PS3 ROCKBAND gamers who like playing VOCALS - WARNING: DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE NEW PATCH!

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Those who have seen me bust out the tasty vocals at NAVA meetings should be able to attest for "trusting me" on this ...

It's highly advisable that PS3 gamers who play ROCK BAND and enjoy singing VOCALS either by themselves, or as part of a multiplayer set up SHOULD NOT DOWNLOAD THE NEW PATCH WHEN PROMPTED.

While this patch contains an in-game music store, and reportedly, allegedly auto-fixes a lot of timing issues with drum-fills and song lyrics, it ABSOLUTELY DESTROYS THE MICROPHONE AUDIO FIDELITY AND SOUND QUALITY OF THE VOCALS, as well as the NOTE/PITCH register.

The short-short is that you will sound like ass coming out of your sound system or television speakers AND you'll have noticeably LOWER SCORES when playing vocals.

If you've already downloaded the patch, on PS3 you can delete the Rock Band game settings (reportedly) without damaging your game saves, however you'll need to re-download all of the songs you purchased. :(

The litmus test of the marked drop in audio quality (if not evident or apparent from the ass-like-tinny-vocals coming out of the speakers) can be heard by simply tapping your hand on your mic before a song kicks in, or pausing the game mid-song and talking into the microphone. Instead of a deep, bassy "THUNK" from slapping the mic, you'll get a weak, high-pitched, distorted "PING".

If it were on a microphone amp, I'd say that Harmonix somehow turned the GAIN nob ALL THE WAY UP to the point where some people have reported FEEDBACK during play!

The thread on the OFFICIAL Rock Band website details the woes of this patch.

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?p=448159&posted=1#post448159

Please read it and SPREAD THE WORD so EA and Harmonix can get their asses in GEAR on a new patch. Thanks.

(FYI - on the PS3 and an LCD TV, the timing on the Drums and Guitar portions of the game are fine, post-patch and in fact, I'd say the drums are MORE accurate/forgiving than they previously were prior to patching.)

[RyanMurf]

You can delte the path on the xbox 360 too. All you have to do is clear cache.


Go to the system blade and then select memory.

Press Y on the HD symbol and then press X,X,Left Bumper, Right Bumper, X,X. Once you do this a messsage will appear saying: Do you want to perform maintenance on your Xbox 360 storage devices?

Performing this function will also clear any software updates.

If the patch only came out on the ps3 then ignore what I just posted.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I believe it was patched on both platforms, but the audio problem MAY only be on the PS3.

I'm not 100% on that, since I only have the game on PS3.

It's not at all hard to notice, so regardless of system, you'll be able to tell if your vocal audio is farked.

[Slate]

I have the 360 version and I downloaded it. I didn't notice anything wrong, But I don't sing very often. In fact, I got better at singing after the update! But that might not have anything to do with the update, We don't even know if the 360 version has the same problem so take my reply with a grain of salt.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I have the 360 version and I downloaded it. I didn't notice anything wrong, But I don't sing very often. In fact, I got better at singing after the update! But that might not have anything to do with the update, We don't even know if the 360 version has the same problem so take my reply with a grain of salt.

Try slapping your mic while the game is paused.

If you get a nice, rich, bassy "thunk" or "whomp" sound from your speakers you should be fine.

If you get a weak, high-pitcehd "ping" or very flat/tinny "pat" noise, the audio issue is cross-platform.

[norkusa]

I never sing, so it doesn't really bother me. Nice to hear they fixed the timing on the drums though. I packed mine away because I was getting so frustrated with them.

[Ikari Warrior]

The patch on the 360 totally messed with my calibration. I was getting 65% on Medium and thought my guitar was dying. But I went to calibration and the delay had been changed from 0ms to 40ms. I set it back to zero and was scoring 95+% again. That may have something to do with the messed up vocals as well.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

The patch on the 360 totally messed with my calibration. I was getting 65% on Medium and thought my guitar was dying. But I went to calibration and the delay had been changed from 0ms to 40ms. I set it back to zero and was scoring 95+% again. That may have something to do with the messed up vocals as well.

Yes, there have been reported calibration issues post-patch, and it seems to be with people who had previously re-calibrated their equipment.

I only auto-set my calibration to "LCD TV" and never had a real problem. Now the timing seems even tighter, but I hadn't had issues with 100%'s on drums and guitar previously.

Prior to the patch had you re-calibrated your instruments and had them set to that calibration?

The audio issues are definitely related to the patch, as removing the patch returns the audio quality ... Harmonix better get to fixin' this, as Rock Band is quickly becoming the biggest LOVE/HATE relationship I've had with a video game in ages.

[RCM]

I noticed when I played the PS3 version (after patch) that my vocals seemed low. I own the 360 version at home and am in no rush to DL the patch, think the game is pretty sweet as is.

