Explaining Lag Part 2 and Day 14

Lag Part 2, if you're looking at this first, then go here for part 1

Lag Part 1

Television Lag Reduction

Some TV brands have a special "video game" mode that will switch off all the fancy filters and processing so that it reduces video lag and improves game to button reaction times.  If your TV does not have them, then you need to set up a visual mode for it.  I can't help with every TV, you're learning guitar, I have faith in you being able to figure out your TV.  Just go through and turn off your cinema modes, your auto-colors, your dynamic contrasts, your dynamic volume.  Digital noise reduction is a HUGE no no when it comes to gaming.  After all of this, you may need to use the Lag correction option inside the game to slow down or speed up the game, depending on how much an improvement it makes.

Signal Checkpoint Reduction

As I mentioned before, you can have a long chain of goings ons.  The worst that could happen in a typical home would look like this:

PS3 > HDMI > TV > HDMI > Receiver > Speakers

That's got the signal being Encoded and Encrypted twice, de-crypted and reshaped twice, and converted at the end.  We have to cut down on this.

Best option  to reduce audio lag is to not use digital audio at all.

PS3/360 > analog cables > Receiver > Speakers

The PS3 and 360 can output analog, your Receiver/amplifies the signal to your speakers.  The Receiver can be a stereo unit with an input, it can also be some headphones.  Every PS3 comes with a set of RCA cables.  You only need the white and red audio ones.  You can then go into sound options and choose your system to "multi-output" so that audio comes from your HDMI and your Analog connection.  This will cause an echo with your TV, so simply mute your TV and listen to the sound coming from your Stereo/Receiver/headphones.

The problem here is that not everyone has a receiver(I don't) and perhaps not every stereo has RCA connector inputs(mine doesn't).  Here is what you need:

RCA Female to 3.5mm Stereo Plug

It is less than 50 cents, and shipping is under 2 bucks.  I hook my White and Red audio cable into that, put it in my audio-in(MP3 player hookup on some stereos) and I'm set to go.  Alternately you can use this to plug into your smart phone and record yourself playing very cleanly.

I can confirm this works.  The game's lag feels similar to my actual amp's lag, which is pretty imperceptible to me while playing cords.  Without this set up, using HDMI sound, the delay would mess up my strumming patterns, and I could not play as fast as I was able because the delay kickback would bother me.

Here is a component cable for the PS3 that will work, its under 5 bucks
5 point Component cable for PS3

Use that with the RCA>Stereo dongle, and you'll be doing great.  Remember you have to activate the audio to be sent in both signals using the PS3, and you'll want to mute your TV so you don't hear echo.

EDIT: If you have speakers for your computer that are plugged into a power outlet, then you have a "receiver" built into them.  You could plug the stereo jack mentioned above into them and it will be just as good as the connection I personally use.

Day 14

Holy crap 2 weeks?  It does not feel like I've been doing this for two whole weeks.

I am working on learning a song inside Rocksmith.  I have not chosen which I want to do to 100%, but I'm trying several different ones.  I have to really like the song to put this much effort into it this early on.  I do not think I can get 50% difficulty and be satisfied till later.   Candidates so far are Last Dance with Mary Jane, You Really Got Me, and Sixteen Saltines.

While auto-wah>chorus>reverb made me feel like a rock star, palm mutes and power chords make me feel \m/etal.  I am a huge 90's metal fan.  I basically considered Dimebag as my less well behaved older brother I never had.  My friends and cousins used to watch the Pantera home videos, it was like Jackass before Jackass in a lot of ways.  Lots of metal that I find I like does not have the super squealy guitars like the 80's metal, it has the palm muted chugging riffs of the 90's.  I palm mute practiced for at least an hour today.  Pretty much the same things over and over, but that's how you get muscle memory.

