Wow, playing in a band is tough

[SirPuttsAlot]

Edit: Removed

[Magurotohime]

I find I do a lot worse in a band than on solo, but the one and only reason is for the fact of the tiny screen. My television isn't really big, and unless I know the song extremely well, I usually mess up a lot.

Other than that though, I really do have a lot of fun playing with a full band. (Though I wish people would stop making me play Bass...nothing against bassists but I play Guitar! Guitar!!!)

[Legion37]

I think i do better when playing with others, but I pamper myself with a big screen tv lol

Some tips to help you is if your guitar, overdrive when the drummer is about to overdrive...usually something I try to do but isnt nessary

And about the guitar hogging can be a problem, confront the sob about it in a civil manner and you can usually give him to at least switch on and off with ya, if he seems like a "green masher" I'd ditch out personally...

Only gripe I have about online is the seemingly how everyone has no DLC...or just as it would seem anyway when I'm playing lol, but oh well

Hope your other times online are alittle more enjoyable, just dont worry about them, they'll mostly do fine...mostly

[Exayle]

Whenever I get paired up with a "green masher," I usually just steal the guitar out from under his feet. It's ironic how that system works. I do also bail when someone refuses to share guitar. Unless they're Godly good, then I usually stick with bass.

I have no gripes with splitting the screen with a vocalist and drummer or bassist. But when you add in that 04th instrument, the notes get tiny. . To make matters worse, since I alternate with bass, I often find myself sightreading the bass chart for a lot of songs I've never played before. Couldn't tell you how many times I'd have a solid FC, then screw up because I couldn't visibly tell the difference between a regular note and a hammer-on.

The timing window is interesting, online. The more players you have, the smaller then notes are, and the more spaced out they are. [They obviously fall faster, too]. Once you get the general timing down, it makes a handful of songs easier [in my opinion]. I've done some [i]crazy stuff online that I know I probably wouldn't be able to do at full screen, normal speed. It's like... hyperspeed, almost. Alternatively, it has indeed screwed me over.

Regarding OD use, I love finding bandmates who know how to use it correctly. People who can hit unison bonus' ritually, activate OD when others do, and hit the majority of notes get a thumbs-up in my book.

I try not to look at too much stuff, when I'm playing online. Out of the corner of my eye, I'll keep an eye on how much OD everyone has [to avoid using my own at a bad time]. Sometimes I'll be interested to see what the bass/drum chart looks like at a given part, so I'll glance over. Other times I wonder what the real lyrics are, so I glance up and read the singer's line. I also have a bad habit of looking up at random times to see the total score [or when we hear a star-chime]. Fortunately, all the above rarely result in me breaking the combo.

Band Quickplay is pretty fun, especially when you get a skilled bunch. I'm not a fan of getting paired up with chillun, obnoxious people, folks who suck, or people with no DLC [time and time again]... I've actually found that it's most enjoyable to make some friends online, and have a small pool of people you can select to jam with.

[jeccaneko]

I think i do better when playing with others, but I pamper myself with a big screen tv lol



My screen isn't really considered big by American standards, even though it's a decent size. It's 32", but it's also wide screen, so even with a full band it's not so bad. Either way, I imagine the bigger the TV the easier it is to play. Especially for those people who like to play drunk on these boards (I don't drink).

I have played co-op video games since I was 5 years old and now I'm nearly 25. After 20 years of being a serious gamer, playing Rock Band multiplayer, online or with other people in the room, doesn't bother me most of the time. I don't do better or worse really. Actually, when playing online it's easy to forget the other people exist so it's about the same as playing solo for me. I mean, I can't see them. But when playing with other people I can see and hear them goofing off beside me. So it's a slight distraction then, especially when someone says or does something that has us all laughing. From experience, vocals is hard enough to manage in the middle of laughing, but when I'm occasionally guitar or bass + vocals it's near impossible. :D

[cromartie90000]

I play better in a band. For some reason it's just easier for me to make out the notes. In solo tour the notes are spreads out too far and sometimes confuse me.

[Vandyan]

I play better in online quickplay, no doubt. I love the hyperspeed effect, the extra spacing definitely helps me. The smaller notes dont bother me, but Im playing on a 48" HDTV, so that might have something to do with it.

