so feel free to choose the Grateful Dead)

5ivewire

02-03-2009, 11:15 AM

i was a little "out of sync" again last nite again-started getting frustrated. :mad:

Good luck on your surgery Pub

i was thinking that since the wii doesnt have the communication options like the the xbox360, maybe if everyone wanted to "connect" via yahoo messenger or something, we could send info back & forth that way?

ennis1437

02-03-2009, 05:46 PM

Good luck with the surgery pubknight, I hope all goes well. I am going to try and get on sometime around 5 or 6 E.S.T Maybe we can get a full band going on. Do most of you like doing the tour or challenges in aother peioples bands or quick play just thought I would through that one out there.

zarlor

02-03-2009, 06:06 PM

I'm up for most anything. Tours, challenges and battles are all fun. I don't like quickplay as much, though.

As for using some kind of IM, that's not so easy for me, my "monitor" (well, 116" screen, really) is shared between my computer and my Wii, so I have to flip between them. I could set up another little monitor, but I'd prefer not to and although a good bit of the security issues with messaging have been fixed, I still prefer to avoid it. I do have Team Talk (http://www.bearware.dk, I like it for several reasons including that the server version is free, unlike Team Speak or that other one folks always use which I forget the name of right now, and it allows you to control the volume of other folks on the channel individually.) I can set it up as a server on my system or we can use the public server in Denmark. Plus you don't have to type anything with it (although I would highly reccomend in this scenario that folks use the Push To Talk feature rather than leaving the mic open or set to audio activate.) I know that's not an option for PubKnight, since his computer is too far away from his Wii, but that would leave him out from using something like Yahoo Messenger as well. Besides, he'd just be whining about all that hip pain anyway. ;) (Seriously, though, good luck with the surgery!)

I sometimes do try to flip over between sets just to check email real quick, so that's another possibility. Whoever wants to try that I'll PM you my email address (kind of stupid to say since a quick Google search would probably reveal it in 2-seconds flat. ;)).

Candy442

02-03-2009, 11:22 PM

Zarlor,

We really do not have any sort of timing when it comes to overdrive. I have been reading so much on what is good, that I tend to watch the singer since they seem to have the least amount of windows to go into overdrive. I have gone from hitting it every time with the drums to now waiting for the singer, if there is one... so...I would watch your meter, then pass up the overdrive only to see you activated it..so then I had to wait for my next window...lol. It was funny, so I just said, "what the heck" and did whatever.
so that is why we were all out of sync last night..smile. It doesnt really matter to me when we are doing the world tour anymore, but I need to get more familiar during battles so that we can all get the most points when points matter.

By the way, I am glad you liked the I.V. choice, I love that song too...but I have to tell you, I searched many cities for Rob the Prez o Dent...lol..just kidding! If we could talk during the game like on those "other" systems....then you would probably do more laughing than singing..grin. I was tempted to get you to chuckle by hesitating on both your favorite songs...grin.

Your suggestions certainly would help! I like to get everyone 'full' before going into over drive, personally...

Abigail is my younger son's girlfriend and she is starting to learn...so Brett, me, and her all switch to allow her to find her favorite instruments...smile

I also wondered what you thought of Brett's pajama outfit last night...lol?

zarlor

02-04-2009, 12:25 AM

Well, you inspired me to start switching outfits since every time I see your toon you've got something new on, so expect a little more variety. ;) I thought maybe Brett was getting ready for a Harry Potter convention the other night, though.

I must admit that I know you mentioned liking vocals and if there are three of you over there, maybe it would be better off if I just jumped in on guitar instead when I get an invite from you guys. Obviously I enjoy doing the vocals, but I've got all these other controllers here not just for friends to play, after all! So I don't mind swapping off. I guess if you want to work on top scores for the Battles, though, then it might be useful for me to switch out at those times, depending on how you feel about singing the songs in the battle.

As for OD... there's a couple of ways we could try it. If you're looking for score I don't think it's all that advantageous for a drummer to hold off for more than maybe 3 or 4 fill sections. If the vocalist is in or coming to a Tapping section (especially a long one) then it may also be worthwhile to kick it in just so you can fill back up by the time the vocalist comes out of the taps. But syncing drumsa nd vocals becomes a question since a lot of songs have longer intros and holding for the singer to even get to a half bar might not be good then, either.

So many variables! What PK and I were doing was trying to keep an eye on each other's bars and start to anticipate. On the vocals line the vocalist is often going to want to hold off on kicking in OD until the very last second to squeeze out more phrases (and thus more points) on the end if they can. And all too often drum fills and those sections where a vocalist can kick will coincide, so the rule that PK and I were using was that, I think, the drummer wouldn't hold for more than maybe 4 or 5 fills and watch to see if the vocalist can get enough energy to go by then. If not or if a tapping sections is coming up then he'd just kick off on his next fill. But if it looked like I would be at half or more and he saw a spot I could activate and he had a fill section, then we'd both look for that and kick off then. Basically, though, I would just look for the drummer to be at half, then look if I can see a fill section coming on drums and that would be my cue to kick it off. Sometimes if I have a 3/4 for full bar, though, I might kick off early if I think it's in a section where I can sustain the OD long enough for when the drummer goes in the near future.

