Rock Band 3 - Page 4

Three more questions.

1. My (Wii) pro bass controller makes a faint-but-audible sound which is localized in the area under the led status indicators. The sound is activated by using the d-pad or shaking the instrument. It is vaguely reminiscent of the physical spring sound in an old-school reverb tank. The sound occurs when the unit is powered off as well as on. Should this be a source of concern?

2. I noticed that an interrupted Road Challenge appears to resume without an opportunity to set a Pro controller back to a non-Pro setting. Am I missing something?

3. The video introduction to Pro Guitar notes that "each song with a Pro part" has its' own lesson, "accessed under training" (or something) in the menu. I did not observe this option in menus with a song active. Again, am I missing something?

I have noticed that the game has a squintillion features (a layer-capable graphics editor designed to be used via gamepads? And yet no chord charts? What?) so my guess is that yes, I am missing something.

Thanks in advance.

thanks jwebb.

on Rockbandaide, I found folks (rightly) complaining about the f-word getting cut from "Death or Glory," so I must just not have noticed it on playback earlier.

http://www.rockbandaide.com/10820/dl...lash/#comments

I can understand the rationale but I'm not gonna like it.

Also, thanks for digging up the info about GK-series midi compatibility, reading through that stuff it seems likely any given polyphonic midi guitar setup would work, with the given drawback that *only* the Squier is gonna have the fretboard sensors.

I'm seeing used Fender Custom Roland Ready units @$500, +/-, which would mean about $700 to get partial feature compatibility, which seems silly for a game. The Squier's base price less assorted discounts will be under $200, so I'm thinking about it.

eBay is showing some older midi guitars for $200, but who knows if they will still work after 20 to 25 years in the field; the other option is a bolt-on GK-3a which is steady at $200, again.

My interest level is definitely reflective of developing actual bruises on my fingers from sliding around on the Mustand Pro fret buttons - I figure if I'm whacking my fingers that much I should at least give myself the option of getting my calluses back.

Finally, I haven't had much luck digging through the RB3 forums - the ten-post-to-a-page limit and what seems to be in some way over-broad search implementation has made it frustrating to use.

Here's one more game mechanics question, something I think I already know: is there a way to have your profile active on two instruments at the same time, so you can sing and play at the same time? Seems like an obvious feature and one which should provide some sort of score multiplication bonus, but hey.

and, oh, I figured out that the auto-calibrate was NF pretty quick. the native calibration state was 0 ms out of the box and around 11ms after manual.

It still is clear to me that gem placement varies from song to song, probably by up to about 20 ms either way, and that this is reflective of authorial style. It could be that that stylistic variation is deliberate and intended to express the flavor of the original track. Ever notice how you'll nail one song and then another song that is fairly distinct by genre will trip you up for the first few bars? that's what I'm talking about.

There does not seem to be a copy of the in-box manual available for DL. Is there a detailed explanation of scoring modes and so forth anywhere? Like, "in order to set up Overdrive, 10 sequential note strikes are required," or whatever the actual number is?

I have the sense that a lot of the scoring is modeled on pinball game mechanics, which amuses me highly.

I am aware of that, but it's always good to get that info into these discussions.

Thus a Midi-RB3 Squier setup requires the Squier + the Madcats midi adapter for the gaming platform, whereas a non-RB3 midi guitar setup would require guitar (or basss or whatever) + hex pickup, built-in or bolt-on + midi synth interface + Madcats midi adapter.

That's a hard sell unless the gear is already lying around, I'd say, or you get an outlandish deal.

I saw the GH news. Yes, too many versions. Glad I switched after GH:A.

Now if they'd only get Journey out before RB is effected!

So, anybody here get their hands on the Fender guitar yet? I've seen some videos online, and looks very promising.

I started with Guitar Hero 3, which I think had the best song list of the Guitar Heroes I bought (Aerosmith, 4, 5) I wish 4 players could play on GH3... but I digress. GH is now dead, and I think that may be in large part to Rock Band's inclusion of the ability to play a real guitar.

