Rock Band 3
- Thread starter Arwin
- Start date
I finally got the Mustang Pro Guitar controller today! First thing I did after assembling was trying the MIDI stuff. It worked better than I expected! Every string has its own channel, so you can put a bass sound on the bottom two strings and solos on the top, or use various settings and filters depending on your taste. You can use the square and cirlce buttons to shift an octave up or down really quickly. The only bummer for that is that you can't really do hammer ons/pull offs with it (though you can put it into a mode that does this, but that has other downsides of then not needing strums at all and having no fade away), or of course pitch bends. But other than that I like it, and I didn't expect it to be able to detect velocity when plucking the strings, but it does (though not a great range or precision for that). I like it and it works well with my rusty XV5050.
The onto the game. The training modes are decent if a little frustrating, as they can be a bit aggressive in pausing the tutorial to point out your holding the wrong fret or string, which for me personally holds back the learning, but could work well for others who just don't realise what they are doing wrong. There is a pretty substantial amount of training in the game and I benefit from it even though I've been playing a long time.
I found that the actually playing songs works great when you know what to play roughly both from reading the highway and remembering the sounds, but when you don't know the song well enough, then when you miss the notes you can't hear what you're actually doing, and that is hard - I learn to play along with songs by ear, and when I both can't hear the original song, and can't hear the actual notes being played, that makes learning really difficult! I'm pretty sure I'll get used to it soon enough though, but it basically requires to you learn to read the notes from the highway really well.
I have no real issues otherwise - technicallly everything seems to work well and lag-free.
The onto the game. The training modes are decent if a little frustrating, as they can be a bit aggressive in pausing the tutorial to point out your holding the wrong fret or string, which for me personally holds back the learning, but could work well for others who just don't realise what they are doing wrong. There is a pretty substantial amount of training in the game and I benefit from it even though I've been playing a long time.
I found that the actually playing songs works great when you know what to play roughly both from reading the highway and remembering the sounds, but when you don't know the song well enough, then when you miss the notes you can't hear what you're actually doing, and that is hard - I learn to play along with songs by ear, and when I both can't hear the original song, and can't hear the actual notes being played, that makes learning really difficult! I'm pretty sure I'll get used to it soon enough though, but it basically requires to you learn to read the notes from the highway really well.
I have no real issues otherwise - technicallly everything seems to work well and lag-free.
Harmonix became independent:
http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=211766
Over at GAF, I said I hope to see more quality music software from them in the future (not just QTE based ones). Got a bunch of hate replies. ^_^
I really mean it.
http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=211766
Over at GAF, I said I hope to see more quality music software from them in the future (not just QTE based ones). Got a bunch of hate replies. ^_^
I really mean it.
Follow up on my Pro-Mode impressions (from GAF):
Well, like I said it can do them, but then that requires you to be in a different mode (one where you can do the Van Halen type stuff, by not having to actually use the strings at all). Other than that though, the implementation is pretty good.
Yeah. I have to say though, I am getting used to it slowly. It basically requires you to memorize the positions and find them nearly blindly. This is a bit of a bugger in the beginning, but it does make me play better. This game is also really good for my plectrum work - I have always been more of a finger picking style player, but although that works much better than I expected (and is in some sense easier for determining where your fingers are on the strings than a pick), I'm trying to use a pick right now to improve that part of my playing.
I worked my way through most of the tutorials now and 95%'d one of the songs in there, and worked my way through the first two tutorials and started on the advanced tutorial now as well. They are generally pretty good, I have to say. The one that I stopped at and was giving me a hard time is the one with barred chords, as my fingers easily slip to the next frets and the buttons are really sensitive.
I don't quite like how aggressively the tutorials stop you when you make a mistake and wait until you get everything right again. I can see why it does that, but it just seems to do that a little too agressively.
As for the regular song playing, I initially thought I would just go for Extreme right away and that this would be easier to learn because it matches with what I hear, but now that it has become more about learning to read the notations first, I have settled to do some Medium work first, and that's coming along fine now.
A final little annoyance is that the chord numbering modifier is reset each time I boot up the game, so I have to keep switching it on. I really do prefer that mode for reading, and wish it would be standard.
jgkspsx said:
Well, like I said it can do them, but then that requires you to be in a different mode (one where you can do the Van Halen type stuff, by not having to actually use the strings at all). Other than that though, the implementation is pretty good.
Yeah. I have to say though, I am getting used to it slowly. It basically requires you to memorize the positions and find them nearly blindly. This is a bit of a bugger in the beginning, but it does make me play better. This game is also really good for my plectrum work - I have always been more of a finger picking style player, but although that works much better than I expected (and is in some sense easier for determining where your fingers are on the strings than a pick), I'm trying to use a pick right now to improve that part of my playing.
I worked my way through most of the tutorials now and 95%'d one of the songs in there, and worked my way through the first two tutorials and started on the advanced tutorial now as well. They are generally pretty good, I have to say. The one that I stopped at and was giving me a hard time is the one with barred chords, as my fingers easily slip to the next frets and the buttons are really sensitive.