The other option we thought of, especially with a full band, would be to just have the vocalist and the drummer completely ignore each other. Then either have the guitar and bass key on the drummer OR have the guitarist only key on the drummer and the bassist key on the vocalist. But I think in no case should anybody hold off to the point where they would be getting more energy than their bar could hold, if you can help it. The reason for going separate is that, as you've noticed, vocals can be a bit tricky on when you can and can't go into overdrive. But there is definitely a path of when to kick off overdrive in the song that should give you the optimal amount of points, at least for the vocal section. (I have a cheat sheet for that so I can remember where those are.. as long as I don't lose count in the song, anyway, which I have been known to do.) The problem is not being sure how well those paths will match up, if at all, with other sections in the band (like if a vocalist is singing solo without the other instruments playing during that part of the song then the other members kicking off OD at that time means only the vocalist gets the benefit as they won't be getting the multipliers on their notes... because they don't have any.)

But when all is said and done, I was looking at some of the scores on the leaderboard the other day (mainly just viewing bands on my Friends list) and right now I think "Friends of the Family" is doing pretty darned well scoring-wise, so you may well have some better strategies than I do on that already.

If you want to play around with it sometime, though, let me know.

As for communications, is your computer near your Wii? Maybe we can do voice communications if you prefer., as I mentioned in a post above. I personally prefer Team Talk, but if someone else is providing a hosting server it's easy enough to get the TeamSpeak or Ventrillo (I rememebered the name of the other one) client.

As for laughing... I do plenty of that. I always talk to the screen. I saw Brett hestitate on a song flipping between Hard and Expert and I was telling him the whole time to just "Do it." And then clucking like a chicken when he just picked Hard. >:)

Candy442

02-04-2009, 08:06 AM

Get well soon Pub! I have not seen you on our friends list yet. I do have my FC posted on my signature. Now that you will be playing Bass, we will be happy to include you in when you are up to it. Well, even if you arent...lol, it won't matter to us!. Sometimes it just helps to ease the pain to concentrate on something else.

We will look for you soon and if I come across a "hip" friendly drum stool I will pass the link on..smile.

Zarlor,

I will have to cheat sheet the vocals since I have a hard time knowing when you can go into overdrive from a remote location. Is there a trick to knowing that?

I was laughing so hard I couldn't see through the tears when Brett was caught in his "magic user" pajamas...he was showing Abby the outfit and we were laughing at that, then she wanted to try the drums, she and Brett were going to play one with me trying to recuperate from my laughing spell...then they got the invite from you. Brett was really having a hard time deciding whether he should change before he accepted. Abby and I talked him into just staying in them...LOL. He was laughing too!.

I am glad you talk and laugh at the screen...we do too! And believe me, I always encourage Brett to choose the harder difficulty. He is so worried he will fail and cause everyone to be upset.
Brett can play the real Bass instrument fantastic (he's also very good on the six string guitar)! Plus he is a perfectionist when it comes to his music playing. I do not really play the drums...not yet at least..smile. But Brett is very good and playing the RB2 bass is nothing like the real deal. Still, he doesn't want to let anyone down.

Also, the song we zapped out of yesterday...Brett was playing the drums and the batteries died on the set. He shut everything down to replace them, so sorry about the exit. If we ever just disconnect suddenly, it's due to a power failure, internet loss, or batteries dying. We would never just unplug for no reason!

see you soon!

zarlor

02-04-2009, 08:46 AM

I figured there was a problem somewhere, and nothing deliberate. Of course when it comes to failures, that's part of the reason for this thread, IMHO. The folks here are pretty much agreeing to only deliberately disconnecting between sets whenever possible and to otherwise just be happy with any level of play folks are trying even, or perhaps especially, when they fail! It can be just as fun doing saves and hitting overdrives to prevent failure as you go through a song as it is to try to get perfect, so there should be no worries there. I think you never really get better until you start pushing yourself, so sometimes taking the risk can be worth it, I think.

As for vocal cheat sheets, here are a couple of links to a shorthand method (and paths) some other folks have been using for RB2 songs and DLC songs. They are not as useful if you are not concentrating on strictly vocals, although the AT notations (After Taps) can sometime help if you keep count of where the tapping sections are sometimes. It may be useful, though, as a way to annotate how many energy phrases their are between things like taps or long open sections... hmmm... I may have to work on something like that for the band stuff...

http://rockband.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14707&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=f732dbee0f4f7f0da38910e7fb33d5a4
http://rockband.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17397&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

There are also some decent tips and such in other threads on that site for vocal technique and even links to vids of other vocalists "FCing" songs and such. Although I think the most important technique isn't really covered there very well, which is breath control. Since RB often makes you sing primary and secondary vocal parts grabbing breaths quickly and efficiently can sometimes make all the difference, I find.

Kev2380

02-04-2009, 10:20 AM

Good luck with the surgery Pub, I'm going to try to be on tonight. Not sure for how long.

Kev2380

02-04-2009, 10:23 AM

Zarlor, I need to show my wife this, she thinks I'm obsessed with the game, after reading your posts, she'll think it's just a casual hobby compared to you. =)

BTW, did you download all of the Boston DLC, I was really tempted to get More Than A Feeling and Peace of Mind, I have a hard time buying something that's on RB1, which I currently own.

megatron

02-04-2009, 11:57 AM

ennis1437

02-04-2009, 01:36 PM

Let Me know if any of you get Peace Of mind. I wanted to get it but after last weeks fiasco. I am going to wait and confirm that it downloads and plays correctly. If you have not heard just check out the thread "Wii DLC Corrupt". Harmonix says the problem is solved but for those of us who bought dlc between 10 and 5 est we all have either a song we did not purchase or corrupted files. In my case I purchased Gimme three steps and got some oasis song.

