Rocksmith

[HaemishM]

Hell yes, I'll play that.

[Sky]

Every now and again someone on the RS subreddit asks for bass recommendations. I was thinking this list may be inspiring to some here but also I just want everyone to play more RS! :) Semi-random list of stuff I enjoy playing, mostly tried to stick to 1 per artist:

Cheap Sunglasses - ZZ Top
I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide - ZZ Top
Fairies Wear Boots - Sabbath
Little Child Runnin' Wild - Curtis Mayfield
Aces High - MaidenRemedy - Crowes
Call Me the Breeze - Skynyrd
One Way Out - Allman Bros
Interstate Love Song - STP
Evidence - FNM
Abigail - King Diamond
Great Gig in the Sky - Floyd
Train Kept A'rollin - Aerosmith
The Real Me - The Who
Circumstances - Rush
Roundabout - Yes
Blue Collar Man - Styx
Suck My Kiss - RHCP
Know Your Enemy - RATM
Soul Sacrifice - Santana
Summertime - Janis
Cicatriz ESP - Mars Volta
46 & 2 - Tool
Master of Puppets - Metallica
Move On - No Doubt
Pinnacle to the Pit - Ghost
Santeria - Sublime
Tramp - Otis Redding
Born Under a Bad Sign - Albert King
Carry On My Wayward Son - Kansas

Also I think I need to consult an osteo :( I think I've got osteoarthritis in the last knuckle (close to the tip) of my middle finger, right hand. My main thumper finger. Unable to play bass with my fingers, been doing some picking. This suuuuuuuucks.

[Velorath]

According to a recent earnings call, Rocksmith+ is apparently due out this quarter (so sometime before the end of Sept.).

[Sky]

I'll likely subscribe for the first year to support the project, but my experience with the beta leaves my less than hopeful. It should be interesting if they can manage to give me a reason to not just load up my massive existing library of awesome music. I think I'm fairly representative of the hardcore RS audience as far as music collection goes, and also a lot of the regulars don't use the default RTC-to-computer setup, so the improved sound engine (it really did sound noticeably better) is not a selling point.

For casuals without massive libraries and actual setups (either digital or analog), it should be a decent option.

Speaking of setups, I forgot to update with my new ABY setup. Wish I had done this years ago! My chain runs bass - whammy dt - darkglass photon, which splits the signal. One side goes to a little practice amp, the other is the RTC to the pc (for note detection in-game, instrument is turned down to 0 in the in-game mixer). Basically I'm using an amp setup for my bass sound but still getting in-game note detection. No latency and decent sound (the DG is nice but the amp is pretty meh).

The Photon has compression in the front stage, which is nice, as well as some basic EQ for tone shaping. When I was using RS for tones, I had a clean, a dirty, and an overdrive preset (you can only have 3 user-defined presets in RS). The Photon has 3 switches, so I set up a clean, dirty, and od. It's about a perfect setup for RS. I talked about the Whammy DT previously, it's just kind of tucked away to do my per-song tuning chores behind the curtain.

[HaemishM]

Based on the beta, I see no reason to subscribe. It needed a lot of work and was absolutely not an improvement on the RS2014. Take into account the giant library of songs I have on RS2014, and I'll just save that money.

[Sky]

I disagree about it not improving on 2014. The sound engine was vastly improved, with less latency. Detection was far better (too good, actually, which was noted during testing). Tab mode is actually in, though I feel it's still half-baked, it works. Chord charts are a cool addition, half the time I'm watching the RS chart just for changes, not reading the chart.

My problems overall are more about the direction away from the roots of RS1 as kind of a performance thing (the venues and shows w/encores) and towards something that is clearly Not For Me. The focus on RS as a learning tool over a performance tool, foremost. But also the flying emoji bullshit and entire layout of the UI being repulsive and taking a cue from the shitty doomscroll of streaming services that seem designed to hide the things you want to see and promote garbage.

Anyway. As I said, they get a year sub from my, out of goodwill. Where they take that is on them. I have my prepper box ready and waiting, hah (my old pc, never to be connected to the Internet again, and a server backing up my CDLC library).

Heck, I've even begun my project to get links working to the server so I can just drop the links into my dlc folder and mix & match my CDLC, highlight certain artists, etc. After that it's exploring how robust it will obey linking, I plan to try making 'playlist' folders on the server that I can toss links to songs (in their home artist folder), then drop that playlist folder link into /dlc. The end goal is to have no actual CLDC on the pc at all, just the purchased dlc, all the customs will just be dynamically added when I want to change things up. And even that I want to script to add/remove links with a batch file on a taskbar folder before I launch the game. But I, uhh, digress.

[Velorath]

Sept. 6th

[Velorath]

Song Library

[schild]

Song Library

if you want to call it that

[Sky]

I have 3 free months from the beta and I'm not sure I'll bother installing it.

The reason I'm so sure Ubi will shut down the forge despite all dev comments to the contrary is simple. Why would I load up an entirely different app to play that, uhh, smattering of songs (filter by bass charts to live in my world), rather than the Silk Sonic, Mars Volta, and hundreds of other artists I jam on the regular?

