Yeah, it's a lot of fun, but it's not a "pick up and play" kind of thing. Definitely something you need to practice. That takes away some of the immediate gratification of hitting 95% on your first run through a song, but with practice, you can feel much more engaged with the music.
Also, that means it's not great for parties. I've had several RB parties and I always set the keyboard on non-pro mode. It would just be too frustrating for guests to try to play along with the pro mode while everyone else is rocking out on five colored buttons.
I just got a few of the Billy Joel songs (including Piano Man, of course), and I'm looking forward to playing them on my own, perhaps with the mic stand set up so I can feel like the Piano Man himself.
The Pro instruments are great because you feel like you are playing the notes or drums as they are in the song.
Most keyboards have more than two octaves. Even the toy ones I had as a kid. I have played only briefly in pro mode but it was very weird to have the same key make multiple sounds in pro mode if we are trying to achieve "real keys" - my midi adapter finally shipped so we will see if it works more meaningfully with a real keyboard.
Torpid, if you are expecting the charting to change in any way with a real keyboard you will be disappointed, it's still limited to two octaves on screen. I don't know how the additional octaves on a real keyboard are mapped back onto the two octaves the games uses though.
is it safe to assume that when you import rock band 2 songs into rock band 3 they won't have the vocal harmonies?
Correct. And that goes for dlc other than rock band 3-specific dlc too.
This is mostly true. There is actually some old DLC that happened to have harmonies hidden in it, including some Green Day and Pearl Jam tracks.
It's also worth noting that Rock Band 3 allows you to have up to 3 players singing even on songs that have no harmonies, which is a huge plus at parties. People unfamiliar with the game don't care if there are harmonies are not, they just like to be able to sing with their friends.
1) You Rock Digital free Firmware Upgrade, Version 2.0 for You Rock Guitar
Access downloadable sounds and loops from the You Rock Shop™: (For more information see You Rock Shop below.) Rock Band™3 enabled (needs Mad Catz® MIDI Pro-Adapter™ available for Xbox Box 360®, Wii™ and Play Station®3).
Slickdeals front page has AC/DC track pack for $5, and Lego track pack for ~$10. Cheap way to add a bunch of songs.
The Squier is getting closer! Here's a really nice demo video that goes up to 1080p. It shows some of the included pro guitar training as well.
What's the good word - is it necessary to pre-order to actually get a guitar? I'm hoping interest has chilled enough to actually get in on one of these.
And do the songs that came with RB3 have the pro parts built in? I know we have to pay $1 more for pro parts on DLC.
Matt from Rose of Jericho (a very cool RBN band!) has posted a very detailed and well-produced 3-part video review of the Squier guitar. My Squier is on order now but I'm not sure about the ETA yet.
RoJ Squier Review Part 1
RoJ Squier Review Part 2
RoJ Squier Review Part 3
Excellent review. Looks like this guitar is much more about sitting down to learn music than playing at a Rock Band party. Not surprisingly, the game won't magically allow you to play a real song if you haven't practiced it a lot. I assume there are different levels (easy, medium, hard, expert) even on Pro, although the review shows only expert (to show the actual song). Maybe the easy and medium modes are easier to sightread so you could actually play at a party.
In regard to the build quality, I'm a little concerned about the problem he had with tuning and intonation. That bending hollow neck is not great - you could see how it might be impossible to actually ever tune it, since each string will knock the other strings out of tune as it pulls the neck up.
Yes, see my edit that came after your reply.
Matt posted a bit more on this in the forum thread for the review. Basically he acknowledges that while the guitar does have issues as a real guitar, anyone who wants to get serious about playing after they learn the basics will need to upgrade to a more intermediate guitar down the line regardless. On the off chance that I get that far, I have no problem getting a better real guitar and keeping the Squier for a game controller.
For me, it will come down to how badly I actually want to learn the songs on RB3. Since I already have an electric guitar, I don't need the Squier, and given how hard it is to sightread real guitar notes at full speed, I probably wouldn't use the Squier at a party (which is how I usually play my RB3). I'm starting to think the plastic Mustang pro guitar might actually be more fun to play the game with (and it's way cheaper right now). My neighbor has one, so maybe I'll try it out before purchasing anything.
Thanks for the review links. Very helpful.