Kev2380

02-04-2009, 03:38 PM

Yes PK, also hoping here that everything goes excellent with your surgery & rehab.

Kev, I hear ya on the re-buying RB1/Track Pack stuff, but 've given up the ghost on the TP. I don't think that disc is going to see the light of day at our house again ($30 flush). I'll be on tonight after Lost (10 pm est), hope we can hook up for a jam tonight

You are so right about the track pack. I think I really only bought it for More than a feeling, it has some other decent songs on their, but I can't remember what they are. That shows you how much I play it. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and get Peace of Mind and More than a Feeling tonight. Hope to see you guys on.:D

megatron

02-04-2009, 04:23 PM

got most of the Boston dlc last night (including PoM) and everything was fine but i only played it with guitar. I'll should be on tonight at some point (after Lost and possibly a round of golf so it could be late), I'll send you an invite when I can jam.

zarlor

02-04-2009, 06:03 PM

Well, when it comes to some of these songs I've probably bought them not just on RB1 or the Track Packs, but on vinyl, tape and CD as well. So I feel the pain on those. (And as for obsession, *I* didn't write those threads, I just happened to do a quick Google and it came up with those.) Still, when all is said and done, I bought all of the Boston songs. What can I say, I had a lot of good times in the early 80s to more than a few of those tunes.

As for the DLC issues, I never ran into any issues on any of my downloads, even those last week. I may or may not be on tonight. It just depends on how long it takes me to do some other things I'm working on tonight. Tomorrow is an early day, if at all, and Friday is pretty much a no-go for me. But Saturday is a probable and Sunday is usually pretty open for me.

ennis1437

02-05-2009, 03:09 PM

I should be home all day Friday I should be off and on on the wii througout the day and Friday night if anybody wants to jam look me up.

Pubknight

02-05-2009, 04:08 PM

Heya folks,

Back home from the hospital.
Things went much better than even I had hoped.
To the point that I think I can still play drums.
Of course there is absolutely no way I can test that theory with my wife babysitting me over the next couple of days... but I should be able to test things out by Monday or so.

zarlor

02-05-2009, 05:43 PM

Glad to hear it, PK! Although I think you really need to get your wife addicted to RB2 so she'll want to play as well. ;)

megatron

02-05-2009, 06:36 PM

Candy442

02-05-2009, 08:06 PM

I think you are right Megatron...if the people don't have the music in them from the get go, they won't find any entertainment in the game. Although, have the wives even tried it? I have been a video game participator since my sons bugged me for them in the eighties..smile. Maybe having sons helped, I don't know. I just love to have fun and will try anything. I hope the wives try it! or maybe we can start the "wives band" and see what happens? I am up for it if they want to try!

I will be around for anyone to invite tonight, tomorrow on and off all day, early and late Saturday, and half of Sunday...just add me and let me know your code if you are new here.

Very glad to hear all went well for you PK! hope we can get some songs done when you feel up to it, although I play the drums and if I see your invite I will switch to something else.

:)

megatron

02-05-2009, 08:46 PM

she plays at parties & with me on occasion, she's a med/hard guitarist but won't sing. i have a few other friends that refuse to sing as well and they generally poo poo the whole thing. they also try their best to hustle us into a poker game asap. meanwhile, nobody has more fun than when they're singing, especially if they actually can sing. i mostly play guitar but enjoy singing songs i know, you gotta get into it & "own the stage".

zarlor

02-05-2009, 08:56 PM

I won't be on tonight (I'm off in just a minute to choir practice), but yeah singing is a blast for me. Sometimes I get a bit carried away and screw up when I shouldn't, but oh well. It's just a blast to do. Although some of the guitar solos are just like when I air guitar the darned things, like in GH:WT on Crazy Train... it's a royal pain even just on Medium, but it is a blast. I'll kick in overdrive on some of those songs left and right because I just start jammin' and don't bother worrying about where the controller is positioned!

Ok, that was probably too much information... I think I'll go now...

Kev2380

02-06-2009, 10:31 AM

welcome back PK, great news...what about sending your wife shopping? Z, I've tried and tried to get my wife to play, no dice, some people just don't get it. in her defense, she's never been a gamer (other than Ms Pac Man). My experience has been that people that don't sing (even if it's just in the car or wherever) aren't real keen on the whole plastic instrument genre. I notice them when we have parties, they never sing and aren't really into playing guitar or drums either, it's just what everyone else is doing. They just don't have the music inside needing to get out. It makes me sad.

My wife always says she doesn't want to play , but it only takes sitting her down and playing one song for her to want to play more. It's just getting to that point that's rough. She likes playing the drums and singing. With the new baby she's pre-occupied.

Pubknight

02-06-2009, 07:17 PM

My wife just isn't much of a music person.
Every once in a while she'll join in, but she just isn't into music at all really.
I created her a little avatar, and she likes changing the outfits. The most success I've had getting her to play is when she realized she needed to play to get money to buy new outfits.
Scary how close that mirrors real life.

Tested the hip out a bit today.
Still a bit too early for drums.
Going to try it out again in a few days.

zarlor

02-07-2009, 08:07 PM

I need a break for dinner, and my guitar controller is acting up pretty badly again (I have that replacement stummer on order!) So I was doing very terribly, sorry about that guys. :( I did need to get off the mic for a bit, though, anyway so it was still a nice change of pace. Thanks for putting up with me there.

