Vocals/Practice - Has this been mentioned?

[SplashFrog]

I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, I tried to do a search but unfortunately didn't get any results similar to my question. I was trying to go into practice mode for vocals but the song only plays from start to finish and I can't choose specific phrases to practice or anything. I was wondering if this was intentional or is there any reason why I can't practice certain phrases in loop like the other instruments? I'm not too bummed about it, just thought its a bit of shame unless I'm doing something wrong here.

[Electric_Zen]

It is uncharacteristically sloppy for a Harmonix game. I would like the ability to practice particular sections, or even to slow down some quick pieces to experiment with the pitch bar. But it's just not supported.

[SplashFrog]

Indeed, when I first did Gimme Shelter on expert I had no idea what kind of pitch to sing in since I haven't heard the song before. I initally went to practice thinking I could practice the phrases and figure it out but it just started playing from the start and I was wondeirng why they omitted it. Even though I've now beaten expert vocals a lot of sings still fail me and I think it would have been really useful to include such a feature.

[RK Frontman]

generally speaking, slowing down a song also tends to lower the pitch... what good would it do to practice a song slower, only to learn the song in the wrong pitch?

[Vrtra Theory]

I'm going to agree with this one. I can understand how a slow-mo feature doesn't make sense, but the inability to loop a particular section makes practice mode pretty much useless for vocals, especially for those of us like me that need all the help we can get.

[Frederf]

generally speaking, slowing down a song also tends to lower the pitch... what good would it do to practice a song slower, only to learn the song in the wrong pitch?

In guitar hero they used a special technology that allowed one to slow down or speed up a song without the pitch changing. I'd assume Rock Band uses a similar algorithm. Never tried a vocal part in practice mode before. Can't change the speed?

[SplashFrog]

I think slowing it down would still work similar to how all the other practice modes have worked. Just have it play everything slowly except for the vocals and just have the pitch track appear on the screen. Then when you play it on normal speed in practice include the actual vocals.

Edit: Frederf, in practice mode if you choose a song, after choosing the difficulty it just plays it straight from start to finish at normal speed.

[Jazzyorange]

yeah in songs i dont know heres how it sounds

"train kept a rollin' uh uh uh uh umm uh uh uh train kept a rollin'"

[Electric_Zen]

what good would it do to practice a song slower, only to learn the song in the wrong pitch?

They don't need to play the vocal track when you slow it down. But letting me slow down the pace so that I could experiment with the pitch bar would be very helpful.

[RedTsunami]

you know, the karaoke revolution games, it did the same thing. Just played from start to finish.

Come on Harmonix! You listened to us when you heard that our strats and drums were crap! Release a Patch!

[Hanover]

I wish they'd implement slo-mo practice just so I could laugh at the sound of people singing in slow mo. lol. :)

[Frederf]

I think slowing it down would still work similar to how all the other practice modes have worked. Just have it play everything slowly except for the vocals and just have the pitch track appear on the screen. Then when you play it on normal speed in practice include the actual vocals.

Edit: Frederf, in practice mode if you choose a song, after choosing the difficulty it just plays it straight from start to finish at normal speed.

You can't even chose your section?

[SplashFrog]

Nope like I said, no speed or section. Just the difficulty. After choosing that it goes directly to the loading screen and plays start to finish. Pretty lame.

[Manda]

This normally wouldn't bother me, but with a lot of songs in RB I need to practice the end of the song, particularily Boston's Foreplay/Long Time. I do 100% until 30 seconds before the song ends, and I need to practice it terribly. But I don't have the patience to wait through the entire song.

[Apples]

I could foresee there being difficulties trying to select sections because you could run into scenarios where you're cutting off a phrase early/late.

[SplashFrog]

Couldn't they just have made it each phrase gets its own section? Or what if they implemented something similar to a fastforward/rewind feature, would that be easier/feasible?

[AeroTrain]

generally speaking, slowing down a song also tends to lower the pitch... what good would it do to practice a song slower, only to learn the song in the wrong pitch?

There is freely available software out there that can slow songs down without changing the pitch. Its very cool, you can change speeds in real time and the pitch isn't affected.
DJs used it for beat matching. I use it for songs on guitar. Lets you practice them slow and build up to full speed just like the GH practice mode.

I haven't messed with the RB guitar practice mode but I believe it slows down the guitar parts with out changing the pitch.

[JuliusMode]

There is freely available software out there that can slow songs down without changing the pitch. Its very cool, you can change speeds in real time and the pitch isn't affected.
DJs used it for beat matching. I use it for songs on guitar. Lets you practice them slow and build up to full speed just like the GH practice mode.

I haven't messed with the RB guitar practice mode but I believe it slows down the guitar parts with out changing the pitch.

I was just about to say this.

The idea that you can't slow down/ speed up vocals without changing pitch is old fashioned. It's a very easy thing to do these days with professional software of the autotune/melodyne variety.
The fact that there's already freeware that can do this do furthers the point that it isn't especially difficult and/or beyond Harmonix's reach.

One way of another, vocals really desperately need a decent practice mode, even if it's only practicing sections at full speed. The vocal career has some weird selections in it to begin with, and it can get really, really frustrating without practice since it's not a given everyone will know the vocal lines to these songs.

Pretty please, Harmonix?