Rocksmith discussion thread - New real guitar game.

[afterstasis]

It's interesting how licensing for music games has changed. When Guitar Hero first started, they had to use covers for the songs. Now artists like Nirvana and The Rolling Stones will give master tracks to any game that comes along.

It says the audio doesn't cut out if you miss notes, so track-stems aren't necessary.

I imagine it's also cheaper to just have a song featured in a game, rather than have to get rights to play around with stems.

[ManLovesRobot]

The authors of both articles are indeed ignorant to the existence of Rock Band 3. They're too lazy to do any real research I suppose.

The Rolling Stone author knows about RB3. This was in his Twitter feed:

Industry Experts: Can Rock Band Survive? http://bit.ly/gPUdbt

[toymachineSH]

You won't see Gibson putting out a $200 guitar & game bundle unless the guitar in question is an Epiphone Les Paul Junior or Special II (both of which are bottom-of-the-barrel ****e that I wouldn't want to inflict on any new player). Regardless of brand though, at that price point ($200 - $60 for the game because they'll take MSRP into account, minus howevere much this adapter costs which is probably $30-give-or-take going by the various guitar-to-PC adapters there are around now), you'r eloking at a $110 ont he guitar, not including markup of course. Anyone who knows anything about guitars knows that $110 won't even buy you a crap set of tuners, one middle-of-the-road pickup and a set of strings. So they're going to be cutting corners like crazy there.

As for how it will work, it's actually very simple. It would, I assume, work just like a tuner. You play a note, the system recognises what note that is and if you played the right thing, that'll count. I would assume they won't make it demand full accuracy, to account for people not keeping the guitar perfectly in tune, crap intonation, that sort of thing. There are already lots of systems that allow you to plug a guitar into a computer - I've got one sat on my desk here right now. There's no latency (even though mine has to go guitar > 10ft cable > port > 5ft cable > crap laptop > software > 5ft cable > port > 2x 20ft cable > studio monitors) and it can be far more accurate than any standalone digital tuner or the human ear can be.

I'm certainly more interested in this than that pile of wank, sorry excuse for a "guitar" that is the RB3 Squier controller. That said, I don't know what its market is. New players can be turned off very quickly by a cheap guitar (and they'll be the ones buying whatever bundle comes out) and playing with tabs - and in this case, effectively automated tabs because we know there's not going to be any ear training in this, it would defeat the point - is just about the most terrible way to learn how to play guitar. People who can actually already play guitar decently won't have any use for it either - who needs a game to bang out a bit of Nirvana, really? Even if you don't have a band and you just want to playa long with something at home, backing tracks are all over the internet.

The technology is fun (if not actually all that new), this is a step in the right direction and I'll keep my eye on it. At the moment though it's a pretty bizarre idea and I can't see it doing well.

Comment on Destructoid

[princessjessa13]

If they effing get "House of the Rising Sun" and we don't, I'M GOING TO FLIP AN EFFING TABLE AND RAMPAGE THE OFFICES OF HMX!!!!!

[Darky_06]

From the Youtube vids it seems like the entire game starts at playing tabs, and ends at playing tabs with no actual 'game' part attached to it.

Power Gig pulled the exact same media campaign as this seems to gearing up into. Showing promo vids which deliberatly omit actual gameplay and releasing statements which spend more time hyping its setlist and the fact you can use a real guitar while spreading misinformation about competing products.

[disruptor]

a little disturbed that there is no mention of RB3 pro modes.

Looks like a glorified way to play tabs along with music. This could also be achieved by looking at tabs, playing guitar along to ipod playing song...

we'll see I guess.

[TheHundredDollarHeadache]

I've come across this: http://www.tcelectronic.com/polytune-iphone-app.asp that is supposed to be able to detect the pitches of multiple strings simultaneously. If they are using this kind of technology, it might work, and would make RB3 Pro Guitar/Bass look like Power Gig.

Here's hoping they don't make the same stupid mistake that Power Gig made in not offering bass charts. At least being able to play lead/rhythm makes up for it - here's hoping that they will let us do this in multiplayer.

The amp modeling thing sounds neat, though. It's already cheaper than a Pocket Pod, if it sounds good enough I might consider it.

[Pitch-Black]

I dunno, this could be interesting. I'll admit that I immediately decided against Pro guitar in Arby 3 because of the cost of the squire. I already have 4 much better and much more expensive "real" guitars. I have been playing guitar for 25 years, so Arby 3 as an instructional tool was never of interest to me. However, being able to plug one of MY guitars into a game is definately something appealing. However, I'd have to agree with those questioning how well something like this would work, especially thru a USB cable. But definately something worth keeping an eye on. I'll assume that between now and Sep. there will be more info forethcoming. As for the fact that nobody seems to recognize or even know about the tremendous efforts HMX put into ALL the Pro modes, let alone guitar, it's a crying shame. Apparently this info is on a need to know basis .... and nobody outside of the Rock Band commumity needs to know. And even if "Rocksmith" is a huge success, I doubt it in any way could render Pro guitar mode "primitive".

[Pheran]

I'm surprised that no one has commented on the Zeppelin reference at the end of the Hollywood Reporter article. These forums are going to go ballistic if Zeppelin ends up in this game.

[TheHundredDollarHeadache]

I dunno, this could be interesting. I'll admit that I immediately decided against Pro guitar in Arby 3 because of the cost of the squire. I already have 4 much better and much more expensive "real" guitars. I have been playing guitar for 25 years, so Arby 3 as an instructional tool was never of interest to me. However, being able to plug one of MY guitars into a game is definately something appealing. However, I'd have to agree with those questioning how well something like this would work, especially thru a USB cable. But definately something worth keeping an eye on. I'll assume that between now and Sep. there will be more info forethcoming. As for the fact that nobody seems to recognize or even know about the tremendous efforts HMX put into ALL the Pro modes, let alone guitar, it's a crying shame. Apparently this info is on a need to know basis .... and nobody outside of the Rock Band commumity needs to know. And even if "Rocksmith" is a huge success, I doubt it in any way could render Pro guitar mode "primitive".

The reasons I bought my Mustang even though I was in your situation (minus one guitar and 20 years of experience):

- GameStop's accessory sale making it $120
- The clothing unlocks - lots of clothes I needed were locked behind Pro G/B goals
- Being able to become an RB3 Completionist
- Most importantly: Finally being able to learn "Heart of Glass"

True, Rocksmith won't make RB3 Pro Guitar look completely useless. The latter knows where your fingers are, which helps with learning chords.