[davidshek]

I just played a few songs online for the first time in almost 2 months (I work on my solo tour almost 99%) of the time now, or do some BWT with my wife. But when playing online with other poeple that I haven't played with before, I'm looking at how they are doing, how much overdrive they have, while missing notes like a mad man. I posted the 5 or 6 worst scores I may have ever on some songs.

Hey, wait a second! I was in that band! :eek:

It's not like online scores count towards anything, it's all about having fun. And I had fun.

But next time, I'm gonna make you play guitar so I can play drums...and we gotta find a singer :D

[botnic]

I don't play online all that much (okay so I never have... I tend to dislike playing with people I don't know on the internet. Blame the dirty mouthed six year olds playing halo). But when I play with people here in my apartment, I tend to do much worse. I've noticed that the sound of my instrument isn't brought out as much, and, as a result, I have a harder time playing to the song. Also, I don't do quite as well under pressure, or when I'm just trying to show off.

[Vandyan]

Botnik you should try RB online. Im the same as you with online play, hell Ive had my 360 since release day and I still dont even have 5*s I avoid online play so much, but Rock Band is way way better than any other game for pickup quickplay with strangers.. havent had one bad experience yet.

Id love to jam with you some time davidshek, I hear you are a wicked drummer. Im all for playing guitar or bass. Add me some time if you like, GT is Vandyan... original I know. :o

[botnic]

Botnik you should try RB online. Im the same as you with online play, hell Ive had my 360 since release day and I still dont even have 5*s I avoid online play so much, but Rock Band is way way better than any other game for pickup quickplay with strangers.. havent had one bad experience yet.

Id love to jam with you some time davidshek, I hear you are a wicked drummer. Im all for playing guitar or bass. Add me some time if you like, GT is Vandyan... original I know. :o

I am seriously encouraged by the fact that Rock Band players are above the norm, for the most part. Nevertheless, I still hear some nasty stories about people continuously quiting, or other poor manners. I imagine one day I will venture back out into the light of the virtual world...

[Vandyan]

Most of the issues with quitters are in Score Duel and Tug of War. Those, as with any other "competitive" online game I avoid like the plague. They seem to attract the worst sort.

Band Quickplay on the other hand is all about fun. There is no ranking, no associated achievements, no leaderboards. The lack of any sort of competition in the band quickplay seems to attract people that legitimately just want to hang out, play some music, and have a good time. I think thats why it seems so much better than other games to me in terms of behavior and the type of people it attracts.

[davidshek]

Id love to jam with you some time davidshek, I hear you are a wicked drummer. Im all for playing guitar or bass. Add me some time if you like, GT is Vandyan... original I know. :o

Just added ya. I should be on some tomorrow. Feel free to send me an invite anytime you see me online. It'll be a crapshoot as to whether I'm playing drums or guitar. I play Expert on both and can get through all of the songs on both, but I'm probably better at drums.

My drums have been somewhat temperamental the past few days, so I'm trying to get them to behave. I've worked out most of the kinks but I have some really odd notes dropping on the red pad. Not like the regular roll issues, I mean just on slow steady beats, sometime a red won't register at all. Might be time to finally RMA this old set :(

Funny how "old" means 2 months in the world of RB drums :D

[GreyFoxx]

I play mostly online in a Band or in Score Duel. So when I play Solo Tour I tend to miss more notes due to the increased size of the charts. I think you just get used to whichever chart you play most on and it takes a bit getting used to playing on a bigger or smaller chart before you are playing like normal again.

[Frederf]

Online play is fun with the right folks. I don't care if they're good or not, get high scores or not. I don't mind playing bass even if the guitarist is on easy. It's not like I deserve it more just because I can play it better (and vice versa).

The only things that get me are:

1. Maleness only-choose-from-the-last-tier syndrome.
2. People playing parts waaaay out of their league, repeatedly.
3. People arguing that they should get X part because they're good at it.
4. People that won't stop talking about Survivor or whatever during the whole song.
5. People that leave their effects switch on wah-wah the whole time.

Besides that, let's jam. Oh and avoid competitive modes like the plauge. Music isn't a contest, it's a party. You're going to have the worst time and meet the worst people in versus modes.

[Sarge51]

Oddly, I play better with a full band. I FCed Tom Sawyer's Solo in a full band, but I cannot seem to do it on solo tour...

