SteveStreeting.com

My new guitar arrived this weekend

It’s a Pacifica 112V, and I picked the Old Violin Sunburst finish. I’m really impressed by the quality of it, considering this is a beginner / intermediate guitar and will leave you with change out of £200. Everything feels really solid, and there are nice little touches like the polished fretboard and the chunky, satisfying chrome tone & volume knobs. Even the guy in our local guitar shop (who has a ton more experience than I do, obviously, and is a high-end Strat user) commented on how impressed he was with the quality, since this was the first of the newer model they’d had in. That made me feel better about deciding to order the new (slightly more expensive) model rather than take the older version they already had in stock and had trialed earlier.

The main difference with this model apart from the slightly revised looks is that it has upgraded pickups (Alnico V instead of ceramic as in previous models) and the ability to turn the bridge humbucker into single-coil mode so it can replicate a traditional Strat sound. Having played with the various options I was quite surprised at the number of sound variations you can get without ever touching the amp settings.

I’m having a little trouble with keeping it in tune for the moment, but that’s normal considering it’s brand new with brand new strings, it’ll no doubt take a few days to settle in. Plus I do need to get a plug-in chromatic tuner; I’d been using Tuna Pitch on the Mac with my accoustic so never bought a separate tuner,  but that doesn’t work so well with an electric so I’ve been doing it by ear, which is not that reliable. I’d anticipated this and ordered a tuner last week but Amazon seem to be being slow these days; hopefully that will turn up tomorrow.

Now, all I have to do is become worthy enough to play without headphones

Some of the Rock Band full-album DLC I’ve been really looking forward to is finally getting released next week; The Colour and the Shape by Foo Fighters. Finally I can play Monkey Wrench again (it was in Guitar Hero 2 - although only in cover form), plus the bonus of classics like My Hero, Hey! Johnny Park and - well, there really aren’t any bad tracks on this album.

The only shame is that I have the remastered & extended version of the album, which includes an extra 6 tracks, but none of those have made it in, it’s strictly the original version of the album. Ah well, can’t complain really.

Now, please please please can we have DOA and The Pretender?

Oh, and did you notice they actually spelt ‘Colour’ correctly

Edit: The MTV Multiplayer Blog now has a write up of using GH:WT drums with Rock Band too.

I’m still of the opinion that Harmonix make the most fun music software, and a lot of veteran players agree with me (except Eurogamer, who said GH3 was ‘better in every way’ than GH2, which IMO is total nonsense). However, Red Octane tend to make good hardware - personally although I own both I much prefer the Rock Band Strat to the GH3 Les Paul, but I know I’m in a minority there even among RB fans. The GH:WT drums have been getting some very good reviews, despite a few sensitivity issues which sound like they’re being addressed (Activision is going to allow you to download a PC-based software package that you can use to tweak the sensitivity on the drums, which is pretty damn cool).

Therefore, given the cross-compatibility between the instruments now - on PS3 GH:WT drums don’t work on RB2 yet but that sounds like it’s being fixed - what would be the best route for drum hardware, assuming Rock Band 2 is going to be your main choice of software? Does the cross-compatibility really work in practice, and is it the best route even if it does?

Firstly, here’s a video of someone using GH:WT drums with RB2:

Sounds like it works pretty well, the hardware is obviously good and it functions in RB2 mostly the way you’d expect. Maybe a little confusing in the mapping, since it’s designed for a different game, and it’s a real shame that only one cymbal does anything (the hi-hat); the crash cymbal doesn’t work. Also he mentions like most people that the weak point of the GH:WT drums is the pedal, since it’s plastic rather than metal like the RB2 pedal, and some people find it moves around a bit too much. I’m guessing that mods will appear for that though, just like they did for the weaknesses in the RB1 drums.

An alternative to get a comparable version of the functionality is to use the RB2 drums and mod them with cymbals. The RB2 kit has 3 cymbal inputs, and several companies produce optional add-ons (Mad Catz officially, other companies unofficially), like this (this is the official set):

The difference here is that you’ve had to buy the cymbals separately, but all 3 of them actually work with RB2 instead of just the hi-hat as with the GH:WT drums. but, of course it costs you a little extra (although that could be offset by not having to buy a pedal reinforcer since RB2’s pedal is already metal).

