Vocal Overdrive

[*Josie*]

When you get a flawless score on expert and still don't rank well on the leaderboards it's obviously an overdrive issue, no? I used to hit overdrive as soon as I was able, but I started going for long overdrive streaks instead. I don't know which is better. Is there a cap on overdrive points?

[Numskull]

Overdrive doubles your multiplier, and your multiplier only applies at the end of a phrase. The rate at which your overdrive gauge empties after activation depends on the song, and never changes for that song. However, phrases come in all different shapes and sizes, so the key to getting high scores for solo vocals is having your overdrive active during the most advantageous parts of the song...in other words, the parts with the most short phrases.

The best song I can think of offhand for demonstrating this point is one that not many people have..."Tallk Them Down" by The Main Drag. The chorus phrases ("Maybe you or I or one of us could talk them down...") are quite lengthy, while the verse phrases ("It was a breath, followed by a breath...") are much shorter. Therefore, overdrive deployed on the verse phrases will produce many more points than the exact same amount of overdrive deployed on the chorus phrases.

[jibjqrkl]

Also. Not all top scores are legit. Im not gonna go into details but there is an exploit that allows people to use od in ways normally not possible. So dont look too surprised if you still can't get #1

[*Josie*]

Overdrive doubles your multiplier, and your multiplier only applies at the end of a phrase. The rate at which your overdrive gauge empties after activation depends on the song, and never changes for that song. However, phrases come in all different shapes and sizes, so the key to getting high scores for solo vocals is having your overdrive active during the most advantageous parts of the song...in other words, the parts with the most short phrases.

The best song I can think of offhand for demonstrating this point is one that not many people have..."Tallk Them Down" by The Main Drag. The chorus phrases ("Maybe you or I or one of us could talk them down...") are quite lengthy, while the verse phrases ("It was a breath, followed by a breath...") are much shorter. Therefore, overdrive deployed on the verse phrases will produce many more points than the exact same amount of overdrive deployed on the chorus phrases.

By short phrases, do you mean shorter track lines or just shorter sections of track? I'll look for a you tube video of that song when I have more time.

[*Josie*]

Also. Not all top scores are legit. Im not gonna go into details but there is an exploit that allows people to use od in ways normally not possible. So dont look too surprised if you still can't get #1

Yeah but flawless on expert should get you within the top 30 anyways, as long as you use overdrive right. Don't you think?

[Numskull]

By short phrases, do you mean shorter track lines or just shorter sections of track? I'll look for a you tube video of that song when I have more time.

Shorter sections of track. Activated overdrive continues to drain during the empty spaces in each phrase...and the length of those empty spaces is not determined randomly. It is often measured to make phrases fit patterns that correspond with the overdrive depletion rate, regardless of how much actual singing (or talking) you need to do.

Yeah but flawless on expert should get you within the top 30 anyways, as long as you use overdrive right. Don't you think?

Depends on the song. Disc songs obviously have many, many more scores posted than downloadable ones. Also, many songs have an optimal score, achieved by following a particular overdrive path, that is mathematically impossible to beat (without cheating the system). That's why you'll sometimes look at a vocals leaderboard and see a whole bunch of people with the exact same rank and the exact same score. A few that come to mind: Blue Sky, You're a Wolf, Weapon of Choice, Pump it Up.

[Numskull]

Also. Not all top scores are legit. Im not gonna go into details but there is an exploit that allows people to use od in ways normally not possible. So dont look too surprised if you still can't get #1

One of the few advantages of being on PS3: With a significantly smaller pool of players, these shenanigans are rare. (But not nonexistent.)

[bengino]

I have no idea what the exploit is, but i know that it does exist. It certainly explains how for some songs which i have used what appears to be the best OD path their is (activating at the very last second and not missing anything else) I am unable to get the top score. The only songs i am on the top, i am tied because there is not trick to be used.

[Meat-Popsicle]

Check out the distribution of scores on that particular song, on that particular instrument, on rockbandscores.com. It may be that there many people that scored just slightly more than you did, by playing over and over again and finding a truly optimal path. Or a few that scored WAY more than you, using, uh, "black magic".

A few examples of the former effect:
"Give It Away"
http://rockbandscores.com/songinfo.cgi?lid=57229
My best score is 435,734 (100% on expert), and the highest score listed is 464,300. Not far, but I'm only in 64th percentile, because I used overdrive especially poorly. And EVERYONE can get 100% on a talky song (only the last phrase is charted to specific notes).

"A Girl Like You"
http://rockbandscores.com/songinfo.cgi?lid=7413
My score is only 5% below the highest one, but I'm not ranked in the top 10%.

The opposite:
"Freebird"
My score on this one is also 5% below the top, but my ranking percentile is 99.6%. It's a long song, and a disc song, so the distribution of scores is much larger.
http://rockbandscores.com/songinfo.cgi?lid=7891

When I download a song that's only been out a day or so, I often find myself getting 5 stars on expert and also last place. Because everyone else got gold stars.

By "don't rank well", do you mean "not in the top 10%", or are you actually expecting to get #1 in the world?

[MurphyRock]

Here's some tips from a guy who used to care about getting high scores. I'm assuming you already can sing any particular song with 100% accuracy and you're just interested in tips on activating overdrive.

• You can look on Scorehero or other message boards for optimal vocal "paths", which will tell you exactly where and how to activate. Alternatively, you can guess at best paths yourself. Typically, the best places to activate overdrive are just before a lot of short vocal phrases, where your overdrive will cover as many subsequent phrases as possible. Especially important is the last phrase your overdrive will cover after activation - you want to "fill as much of the pie" as possible on that phrase before losing overdrive.
  
• It usually is best to activate overdrive as late as possible during an activation section. This is called "squeezing" and it allows the overdrive to stay active for longer during subsequent phrases. You can use the Select button to activate overdrive with the PS3 (instead of shouting into the mic), which can help you with accurate squeezing. (The rare exception: for certain optimal paths, you want your overdrive activation to end as near as possible to the end of, but not past the end of, an overdrive phrase, so you can collect that phrase's overdrive for your next activation. In that case, you might need to activate early. This is called a "finesse" or "finesse reverse squeeze").
  
• In RB3 and TB:RB, there is also a technique called "end squeezing". In a phrase with a mid-phrase activation section, you can either not sing the first part of the phrase, or sing very little of it, so that when you activate mid-phrase, more of the "pie" fills up in the second half of the phrase while you are overdriving. More pie filling under overdrive == more points. Obviously you want to take care when end squeezing to still fill the pie all the way and not lose your streak. (This technique does not exist in RB1/2 because there are no mid-phrase activation sections.)