Rocksmith

beachryan

beachryan

Golden Boot Winner
4 July 2003
Bermuda
Not sure if anyone has been paying attention to the upcoming Ubisoft game 'Rocksmith' - but I'm seriously stoked.

It's basically Guitar Hero/ Rock Band but for, gasp, real guitar.

http://rocksmith.ubi.com/rocksmith/en-US/home/

I'm not very good at guitar, but am learning, and think this game is going to be amazing for that. It also makes me feel a bit better about investing my time into a game - getting a pratical, 'real' skill out of it is somewhat unparalleled.

I guess this was always a logical move after the GH/RB series, but still, will be interested to see how well it works.
 
Will have a look at this in more detail when I get a chance.
My son has just started guitar lessons so this looks interesting.

Cheers for the heads up.
 
As a quick followup - bought this over the weekend - it is immense. I'm learning guitar as a bit of an afterthought, dwlding tabs I like and trying them out, and this is just amazing. Once you've got it all setup, it plays just like Guitar Hero/Rock Band - except you need to actually play the right notes/ strings.

Tbh the song list isn't that compelling to me, but there are all these really smart 'mini games' that teach you scales, sliding, phrasing and so forth that are brilliant. Because they're on the tv, you have to look up and can't look at the frets - it's forcing me to have some good habits early on.

I realise it's a bit more expensive than most games, so if anyone has any q's let me know. Best bit is the wife loves it - never thought we'd play a game together!
 
Hrm, I bought it for PS3. Not sure it'll be all that easy to mod tracks - they're pretty involved in the way that the difficulty evolves.

You get an adapter with it which is just 1/4 inch to USB. There's a cool mode where you can run your guitar into other guitars/ amps/ pedals.

Only caveat is that I had to switch to optical because the HDMI lag was too high. In optical it's perfect.
 
beachryan said:
Hrm, I bought it for PS3. Not sure it'll be all that easy to mod tracks - they're pretty involved in the way that the difficulty evolves.

You get an adapter with it which is just 1/4 inch to USB. There's a cool mode where you can run your guitar into other guitars/ amps/ pedals.

Only caveat is that I had to switch to optical because the HDMI lag was too high. In optical it's perfect.
Click to expand...

what u mean swicth to optical? for sound output? what do you have optical wires? and optical hooked up to?

How much for ps3 adn where you buy? I may buy for ps3 if unlikely to be moddable for PC.

Not too happy with song list but some are ok
 
I ran an optical out of the PS3 into my sound system. Could also have used component AV (red/white) cables.

For some reason I don't totally get HDMI has a lag between the input (and in this case the guitar) and the sound playing. There is a lag fixer in the game, but it doesn't work for extreme cases (which I had).

So I have HDMI going to my TV for video, and optical to my stereo for sound.

I got it in the states at Gamestop for $69, could possibly have found it cheaper but like the store near me.
 
Picked this up on Friday (actually, had a US import copy I found on some obscure second hand site for £18!! - but had to wait for a UK cable to be released).

Absolutely superb! Anyone that has been around Evo-Web a while will know I love my music games, but this really is the next step up. The dynamic note system is brilliant - just adapts to what you already know, or levels up as you get better. Very clever.

The ONLY complaint I think I have is that the 'game' aspect takes a bit of a second place, insomuch as there isnt much emphasis on a 'score' as such, just getting better at the song. So no leaderboards or even any real indication you are scoring higher than previous attempts - but its not really a biggie as all I'm interested in is playing the music.

Got no lag on my set up as I run the PS3 audio out to an amp and the lack of lag is very impressive, as is the tone detection. Very clever software engineering there.

Bit miffed I've got to pay £20 for a bass addon mode though!
 
Tim7 said:
Could this genuinely teach me how to play a guitar?
Click to expand...

Yup totally - and/or bass.

It has everything you need to know, which whilst good for the beginner, its a bit of a pest for people with any level of previous knowledge (no option to skip the basic basics).

But yes, teaches you basically from how to put the guitar on, how to hold it, how to strum etc... right up to hammer ons, bends, vibtato, slides etc. All with video lessons.

Plus there are arcade games (about 8 I think) that each target a different skill, (sliding, fretting, scales etc), which help you get better at the disciplines.

The actual game itself is awesome as there is no difficulty level you can set (like Rockband) - every song starts off at the easiest level with a few notes slowly moving down. If you hit them right (or if you know the song and fill it the bits anyways) then it starts adding in more notes that come down the highway.

Each section of a song (and songs can be broken into 10-20 sections depending) have an XP-like bar. So the better you get at a section (or phrase), then the more notes it gives you until you are playing every note of that bit 100%. Master all sections in a song, then you get chance to "master mode" that song, which is basically playing the song without a highway on the screen.

Its such a good idea and really works. The XP is saved each time you play the song (or you can reset it) so the next time you play it, it gives you the notes at the level you have reached. It really benefits playing a song over and over a few times in a row as you really start to learn the complex bits - just like learning IRL actually.

