Rocksmith

[dagobert]

Any one tried Rocksmith from Ubisoft for gaming consoles?

Thought?

[srick]

I've had Rocksmith for several years now. The new Rocksmith Remastered version is probably where the program should have been for a long time. Prior versions did not make it easy to slow down the tracks in order to learn - that's finally done. So it's now more of a learning tool than it used to be.

The included songs and songs purchased through the store have been tabbed out fairly well, however, there is little or no instruction as to how to achieve these chord shapes and how your fingering should be. in fact, sometimes, you don't even realize that you are playing a chord shape as you build up speed.

There are fan based websites (customforge.com) where users have "tabbed' out their own Rocksmith songs - the quality of these songs is highly variable.

If you have a PC, Steam often has deep discounts on RS and its music.

Overall, here's how I would rate it:

1) as a way of developing rhythm - very good or excellent
2) as a way of learning classic rock songs - fair to good
3) as a way of learning the fretboard and learning to play up the fretboard - fair to good.
4) As a way of building up speed - very good
5) Games to learn the fretboard and chords - need improvement - could be a great tool
6) included lessons - meh
7) increasing dexterity in order to play riffs - very good

If you have the spare change, it's fun to mess with. If you want to learn, a good teacher, an instructional dvd, playing with a group or playing along with a track would be my first choices. Rocksmith - a second choice. That being said, I plug it in several times a month and enjoy it!

best,

Rick

PS - you unfortunately build up a heavy dependence on watching the track scroll; sort of like depending on tab too much.

[frankhond]

Early reviews slam it for high latency, lag etc, meaning the delay from playing a note to hearing the note in the game is uncceptably high and ruins timing. Has this been fixed in later releases?

[srick]

Originally Posted by frankhond

Early reviews slam it for high latency, lag etc, meaning the delay from playing a note to hearing the note in the game is uncceptably high and ruins timing. Has this been fixed in later releases?

Not a problem anymore. The program is sensitive to intonation, however.