[simmias]

1. Maleness only-choose-from-the-last-tier syndrome.
I always go with the Random Song option. Unfortunately, it was buggy for me today and always picked that damn Konks song every time I'd try it. I'm still confused about that one.

[reventon diablo]

I have rarely had good experiences with online play when i don't have friends over...someone always leaves, or just really sucks, or won't pick the bass part after i let them have guitar 2 times in a row. I'm lucky then even to get through two songs without someone leaving in the middle of the song and failing the rest of us.
Only once have i had a truly amazing time with it and that's because i found a full expert band that could easily five star the six songs we played. besides that time, it's usually just wait 5 minutes, find player, start song, someone leaves, fail.....son't mean to sound like im bashing online play, i just don't like the people on it....

I much prefer just having two or three friends over and doing some world tour:)

[davidshek]

Besides that, let's jam. Oh and avoid competitive modes like the plauge. Music isn't a contest, it's a party. You're going to have the worst time and meet the worst people in versus modes.

I've also found that to be true. I played some Ranked tug-of-war and score duels, but only enough to get the Achievements. Once I got those, I stopped playing the comp modes and never looked back.

I've been in bands for years, played at open mics, all sorts of different jams with people I did and didn't know, even competed in some drumming competitions. And through all that, I've never experienced the kind of trash-talking assholishness you find with people on XBL. It's really bizarre and just not fun.


I added no value to any of those scores, as that was some of the worst drumming I think I have done in quite some time. We'll have to play again soon so I can redeem myself :)

Definitely fun, definitely have to do it again.

Hey, we got gold stars on Peace of Mind with 3 players, and that was a sight-read for me on the bass, so that's not too shabby! :D

I think I was in some kinda zone last night, cause I was playing guitar better than I have in a long time. Especially in Working Man, I was nailing some of those sweeps in the solos that I've never been able to hit before.

[v1g1lance1]

I love the online aspect, moreso that the solo career.

What does mess me up, is if I play score duel (or a band game with 1 guitarist) where I have the left side of the screen. I dunno why but I get all goofy and hit the wrong pads.

Fortunately as a drummer, 99% of the time I'm in center screen so woohoo :)

Anytime you wanna play, hit me up :) I'm still waiting for David to actually be online so I can play with him too :P

[v1g1lance1]

Same here, haven't played a single one since I got my last Online Achievement



You definitely were the backbone of our band. I'm not a great drummer by any means, I would say a mediocre expert drummer at best (especially compared to some of the talent out there). It was just strange that songs that I consistently 5 star I was struggling on (I was actually in the red on Shockwave at one point and that's not a difficult song at all)

We just need to play more often so I can get used to the smaller note charts :)

Just an FYI, I've noticed that expert online play enables hyperspeed which, IMO, brings calibration issues into the forefront if there are any.

Some of my best calibration tweaks have come after online games that have made them apparent.

Ian

[Eman311]

Online band play kinda sucks...... the whole leader thing along with the frequent quitters sucks.

[Frederf]

"Just an FYI, I've noticed that expert online play enables hyperspeed which, IMO, brings calibration issues into the forefront if there are any."

Not particularly. Multiplayer or not, Expert simply scrolls faster than hard (and hard to medium).

[v1g1lance1]

"Just an FYI, I've noticed that expert online play enables hyperspeed which, IMO, brings calibration issues into the forefront if there are any."

Not particularly. Multiplayer or not, Expert simply scrolls faster than hard (and hard to medium).


Expert in full band drums scrolls faster than expert in solo career.

trust me ;)

edit: It may not be hyperspeed officially - but it's definitely faster than career mode. On a side note, it's a REAL pain in the ass when you play locally with a medium or hard player. The board scrolls unbearably slow.

[davidshek]

Anytime you wanna play, hit me up :) I'm still waiting for David to actually be online so I can play with him too :P

Yeah yeah yeah, hey some of us have jobs, hippie! :p

I wasn't able to get on tonight, but after tomorrow, I've got 5 days off, so I'm sure I'll be on quite a bit this week :D

[v1g1lance1]

Hey now! I'm in the corporate world, writing software for the big corporations to make more money ;)

Fortunately the company I work for has an xbox in the lunchroom. Still no RB yet, just HALO 3 - but we do have GHII :)

I'll be on most evenings this week - looking forward to getting a game or two in. Hell if you want to alternate drums + bass I'd be game for that (although I'm not nearly that great on bass) :)

Ian

[Exayle]

Speaking of Band play, I think you sent me an invite earlier today, V1g1|ance1, but I was in the middle of a song and couldn't join in time. My bad, I suppose. Still pretty eager to get in some games with you -- I'd expect you to be quite the beastly drummer.