Personally I don’t think I’ll switch my modded drums just yet, which work well, unless they die - at which point I’ll have to consider whether to go down the RB2, GH:WT or Ion drumset path. But for those buying hardware soon, assuming RB2 being the main software you use, the pros/cons would seem to stack up like this:

Obviously the Ion is out there on its own, but when comparing the RB2 and GH:WT kit it’s actually closer than I thought. I expected GH:WT drums to be a no-brainer, but the fact that in practice only one cymbal works with RB2, plus the fact that you’ll probably want to mod the pedal anyway, makes it a much closer race.

My conclusion - I think if you’re not the modding type, then the GH:WT drums would be a better bet out of the box - even if only one cymbal works with RB2, it’s still raised so will probably make it feel more realistic than RB2’s kit out of the box - and presumably you just hope you don’t snap the pedal (and experience with RB1 suggests some might). However, if you’re looking for more long-term and are willing to do a little modding and add the cymbals to RB2, I think the RB2 kit looks a little better, because you can get up to 3 cymbals working the way they should and the mapping from software to what you play is clearer. Also, although within the game the cymbals just duplicate the pads to retain compatibility, in the drum trainer they are all separate inputs (so a max of 8 separate inputs compared to 5 on the GHWT kit when used with RB2); kick pedal, 1 snare, 3 toms, hi-hat, crash and ride cymbals) so if you’re looking to learn how to play drums properly it’s a pretty good bet if you don’t want to splash out on a real drumkit (or the Ion). There’s also the possibility that in future Harmonix games they might start adding gameplay elements for these separate cymbals too. I think if my RB1 modded drums die, that’s what I’d go for, unless I’m feeling flush enough to go large with the Ion kit, because I don’t mind spending a little extra to mod my drums (as I’ve done already). As ever, you may prefer otherwise but hopefully this adds a little more concrete information for you to base that on.

Finally - after a lot of speculation about whether it was a mistake that a 360 advert announced that RB2 was out in the UK in November, it’s been confirmed for 21st November (on 360 anyway). Definite purchase! The hardware apparently won’t be out until early December, but I’ll be buying the solus anyway.

Also we finally know who ‘won’ when it comes to securing the rights for the first Beatles tracks in a music game, and it’s MTV / Harmonix. I can’t imagine how much they had to pay, or what they had to promise, but it’s definitely happening. I’m personally not a huge Beatles fan, I think they made some great songs but are idolised far too much - I can think of a number of bands I think were just as important in the last 30-40 years, and I really don’t subscribe to the view that the Beatles are the best band ever without question, and will be forever - some fans seem to verge on religeous fervour in this regard, which is a little scary. In fact I find the whole suggestion that one band could be ‘the best ever’ offensive. It’s like saying one painter mattered more than any other in the history of art - total nonsense.

While I’m pleased to hear the ‘better’ team got the license here, what’s concerning is that the galloping hubris / idol worship that seems to regularly orbit the Beatles seems to have affected how they’re going to develop this game. They’ve announced that this is a brand new game, not a Rock Band pack, crafted specifically around the Beatles in a ‘unique and innovative’ way. This sounds like it might be at risk of ‘rubbing its own rhubarb’ to me - I trust Harmonix to make great music games, but will they end up being constrained / railroaded in terms of design here, to the detriment of the gamer? Only time will tell.

It appears that despite many people having their hands on the game, the ever-present review embargo appears to be stopping most from commenting so far, but IGN appears to have been the first of the game enthusiast sites to get a review of Guitar Hero World Tour posted.

