OT: RockSmith, where are my real aspiring Hendrixes?

[GB_Simo]

The idea of your Godin teetering on the brink of oblivion causes me some measure of alarm, mate, and it's not even my $1200. When we finally get this game over here, the thing I'm least looking forward to is forcing myself to let my mates have a go - I'm already practicing my "Look what you've done to my Telecaster, man!"

While I'm here...

And I do have a lot to learn, as my years of playing that crazy, wacky G chord of mine and short riffs to write my songs have crippled me into not being a better guitar player.

I have fixed the above for you, Grant.

[Gurantsu]

Ha! Laugh all you want, I have the strongest thumb in all of guitardom!

[bdunn13]

I really want to try this. I have gotten back in to practicing a lot lately. I try every night to just practice chord changes, and some scales.

In the past I have just done like many others and played some riffs - doing this was not helping me get any better as playing and practicing are not the same thing.

I feel if I try RS NOW - I will get back into play and out of practice mode.... If I can keep up the practice for a couple more months, I am going to sell my POS Squire and get me a Gibson LS Traditional.

Let me know how you guys progress with this.

[webdanzer]

Stolen from GWJ, Tweets indicate a title update next week:

Nao Higo @naohigo Close
Rocksmith Title update 2 for PS3/360 is approved, and will go live sometime next week. We'll let you know when the date is set.

Nao Higo @naohigo Close
@Cadillac_Zach We'll put the full list up on FB, but we've improved the practice modes, added option for precision tuning before songs, etc.

I gotta say, Rocksmith has really put a damper on my enjoyment of the 'regular' rock band guitar mode. I switched it up a little from RS to RB to save the family's sanity over my complaints of Not Getting Satisfaction, and now I think the Rock Band guitar feels a bit silly. Pro Drums still work, though!

[bdunn13]

I really am digging this. I play my guitar now every night. I still well, suck badly but I still play.

Tuesday i ended up purchasing a Epiphone Les Paul - really nice guitar for a good price. A local store had Vintage Sunburst for 450 and I talked the owner into selling me that and a nice hard case for 500 out the door. Earlier, I held and played a Gibson... and I could not tell the difference.

If I keep playing and get to the point where I can tell the difference between a Epi and an real Gibson LP - then in a year or two I will make that purchase.


The mini-games are fun and help build speed and accuracy. I especially like the scale runner. My only complaint about that is I wish you could pick different ways to play / practice the same scale (different start positions).

Oh - and Lenny Kravitz is kicking my ass. That is the hardest song I have tried to play so far and I am not doing too well. I would like to see some Foo Fighters, more Nirvana, Butthole Surfers and maybe some Weezer.....

I think I bug Terry everyday telling him how much I love this.

BD

[TCrouch]

Yeah, that Lenny Kravitz song is tough for me too. Something about the bend and string changes with the speed of the main riff constantly screw me up. I might get it once or twice, but as many times as you have to play it, I end up completely botching it and then ending up lost. It's like the guitar version of a tongue twister.

Glad you're diggin' it though!

[bdunn13]

Did I mention how much I like this game?

I have never played the guitar for so much on a nightly basis in my life. Am I getting better? I think so, but I can't really hear it.

I think the mini-games are worth the price of admission even without the rest of the stuff. I love scale runner. I play that a good bit every night now. I think it is helping me build speed and accuracy. At first I could only get a couple hundred K in that game.. now I am getting to where I can get 2 million... still a ways to go.. Maybe I will get to where I can get 4-5 million by the end of the week.
Right now I am just practicing A-Major over and over - but the pattern should be the same on other major scales... but it is great at improving muscle memory.

In Bloom which is not a hard song hopefully will be the first one i master - I can get 92K on it, but I can't for some reason hit the 100K mark which is annoying me. I thought my fingers were getting to where they would not hurt when I played.. but after practicing the solo in that song, with the bends, I quickly found out how wrong I was.

By playing this a good bit, I have also found out why bands take breaks.. man a guitar gets heavy after a while. I am glad mine is "weight relieved."


I do wish the game came with a manual so I could see what all the symbols mean in game without doing all the "how tos." I have learned what harmonics are, and wonder if I will ever "get it."

My biggest complaints are the load times are awful. You should be able to switch from song to song with little to no delay. The delay after a mini-game is bad. I think it is contacting their servers or something, but the lag there should not exist.