Last night I had a go of Where Is My Mind by the Pixies (a song I knew how to play more or less using chords). Instead of playing what I (thought I) knew, I played along with the onscreen track. First goes was absolutely awful, missing loads of notes, wrong notes etc... sounded like a cat being raped.

By about the 5th or 6th go, it was sounding awesome and I'm still a fair way from mastering it.

Oh also, you cant 'fail' a song like in Rockband, so its a lot less frustrating. If you start doing bad, they dynamically scale back the difficulty whilst you are playing till you pick up again. Very good.

So yes, you could most definitely learn guitaring from playing the songs in this without doubt.
 
Thanks Paul, good write up. Had a look on the website and it looks awesome, it really does. I'm still slightly sceptical as to whether I could learn a guitar from this, i.e. after playing a song on the game I don't think I'd be able to play it without any help...
 
I think it will help in learning guitar, but playing guitar well takes practice, practice and more practise.

I quite fancy getting this just to turn my tv into a virtual amp with all the pedals etc. I have something similar for the pc called amplitube.

Looking at the videos it doesn't look that intuitive to me, but maybe it will make more sense when I get my hands on it.
 
This game is awwwwweeeeeesome. :) having so much fun.

Bought a cheap bass from a second hand shop in the week and amazing how different it is to guitar and a lot of fun to play.

Top marks to Ubisoft.
 
As a complete novice to guitar, this game is pretty amazing. I'm still struggling to remember where frets are and actually get my fingers there, and then try and find the right string as well. But when I pull off a little streak, it feels so damn good.

I need to get a plectrum as well as, even though I've got tiny hands (which doesn't help trying to stretch to reach different frets) I'm still not getting the strings right.

Fantastic game though and so eager to play more. After 90 mins, OK felt like I was able to hit a few notes in succession and felt quite pleased with myself. But then my wrist and fingers just felt so cramped up and I couldn't manage a single note so had to stop for the night.
 
Invert the strings? You mean string 1 becomes the bottom string? Surely that also means playing the songs incorrectly?
 
northstandhero said:
No it just flips the strings on screen, so they'll show like they do on tab
E
A
D
G
B
E
Click to expand...

Cheers, might give that a try.

Had to order some picks earlier as I've been given an old guitar from my wife's parents but no picks so had to just use my thumb. Managed to actually hit more than a couple of notes in a row on "Go With The Flow" though and my thumb just wasn't catching the strings properly.

Gone with Jim Dunlop Nylon 0.38mm picks after reading a few comments and checking out the JustinGuitar website. Can't wait to get them now!
 
You did good to stop when pain set in. If you try to play through that, you will do more harm than good technique wise.

Try to play regularly though as this will help muscle memory.

As a newbie, rocksmiths arcade games are brilliant learning tools and will help no end. Also make sure you do the technique sections :)
 
I'm getting my first ever guitar this Christmas (electric) and I've been interested to read that this could actually help me learn how to play it.

I've been reading lots of online tutorials so I'm already familiar with the strings, warming up exercises etc so I'm hoping to pick it up without the need to buy this game (considering the price of it!) but pboreham's clear recommendation could make all the difference.

Anyway, just thought I'd share that, keep the thread going and all that. I'll report back as I develop.
 
mjp said:
I'm getting my first ever guitar this Christmas (electric) and I've been interested to read that this could actually help me learn how to play it.

I've been reading lots of online tutorials so I'm already familiar with the strings, warming up exercises etc so I'm hoping to pick it up without the need to buy this game (considering the price of it!) but pboreham's clear recommendation could make all the difference.

Anyway, just thought I'd share that, keep the thread going and all that. I'll report back as I develop.
Click to expand...

I'm going to get a Yamaha Pacifica 120H (http://www.dawsons.co.uk/yamaha-pacifica-120h-tobacco-sunburst) for Christmas due to having so much fun on Rocksmith.

I started as a complete novice but can already feel I've made more of an improvement than I expected. A lot of it is muscle memory and I still forgot which strings are which sometimes (mainly due to the colour coding rather than lettering or numbering the strings in-game) but I'm getting there.

I managed 86k points on "Queens Of The Stone Age - Go With The Flow", which I was pleased about. Sure, a lot of it is crazy strumming and the same notes over and over ... but I enjoyed it! And I was knackered afterwards :P
 
Good stuff Dags. That guitar looks ace!

I'm just getting a basic £120 bundle from Amazon which has everything I need, bar a capo, to get me started.

If I end up taking to it like I hope then I can start to build up my spec.

I've read about muscle memory and also aching fingers. To combat this I'm "playing" chords with my left hand to exercise my fingers whenever I can.

It seems that where this "game" will benefit the novice is that you see a measurable progression in your abilities whereas if you're just playing along to CDs then any progress is subjective.

I noticed that Rocksmith is only £35 on Amazon now too...
 
Got my guitar! SO far I've got D, A and C chords sorted and can do about 26 chord changes in a minute (using the tutorials found on www.justinguitar.com ).

Wished I'd preempted receiving the guitar and bought Rocksmith now as it's back up to £50-ish everywhere again now....
 
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