I don't quite like how aggressively the tutorials stop you when you make a mistake and wait until you get everything right again. I can see why it does that, but it just seems to do that a little too agressively.
As for the regular song playing, I initially thought I would just go for Extreme right away and that this would be easier to learn because it matches with what I hear, but now that it has become more about learning to read the notations first, I have settled to do some Medium work first, and that's coming along fine now.
A final little annoyance is that the chord numbering modifier is reset each time I boot up the game, so I have to keep switching it on. I really do prefer that mode for reading, and wish it would be standard.
Recycling content? You should write for a gaming news site! 
I've been unable to play as much RB3 lately as this time of year gets very hectic both personally and professionally. I tend to just want to veg out and play games I don't have to focus on as much. My progress up to the point where I started playing less had been pretty steady on Pro drums and I was most of the way through the Medium tier. Had some issues on parts of some of the later songs on this tier (not enough to fail), but overall I'm still able to sightread most of what I'm playing and get 90+%. I also tried out freestyle mode to play along with some of the music tracks stored on my PC and found that I could do a very credible job on some of them (Aerosmith's "Dream On" is a favorite). I plan to get back in full steam ahead after the holiday and see if I can get through Hard tier. Then, once I get to Expert, my plan is to not only complete each track but go for 5 stars before I move on since at that point I should be learning the full notation (alas, minus the high-hat pedal).
I've been unable to play as much RB3 lately as this time of year gets very hectic both personally and professionally. I tend to just want to veg out and play games I don't have to focus on as much. My progress up to the point where I started playing less had been pretty steady on Pro drums and I was most of the way through the Medium tier. Had some issues on parts of some of the later songs on this tier (not enough to fail), but overall I'm still able to sightread most of what I'm playing and get 90+%. I also tried out freestyle mode to play along with some of the music tracks stored on my PC and found that I could do a very credible job on some of them (Aerosmith's "Dream On" is a favorite). I plan to get back in full steam ahead after the holiday and see if I can get through Hard tier. Then, once I get to Expert, my plan is to not only complete each track but go for 5 stars before I move on since at that point I should be learning the full notation (alas, minus the high-hat pedal).
rendezvous
Regular
I just got my Midi Pro controller which I'm planning to use with Yamaha AN1X and Rockband PS3.
I don't have much time to play with it today but if you have any questions about it I should be able to have a look at it during the weekend.
I don't have much time to play with it today but if you have any questions about it I should be able to have a look at it during the weekend.
I'd be curious to hear some general impressions about ease of setup and use..
rendezvous
Regular
Setup couldn't possibly be easier. Plug MIDI cable from MIDI out on the keyboard to the controller and plug the controller in the USB port of the PS3. That was all the setup needed.
The adapter has the controls you need in the game including a boost button.
You can clip it onto a belt or have it on a flat surface, the rubber feet makes it stay in place.
The pitch bend controller on the keyboard also worked without a hitch.
The only cons I've noticed so far is that you can't control the game navigation UI (e.g. selecting tracks or go to the next song with the keyboard, you need to use the controller) and that the controller smells bad.
As i expected it gets enormously much harder when you have some 20-30 keys you can press instead of the 5 on the guitar.
Matter of being used to it though - I played it at a LAN party the other day and managed to do Hard and Expert on some songs first try (not flawless, but still), using the Keytar. I was surprised at how easy it was, but most stuff in Rockband seems pretty much made for one hand, and playing keyboard is so much harder when you are used to trying to learn to play two handed stuff.
Pro-Guitar is WAAAAAAY harder.
Good to hear though about the MIDI controller - although I liked the keytar, I think I'd prefer a keyboard of my own that me and my kid can also get sound out of without having to plug it into something and play full piano stuff on. Though all things considered, the keytar is only some 20-30 euro more than the Midi adapter, so I may get it anyway eventually for convenience / wireless sake.mm... yeah, I've got the keytar. Haven't had much time since I got it, but I did find it rather awkward to use two-handed the couple songs I tried out briefly. I just found it difficult to sync with what I was seeing on screen (for pro keys) for some reason. I'll get around to trying it again sometime, but it was a bit demoralizing.
So, it's been a while since I talked about my RB3 experience. After using the Pro Drums extensively I found that playing with the plastic guitars was so comparably unsatisfying that when someone else wanted to play drums (and I always make it guests' choice) I wasn't really having much fun. There were some exceptions like Meatloaf's "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" which on Expert Bass is actually really challenging and fun and the Bass parts of songs in general feel like a better analog than the guitar parts do, but I used the enjoyment and use I've gotten out of my Pro Drums setup to justify my purchase of the Fender Squier and Midi Pro adapter. I missed out on the first batch of pre-ordered guitars so didn't receive mine until a little over a week ago.