BTW, this was the first time I had seen the vocals in band mode when the vocalist was not someone in the room with me. OMG! It's almost impossible to tell when they kick OD and, worse, you can't even see where the spots are when they can kick it off, so there are ZERO clues you can go on. It seems to me everyone just needs to key off of the drums, when all is said and done (unless you're in the same room as the vocalist, maybe). Trying to see what the heck is going on there is just terrible.

BTW, sorry if it seemed like I was kicking OD a little early on some of those, but I have a theory that it's better to kick off OD if you are full and you see an energy streak coming up, than it is to hold it and waste the streak adding up for you. Was that screwing anyone up when I did that?

Oh, and nice costumes. ;) I see that, considering the time of the year, I'm going to have to go full out Mardi Gras on you guys!

Candy442

02-07-2009, 08:13 PM

No, you didnt hold anyone up. I had Brett singing over here so I could help him kick in to overdrive and yes, it is very hard to tell when the vocals can do OD when they arent in the room with you. I think the words of the song turn yellow when it can be done, so I watch for that...maybe that isnt true, but it seems to correlate when it is time for the vocals to use OD. Of course, with some songs its just enough for me to watch what I have to play on the drums..grin! So I wait til my peripheral vision picks up the flashing bars and follow suit the best I can.

I was just watching Pub kick in the OD today...lol...that is when I wasn't distracted..ahem!

And Vixen is sure a cutie!

smile...was so much fun! thank you for the jam and we are breaking for dinner too.

LOVED the deer outfit Zarlor!! We should have played TREES when you had that on..lol.

:D

zarlor

02-07-2009, 08:49 PM

I thought the yellow phrases on vocals was just for the energy phrases, where the vocalist can get energy with an Awesome result on the phrase. But maybe you're right. I wish it showed the normal highway view like it does for the vocalist.

As for Vixen, I have 3 female characters for the band because, frankly, I enjoy seeing cute women playing in my band. ;) I usually pick them when not doing vocals.

Pubknight

02-07-2009, 08:59 PM

That was a lot of fun.
Hope you folks didn't mind my band name... that's a newly created "just messing around for kicks" band I'm using while I'm recovering from surgery.

As for the vocalist kicking OD... there is kind of a "lightning" sound I listen for when it's just Z and I playing... that tells me he triggered OD and I don't have to look up at the multiplier. If I take my eyes off my note chart, I tend to miss stuff.

Sorry I had to go... I can only do short bursts right now (just can't sit for that long)... but I was really enjoying that while it lasted.

sanjuro23

02-07-2009, 09:54 PM

Hello all. I've been wanting to hook up with people in this group for some time but my account on this site went crazy and I've been locked out for a month. Also I needed to finish unlocking all the songs. Anyhow, I hope to be online about 9pm Pacific time if someone wants to play. I'm a noob to playing the Wii online as a caveat.

zarlor

02-07-2009, 10:56 PM

Being new isn't a problem, sanjuro23, I'll add you in tomorrow on my friends list.

Everyone else... wow, there was a full house tonight! I was getting invites almost constantly. Thanks all! And megatron, that was quite a group you had going there for a bit, everyone running on expert! Pretty cool. Of course the very first set would have to have Tangled Up in Blue (one of the most annoying songs on the setlist for me) and Mountain Song (which I'm so frustratingly inconsistent on). Sorry I had to run right after that set.

PK mentioned a new band name and that got me to wondering. What band(s) does everyone here have? And, more importantly, why'd you pick that name?

I guess I'll kick it off, I have but one band set up, Electro Hog. The name comes from the fact that fairly recently a bought an all-electric maxi-scooter (really, a step-though design motorcycle). So the folks at the office started telling me I needed to get a tatted up and get some kind of gang emroidery on my leather jacket. And thus the name Electro Hog as a name for that gang was born. Once I got RB2 & GH:WT and such, I thought it would work pretty good as a band name while I was at it and that, as they say, is that.

What about the rest of you?

Pubknight

02-07-2009, 11:52 PM

I have "Free Beer Tomorrow" - which I guess is my 'main' band. It's from the old joke neon signs you may have seen in bars in the past.

My other band that I just started is "Eric's Tile Dysfunction". I started it up to get a fresh slate of challenges, etc, to learn hard bass while I'm recovering post-surgery and can't sit at the drum set.

So the idea was basically that Free Beer Tomorrow would be my hard drums band, and Eric's Tile Dysfunction would be my hard bass band. When I move to expert drums, I'll probably make a new band for that. That's a habit I got from the Solo career in RB1.
I had one band for drums, one for guitar/bass, one for vocals, and one for a 'full' band.

ennis1437

02-08-2009, 12:36 AM

Well My bands name "Artsy Fartsy" is kind of a joke that me and my wife came up with when we started rock band 2. It kind of goes back to an inside college joke that is only funny to the both of us. As for game play there where a bunch of people on I was sending out invites like the mailman delivering christmas presents on the 24th! When I did get an invite I could never get in the practice room fast enough I guess. But I will keep trying. Megatron I hope you did not get annoyed with my constant invites but Zarlor said you where in a full expert band and with out a drummer so i was trying to get in on that also. I know I told you already Z, but that get up you had on was awesome! Man You sure commanded attention on stage with that thing on!!!

sanjuro23

02-08-2009, 01:11 AM

My band is GOP, which is a band I played guitar for in college. I made characters for my old bandmates.

