The Official Rock Band Discussion Thread - Page 356

If the adapter winds up being the issue and you have one of the old style RB mics with the USB conversion pack on the plug end of the wire (and you can part with it), you can make a conversion cable and take the converter plug out of it. I did that to use a pro quality wireless set and have had no issues with RB3.

I envisioned this was intentional for some reason, like a light switch that is just fired up crackling for a second. Do tube amps do this, I have always owned solid state.

I guess it could be from DD switching to stereo or vice versa (I have DD disabled in game) but since I usually play on my HK setup I would expect to hear a pop/click when it switches sources.

Good to know, thanks. I'll probably get to troubleshooting this weekend.

I'll tell you guys if the Harmonix intro is intentional when I see it tomorrow on Dance Central.

Anybody with the Mustang who never played guitar before? Or who hasn't played recently enough to still have calluses on your fret-hand fingertips? If so, are the Mustang's fret buttons stinging your fingers?

Some guy in the RB forums thought that they would.

No need to wait, I just booted up with the TV volume up and the receiver off and there was no audio drop. Would appear to just be a momentary loss due to change in audio modes much the same way that if you had overscan turned off in RB2 it would switch to full screen 1 or 2 seconds into the intro video.

I'm coming to the impression that RB3 pro guitar is just far, far too forgiving. Playing two-finger power chords at medium difficulty, it doesn't matter if you strum both strings--either will do. If you're holding the proper fret(s) for a note or chord, you can strum all six strings and hit the note. Muted notes are a joke You can hit them without left-hand muting or palm muting open or with any fret held on the string--they're like "wild card" notes . I thought that it might be particularly forgiving in medium and easy difficult, but it's no different in hard (where it tosses in 3-finger power chords, some arpeggiated) and I'm assuming that experts the same. This seems like a pretty big bug in a game that's supposed to be teaching you to play.

Tomorrow morning I get an E-MU 5-DIN-MIDI-to-USB-MIDI converter cable. I can't wait to see how precise the Mustang is.

I haven't practiced much in IRL for over a decade, just occasional ~monthly jam sessions with friends. But no, the buttons don't even come close to hurting my fingers.

This Mustang is not even close to being "realistic", that is why in an earlier post I called BS on the HMX engineers when they said "It's just like a real guitar, just lighter" - and now my skepticism is validated. I need to be able to feel the strings vibrate to know where I am picking, and I need the Fret bumps to know how far i have repositioned my fingers during play.

The Mustang is a great surrogate, to "bridge" for Tab learning, but only until the Squire comes out (I'm on the Fender pre-order list!!!). But once the Real deal is delivered, I will likely never touch the Mustang again (it will become common property amongst my kids).

Rock Band 3 still does the overscan thing for me. You'd think the game could finally run at 720p, but oh well.

Gimme!

HMX didn't engineer the mustang Mad Catz did.

I never said HMX "Engineered" it. I was talking about an earlier post, showing the HMX Engineers gushing over the Guitar (like 12yo Girls at a Justin Beiber concert):
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...ostcount=10047

I called BS on it, and that they were shilling it. Their optimism was laughable, either that or they don't know jack-squat about real guitar playing. Don't get me wrong, I think it was a huge leap forward in the genre; and for $150 I am impressed with it, especially as a introduction step for non-IRL folks. But currently I have to play with lights-on, because the Mustang is sorely lacking in the "Tactile" area. It's all good though, I can happily hobble along until March...

This was the first thing that came to mind the first day I got the Mustang... I had played it for a few hours in daylight in one room, that night I tried it with a projector and thought, "I need to turn the lights on". I've never tried to play IRL guitar in that room with the projector but still...

One thing I will say for the Mustang as someone who had not played for a long time, at least it is getting me back into changing chords again. Even if it's just switching between a C and a G chord on the Medium version of 'Yoshimi', it can't hurt.

I've noticed during gameplay how forgiving it is if you don't strum all the correct strings in a chord but I thought maybe in the higher difficulties they may be more strict with that. That was a little bit of an eye-opener, but not a huge deal for me (as my playing is pretty sloppy). Sliding is not as much fun on the Mustang as it is in IRL guitar either.

I need to get on the pre-order list for the Squier, this is definitely a bridge but I think a decent one.

I wonder how popular the Squier will be? I plan on getting one, and will be preordering it on New Year's 2011. I don't think they will be making many past the initial shipment.

I think it's popularity will be hurt by the cost, because it comes in so high over the anecdotal $200 price-point. Many casual players simply won't dole out that kind of cash, especially with the MUstang being ~1/2 cost. Even a few folks I know, who are fairly competent IRL players, simply don't have the $$$ in this economy. It will be interesting to see what the interest in the Squier will be though.

I'm torn between pre-ordering versus waiting and hoping for an Amazon Lightning Deal like the $99 Wooden Strat controller I got.

I'll prolly pre-order...

I wasn't going to, but I think I'm going to pre-order it as well. The video above has me all excited about it.

I can offset the cost a little bit by selling the cheap electric guitar I got my son for Christmas last year that he hasn't picked up since. Should be able to offload that for $100 easily and just replace it with this one which will also work for RB3.

