Fake Plastic Rock » Real Guitars Are For Old People

The Original Virtual Guitar

Jeff Atwood — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:46:52 +0000

The big news from E3 was the prevalance of games that attempt to actually teach guitar, rather than mimicing it in classic five button Guitar Hero style.

My pals at RockBandAide and PlasticAxe had outstanding roundups of their recent hands-on time with a bunch of these new real(ish) guitar controllers at E3:

But before you click through, let’s take a trip back in time … way back, to 1994. When Windows 95 was the latest OS sensation, the Sony Playstation was a hot new console, and the Nintendo 64 was still just a rumor.

The 1994 PC game Quest for Fame was the first (that I know of, anyway) game that attempted to use a full-size guitar peripheral.

The Unsung Story of Quest for Fame documents the game’s brief and somewhat sad history.

Players plug a “virtual guitar” into the computer to make music in the game. Fritz still owns a couple; they’re almost the same size as a real electric guitar and fairly heavy. Unlike the make-believe instrument in Guitar Hero, the Quest For Fame virtual guitar has strings, and there are no colorful push buttons on its neck.

A player watches a window in the computer monitor as a red line scrolls past a series of green blips, like pulses on a heart monitor. When the red line crosses a blip, the player strums the virtual guitar’s strings, and the computer’s speakers respond with Aerosmith hits like “Eat The Rich” or “Walk This Way.” Hit the strings too early or too late, and out come discordant notes and insults from on-screen characters.

Quest For Fame was a hit with critics. “I have seen the future of interactive multimedia, and it rocks,” wrote Stephen Manes in The New York Times. The game acquired a number of avid fans, like Ian Hughes, a virtual worlds evangelist for IBM Corp. in Hursley, a town south of London. “It was wonderful,” said Hughes. “I liked the immersion in the music. You’re in the music and feeling the music.”

If you’re wondering how the game works, I found a video of the game in action via the old British TV show Bad Influence — the Quest for Fame demo starts at 8:20 or so.

Quest for Fame certainly predicted the eventual appearance of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith 10 years later.

Here’s hoping the current crop of virtual guitars …

Peavey HeroMaker
Power Gig: Rise of the Six String controller
Rock Band 3’s Squier Stratocaster and Fender Mustang Pro
the You Rock Guitar

… fare a bit better than Quest for Fame’s virtual axe did.

Details on Pro Guitar Mode

Jeff Atwood — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 20:20:44 +0000

One of the most exciting Rock Band 3 announcements is Pro Guitar Mode.

But how does it work?

This video of a Bang Camaro member playing Rainbow in the Dark on Pro Guitar Expert — while a Harmonix team member describes what’s happening — is the best explanation I’ve seen:

If we look at the frets on the Fender Mustang Pro Guitar …

There are 17 rows of 6 buttons — a total of 102 buttons in all.

If you look closely, you’ll notice that the fret buttons are numbered in each row along the top, where you’d expect to see colors on the simpler 5 button guitars. They start at 17 closest to the strum area, decreasing down to 1 at the far end.

So there are a few things on the screen in pro mode, starting with the actual six guitar strings as the “note corridor”.

The bars that come toward you tell you what you’re supposed to be doing with the 102 fret buttons and 6 strings at that time in the song:

The size and location of the bar represents the chords (strings) you’re supposed to cover with your left hand.
The number on the bar represents the lowest fret button your left hand should be on.
The color of the bar (green, red, orange, blue, yellow, purple) represents the strings, red being the lowest string and green being the purple being the highest.
The shape of the bar connotes a chord, and the rough ’shape’ your hand should be while playing the chord, as noted below.
(as a little notational bonus, if you know how to read music, the actual musical chord you’re supposed to be playing is also printed next to each chord, to the left of the corridor.)

Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, the “left hand position wave” shows in realtime on the note corridor.