Candy442

02-08-2009, 01:52 AM

Brett picked Friends of the Family, I guess for lack of a better title at the last minute..smile.

I am sure I will come up with something cool for the "girl" band...

Megatron, we were going back and forth with the invites tonight, sorry about that. Brett and I was switching off on singing and drums tonight.

zarlor

02-08-2009, 09:05 AM

PK, you didn't explain where the name "Eric's Tile Dysfunction" comes from, though. Some friends of mine said that if they ever had a band they would just name it "Free Beer", that way all of their signs would say "Free beer at *wherever* tonight!" Figuring they'd get more people into the place, even if they were pissed that it was just a band name and not actually free beer. ;)

Pubknight

02-08-2009, 10:07 AM

Eric's Tile Dysfunction is something that struck me as humourous whilst on prescription painkillers.
Eric's Tile = Erectile.
And the name combined with the logo of the bikini clad girl on the phallic rocket, struck me as hilarious.
I also thought it was a good name for an "old man band" based group

zarlor

02-08-2009, 02:20 PM

The stupid thing is I just "got it" about 5 minutes before reading your post. I feel like a bit of an idiot now! It's is funny, though.

Kev2380

02-08-2009, 09:18 PM

My band name is from a place I used to always go in the desert with my family to ride four wheeles and motorcycles. Ocotillo. The name is from a plant, http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/ocotillo.htm, some of my fondest memories are of off roading in that area.

5ivewire

02-09-2009, 09:38 AM

i started out naming the band "Friends of P" (based on a song title by "the Rentals" + 1st initial of my last name is P). I deleted, restarted my info on the game/website a few different times - so when i went to play online tour, it said the band name was already taken, so i updated it to be called "Friends of the Family" for no special reason. i had started another band/character named after my website, but deleted them, just in case HMX may think it was against "the rules" of advertising or something.

megatron

02-09-2009, 01:23 PM

Hope you're ready for some rush Z, you're going to need all your platinum vocal skills! You can take a break during YYZ.

Tom Sawyer (Original Version)
Red Barchetta
YYZ
Limelight (Original Version)
The Camera Eye
Witch Hunt
Vital Signs

Our band "Rents" is short for parents. My wife set it up when we first played RB1 with our friends. It was originally "The Rents" but that was already taken in RB2.

Also, I may be alone on this but how come in all the discussions on what bands/acts are missing from RB, Elvis is never included. I'm not a big Elvis (much more of a Beatles) fan but you can't deny the historical significance. Plus, they'd be fun as hell to sing.

Pubknight

02-09-2009, 04:25 PM

ok... I can definitely play drums again... as long as my wife isn't around to see it =)
I need to take a quick 5 min break about every 30-45 minutes, just to get up and stretch... but it's going surprisingly well.
Fortunately my significant other is going away on Wednesday for work and not coming back until Saturday... so I will be looking to make up for lost time.

And yes, I will be getting all the Rush songs.
All I need now is a bit more of The Who, and the Foo Fighters... and I will be perfectly content until Pearl Jam's "Ten" comes out.
I hope to hells highway that by that time (March) they have the Wii on the same new release schedule as the other consoles.

zarlor

02-09-2009, 05:39 PM

Rush! Sweeeeeetttness!!!!!

As for Elvis... it seems they went for more Rock associated with the '70s (more than a few are from the '60s, but get associated more with the '70s, like Pinball Wizard or any of Black Sabbath) moreso than the earlier rock of the '50s or '60s (although GH:WT definitely runs more forays into the '60s, but aiming for the harder rock of The Doors and Jimmi Hendrix, it seems. In that context I think that Elvis doesn't really fit in as much. But it sounded like once HMX goes through more of the modern rock collection that they wanted to branch out eventually, possibly even including Country and such, so early Rock may well fit into that as well. Another possibility might be what is available in seperated tracks. It was pretty standard to record seperate tracks for each instrument starting in the late '60, I think, but I though the practice in the '50 was still more to record as an ensemble. So maybe getting isolated tracks for earlier stuff is just harder to get whcih means more work or even "covering" at least parts of the tunes. I know one of the big complaints with GH especially has been some of their use of covers instead of getting the real artists.

megatron

02-09-2009, 06:28 PM

I know one of the big complaints with GH especially has been some of their use of covers instead of getting the real artists.

I didn't even consider "Gimmie All Your Lovin" becasue of that last week.

I think everyone does some form of an Elvis impersonation, me I prefer old/fat Elvis, so I just was thinking it's strange I've never heard his name come up. I'd love to see more Doors or Zeppelin (but with Plant getting over at the Grammy's last night that timeframe probably just got pushed back again) but Elvis still has a huge fan base, I would think his fans would make a push.

Speaking of band-centric titles, I recently looked up the set list for GH: Metallica and I guess I need an explination...Ace of Spades, again? Is there a law that it has to be in every rhythm game ever made? What is this, its 4th appearance? Can we get something else from the Motorhead catalog?

ennis1437

02-09-2009, 07:51 PM

YEEEES!!! RUSH!!! I am getting without a doubt YYZ and of coarse Tom Sawyer. Looking forward to rocking some new dlc with you guys!! Sorry about the quick set disconnect the other day PK, Zarlor got booted off and We could not get back on. I had Family just pop in.

jepjr13

02-10-2009, 11:52 AM

What's happening? I play solid med Guitar/bass I'm usually on after 8pm EST.
just message me if you add me

Pubknight

02-10-2009, 12:47 PM

jepjr13 - what's your 'in-game' name?
I find I've got so many people in my friends list now that I've lost track of who is who.
I'm trying to figure out if I've added you or not already.