The game is too forgiving at times. Sometimes, I can hear my raw guitar notes and I sound awful, but register good in the game. On the other hand, sometimes the game does not register when I nail something and it sounds perfect to my ears from my raw guitar.

Need more songs - and some online co-op

BD

[TCrouch]

I'm assuming Rocksmith 2 would have online co-op. How killer would it be to be able to jam with rhythm, lead, and bass guitars all on the same song?

What you're saying is exactly what I felt--the exercises were worth the price of the game alone for somebody trying to learn guitar. It's such a temptation to just play through songs and bang away, but those exercises is where the learning happens, with tangible evidence that you're getting better in the form of a scoreboard.

[bdunn13]

Hey Terry, you want to take this to PM ??

Is anyone else still playing this at all? I never see anyone on my friends list playing.

I played a good bit again last night. I think I have been playing for 1 - 2 hours a night. I can't play during the day since I have two small kids that need my attention. I tried to play some with my 3 year old still away and he would come in my room and say.. "yellow, yellow, RED, RED, GREEN, BLUE, BLUE!!!" LOL - the game gets instantly harder when that happens

I even asked my wife "do you feel like you have lost your husband to Rocksmith?"

Last night was the first time I really felt like I was getting better. I started of playing Scale Runner again and I finally hit 3 million. I moved to another scale I had never tried before and I think I got 1 million my first time. I then went and played Super Ducks for a few minutes.

I managed to get in the upper 90's again for In Bloom.. When playing the song, I get more notes in the solo which I am not use to. I can go into practice mode where you just play the solo over and over, and I master.. but it is not giving me 100% of the notes, I am missing a few. I even set the solo in practice to "master" which I would think would make it give me all the notes so I can get it down, but it doesn't.

What really gets me is when you are playing a song, doing really well.. to the point where you hardly have to look at what you are playing.. and then, you improve so much.. BAM!!! You get more notes thrown at you and you feel like you have never even held a guitar in your life. That happened to me last night with one of the old songs I like playing from the 60s - forget the name.. but it has an orange cover.

Hoping if I keep playing enough, my fingers will get to the point where it does not hurt at all.

BD

[Naples39]

Apparently the bass DLC add-on release date has been bumped up to 8/14. I just got a copy off eBay for $30, but I think the DLC is another $30.

I'm looking forward to trying this stuff.

[F308GTB]

Apparently the bass DLC add-on release date has been bumped up to 8/14. I just got a copy off eBay for $30, but I think the DLC is another $30.

I'm looking forward to trying this stuff.

Dang I am I'll prepared. Been using it to learn guitar but so far haven't bought a bass. Need to start looking.

[bdunn13]

I will get a bass and try this one day... still enjoying the guitar part - and have master moded a handful of songs now.

[Naples39]

So I got back from vacation last night and tried this out. Works perfectly with my Fender bass. I did the opening set of levels, and got through with my thoroughly amateur bass skills fine. Silver on the challenges, passed the songs easily (though the passing thresholds were very low).

I like how the the difficulty is dynamic while playing songs. Keeps it interesting. I got to the "double encore" on the first gig, and that song started out way above my sight reading skill level, but soon toned it down to playable but challenging level for me.

Now I am tempted to get some new xbox headphones, as the slight lag with my current wireless headphones is distracting.

[bdunn13]

Awesome.

I looked at the size of the bass add on and saw it was around 1.8g?? I think...

I guess that is the downside of getting a 4g xbox.



BD

[Naples39]

Awesome.

I looked at the size of the bass add on and saw it was around 1.8g?? I think...

I guess that is the downside of getting a 4g xbox.



BD

1.2gb I think.

[F308GTB]

Picked up a nice little headphone amp to practice outside of Rocksmith and not annoy the wife so much - VOX AC30. Runs off 2 AAA batteries and has some nice sound coming out of it. Paired it with an old set of Senn HD580s I've got and it sounded great. Also sometimes using a Qinpu A3 headphone tube amp with the audio out from the 360 specifically for Rocksmith but that requires a lot more overhead/cable management. At $40 for the VOX, it's a definite buy. BTW, the Qinpu also sounds great.

[bdunn13]

I still play a good big every week.. lately I have been playing every night. I did have to take some time off when I changed the strings on my guitar and put on thicker strings.

I was practicing Jessica, Free Bird (solo 1) and Outshined solo and the bends were really killing my fingers. After pushing through, there is no more pain as my finders have adjusted.