The left hand position wave is telling you where your left hand is:

The number (shown in the wave) always represents the lowest fretted number your left hand is on, and the shape represents where your other fingers are supposed to go. It’s important that you know what your left hand is doing, without having to look down, at any time. The left hand position wave will outline the shape your left hand represents in its current position — if that shape matches the shape of the bars are in the corridor, they will “fit” through!

As for skill level, pro guitar mode runs the gamut from easy to expert, just like classic five button guitar mode:

Pro Easy just doing single notes, the correct notes at the right time.
Pro Medium introduces chords.
Pro Hard is the full guitar part, but stripped down a bit to be more fun and playable in real time.
Pro Expert is every guitar note in the song, for better or worse. Chords, notes, arpeggios, hammer ons, pull offs, slides. The whole enchilada!

Harmonix has invented a whole new set of music notation to teach guitar — but you’ll need a copy of Rock Band 3 and a compatible pro guitar — either the Fender Mustang or the Squier Stratocaster — to learn!

Fret Nice – With Your Guitar Controller

Jeff Atwood — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:59:01 +0000

Ever wonder why you can’t use your trusty fake plastic guitar in other games than Rock Band and Guitar Hero?

Well, wonder no longer! The game Fret Nice (from Pieces Interactive) will soon be available on the respective Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 stores. In it, you use your guitar controller to navigate a 2D sidescrolling world.

I was a little confused how this all works, but it’s explained in a recent GameSpot preview:

How does it work, exactly? It starts out simply enough. You hit the green fret to move left, you hit the yellow fret to move right, and you tilt the guitar to jump. Those three inputs form the core of your movement. Easy, right? Attacking enemies gets a bit more complicated. The rotund bad guys coming after you–think of them as goombahs covered in fur–all have a random number of facial features. One might have a single eye, another might have three eyes with a mouth, and so on. Your job is to leap into the air and zap the enemies by playing the number of notes that match the number of facial features. So, for example, jumping into the air and playing a single blue note will kill that one-eyed enemy, while playing three blue notes and an orange note will kill the three-eyed, one-mouthed beast. You can improvise whatever color notes you play; all that matters is matching up the numbers.

Sounds like an interesting merger of a traditional button-based 2D scroller controls and dynamic “play some songs” interactivity.

Fret Nice is slated to arrive sometime next month (that’d be February), so keep an eye out for it. Unless all you like to do with your fake guitar controller is play fake songs. Total dullsville, man!

Mad Catz Wireless Fender Stratocaster Review

Jeff Atwood — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:17:38 +0000

Remember that Mad Catz full-size Stratocaster guitar controller? I couldn’t resist its siren call. I am now the ~~embarrassed~~proud owner of my very own sunburst fake Stratocaster.

The first thing you need to know about the Mad Catz Rock Band Wireless Fender Stratocaster Replica is that IT IS ENORMOUS. It is made from an authentic Stratocaster body, so it is truly a 100% full size guitar. Those other guitars you thought were “authentically sized”? Not even close! See for yourself:

That’s the Mad Catz Wireless Fender Stratocaster Replica next to the previously reviewed Logitech Wireless Guitar and the classic GH3 Les Paul guitar controller. (I didn’t show the GH5 / GH4 guitar, but it’d be a bit larger than the Les Paul.)

The Mad Catz Strat isn’t just full size, but full weight, too. It tips the scales at over 7 pounds with strap.

OK, yes, it’s huge and expensive, but it is also a thing of great beauty.

It even comes with a Fender strap (the same one that’s included with the much cheaper Wireless Bass, but who’s counting.)

Everything here is authentic — all metal bits and real knobs throughout. There’s even a connection port for the overdrive pedal (the guitar includes the necessary 1/4″ step-down adapter.)

All the standard Rock Band 2 guitar features are present and accounted for, including the effect switch. The strum is of the clicky variety, with the premium Mad Catz “2.5 million cycle” switches.