Pubknight

02-11-2009, 11:16 AM

Hrm.
well... this is kind of a good news/bad news/good news situation.

Good news #1: I've overcome my last two hard song obstacles: Battery and Panic Attack.
I kept trying Panic Attack and was getting frustrated, so I took a shot at Battery and just about 5 starred it.
Went back to Panic Attack and passed it.
So that makes Panic Attack and Ace of Spades 3 star passes.
Everything else is 4 star + on hard.

Bad news: broke my bass pedal in the process.
So for the time being I have it reinforced on top and bottom with hard plastic putty knives... and lots of duct tape.
Not sure how it will work, but hopefully it will make do as a temporary solution until good news #2 comes through

Good news #2: Used this as an excuse to order a Rock Pedal. Hopefully should get here within the next few days.

So I'm going to test out ghetto pedal and see how it performs.
Maybe tackle ESL2 on hard drums tomorrow.

If anyone is around Wed/Thurs/Fri night, I would love to play... especially with a full band.
Would be great to put up a big number on the That's Life band challenge.

megatron

02-11-2009, 06:00 PM

PK, I'll be around. I have to stop playing Tiger Woods for a while, I'm 99% sure I've developed tendonitus in my elbow from playing too much over the last few days, true story. You can't do that with an xbox/ps3!

Pubknight

02-11-2009, 07:13 PM

ok, just finished ESL2 on hard drums.
going to take a bit of a break, but then I'll be back at it.

wow... that is a freakin endurance test.
Would have like to have done a bit better stars wise... but my concentration just went to crap around the 60 song mark.
Failed Shoulder to the Plow three times, and I had never failed it before.
I failed Panic Attack twice in a row, at 98% complete... and really thought I was going to cry.
Failed Pump it Up when I lost a drumstick across the room during the outro.

Ironically, passed Visions the first time.
And I was tracking my scores using that database thing I've linked in this thread before... and set 31 personal best individual scores.

ok... enough of me using this thread as a blog.

I'm going to have a beer, relax for a minute, and dive back in.

zarlor

02-11-2009, 07:17 PM

I just got the BiteArts strum fix today (http://www.bytearts.com/strummer/index.html) thanks to advice from PubKnight. It's making a WORLD of difference for me. I'm much happier doing guitar/bass now. I may even be able to start working on the move to hard! (Or maybe not...) But at least when playing with Friends of the Family I can pick up guitar so you guys can get everyone over there up and running when I free up the vocals.

As for Tiger Woods, I just haven't been playing it lately, but yeah that's the nicest thing about the Wii are games like that. It sucks for such small memory, not-so-hot graphics, smaller processor, etc., but nobody else is working out motion controls, so they are the only game in town on that front, and when games utilize it right it hugely improves the whole gameplay experience. Plus it makes for a great party gaming machine when all is said and done.

If anyone was missing me, I've been a bit busy, but I should be on some tonight, but then I probably won't be on again until Sunday. The closer we get to Mardi Gras the less you'll likely see of me, too.

zarlor

02-11-2009, 07:30 PM

[snip]
Failed Pump it Up when I lost a drumstick across the room during the outro.

:D I do that all the time! That's probably why I'm lucky to even play anything on Medium drums.:eek:

jepjr13

02-11-2009, 07:46 PM

yeah,Pubknight got you as a friend...screen name is Jammer

megatron

02-11-2009, 07:55 PM

As for Tiger Woods, I just haven't been playing it lately, but yeah that's the nicest thing about the Wii are games like that. It sucks for such small memory, not-so-hot graphics, smaller processor, etc., but nobody else is working out motion controls, so they are the only game in town on that front, and when games utilize it right it hugely improves the whole gameplay experience. Plus it makes for a great party gaming machine when all is said and done.

The wii controls still allow for alot of human errors. Chip shots are very touch & go. There's only so much challenge you can put into a bar/percentage swing simulator. After a while, everyones crushing 340 yard drives & shooting -18/round.

Pubknight

02-11-2009, 09:53 PM

Z, don't know if you're going to look here or not.
What I would suggest is we use your band, Electro Hogs, and try that same battle of the bands.
Adding a guitarist/bassist, we should be able to put up a bit number.

Jammer, Mega... are you guys around... like... now?

jepjr13

02-11-2009, 09:54 PM

i'm on

Pubknight

02-11-2009, 10:28 PM

Thanks for the session jepjr13.
Sorry I had to bail... I'm just bagged after that endless setlist thing.
screwing up all over the place.

I'll be back around tomorrow night for sure.
I don't think Z is around tomorrow, but it would be great if we could assemble a full band for the That's Life battle of the bands before it runs out.

jepjr13

02-11-2009, 10:32 PM

same bat time,same bat channel?

Pubknight

02-11-2009, 10:58 PM

Yeah... probably even earlier... so I can play online with other folks longer.

zarlor

02-11-2009, 11:58 PM

Oops, I fogot to check my emails. Oh well. Jammer, sorry I missed you. I got your invite as I was finishing up a song, but by the time I tried to join you'd already gone on. Sounds like I missed both you AND PubKnight. :( I sent an invite to let you know I was back available, but I guess you guys were already on a set. At least I got to show off the "knight" outfit for Candy and 5ivewire. ;) Expect more, especially with Mardi Gras around the corner! Too bad it's hard to get a decent looking Purple and Green on a lot of those outfits, at least Gold usually looks fine.