One thing I said was going to be telling was Skynyrd. They simply don't have the rights to the early stuff fans want to play, so there is a single shitty 1994 album of versions one guy in Topeka may favor but everyone else has never even heard. Same as the beta. Song selection and availability matters. There are definitely a few good songs in there, but I'm not sure there's enough for a single coherent playlist of 1-2 hours, let alone enough to generate enough playlist material to keep it fresh week after week (I normally play 2-4 sessions a week). That list is going to get stale wicked fast, well before my 3 free months is up.

The screenshots with the flying emoji bullshit (that has replaced any semblance of playing in front of an audience) is just icing on the shit cake. Whoever thought guitarists want to play to a screen of distracting nonsense like that instead of a fucking audience needs to have their heads examined.

To play devil's advocate (don't worry, it's brief): the sound engine, latency, and note detection should all be noticeably improved, as they were in beta. I split my signal to an amp and don't use the ingame sound engine (thus removing all latency), and dgaf about score, so...

[HaemishM]

What I said about the beta is doubly so in the release based on that song list. Why would I ever pay a sub price for a song list that is clearly inferior even to the vanilla, no-DLC version of 2014?

As for the design itself, it's clearly taken the design ethos of "build it like an app for the millenials" that way too many idiots in charge (or in marketing) think is the way to market to a younger audience.

[Sky]

I got excited because I saw someone mention King Diamond, there are a few tracks off Abigail and a live album...all just AI charts. Feels like they really expect the CDLC community to put in the work for them this time around.

The lack of any fresh updates about changes from the beta, no new screenshots...we've seen this dance before. They were clearly close to release when they did the beta and didn't have a plan for people so strongly disliking it. I WANT to like it, because RS is amazing. I just hope they can somehow No Man Sky their way back to a good game but most indications I got was that the devs don't see a problem with their choices. This is not an update from people with their heads in the game: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/rocksmith/plus/news-updates/jRUcL6HEPsWB07OFwIg5F/rocksmith-dev-diary-july-2022-art-design

I don't know how constrained they are by management/marketing/social media teams, but after the fundamental issues uncovered during the brief beta, this seems like an odd last update before launch. And really shit engagement from the social team. It would've been so trivial to have weekly polls to let fans vote on new songs to track. At least that would feel like they understood that the shit song selection was a problem. They don't.

I agree on first blush it seems like an overall worse lineup than vanilla previous versions. But I also didn't get into RS until I had collected a few years worth of DLC (Maiden, Rush). Even before I got into CDLC, I remember jamming with our old sound guy at his house. He only had vanilla RS14 and I begged him to let me log into my profile to use my DLC, as the crappy vanilla selections made the experience aggressively mediocre at best. The next time I jammed there, we ended up calling a drummer and just printing tabs off the Internet and jamming old-school in the basement. Songs matter.

[HaemishM]

The biggest problem with the song list still being shit a year later is that it shows where the dev team and/or publisher has their focus - on getting subscription fees with the lowest possible cost for the maximum profit. Once the development of the app is done, the biggest cost is going to be licensing new songs. If they aren't licensing good ones now, they aren't likely to focus too heavily on that in the future.

[Velorath]

This launches today. Based on how much I loved the previous Rocksmith games I would have subbed for a least a few months just to support them, but with the song catalog as it is, I can't even justify it. There's about three songs with Bass tracks currently that I'd play.

[Velorath]

Ok, I caved and subbed for a month. The song list is shit but I thought that maybe they'd made some improvements in lessons and such to make it a better learning tool. As someone who has only ever learned from previous Rocksmith games and never had any formal training, maybe they've made a more robust learning section that will teach me some new techniques or break me out of bad habits that I don't even realize I'm doing, or things to that effect.

And nope, it's pretty much the same kind of lessons they had before. It's all minute and a half videos followed by a track you can play on that covers all the same ground as the lessons in the previous games. If anything it may actually be worse than the previous games. This game is pretty much trash.

[HaemishM]

It's what Ubisoft has been putting out a lot lately - a clearly low effort app-like product wrapped around a live service subscription. I 100% expect them to only add a small amount of new material monthly for the cost of the sub, and to offer premium songs for added real money soon after.

[Sky]

It's hot fucking garbage. I play 6-12 hours/wk, every week. Did not subscribe. And I have 3 free months from the beta. Instead, I imported a few new tracks into RS14 and enjoyed me some Andy Gibb's Shadow Dancing (screw you it's a funky bassline and it fits in my newest setlist).

Literally every problem from the beta a year ago is still there. There is no reason to believe that even a year's sub will result in anything but a couple decent new charts, a ton of shit charts, and no fixes/upgrades to any features. Since that's what we have from the past year to judge it by.

That said, the new bass charts are really goddamned cool and I'm mad the game sucks so bad I won't get to enjoy them for at least several years. I want to give them my earth dollars so badly, it's amazing how they've phoned this in so poorly. Could not have less confidence in the dev team other than maybe the sound engine folks (but I split the instrument signal so this is a meaningless portion of the software for me) and the tabs/bass chart folks (though tabs could be much better).