[kingpong]

I play vocals quite a bit on the 360 (#86 on the career leaderboard) and I found no major problems with the patch. Some parts, like the phenoeme detection, are a bit better. Other things are worse, like the way the detection of a note at the very top of the staff sometimes rapidly flickers between the top and bottom of the staff. Kind of like the problems in KR:AIE. I've added a few hundred thousand to my career score since the patch, so I'm OK with it.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I play vocals quite a bit on the 360 (#86 on the career leaderboard) and I found no major problems with the patch. Some parts, like the phenoeme detection, are a bit better. Other things are worse, like the way the detection of a note at the very top of the staff sometimes rapidly flickers between the top and bottom of the staff. Kind of like the problems in KR:AIE. I've added a few hundred thousand to my career score since the patch, so I'm OK with it.

Impressive!

Glad to hear that 360 users are doing okay with the patch.

So, PS3 owners are the only ones who need to fret for the time being.

[RyanMurf]

That teaches you not to buy a ps3 JK JK :)

[Bluteg]

The patch on the 360 totally messed with my calibration. I was getting 65% on Medium and thought my guitar was dying. But I went to calibration and the delay had been changed from 0ms to 40ms. I set it back to zero and was scoring 95+% again. That may have something to do with the messed up vocals as well.

Last night I was drunk and 5 starred songs on hard... I thought it was luck.

Edit: PS3 OWNERS??? What the hell is that?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

That teaches you not to buy a ps3 JK JK :)

I would have bought Rock Band for the 360 if I had more than like, 3 Gigs left on my 20G HDD.

I had all that damned hard drive space on my PS3 ... and when I found out that EA was going to release a minimum of 3 songs a week for the entire year of 2008, I knew I'd run out of space on the 360 before the year was up with the way I buy DLC.

[Ponyone]

Has this been fixed yet? My rockband is over at my brother's (360 version) and when I went over there a few weeks ago, we were playing and everyone kept telling me to sing louder because it wasn't coming through. This didn't happen before. I noticed it was a lot more tinny and low. I guess they downloaded the update.

Is there a new update or a way to fix the wimpy vocals?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Has this been fixed yet? My rockband is over at my brother's (360 version) and when I went over there a few weeks ago, we were playing and everyone kept telling me to sing louder because it wasn't coming through. This didn't happen before. I noticed it was a lot more tinny and low. I guess they downloaded the update.

Is there a new update or a way to fix the wimpy vocals?

It's actually confirmed only to affect the PS3 version ... perhaps they just had the vocal track adjusted low when you were playing it and nobody noticed.

[Ponyone]

It's actually confirmed only to affect the PS3 version ... perhaps they just had the vocal track adjusted low when you were playing it and nobody noticed.

No, I set it to the top.

Maybe they screwed up the mic or something (bunch of drunks) or it wasn't plugged in all the way. I dunno, but I noticed a huge hit in volume. You could hardly hear it, you could only hear the live singing (as if the mic wasn't even on almost).

The only time you could really hear it was when you hit the starpower and made it echo.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

No, I set it to the top.

Maybe they screwed up the mic or something (bunch of drunks) or it wasn't plugged in all the way. I dunno, but I noticed a huge hit in volume. You could hardly hear it, you could only hear the live singing (as if the mic wasn't even on almost).

The only time you could really hear it was when you hit the starpower and made it echo.

I also know that there are a few songs on Rock Band that required re-downloading due to issues with the master vocal tracks not being able to be turned down/off.

There was an announcement about that a month or so back.

In any case ... I'm still pretty sure that the latest patch/update didn't affect the 360 version in the same way that it did the PS3, but I could be wrong!

[Rob2600]

All this nonsense about patches reminds me why I don't bother with computer games anymore. Oh wait, we're talking about a game console. D'oh!

Frankie, has someone from Harmonix stated why the microphone feature was altered? If it was working fine pre-patch, why did the programmers mess with it?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

All this nonsense about patches reminds me why I don't bother with computer games anymore. Oh wait, we're talking about a game console. D'oh!

Frankie, has someone from Harmonix stated why the microphone feature was altered? If it was working fine pre-patch, why did the programmers mess with it?

While they haven't made any direct public statements on the matter, it seems to be the by-product of them tweaking the lag-timing (in the game code, not in the user adjustment screen) for the vocal track.

Here's the thread over at the official Rock Band forum on it ...

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36912

[Rob2600]

While they haven't made any direct public statements on the matter, it seems to be the by-product of them tweaking the lag-timing (in the game code, not in the user adjustment screen) for the vocal track.

Here's the thread over at the official Rock Band forum on it ...

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36912

I just read through that Rock Band thread and a few others. It seems like the PS3 version is still suffering from vocal issues and the Xbox 360 version is suffering from lag issues, both after being updated to the latest patch.

It also seems like the PS2 version is fine. I hope the upcoming Wii version is fine, too. We'll see in ten weeks (June 22, 2008 in the U.S.).

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I just read through that Rock Band thread and a few others. It seems like the PS3 version is still suffering from vocal issues and the Xbox 360 version is suffering from lag issues, both after being updated to the latest patch.

It also seems like the PS2 version is fine. I hope the upcoming Wii version is fine, too. We'll see in ten weeks (June 22, 2008 in the U.S.).

The PS2 version had better be fine considering it is likely update-proof!