As for tomorrow, I have choir practice, but I can try to get on between, say, 4:30-6:30 CST. I mgith be able to get in a little earlier and stay a little later, but that's about the best I can do for tomorrow. Other then that I likely won't be on again until Sunday (although it's usually pretty quiet on Sundays, although if last Saturday night was any indication it's mighty lively around here then! Too bad I'll miss it.)

ennis1437

02-12-2009, 04:56 AM

Jammer, I will add you my screen name is v and Friend code is 1231 9780 1922. I play hard/ expert drums. and pretty solid medium guitar

Candy442

02-12-2009, 07:57 AM

wow...we got to the very end of the five song set and our internet went out!!! I am so afraid to even try the ESL because of that! Sorry about that Z! nothing more frustrating than that. We have a couple of calls in to the company about the problem, hope it can be fixed. I was surprised I was doing so well on Hard "Trees". No guts no glory, right? oh well
Don't give up on us guys!

zarlor

02-12-2009, 08:16 AM

No worries, it happens. As for the ESL2, I would never do it with an online group anyway. If you want to do it just do it locally. Even with a rock solid connection I wouldn't do that thing online.

Pubknight

02-12-2009, 05:17 PM

zarlor

02-12-2009, 06:21 PM

Thopse are the numbers I have for them on my friend's listing. You may be entering wrong, unless you really do already have it in? Their name on the friends list is Xero.

Pubknight

02-12-2009, 08:59 PM

Yeah, I'm freaking stupid (I'm going to blame the painkillers)
I already had her in there... the post I quoted was from a long time ago.
Apparently if you have someone in your friends list and try to re-add them, it doesn't give you a handy message like, "That person is already in your friends list"... it tells you "That friend code is invalid". That's So Helpful!

You done for the night Z?

zarlor

02-12-2009, 09:04 PM

Yeah, I'm off to choir practice. Thanks for the gig all! I MIGHT be able to fit in an hour tomorrow to try that battle again, but that's about it. After that I probably won't be on until Sunday.

Pubknight

02-12-2009, 09:10 PM

Seriously... with a full band, we will kill that Battle.
*just* about had the full band tonight, but bostondrummer had to bail.

Pubknight

02-12-2009, 10:21 PM

Candy, when you guys are online (Xero is you, right), what gaps are typically in your band?
I know you're a drummer as well... but in order to play together, I could switch out drums for bass. I'm not great on bass... just testing the waters with Hard... but medium wise I'm always in that 95-99% range.

Candy442

02-13-2009, 07:57 AM

Yup, Pub...we are Xero. My son is also joined our band and usually plays Hard-Expert guitar. Brett has been singing because he is having pain in his arms from playing so much bass. I play the drums or sing. I am venturing on the guitar/bass, but not much beyond Easy-Medium yet because I am working on getting most songs on Expert drums. I am doing all songs on Hard drums now.
Sounds good, when we invite, we will need a Bass player if you want to do that?
Good suggestion Z, I thought everyone did the ESL online..lol. Goes to show you what I know!:D

jepjr13

02-13-2009, 03:25 PM

Anyone playing tonight after 8 EST????

Pubknight

02-13-2009, 05:17 PM

I'll be around.

Cherkov

02-13-2009, 05:27 PM

Pubknight and Zarlor, thanks for the great set last night. I felt like I was stinking up the place since I haven't been on in awhile. Sorry I had to bail so soon after we just got a full band. Six o'clock is the typical dinner time around here though. Can't wait to get back on.

zarlor

02-13-2009, 07:35 PM

I have a gaming night tonight, so I won't be on again, but thanks for joining in as always. I'm still ticked off that I missed getting 100% on 4 out of 6 on that Battle. I should be able able to get 100% on those every time. Very frustrating. :( I bet if we had a full band we could have moved up at least a place or two, though. Good luck with it guys!

Candy442

02-13-2009, 11:03 PM

Pub, Jammer looks like we will be back on line for awhile. Internet problems our way, every once in a while, there is a "burp" in the wireless. Sorry for the disconnect! at least it was our band that got hit with the loss of fans and what not...but, our provider can't guarantee we will have a good wireless all the time. We live out in the boonies, when weather is bad as it has been lately in Michigan, we lose connections.
:(

jepjr13

02-14-2009, 10:41 AM

No problem,I needed a beer anyway:)....

Candy442

02-14-2009, 11:05 AM

Happy Valentines day Old Man's! xoxoxos

zarlor

02-14-2009, 11:09 AM

Seen the Valentine's Day battle yet? I'm rather fond of the description.

Candy442

02-14-2009, 12:08 PM

I am logging in right now! can't wait to see it!

zarlor

02-14-2009, 12:33 PM

If that's you sending the invite, I have a Mardi Gras outfit on for you, but I'm in the middle of the ESL2 on Medium Bas right now, I'm only about 21 songs in, so I still ahve a ways to go. :( So sorry if I don't respond to invites for a few hours.

