Best Surprise and Day 06

While it was the Guitarcade that finally got me to get Rocksmith, the best surprise has been the Session mode.  The session mode is this hugely versatile area in the game where you choose instruments that will accompany you while you play.  There are several types of players that change according to the genre you choose.  You could have a chord playing, rhythm guitarist or choose to have that guitar in high gain distortion while it chugs metal power chords.  If rock is not your thing(really?) there are some electronic accompaniment, including this really cool 8-bit nintendo style blip and bleep machine.

There is an intensity bar across the top, and the more intense you play the more intense the band will start playing with you.  At the start you choose a key to play in, say E, and the fret board will highlight the notes that will work in that key.  Your band will keep to the key, and as long as you play the highlighted notes, you will sound "correct" with the band.  You can change tempo and set the drummer up as well.  If you play the notes to the tempo in the right key, you will find that you will suddenly be jamming with a decent rendition of a band, and that is REALLY cool  The Session mode has helped me more than any other part of this game, by far.

It is like a drum machine on steroids.  If they could somehow package this into something the size of the typical amp modeling super pedal(like a P.O.D.), they will make a mint.  It is NOT just a backing track or a drum machine.  With those, YOU adjust to THEM.  With Session mode, the band adjusts to you.

Day 06

I was going to further get my fuzz sound down to the sound in my head(look up Gearmandude Soda Mesier on Youtube), but I ended up finding what I think is a Fulltone OCD Overdrive replica.  I love this pedal.  I know technically I could just pick a plexi style Marshall amp and have it, but something about this pedal through the Fender amps in game makes a wonderful tone.  I messed around with a "riff" that reminds me of a very silly 80's hair metal song, but holy crap does it sound good to my ears.  Every day I seem to come up with some little riff I have to play over and over for 30 minutes.

I focused on doing all the Guitarcade games I had played so far.  I spent a full on hour playing Gone Wailin, String Skip Saloon, Ducks Redux, Ninja Slide N, and Scale Warriors.  I spent a lot of time in String Skip Saloon so I could get used to the string layout.  I got new high scores in everything I played and really had fun with all of them, except Scale Warriors still.  I found out I could reverse my string order, so that the highest string(thinest) is on top.  This is how things show up in tabs and I think that's why I"m having such a hard time with the games done this way.  So yes, I could change and reverse order the strings, but I'm worried this will screw up my non-game, learning portions.  I'll have to explore it tomorrow.

TIP OF THE DAY
If you're used to reading tabs, you can reverse your string order.  I suggest doing this from the start if it bothers you, as the earlier the change, the less habit forms with the rest of the game.