Flipping it over to the back, we can see the battery compartment (takes 3 AAs, included) and a back cutout. I was initially a little perturbed by the frankenstein-like patchwork on the back of the guitar, but even a real Strat has a similar (albeit smaller) back cutout, as you can see in this picture.

The headstock, like the body, is from a real Strat guitar, so of course it includes real metal tuning pegs.

The only part of the guitar that’s plastic is the fretboard; the back of the neck is wood, but the front face is plastic. This is a Rock Band guitar, so the buttons (both solo and normal) are of the standard flat Rock Band variety.

If you’re concerned about the strategic use of plastic in the fretboard, don’t be. It looks fantastic, and the faux wood effect with metal detailing is first rate. In fact, one of the things I didn’t like about the Logitech Wireless guitar was the odd (and visually jarring) melding of real wood and plastic in its fretboard. The Mad Catz Strat neatly sidesteps this problem by making the fretboard one seamless length of cleverly detailed plastic. The fret buttons themselves feel identical to those of any official Rock Band 2 guitar, with the same action, stop edges and tiny embossed finger position dots.

OK, so we’ve established that this is a guitar so handsome that it utterly blurs the line between fake plastic guitar and real guitar. But how does it play?

The first thing you need to decide is whether you prefer your fret buttons flat (Rock Band style) or embossed/raised (Guitar Hero style). If you love or hate a particular button style, this guitar, despite its awesomeness, will not change your mind. Yes, the “premium” strum mechanism is a bit stiffer and perhaps a bit clickier than a stock RB2 guitar, but it’s a Rock Band guitar through and through. It plays pretty much identically to any other Rock Band style guitar, except it’s substantially larger and heavier. So how much you like it will depend on how you feel about flat fret buttons.

Beyond that, this guitar is large. Did I mention that it’s large? Yes it is VERY LARGE! And HEAVY! I thought I was a fake plastic guitar tough guy, having played with my own custom weighted guitars, and the 6 pound Logitech Wireless guitar with no problems at all. But after playing my first 10 song set with the Mad Catz Strat, my shoulder was killing me. And that’s with a nice aftermarket guitar strap!

If you want a truly full size guitar, be prepared to pay the price in training in your body and shoulders to handle it. Given the size of the neck, you may also need to stretch to reach the fret buttons a bit more than you’re used to. It’s not a deal-breaker (for me at least), but it does take some time to get used to it. And that goes double if you’re a smaller guitarist!

The only real difficulty I had when playing with the Mad Catz strat is with the whammy bar. I guess this is an artifact of the real guitar component locations, but it’s ridiculously easy to hit the back and start knob with the whammy, and it takes some conscious planning to use the whammy without hitting any knobs. The whammy also hangs down much more freely than I’m used to with my other guitars, so it has to be wrangled a bit in use. Don’t get me wrong, overall the whammy works great, but you will have to adapt your whammy style to this particular guitar.

Is this guitar worth $299? If you absolutely love Rock Band style (flat face button) guitars, and you want an awesome looking and great playing full size axe, then absolutely. Well, assuming you’ve got $299 burning a hole in your pocket!

Logitech Wireless Guitar Review

Jeff Atwood — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:08:02 +0000

I couldn’t resist the lure of those less expensive, revised second generation Logitech Ultra Premium Guitars. I bought the Xbox 360 Orange Logitech Wireless Guitar for myself, and let me tell you — it is a beaut!

Be warned, though: this thing is truly a full size guitar. The body and neck are real, solid wood, which means it also has real guitar weight — a full 6 pounds, 6 ounces with strap.

The attention to detail is outstanding, and the whole guitar exudes an overwhelming sense of craftsmanship. Particularly if you’re used to the cheap plastic axes that ship with Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Note that the black bridge to the left of the strum bar is star power activation (aka the back button), and the chrome-looking — plastic, unfortunately, but it looks sharp — item to the left of the whammy attachment area is your start button.

The headstock also has real metal pegs and tuning knobs.