I don’t go by scores personally, I advise you to read the full review. It’s only one opinion so far, but to me, there are a couple of elements that make it sound like Neversoft may have missed some fairly important points again. By far the most important thing I saw in this review is that in ‘band mode’, it only takes one person failing to immediately bomb everyone out of the song. They say there’s no option to ’save’ people like in Rock Band 1, and of course Rock Band 2 added ‘no fail mode’ which I can see us turning on, particularly in party mode. It simply sucks for everyone when the whole song fails in multiplayer because one person gets into trouble - the person failing feels bad, and everyone else gets their play interrupted - much better just to get a crappy score at the end (in practice in RB1 you can’t get less than about 70% because any less than that and you’d have failed beyond the ability for others to save you). Harmonix listened to the fans on this for RB2 - and since RB1 has been out for a year I would have expected GHWT to learn from this too and include RB2’s no fail mode, but in fact it doesn’t seem to even equal RB1 since you can’t ’save’ others. Quite an odd decision - but then the GH3 designers somehow thought boss battles were cool too.

One thing I do like though is that you can activate star power when you want with the microphone (not sure about the drums). When it comes to ’saving’ people this is an issue in RB1 - although the no fail mode will get rid of it.

Unsurprisingly there are some people complaining in forums about instrument failures already - drum pads not working properly, guitar slide bars being erratic, that kind of thing.  I’m not really sure why people thought GHWT’s peripherals would be immune to the same teething problems RB’s had - even though Red Octane have a large amount of experience, anything new always has a few rough edges, especially when you’re talking about mass production. It’s way too early to tell if this is just a small proportion or a larger pattern but it’s not really news - it would have only been news if things had gone perfectly.

So, not a great start on the review front for GHWT; I can’t say I’m that surprised considering the disappointing GH3, but we’ll see as the review embargo lifts what other people thought. I have to say that embargoing reviews until after the release date of a product is a little suspect.

[edit]Well, a few more reviews are in now and it appears IGN was on the lowest end of the scale so far. Still, the text of every review still seems to indicate that the band mode / party play is the weak point, due to the instant-fail,  clunky interface layout and less interesting band career mode. So, it looks like it depends on your play style - as someone who never really plays these music games alone (unless I’m practicing), co-op and party play are the #1 priority, so weakness in this area is a turn off for me (just like it was in the horribly broken GH3 co-op play, although this doesn’t sound as bad). Although the extra songs would be nice, on balance I think I’ll save my money and spend it on RB DLC instead. Those who haven’t taken the RB plunge yet might be good to get the hardware though, assuming the failures reported so far aren’t systemic.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I plan to get an electric guitar in the next month or two to complement the accoustic that I’ve been learning on. I’ve done a bit of research, assisted greatly by the responses given to my previous post (thanks chaps), and I’m pretty certain that I’ve found the right combination for the immediate future. I’m still very much a beginner so there’s no point spending a ton of cash, but nevertheless it doesn’t hurt to try to get the best I feel I can afford/justify.

Guitar - Yamaha Pacifica 112V (link)

I still like the feel of the Fender Stratocaster, but I also liked the sound of the Humbuckers on other models (like the Les Paul) - the Pacifica is a nice middle ground in that it’s shares the physical structure of the Strats while replacing the Strat’s 3 single pickups with 2 singles and a Humbucker at the bridge, which gives a good range of sounds when used in various combinations via the 5-way selector.

In addition, pretty much every review I read says the Pacificas are built considerably better than the entry-level Squier Stratocasters. From what I hear you’d have to pay around double the price for a Strat to get the same build quality, so what you lose in ‘brand power’, you gain in value for money.

I’m no expert, but from what I hear it seems like a good bet for someone at my modest level.

Amp - Line 6 Spider III 15W (link)

I don’t need anything particularly powerful, but something with decent sound and a few effects. Nothing too fancy or overwhelming, just decent quality sounds - I can always buy a Pod later if I want more range, or a bigger valve based amp if I want to go nuts, but both  are going to be overkill at this stage.

This amp seems to have gotten some good reviews as a beginner / practice amp and the guy in our local store recommended it too, although he’d sold his last one today so I couldn’t actually try it out.

I’m pretty happy with that lineup, it’s actually less than I’d budgeted to potentially spend originally (coming in around £200 in total), but on reflection is probably pitched about right for my current expertise, which can be classified as ‘can play a few songs barely adequately’.