I felt a bit frustrated with pro-guitar mode last night. My gaming time is very tight because I also want to keep working on my iphone programming.

I need to keep plugging away at pro mode to get my basic skills down, but I miss the great feeling of 5* on legacy expert guitar. Even some DJ Hero 2 would be great, not enough hours in the day!!

I agree the price will scare away game fans but it might attract guitar players who want to play the game. There's a good chance the thing will be junk but even if it is, it is unique junk.

Anyway, Fender is opening preorders for 2 months so they will be sure to make the right amount. If it bombs, they just make the guitars for preorders and shut it down. If it's huge, they keep making them for a while.

i think pro mode instruments will be a huge hit, but it will take a while. slow and steady growth. i'm meaning the current batch: mustang, fender, keyboard, plus whatever else comes next year.

rb3 sales seem to be off to slow start, but i think word of mouth recommendations will win out in the end...

Actually, HMX did engineer the Mustang and all of the rest of the RB3 branded instruments. On the back of both it and the keyboard it say "Designed by HMX, Manufactured by Mad Catz". In pretty much any consumer electronics product, the designers and manufacturers have to work hand in hand to tweak the design such that it can be manufactured with a high enough yield to make it profitable, but I'm certain that the HMX engineers had control there.

As an engineer, I still don't want believe that they're flat out lying about their impressions, even though I disagree with Sylvain's opinion at this point. For one thing there'd little point in terms of influencing the few people who listen to the HMX podcast.

I haven't spent the hundreds of hours playing with it that they have and I'll assess how I feel about it when I have . I do doubt that I'll ever come to think that it feels "just like a guitar" or come to like it's weight. If they weren't going give it a fullsized body, they should have at least filled its body up with something (I should open it up--that might not be too hard to do ). I wish that I was a hardware guy--if I was I'd work on transplanting the guts of the Mustang into my dormant Peak Starpex fullsized wooden body PS3 guitar controller.

I've heard that HMX has a requirement for employment that candidates play an instrument. I'm sure that the hardware guy who said how much he was enjoying using the Mustang to learn guitar plays something else fluently, and that Dubrofsky probably plays guitar in a band (many HMX employees do and some of their recordings have been included in the game).

This morning I get an E-MU 5-DIN-MIDI-to-USB-MIDI interface cable and I'm going to check out how well the Mustang and keyboard work as MIDI controllers.

I'm an ME myself, and I know they didn't go and "Lie" like a Sales/Marketing Weasel would, but I still laugh every time I think about the line "Plays just like a real guitar". Believe me, if they said something perceived as even remotely candid about the Mustangs serious limitations - then they would get their heads handed to them from corporate row.

I know about the HMX "musicianship" requirement. OTOH, speaking as someone who attended a Fine Arts College (for a 1 year stint), being "in a band" doesn't actually mean one knows ANYTHING about instruments or how they should be played. Seriously, I have known many people in Boston area bands (some that have even had Contracts and toured) and *some* of those guys are the most untrained and downright dopey people I have ever met (I would say more than half); they know how to craft a catchy three-chord song and strut on stage, but I wouldn't want them servicing a $2,000 Les Paul - or trying to teach my kids formal Jazz.

Honestly, they aren't going to say, "wow this thing sucks and feels nothing like a real guitar." They HAVE to shill it if they want to make money, it IS a business after all. I don't know why you guys make a big deal about it. I knew the thing wasn't going to be worth $150 to ME, I'm waiting for the squire. There's no way in hell the thing is going to feel like a real guitar, that's obvious just looking at it.

The squire is still cheaper than the IONS.


And how are you on the pre-order list already? Who are you sleeping with?

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I NEED real strings, otherwise I'll just stick to legacy

As I pointed out when I quoted them is that they were spontaneous answers to an apparently more or less randomly posed question--they absolutely did not have to comment on the Mustang at all and could have choosen to praise any RB3 instrument, such as the keyboard or the Squier.

Well that's certainly true--the vast majority of successful recording artists and studio musicians can't read notes on sheet music or know anything about theory, but Dubrofsky's an engineer, head designer of these RB games. Every engineer I know who plays an instrument plays decently and knows some theory, though there are probably rough hacks out there in the engineering populous . This guy, however, works in a company full of musicians working on music-oriented software. They must jam together all the time. My point was that he almost certainly plays guitar a lot.

Maybe not when you add in shipping and midi adapter.

Touche. Good point, most of the Engineers I know that play do have at least a decent rudimentary knowledge of Theory & Technique. Not to mention good working knowledge of the Instrument's construction itself, after all "Geeks Be Geeks"!

The overweight middle-aged "Cat Lady" in Finance at HMX! Ya gotta make sacrifices if ya wanna get things done!

I dunno if I'm on any list, but the e-mail they sent me sounded promising...

BTW, "Game Linking" is now live on RockBand.com.

How strange it says I'm already linked but I was under the impression I was to get a code from the game (which I did at one point) and then input it into the webpage, which obviously I never did since the site was broken. Odd.