So back on point, this is definitely of great interest to me. The only reason I got into Guitar Hero was a friend brought it over one night, and we played it a lot ever since. But from the first time I saw the game, I thought it was kinda silly if it didn't teach you real guitar.

Well, now Rock Band does!

One concern I do have is that I have a colletion of 4 plastic guitars for the Wii. I'm thinking that if I want to start learning real guitar via Rock Band, I may want to get RB3 for the PS3 so that the fret numbers show up more clearly. Do the numbers show up clear enough in the Wii version? I know that for Rock Band 2, lyrics on the Wii were at times hard to read.

Ultimately jumping to the PS3 version would be a no-brainer if I didn't already have a collection of Wii guitars which would work just fine for Rock Band 3 Wii... Perhaps I could help finance the PS3 setup by selling off all the Wii stuff and buying RB3, the Midi adapter, a Fender, and two PS3 "standard" Rock Band guitars...

For the guitar, yeah, I noticed that some of the parts look to be of questionable quality. But I was looking into getting a real guitar several years ago, and am aware that I won't be getting something high quality since the good stuff seems to all be in the four figure arena. But at least this can get me started and will be a relatively inexpensive way for me to see if I really like it.

I did read one review where they had a pro guitar player, a guitar teacher, a beginning guitarist, and a gamer with no guitar experience play the game and give their opinions. What I got out of it was that even for a total guitar noob, the game is fun and introduces you to the basics slowly. AAd while you can get halfway decent (emphasis on halfway) with just the game, the limitations which you mentioned will require me to go for actual lessons if I decide I want to be serious about playing guitar. (or wait for Rock Band 4 and hope it is more capable in that it will be able to detect the more advanced techniques, albeit possibly with a more advanced guitar controller)

As far as switching to PS3 (don't have an Xbox), I don't have any Wii Rock Band titles. And I've downloaded very few GH songs. There won't be very many songs I'll miss from World Tour, or GH5.

However, sounds like I should probably stick with Wii, that way I don't have to repurchase 4 plastic guitars for nights we have friends over and don't want to play non-pro mode songs. Further it sounds like the lower resolution won't effect my ability to see the fret numbers. If it is a problem, I can just get RB3 for the PS3 also since the guitar will work with either system (I'd just have to get two midi boxes) If all goes well and my wife likes it also, we may end up getting two guitar controllers!

Question on downloadable content. Are the track packs available in stores downloadable individually? Also, if I buy a used track pack, will I be able to load it into my system? I know with Guitar Hero you had to give it a serial number to import prior versions. Not sure if that holds true with Rock Band. My other concern is we are stationed in Germany, and I'm thinking that downloadable content may not work at all. Both Netflix and online Amazon music purchases don't work for us because we are not in the US. Not sure if this is also true of the Rock Band series.

Thanks!

Hmmm. My Wii was purchased in the US and my account was created in the US. It was only recently that we moved to Germany. I know that for the Playstation Network, I can't purchase points with an APO address, but can use a PSN card. Maybe once I get back home to Germany I'll have to float a trial baloon and try to re-download a GHWT song I've already purchased. Hopefully the Wii store allows for APO billing addresses. If nothing else, I'll just have to buy a card with points on it from the BX. I'm just hoping it's not like Netflix where it won't allow me to download at all because my IP is outside the US.

I do have a 2GB SD card in my Wii, but have been planning on getting a larger card. Haven't needed it just yet. Perhaps I'll get a 32GB card for my camera and use my 8GB in my Wii. Depends on how many songs I want and if I decide to finally repurchase all my cartridge games on the Virtual Console.

Good evening all!!

My sincere apologies if this has been asked/answered in the previous 3 pages of this thread, but I did try to search for this information with negative results...

I have a Nintendo Wii and bought Band Hero which came with the 6 piece drum set (if you count the kick pedal). I've looked at some Rock Band games and can NEVER get a straight answer as to whether or not the GH/Band Hero drum set works with any of the Rock Band games.