Feedback welcome as always!

Well, Harmonix confirmed the list of 20 ‘free’ DLC tracks included in the Rock Band 2 retail bundle, and here it is:

The 88 - “Sons and Daughters”
Authority Zero - “No Regrets”
Between the Buried and Me - “Prequel To The Sequel”
The Cab - “Bounce”
The Chevelles - “Get It On”
The Cocktail Slippers - “Give It To Me”
Dealership - “Database Corrupted”
Endeverafter - “I Wanna Be Your Man”
The Ghost Hounds - “Ashes To Fire”
Hollywood Undead - “Young”
Kutless - “The Feeling”
The Len Price 3 - “If I Ain’t Got You”
Lesley Roy - “I’m Gone, I’m Going”
Opiate for the Masses - “Burn You Down”
Semi-Precious Weapons - “Magnetic Baby”
Shaimus - “Like a Fool”
Thenewno2″ - Crazy Tuesday”
Tickle Me Pink - “The Time Is Wrong”
Underoath - “Desperate Times, Desperate Measures”
X Japan - “I.V.”

The first surprise that the entire list is made up of lesser known bands - a lot of people, me included, assumed that Harmonix was keeping some headliners in their back pocket to undermine some of the GHWT marketing; perhaps the inexplicably missing tracks from the recent Nevermind DLC for example (Come As You Are and Smells Like Teen Spirit, the two most recognisable tracks, were not part of the Nirvana release). But no, the entire list is staunchly ‘indie’, and it’s annoyed and delighted people in seemingly equal measure.

Firstly, the downside: everyone knows and likes headline bands and signature tracks. In a ‘party’ situation especially, almost no-one picks tracks they don’t know. That’s a shame, because there’s some real gems even in my current listing that occasional players just pass over in favour of playing the same few tracks they know all the time; I do try to counter that by picking different songs when I’m doing vocals even though that’s tough when you’re less familiar. Playing in the World Tour mode with friends resulted in them commenting on tracks they’d never heard of but ended up really liking. But, the fact is when people drop in for a quick party game, there’s a good chance they’ll resist playing anything they don’t already know, so most of these 20 songs will probably never get played in that setting, making them less useful.

On the plus side though, I’ve started listening to these tracks and I already like maybe 70% of them, and a couple have been really excellent. Harmonix have said in the past that one of their goals is to introduce people to new music, and by doing this they certainly tick that box - after all, where else but in a ‘free’ 20-song set could you pack in things people wouldn’t have heard of? Regular DLC from less well known bands tends to be cheaper in Rock Band, but there’s nothing like ‘free’ to really disseminate music.

It was always fun in the first 2 Guitar Hero games to play tracks from small bands the Harmonix team and their friends were members of, like Freezepop and Honest Bob And The Factory to Dealer Incentives, bands I would never have encountered outside indie gigs in Boston, and this track pack follows firmly in that vein. After getting over the initial shock of the fact that I didn’t recognise most of the names on this list, and after listening to some of the tracks, I’ve come around to the positive camp on this. There’s a really good range even in the small number of tracks I’ve listened to so far, some speed metal, pop/rock, blues/funk, indie, punk - so I’m sure most people will find something they like in here; I certainly have. While headline bands would have been an instant PR win, in the grand scheme of things it’s nice to be randomly exposed to some unknown music every so often - after all how would you find new bands you like otherwise?

Ok, so my suspicions about the reasons behind Rock Band: AC/DC breaking the usual customer-friendly mould of Rock Band appear to have been confirmed:

The reason “AC/DC Live” can’t be purchased at your local EB Games or Best Buy is because of the deal that AC/DC had already struck with Wal-Mart as an exclusive distributor of their upcoming album, “Black Ice.” The negotiations with AC/DC over the track pack required that Harmonix become part of the existing Wal-Mart agreement.

Even more damning is a quote from Angus Young to the Telegraph:

“We don’t make singles, we make albums,” said Young. “Way back in the Seventies, we drew these figures on the back of an envelope for our record company. We showed them how much they earned from us if we sold one million singles and how much they earned if we sold one million albums. The difference was staggering . . . If we were on iTunes, we know a certain percentage of people would only download two or three songs from the album - and we don’t think that represents us musically.”