[maryryanbogard]

I used to regularly play with random players, but now I find myself doing that less and less. Instead, if I'm up for some online play, I usually check my friends list and invite whoever's on. Of course, I can still add new friends.

I do wish I could find some people to do world tour with me, though. My brother and sister are no fun anymore, they always want to play "hard" songs (think "Run To The Hills" or "Green Grass and High Tides") and always in quickplay. Adding insult to injury is the fact that I haven't even unlocked most of said "hard" songs yet (and it may be quite a while before I do), so we have to play on my dad's PSN account instead of mine. One of my bands finally got some playtime this past weekend, but it was right back to my dad's profile and quickplay thereafter. And it doesn't sound like my bands or even profile are going to be touched again (except by me using my profile for solo tour- bleh) anytime soon. And all my dad (who also plays) does is remind that sometimes "we" just want to play for fun. Which is stupid because that's exactly what I do- I don't care about gold stars or FCs (I'll admit I don't even know what FC is), I just wanna play as my characters and bands and I don't wanna play those "hard" songs all the time when I'm uncomfortable playing them online (then all non-DLC songs are available, I've noticed). Family can be just as much of a pain as the worst (and I don't mean their skill level) online players sometimes.

[v1g1lance1]

Speaking of Band play, I think you sent me an invite earlier today, V1g1|ance1, but I was in the middle of a song and couldn't join in time. My bad, I suppose. Still pretty eager to get in some games with you -- I'd expect you to be quite the beastly drummer.


HA! Don't get your hopes up too much - I'm nothing special :)

I got totally owned on Nightmare last night (lord do I hate that song) :)

[davidshek]

I'm nothing special :)

Says the guy sitting at #101 on the XBL leaderboards and pwning me by just shy of 1 million points :(

Modest much? :p

[v1g1lance1]

Says the guy sitting at #101 on the XBL leaderboards and pwning me by just shy of 1 million points :(

Modest much? :p

pffft. I'd bet good money that if you spent the time working on each career song, you'd be way ahead of me. I had a personal goal of breaking 10 mil (which has now been upgraded to 10.5 mill). I've just spent a lot of my free time working on it.

I think most of us can work on a song over and over again and get a great score eventually. The guys who impress me are people like IBite/Someguy, etc - who can do it consistently on demand.

Still, I appreciate the compliment, undeserved as it is since it has little to do with skill, and lots to do with practice :)

Peace.
Ian

[Vandyan]

HA! Don't get your hopes up too much - I'm nothing special :)

Lies.

I played with v1g for a couple songs the other morning, hes excellent. We pounded out the gold stars. I think we had Wont Get Fooled Again gold starred before the guitar solo ended.

[vsTerminus]

Yup, I play with v1g1lance all the time online. He's pretty damn good.

[nick585]

When I was new to online play I always had problems because the note charts were smaller and there is more space between the notes. Now I'm good with all of that and the note spacing makes some songs easier. My only big complaint is that there is always one person with no DLC so I rarely get to play that online.

[xerichx07]

I love online play, just go on Expert drums, get above 95% on every song you play, and everyone calls you AWESOME, even if you have no mic...

Funny!

[vsTerminus]

I actually do better online usually.

Especially the last time we did band vs band...
The other band had ParadigmShift89 and the song was Green Grass and High Tides.

I nearly **** myself, and then had my best run at the song ever.

[v1g1lance1]

HA! Finally got to play with David, and Vandyan at the same time no doubt!

Had to love the sight reads of message in a bottle, call me, simple man and the crue song (which kicks ass btw).

Great playing with you guys (talk about pressure though HA!). Next time David is on drums :)

[Vandyan]

Yeah it was great. Wish I could have played longer.

[davidshek]

Next time David is on drums :)

Sweeeeet. :D

So...who wants to sing?