Has anyone been able to get a Rock Band game to work with the GH/BH drums and if so, how? If they do work, are there any adjustments that have to be made?

Second question...can you purchase Rock Band songs through the online Wii Store (or whatever it's called) if they're even available and play those songs on GH/BH??

Thanks in advance for any responses...Peace out!!!
JB

Thanks for all the info, JWEBB!!!

I never played RB before getting RB3 for Christmas, so it's all been new to me, and I've learned a lot since then. Talked to people, read on the Net, and played -- a lot. (I got really lucky; got the full RB2 box set at the local Target.) Pro drums are my thing -- never played drums before! DH trying to learn keys, and pro guitar on the Squire.

One of the local Gamestop guys (on PS3) bought the device that's supposed to allow using any MIDI guitar, and found that it only works with Xbox. It's apparently designed for musicians who want to encode their songs for RBN. So anybody reading this thread who's thinking of spending a lot of money on a serious guitar and going that route on the Wii -- double check first that it will work.

Import info -- According to rockband.com, Xbox and PS3 importability is the same; Wii is different. The former can import pretty much everything (with a fee, of course), although sometimes individual tracks are not included. The latter can only import RB2 and Green Day. (TB:RB can't be imported by anybody.)

Wii owners also get shorted on DLC availability. Besides not having any new RBN content available, there were 9 tracks by Harmonix artists that were excluded from the RB2 import -- Harmonix said that they were planning to make these tracks available as a free DLC pack. And they did, two months ago. But not for Wii. Still not available for Wii, free or otherwise.

For the person with the four "classic" Wii guitars -- If you haven't bought RB3 yet, those are some things I would take into consideration. Plus -- Controllers for the Wii are harder to find and more expensive than they are for Xbox or PS3. The keytar seems to be about the same, but the drums were running a lot higher, and the old RB2 box sets, which are no longer being made, definitely more rare and valuable. You couldn't re-sell your guitars at Gamestop, but you could sell them on eBay, and buy PS3 ones, and have money left over. Probably. If you're good with eBay, and so inclined, it's worth checking.

Another factor -- reliability. RB3 is not the most stable game. Don't get me wrong -- we love it! We play it a lot! It crashes, we just wait a minute or two hoping it will come back -- sometimes it does -- and if it doesn't, we pop the card out (a bit of extra insurance to try to keep it from messing up the card) and press "Reset". Then hold down the power button if that doesn't work. Xbox and PS3 have had some patches released. Wii hasn't, and none are planned.

And yet I'm glad I have RB3 on the Wii. Why? Because I can play it over the Net with my friends. I have a PS3, so I could have gone that route, and might have asked for the PS3 version if I'd known then what I know now. But the friends I play with only have a Wii, and playing across the Net doesn't work cross-console, so I wouldn't have been able to play with them except on their rare visits. The dreamscapes are kind of painful, and it would be nice to see their avatars, and mine. But even knowing that they're playing on the other end, is still good.

So if you play with long-distance friends across the Net, that's a factor to consider when deciding which console to get RB3 for, if you have a choice.

This is definitely a better forum to seek advice. I've spent a lot of time at rockband.com (as Kelinmiriel), and there are some people who are really hostile towards those of us who play on a Wii. I haven't even seen a really good answer to why so many things are so unequal, but I have seen the question posed, and there are plenty of Xbox and PS3 fans there ready to attack the poster with Why would you do something so stupid as buy it for a Wii in the first place? (Maybe it's the only console he/she has?)

Another good place for info is scorehero.com. I've been getting a lot out of reading there; haven't felt the need to post anything yet.

Oh, and regarding the post about lyrics -- I noticed in one song we bought, Jimmy Buffet's "Volcano", that he had changed a few words. He must've re-recorded the song just for Rock Band, or at least part of it, because he sings about playing Rock Band. We might not have noticed it, but we were doing vocals on it. We all got a good laugh out of that! Probably brought our score down.

Sorry this is so long, but I hope some of it's useful.