At this point I have master moded the following songs.

Breed - Nirvana
In Bloom - Nirvana
Go With The Flow - Queens of the Stone Age
Song 2 - Blur
Outshined - Soundgarden
Damnit - Blink
What's My Age - Blink
Gone Away - Offspring
Come Out And Play - Offspring

Now that I list them.. I didn't think I had that many "mastered"

I have most of the following songs done too.

Are You Gonna Go My Way - Lenny Kravitz - the solo is kicking my butt.. I got the rest of the song maxed out.
Jessica -Allman Brothers - got the first 2 solos maxed and the rest of the song.. working on the other 4 solos.
Free Bird - Lynard - Got the first solo maxed out - working on the other 20 something solos... lol.. I just don't see myself ever finishing this one.


I started practicing one part of a song over and over in the riff repeater - the Accelerator seems to work to help my muscle memory. However, I found it is harder to get to 100% in this mode than it is in Leveler... so I switch back to Leveler when I think I am ready.


I also found last night when I finished the second solo of Jessica, I tried to play the entire song from the beginning and I couldn't ... so I need to go back and practice that again. Great song to learn IMO.. if I can ever get it REALLY down.. it is something I could play for people.. since it does not have any singing and it sounds really nice.


Transition between parts of a song is difficult after playing them so much in the riff repeater.. I wish you could join and play the end of one solo and the start of another one to practice the transition too.. and when you can't get down one part of a solo... I wish you could isolate that and practice it over and over....

BD

[F308GTB]

For me it's master mode for

The Horrors - Do You Remember (chord and single note, close on combo)
Radiohead - High and Dry (chord and combo, close on single note)
Black Keys - Next Girl
Bowie - Rebel Rebel (chord)
Blur - Song 2 (single note and almost there on combo)
Stones - Spider and the Fly (chord)
Best Coast - When I'm With You (chord and almost there on combo)

Nearly there on

Queens of the Stone Age - Go With the Flow (my hand gets so tired on that one)
The Animal - House of the Rising Sun chord arrangement
Stones - Satisfaction (chord)
Jenny O. - Well OK Honey (chord)

For me, I have trouble just because I want to play something new so I never quite master a song. Then I go back and have to relearn some. Wife is learning classical guitar and sticks with just the same 2-3 songs.

Downloaded YYZ since I figured it would be a challenge. It is.

[bdunn13]

I think we have completely different taste in music

I like trying different songs some too - and when I get frustrated with one, I will try another... but I am stubborn too and don't accept failure too well... so I go back
to the other song too quickly.

Sometimes I make really bad decisions though and try to play something way above my skill set.

If I can ever get over the last 4 solos of Jessica, it will be the hardest song I have mastered.. but just b/c I mastered it, doesn't mean I can play it.. I will have to go back and practice the parts again...

I purchased Black recently and tried that - I don't think it would be a hard song to learn, there are just a lot of chords in it that I have never seen before.

I like the song selection for the most part.. I have purchased a couple of singles and a couple of packs (Blink, Offspring.... Jessica, Free Bird, Black)....

If they ever release some Foo Fighters, I might have to quit my job.....

[bdunn13]

If they ever release some Foo Fighters, I might have to quit my job.....

A 5 song Foo back was released today... notice turned in to boss..

Not the exact five songs I would have requested, but I am not going to complain.... now I just need rest after a hard two days of manual labor.... then I can try and play my again..


BD

[DChaps]

Sweet. I have definitely got to get back into this. I am supposed to be off for about 10 days straight so maybe its time for a little woodshedding.

[F308GTB]

Still play this one almost every day. Yesterday I picked up a bass and quickly disposed of about 2 dozen songs. After a year of playing guitar, the bass lines seem really easy.

[bdunn13]

I play a few times a week, I just don't play on the Xbox as much as I use to. I bought the PC version earlier in the year off of steam and just use same USB adapter..

I have a lot of custom songs I play on the PC version...

In October, the new version comes out, that will be a day 1 for me most likely.. it has some really nice new features and hopefully a nice track list.

[Danimal]

I seem to of lost my usb adapter does anyone know where I can pick one up?

[Naples39]

I seem to of lost my usb adapter does anyone know where I can pick one up?

I'm also curious. My puppy chewed through my cable and I broke my finger a few months ago, but now I have the PC version and would like to get back into this game.