I didn't really start putting in my regular weekly hours until a couple years after RS14 came out, so at the least I can just skip paying for this until they've done /something/.

At the end of the day, all they had to do was include charts for GOOD FUCKING SONGS. A lot of them. All the bitching would've been secondary, "These features all suck but man I still have a great time playing great songs" could've been the consensus. Instead it's "Same beta problems but hey 102 Wiggles songs (and not the popular one, apparently)". Wow.

edited to add: if you're subbed and playing bass Vel, check out the bass charts I mentioned: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/rocksmith/plus/news-updates/37P255QRlxXvNJN09l2asc/rocksmith-dev-diary-may-2022-bass-chord-charts Per a reddit user: "Make sure you enable the tab view when playing ARCHI bass (Automated Rocksmith Chord Interpreter. It's their machine learning tool that creates chord charts for bass and guitar) so you can see the other notes that are suggested to work well for the improv."

[Velorath]

I’ll check out the charts when I get a chance. Also as far as free months go, from beta or owning RS 2014, it’s “free” addition months with purchase of a sub as best as I can tell. So those 3 free months come with the purchase of an annual sub or I think you get one free month if you purchase the three month sub. They couldn’t even be bothered to give their fans a free trial period or anything.

[Sky]

Yeah, that's why I'm not subbing. I hope the game survives this early mismanagement.

[Sky]

Holy shit, it got worse. It's been ages since RS14 has been patched, suddenly a new patch that breaks mods drops right after their shit sequel slid out of their abyssal hole.

https://www.reddit.com/r/rocksmith/comments/xa49mq/important_update_coming_to_rocksmith_2014/

For now, you can work around by opting into an experimental branch (in the link), but there is a reason I was sounding the bell about this. Looks like keeping my old pc to just use as a Rocksmith machine was well warranted.

This is such a total shit move by Ubi. I take back my hopes of the previous post. Fuck these clowns.

[HaemishM]

I tried to launch it tonight and it wouldn't work at all. I had to poke around and find the beta code just to get in the game.

If I was reluctant to subscribe to plus before, I am adamant now. Fuck Ubisoft forever unto death. They ain't getting another dime from me.

[Cyrrex]

I am actually downloading 2014 as I write this.  I assume the custom forge stuff still works if set up properly?

[Sky]

For now you'll have to follow the instructions to opt into the old build (in the link above, just need the password for the beta settings panel) just to get RS working in general.

Buy Cherub Rock, as the config for CDLC is based on it. It gets delisted 2023 and the CDLC hack is based on it, but I don't think changing the ID is a big deal for the modders. Between the instructions on the site (which I haven't looked at in years tbh), and their forum/discord (and reddit if you don't mind redditors), it's not a big deal to get going.

I also use RSMods, mostly for the MIDI controlled pitch shift but it also has some great QoL stuff like skipping intro movies and auto-logging into your profile. CFSM (song manager) is also nice to fix old CDLC once you get into it. Be ready for CDLC to be real hit-or-miss. Bad tones, charts, sync, they can be a real mess sometimes. Eminently worth it for the variety, this game lives and dies by the library (see also: RS+ currently sucks due to crap library).

Once you have the old build downloaded, might be worth backing up the directory to be safe. Also, back up your CDLC! It's a weird time for RS in general but I think the community will find ways to keep RS14 alive. Hopefully not as drastic as simple me and my entire old pc dedicated to playing offline and avoiding any further Ubi fuckery.

[Cyrrex]

I actually got the regular install working just fine without the beta fix.  Have to work out the process for the custom forge still.

[Khaldun]

This all makes me so sad with my cheap electric bass that I got for my kid that she ended up not wanting to use sitting there waiting for me to use the Rocksmith for PS4 she never used and me thinking that I might do that someday to learn to play bass guitar.

[Cyrrex]

This all makes me so sad with my cheap electric bass that I got for my kid that she ended up not wanting to use sitting there waiting for me to use the Rocksmith for PS4 she never used and me thinking that I might do that someday to learn to play bass guitar.

It might be due my fresh install, but I just loaded up 2014 and all the custom mod stuff with zero problems.  Works flawlessly.  Even playing the bass very poorly, like me, is very satisfying.  Do it.

[Sky]

The modders got most of it working with the new patch pretty quickly. RSMods (which is essential for me) is still broken.

Khaldun, get RS14 on the next steam sale and start playing.

[Sky]

MeTaLlIcA iS aWeSoMe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDxnOMjqwPQ

RS+ is garbage.

[HaemishM]

What the actual fuck? 

[Velorath]

Is it bad that I know that that version is from the Spawn (the movie) soundtrack?

[Sky]

I still have that abomination of an album around somewhere, I think. We used to listen to it when I was running the loading docks, but we listened to a lot of high bpm garbage back then. Every time I stumble across one of those discs, I toss it in the library's free bin.

The people who did the licensing deals should all be fired. I have problems with the game beyond that but the tracks are laughable. Dollar Store Rocksmith.