I have a leg up on the Power Chords.  I knew how to play "Brain Stew" by Green Day for years.  It is a power chord, and so my fingers already have that shape memorized.  I have also used that shape while practicing the intro to "Clean My Wounds" by Corrosion of Conformity, a riff from their guitarist Pepper Keenan.  Pepper Keenan is one of the top riff masters of today, you can also hear him doing the slow/sludge thing with Phil Anselmo in the metal super group "Down".  Look up Stone the Crow and Eyes of the South for songs by them.

Tomorrow will be another day I can devote several hours to playing, and now that I have my new lag-free set up, I'll be wanting to put it through its paces.

Things Wot Go Wrong and Day 12

There are a few problems I've had with the game, and so far it seems to not only be me.

The Dux Redux is a problem for a lot of people.  I said in an earlier post that doing a very light touch to the fretting fixes that. I can confirm that it fixes it for me, though in the heat of the game I sometimes still fret too hard.  It is weird that during songs and lessons that I do not have a problem with the game detecting my fret usage, but this particular Guitarcade game some how does.  It is the E string that has the problem.

Bends.  Guys.  Please.  Do not tear your hair out over the Bends lesson.  Skip the lesson after learning what a bend is if it is acting up on you.  Bends just aren't handled well as of January 2014.  I am reading that the bending lesson in Rocksmith 2013 was bad also.  It might prevent you from getting 100% on lessons and songs, but its is NOT you.  It is Rocksmith.  This also means the string bending arcade game does not work very well, though I have not yet played it myself to confirm.

My suggestion is to set up riff repeater and be honest to yourself; get through the practice track a few times a day, memorizing it like any other lesson, but ignore the rating.  You know if you have it correct or not.  Why keep doing it?  Build those bending muscles, and figure out your technique.  Its important, especially if you want to play some Hendrix in your lifetime.

My USB cable does not like to connect well sometimes.  I switch USB ports and all that, and still, it is wonky.  It could just be a loose USB hub.  I have found that the last two times, which isn't a large enough sample to know it works, that if I take apart the USB cable at the breakaway connector, and plug that back together, that I get signal.  Yes, that's a breakaway connector.  It is meant to come undone instead of pulling your PS3/360 off on to the floor if you yank your instrument cable too hard.

I'll make any new "Things Wot Go Wrong" posts as I accumulate anymore.

Day 12

The Bends problem is back, so I looked it up online and.. well look above for what I found.

I'm steadily scoring much higher on String Skip Saloon, so it is doing what I need it to do.  Meaning I am getting used to seeing the strings from Low(thickest) to High(thinnest).  As for Scale Warriors... I get what its doing, and I want to like the game a lot, in fact I want it to be my favorite game, but I just do not think it is improving my guitar skill.  Loading up sessions and playing the scales listed there seems much easier to me, and much better at memorization.  It is too easy to get flustered and just start banging away at strings in Scale Warriors.

I have the hardest time going directly to the B or G string.  My fingers just aren't used to 6 strings, and its just taking more time than I thought to at least get them correct.  You'd think it wouldn't be all that bad because I have zero problems with a 5 string bass, but its like my fingers have blurry vision from D, G, B.

I started the Hamer Ons and Pull offs lesson for my last half or more of today's practice time.  This is a proper lesson.  I am good with this kind of stuff, but the practice track is a step up compared to other practice tracks.  This is going to take time to memorize and play smoothly.  I like it.  Its the kind of challenge that is challenging for my level of play without being screwed up by bad game detection(like the bends).

Tip of the Day:

Riff Repeater's sections are chosen by your L's and R's buttons and triggers.  When you get a new practice track, listen to the game play it, then load up your riff repeater, highlight the entire thing and start out at like 80% speed or whatever is good for you.  I personally keep the difficulty at 100%.  In fact, I am catching myself saying "don't F'ing patronize me, give me the whole song" when I screw up on ONE LITTLE PART and the game decides to make the entire rest of the song easier for me.  At the point of memorizing the song, that actually is not helpful at all.