Candy442

02-14-2009, 01:08 PM

Hey Pub! that was so fun, thank you for the duel. I have never done that before. You are truly the master! I will make sure that I defer to you playing the drums and I will humbly pick up the bass or guitar when forming a band..smile. I better practice up! I have to say, I do hit most of those notes, it seems to be the luck of the draw if the system sees it a split second too early or late, or if I do that, but in my mind I am hitting them when I should. Just "operator error" I am sure..smile.
HIGH FIVE!!! great session!!

I am taking a quick break right now, need more coffee and Valentine M&Ms to fuel my drumming skills...:)

OK Z, good luck on the ESL2, I am dressed in Red in honor of Valentines day and wearing a "Pub" hat too!

Pubknight

02-14-2009, 01:21 PM

Candy, don't sell yourself short, you are a very solid drummer.
I don't think I'm any better than you at all... I'm probably just more familiar with the latter tier stuff is all.
Everyone has some patterns that they are good at/not so good at... it just depends on what comes up in a song. For example, Bad Reputation, you kicked ass, and that's a tricky song.
Besides, I think we had an even split, didn't we?
I refuse you deferring drums to me. I am happy playing bass in your band if you don't mind my 'medium-ness'.... in fact on lower tier stuff I can try out hard if you don't mind the risk of having to bail me out if I'm over my head.

I sent you a PM, but I'll restate it here as well:
As a drummer... if you never buy any other DLC, buy the Rush stuff released last week.
It will make you a better drummer.
And it's a pleasure to play.
If you told me your were homeless and you are living in a cardboard box with your Wii and you just couldn't buy it, I will gift you the Wii Points for it.
Seriously. It's That Important.

Sorry for stinking it up on The Trees... (really needed a bathroom break).
I'm up for the score duel any time... it's a great way for two drummers to play together.
And since there really is no way to effectively signal you want a break... moreso to 'ready back in', do what you did and just drop.
If you want to pick it up, re-invite.

Good luck on the ESL Z.
I was thinking about doing the medium bass one too... let me know how enjoyable/painful it is.

zarlor

02-14-2009, 02:13 PM

It's not a problem so far, but I'm only halfway through and taking a lunch break. It's probably 3 more hours and I'm not all that excited about it. You guys are making me want to jump into a band right now instead! :( Ah well, at least it'll get me more used to the new strummer I put in and get me into the groove more on bass/guitar so Candy or 5ivewire can have a chance at vocals when we jam together. ;)

Oh, as for Rush DLC. Everyone should get it, drummer or not. Just because... well, they're just such good songs and I want to sing them more often!

Pubknight

02-14-2009, 03:35 PM

Candy - nice hat =)

You aren't missing much today so far Z.
Candy and I have been drum score dueling on and off.
Lockheed and I just did a little quickplay session... we gold starred two songs in a row (yeah, I tried some expert online). Live Forever and... something else... geez... can't remember now.

V is around, but I think he might be doing an ESL as well, since he's been on a long time, and I've fired him off some invites with no response.

I'm kind of bouncing around from one thing to the next.
I keep doing "make a 2 song setlists" in world tour, and going up the ladder from bottom tier up in expert drums while in between invites.

And I keep waiting for my bass pedal to fall completely apart.
I should post a picture of it... it's pretty funny.
I keep reapplying duct tape to it to try to hold it together.

Pubknight

02-14-2009, 03:48 PM

I have to say, I do hit most of those notes, it seems to be the luck of the draw if the system sees it a split second too early or late, or if I do that, but in my mind I am hitting them when I should. Just "operator error" I am sure..smile.

Don't be so sure about the operator error.
I don't know if you've spent any time calibrating your system or not (depending on what everything is hooked up to)... but as you move up in difficulty, accurate calibration is critically important.
(If you already know this, ignore me... but a lot of people aren't aware of the difference calibration can make)

If you have an lcd tv, or have your wii connected through a home theatre receiver... basically any setup other than a wii directly wired to a CRT tv, you should spend about half an hour and try 'fine tuning' your calibration.
Check out this link/video... he explains it and walks you through what to do: http://crackedrabbitgaming.com/2008/09/19/video-tommy-guns-rock-band-2-manual-calibration-guide-papercraft/

Kev2380

02-14-2009, 04:05 PM

I'll be on tonight, it would be nice to get a few sets in with you guys.

zarlor

02-14-2009, 05:15 PM

10 songs left. I had to take a break after Ramblin' Man. That songs has a really fun, and appropriately ramblin', bass line to it, but I'm a bit tired after doing everything else and then pounding away at that one. My wrist is starting to get sore. :(

Kev, I'll be on probably in about an hour or two (strictly vocals after doing all this!) But I won't be on after around 6:30ish CST. I have plans this evening. Tomorrow I'll likely be around some and Monday as well, since I have the day off.

PK, if you want gold stars, we can get you gold stars! I've actually been working when doing solo stuff trying to gold star all of the single songs you can see (not the sets) in each of the cities and venues. I haven't gotten everything yet, but I'm working on it!

Speaking of pedals, I may be WAAAYY late on figuring this out, but I was mighty curious what would happen if I plugged in the kick pedal into the jack on the bottom of the guitar controller. I figured if I was really lucky maybe it would act as a kind of wah-wah pedal and let me do whammy with my foot, but nope it doesn't do that. But it DOES act as a button to kick off Overdrive! So no more missing notes because I lift up the stupid neck of the guitar or try to hit the damned button below the strum bar, now I can just tap my foot and off it goes! I thought that was pretty useful and figured I would share in case anyone else might like to try that out.

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