Doesn’t represent you musically? What you actually mean is that restricting customer choice works for you financially, because if customers could only pick the songs they actually liked you’d make less money. My only dilemma is which box to check on my ‘why bands ignore their customers and don’t list on download sites’ form: is it the ‘Arrogant snobbery’ or ‘Money-grabbing shill’ box in this case? I think I’ll check both.

Any band that thinks they are somehow ‘above’ the people that buy their music and feel they can disallow customers from buying it the way they want have their heads firmly wedged up their own arses, and deserve everything they get when people download their music for free.

Yes, this is a rant; I hate this kind of attitude and I’m also cranky from not being able to play drums for over a week thanks to my back

I’ve been learning to play accoustic guitar for a little over a year now, and although I still dispair at overall quality of my playing sometimes, I can still acknowledge that I’ve made a lot of progress, considering I started from zero. My renditions of Stairway to Heaven, Ziggy Stardust and Wonderwall are at least recognisable, if not hugely flattering.

During particularly busy periods it’s hard to find the time to practice, which has sometimes led to a frustrating cycle of starting to lose callouses, finger strength and muscle memory, and then having to spend time building them back up again, which makes you feel like you’re not making any progress. So in the past few weeks I’ve been making an extra effort to find 30 minutes to play every day, even if that means delaying getting back to that work issue that’s bugging me for a while, and that’s definitely helped with my consistency.

I’ve got to the stage where I think I’d like to have an electric guitar as well as the accoustic, so I can start trying out a few different styles. This is a generally more expensive proposition of course, and I’d like to get a decent one that will last me for a good while. While my skills don’t justify buying a seriously high-end instrument, I’m certainly willing to spend a decent amount to get a quality ‘axe’ that will last a few years and grow with me.

I was in town today so I popped into our local guitar shop to play with a few. I liked the visual style of the Gibson Les Pauls, but actually when I played them, I preferred the overall feel of the Fender Stratocaster. I also really liked the Ibanez ARX which seemed kind of half way between the Les Paul and the SG.

Any opinions from more experienced guitarists (not difficult)? I have a couple of months yet before I plan to buy and I’m intending to drop in to try a few more out in between.

Oh, and in the land of make-believe instruments (which is considerably easier), my wife and I passed a couple of milestones last night. We’re starting to both play on Expert now, and we got our first set of five gold stars (which requires everyone to play on Expert and score above a certain threshold), and I also got this:

Finally! I’d already had She Bangs the Drums in GH3, but it’s not one of the Roses’ best tracks and the GH3 implementation was, typically, not that much fun.

There’s a small handful of tracks on Guitar Hero : World Tour that I would like to see in Rock Band, and one was Love Spreads by The Stone Roses. Luckily next week’s Rock Band DLC includes this track, so that’s one crossed off my list. It’s still not one of my favourite tracks, but it’s still quintessentially Stone Roses and more interesting than She Bangs the Drums - I’m certainly looking forward to the Harmonix take on John Squire’s riffs and Reni’s drums.

The Stone Roses did a massive amount to shake up the tired 80’s music scene and were in the vanguard of early Indie in the early 90’s, but are still ignored by a lot of people today. A combination of poor management, dodgy legal problems and their own incredible stupidity meant they didn’t realise their potential, but I remember the first time I heard Fool’s Gold - in 1989/1990 it was just so different. For anyone interested, the BBC did a documentary about the Roses which is fairly informative although I think they dismiss their second, admittedly 6-year late, album (Second Coming) a little too quickly; despite them being out of fashion by then and no longer fresh (since the sound had already been copied & furthered by others by then) I think it’s still good.

Now, Harminix/MTV please can we have Fool’s Gold, Waterfall, What the World is Waiting For, Mersey Paradise, Daybreak, Breaking Into Heaven.. hell, almost anything. Tell you what, I’ll just give you my wallet now, ok?