So far I found the best way to approach learning is to go into the Career mode for Pro Guitar and do each goal. This provides a nice mix of skill-based drills and learning of songs to keep the process from getting too monotonous. And given the STEEP initial learning curve, I didn't need to deal with monotony on top of the difficulty. :/ It didn't take long for the callouses to develop, though during one night of me stubbornly trying to complete a section of drills I found that my left-hand fingertips were all black-and-blue. It's been over 15 years since I seriously tried to play a stringed instrument and I forgot that there was some pain involved! I also since then had broken my left wrist and never fully realized how much flexibility I had lost as a result. I'm pretty determined to push through all this, though, and ATM my biggest obstacle is something else I had forgotten about playing a stringed instrument -- strings break. I had just finished learning Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People" and was having some fun playing it with the mute off (you generally want to play the guitar with the mute engaged as the freely-vibrating strings will screw up the guitar's strum detection and bone your score) when twang went my "A" string. And of course I never thought to buy replacement strings and haven't had a chance to go to a music store to buy more.
So that's where things stand now. I find the Career - My Goals structure to be very helpful in keeping my interested and motivated to learn new skills and hope to develop a good repertoire of songs (on Medium difficulty) so that the next time I have a friend or friends over to play I can acquit myself well and then to continue building from there. Now -- back to trying to get my fingers into unnatural positions.
So far I found the best way to approach learning is to go into the Career mode for Pro Guitar and do each goal. This provides a nice mix of skill-based drills and learning of songs to keep the process from getting too monotonous. And given the STEEP initial learning curve, I didn't need to deal with monotony on top of the difficulty. :/ It didn't take long for the callouses to develop, though during one night of me stubbornly trying to complete a section of drills I found that my left-hand fingertips were all black-and-blue. It's been over 15 years since I seriously tried to play a stringed instrument and I forgot that there was some pain involved! I also since then had broken my left wrist and never fully realized how much flexibility I had lost as a result. I'm pretty determined to push through all this, though, and ATM my biggest obstacle is something else I had forgotten about playing a stringed instrument -- strings break. I had just finished learning Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People" and was having some fun playing it with the mute off (you generally want to play the guitar with the mute engaged as the freely-vibrating strings will screw up the guitar's strum detection and bone your score) when twang went my "A" string. And of course I never thought to buy replacement strings and haven't had a chance to go to a music store to buy more.
So that's where things stand now. I find the Career - My Goals structure to be very helpful in keeping my interested and motivated to learn new skills and hope to develop a good repertoire of songs (on Medium difficulty) so that the next time I have a friend or friends over to play I can acquit myself well and then to continue building from there. Now -- back to trying to get my fingers into unnatural positions.
Great! I'm jealous you got both the Squier and the Pro Drum kit, and I have to make do with the GH3 Drum Kit and the Mustang ... Nah, not really, I'm actually still quite happy with both!
Add me on PSN if you're on PS3 (niwrA).
Also, the next download pack is mine! Though more for Black Magic Woman than this nightmare.
Nah, not really, I'm actually still quite happy with both!Add me on PSN if you're on PS3 (niwrA).
Also, the next download pack is mine! Though more for Black Magic Woman than this nightmare.
Great! I'm jealous you got both the Squier and the Pro Drum kit, and I have to make do with the GH3 Drum Kit and the Mustang ...
Add me on PSN if you're on PS3 (niwrA).
Also, the next download pack is mine! Though more for Black Magic Woman than this nightmare.
Unfortunately 360 here.
I think there might be a keytar in my future. Heck I have 3 mics, a Pro Drum kit and an old GH2 guitar. I may as well complete the set.
I couldn't agree more about Black Magic Woman. A must have. It was even good on GH3 in fake-plastic and Neversoft form.
Ok so it is not as great as the version in GH3, but the Pro mode makes up for it. In fact, I also really love the Pro Bass chart. Tried it twice and am now ranking 4th in the world ... The drum chart is great as well. And that other 60s song with the flutes at the end is fantastic for drums too, and normal guitar has you play some brass, hilarious, and great song.
The drum chart is great as well. And that other 60s song with the flutes at the end is fantastic for drums too, and normal guitar has you play some brass, hilarious, and great song.wow that looks like hellGreat! I'm jealous you got both the Squier and the Pro Drum kit, and I have to make do with the GH3 Drum Kit and the Mustang ...
Add me on PSN if you're on PS3 (niwrA).
Also, the next download pack is mine! Though more for Black Magic Woman than this nightmare.
Clearly "guitarpro" seems better suited for this kind of speed as you have a beter chance to spot patterns. Still I find the idea to learn new songs through a game interesting but the cost of the 102 "buttons" plastic guitar seems prohibitiv to me. Does it feel good/ correct (I suppose you play guitar too as otherwise the pro mod would be a hell of a challenge not too speak of dragon force, why not Shawn Lane while we're at it ).
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http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=426419
Bestbuy and amazon apparently sell Rockband now for $20. If you don't have it yet, now is the time!
Bestbuy and amazon apparently sell Rockband now for $20. If you don't have it yet, now is the time!