Turning the guitar over, you can see the battery compartment on the back. The guitar takes two AA batteries (included). The console connect button is inside the battery compartment. A bit inconvenient, but as little as I use the connect button, probably OK. The headset jack and connector port are discreetly placed on the bottom edge, here.

The buttons are totally standard spacing — I held them up against a GH3 Les Paul for comparison and they’re identical. They are a bit quieter than a stock guitar, though I tend to lubricate the buttons on my guitars, so the difference is not huge for me. I do wish the brown plastic was slightly darker brown here so it blended in better with the rosewood.

The touchpad is here and accounted for, just like on a Guitar Hero World Tour guitar. I didn’t get a chance yet to tell if it’s the World Tour analog touchpad, of the Guitar Hero 5 digital style. Another nice detail: the colors of each touchpad area are embossed in the wood above and below, so you can see what color your fingers are on.

The fretboard also has some neat metal detailing as you can see here. The strum, the edge of which is visible above, is roughly the same size as a GHWT guitar strum. In fact, the spacing between buttons and strum is identical — I even measured it to be sure!

It’s definitely a beautiful guitar. I was thoroughly impressed. Well worth $199 just for looks, in my opinion. But how does it play?

The good news is that this guitar plays every bit as well as the GH3 Les Paul or the GH:WT Schechter-alike. I’m a decent (but nowhere near world-class) expert guitar player, and at no point did I feel the guitar hindered my playing. There is of course an initial period of acclimation as this guitar is much heavier and much larger than any plastic axe I’ve ever used. Also, this is (obviously) a Guitar Hero style embossed button layout, which I personally prefer, versus the Rock Band flat button style. Be aware of that, if you have a strong preference.

I was concerned about the optical strum mechanism, but I’m pleased to report that the strum works great! It was a little tight for me in the beginning, but I found it easy to adapt. By “tight”, I mean it is more akin to the short throw distance of the GH3 Les Paul strum than the wider throw GHWTar strum. It’s also less explicity clicky than either, though not quite the “whisper silent” that the PR claims.

I have it on good authority from a highly skilled expert player that he was able to full combo Beast and the Harlot from Guitar Hero: Smash Hits on his copy of this exact guitar (which he won in a fake plastic guitar contest … naturally). That proves the guitar is designed well enough not to hinder elite guitarists from their difficult full combo song runs.

I need to get some more play time under my belt with this beauty before drawing long term conclusions. But I can already tell it’s a totally workable expert class fake plastic axe, and it really does look and feel amazing when you’re strapped into it. I’d only caution people about the full size and weight, which are part and parcel of the authenticity, but can make it fatiguing — particularly for ladies or younger kids. This Logitech Wireless Guitar is a fair deal for $199, and I recommend it wholeheartedly to any Fake Plastic Rock addicts like myself (you know who you are). Heck, I like it so much, I’d consider buying a second one if it dropped to $149 or lower.

I reviewed the Xbox 360 model here, but it comes in a nifty looking all-black model for PS3 as well. See more pics and details on Amazon:

Too Many Fake Plastic Rock Accessories?

Jeff Atwood — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:15:14 +0000

I spend a lot of time on this blog documenting my fake plastic rock obsession, and that includes a lot of what can charitably be called “accessories”:

But I am unashamed! If loving fake plastic rock is wrong, I don’t wanna be right! Also, I can stop any time I want. I just don’t want to, man!

How do you know when you’ve taken this accessorizing too far? This brief but hilarious Weebl animation tells the sordid tale. (do click through to watch!)

But where do you draw the line? What’s next after adding vocalists and drummers to the mix?

Where does it all go from here? Does it get crazy realistic?

I don’t know either, but I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be awesome.

Mad Catz Wireless Bass Review

Jeff Atwood — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 07:20:19 +0000

I recently broke down and purchased one of the new second generation Mad Catz Wireless Fender Precision Bass Guitar Replicas. (Yep, this was the other part of the package deal with the guitar pedal.)

