Issue with the Vocals/Microphone

[NeptuneTQ]

I wanted to see if anyone was having this issue, but when playing rock band for awhile doing vocals, the Microphone starts to freak out. When you're singing, the pitch indicator starts to twitch out, and gives you "messY' scores, even though you've sung the same song fine many times before. I plugged in my Singstar microphones and I get the same thing, so I think it's a problem in the game, not with the microphone.

It only happens sometimes, most of the time you sing and it reads it just fine, but after awhile it happens to a few songs where the pitch indicator just doesn't stay still, even if you're keeping the same tone. I have the PS3 Rock band, does anyone else have this issue?

[Allez]

I've had the same thing occur. It just suddenly started doing this - before it was fine. Any others?

[Tzepish]

Sometimes on vocals I'll have this problem randomly (where the arrow just constantly flickers instead of remaining solid), and I'll receive only half the points or so. The problem will appear at the beginning of the song and remain for the entire song. If I fail and/or retry, the problem will remain... but if I actually quit out of the song, then restart it, the problem goes away.

At first I thought it was dust in the USB port or something, but blowing out the port does nothing, and the problem will go away on its own on the next song even if I do nothing about it. A coworker of mine has had the same problems and he actually thinks it's a software issue, maybe the mic isn't being properly initialized or something at the beginning of the song, since the problem remains with the song and that song only.

And finally, the last time it happened, I tried singing during portions of the song where there are no lyrics at all... and the arrow remained solid. It would only flicker when there were lyrics on the screen. This strongly suggests either a software issue or audio feedback, but if it were audio feedback, it wouldn't magically go away on the next song or if I quit and enter the song again. The fact that it occurs with other microphones seems to indicate it's a problem with the game as well.

This happens maybe once every 20 songs or so for me.

EDIT: Figured I'd mention I'm on the PS3 version.

[jerymi]

Yeah, I've had the same thing occur, and so has one of my friends who bought Rock Band. It's not always the same song that it happens on, and when it does happen if I manage to complete the song (Usually while in MP) the next song will be fine. I've had it happen to me with the official Rock Band microphone and with my Logitech headset.

[Senkoy]

Same thing as above poster. Used to think it was the mic but then my head set does it too. And it will do it randomly but for the entire song. I did the endless set list today and it happened during 3 songs, neither consecutively. Quite annoying. I hope they fix this along with the lag soon.

[Project_Mercy]

Generally when I see this happening (especially when I have guests come over who are too nervous to sing) it's because the game is having difficulty picking up your voice. Either due to the environment sound (aka the game) being too loud and/or you singing too softly. It happens a lot if you have mic input cranked up and you're barely singing into the mic.

Edit: OK, must be something else then. I'll keep my eyes peeled to see if I get it.

[Tzepish]

I'm pretty sure we've ruled these factors out, considering we can quit the song and re-enter it and sing it the same way and score fine. Not to mention actively attempting to take corrective measures when the issue hits, and the issue randomly occurring and randomly going away without anything else changing...

[jerymi]

I agree with Tzepish. It doesn't seem to be just an issue with the environment since the song will be fine after quitting and returning, without changing anything else.

NOTE: I have the PS3 version.

[Sir_Gawain]

I've just seen the same problem while I was playing Solo career. It twitched out a lot but was back to normal for the next song. I also have the PS3 version.

[STALEYLIVES]

I have yet to even take my RB mic out of the package, and I've had my set since XMAS!!! I'll try mine Saturday when the wife is at work and see if mine does the same thing.

[batsu336]

Pause the game and decrease your mic sensitivity in the options. The game defaults with the mic sensitivity at maximum, making for a really hot mic. I would get phantom hits on my mic just from moving my grip on the microphone (which happened a lot and I suspect is happening to most of you), if I had the volume up on the t.v., or sometimes if someone said something across the room. I tweaked the sensitivity down to about 1/2 and the issue went away. It also reduces the clipping (read: distortion) you get if you sing on top of the mic.

[Tzepish]

My mic sensitivity defaults to about 60%... weird.

Also, this problem is relatively infrequent, but it can hit you multiple times in a day if you spend hours playing (like I do).

[gdi1942]

Thank god I'm not the only one with this issue. It's really annoying, it's exatcly as described. I too, also have PS3. It seems far from coincidence that it's just PS3 with the issue.

Does anyone have a solution to this? I've played with the sensitivity but it doesn't seem to do anything. And your right, it's only on random songs.

[folkeye]

I have this problem too. Most noteable song at the moment it does that in is REM’s ‘Orange Crush’. I noticed there doesn’t seem to be any further input or solutions…so I guess one unfortunately should just avoid singing those songs?

[simmias]

If you sing enough, you'll get the problem on every song. Hopefully this will be fixed in RB2, because despite being a well-reported bug, Harmonix has never even acknowledged its existence.

[JeIIyCat]

Yup also have this problem on a regualr basis, the easiest way I ahve found to fix it, is to just unplug the microphone and plug it back in and it works fine.

[JoeyGrecco]

I have a similar issue except its i can hear my voice really loudly almost staticky. Like how your voice sounds after an overdirve.

except its like that the entire song. Even though i put the mic volume to minimum, and its affecting my scores because it doesnt capture my scores correctly. Im wondering if my mic is busted?

[Tzepish]

Even if they don't publicly acknowledge the bug, hopefully they've at least stealth-fixed it for RB2.