The first version of the bass was wired and … frankly, a little buggy, based on player feedback. But the general design, shape, and functionality of this new bass is the same as the older model, so this promotional video for the original wired bass can give an idea of what the Mad Catz Precision Bass Guitar is all about:

I love the idea of a fake plastic bass guitar, rather than the generic “guitars” included with every game to date. So when the wired model came out, I was sorely tempted! But once I saw the so-so expert bass player feedback on the first wired Bass model, I decided to pass.

The second version of the Bass addresses all the major complaints with the first model. I finally felt comfortable adding the new, revised model to my stable of fake plastic axes. Oh, and it’s wireless, the way it should have been originally. And it’s a great looking fake plastic bass, in my opinion:

It’s available in White and Hot Rod Red, but I went with Sea Foam Green because, well, it’s an awesome color.

It’s hard to tell from my pictures, but it is also quite large at 84% scale. A real bass guitar would only be about 15% bigger than what you see here.

I scanned in the manual so you can get an idea of the features.

I’ve had it for two days and run it through its paces in both Rock Band and Guitar Hero World Tour (gotta love that open bass note!).

Most importantly, I can personally confirm that this new model is eminently playable on Expert. I am a decent Expert guitarist, and I did not feel at any time that the Mad Catz Bass was significantly impeding my performance; I was able to 5-star songs I can normally 5-star. Now, if unlike me you’re a 100%-every-freaking-song kind of expert guitarist, you’re in a different performance class altogether and you might feel differently about any slight change to your guitar of choice.

A few review notes:

A fairly nice strap is included. I usually get custom straps for my guitars, but the Fender strap that’s bundled with the Bass is quite nice. It’s wide, soft, and has a cool metallic silver Fender logo pattern.
This is definitely a Rock Band 2 style guitar. Meaning, it has a softer and less clicky strum, and the fret buttons on the neck are flat. I’m assuming most people reading this have tried both the classic Guitar Hero style guitars (Les Paul or newer) and Rock Band 2 style guitars by now. If you have strong feelings about which style is better, consider yourself warned. Note that I’m referring to the good updated RB2 guitars, not the godawful RB1 guitars.
It is larger than most guitars. Specifically, the neck and buttons may take more reaching than what you’re used to. My wife and I had no trouble adapting to it, but if you’re looking for a guitar for younger kids, this might not be a good choice.
The split strum. One of the attractions of the bass is the split strum so you can play “authentically” as a bassist, by plucking up with both fingers. This does work, and is fun as a diversion, but it’s a rather different strumming style that I had trouble adapting to. The good news is that you can ignore the split strum entirely and play with either ‘half’ of the strum no problem. So consider it an optional feature, something to experiment with. On some of the more boring and repetitive bass songs, this is a plus!
The lack of whammy bar. The whammy bar has become a “whammy knob”. As you can see in the manual scan, above, it’s below and to the left of the strum. This makes it really hard to use except on exceptionally long hold notes, since you have to take your hand off the strum to use it! It’s workable, barely, but if whammy is a big part of your regular guitar/bass play style, you will hate this. I consider the weird positioning of the whammy the only true negative of the P-Bass.

Overall, I’m very satisfied with my Mad Catz Wireless Precision Bass Replica. I can definitely recommend it — as long as you’re generally cool with the Rock Band 2 style of guitar, and the unusual positioning of the whammy.

(The only mod I performed on the P-Bass was to add weights to it; it’s almost a modded guitar by definition. I can’t stand weightless fake plastic axes any more, the lack of ‘heft’ somehow makes them feel even more insubstantial than they already are.)

As far as I’m concerned, having a purpose-built Bass fake plastic axe makes Bass that much more interesting to play. And anything that makes Bass more fun … well, that’s worth exploring!

Rock Band Overdrive Guitar Pedal Review

Jeff Atwood — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:31:20 +0000

I recently picked up a package deal that included the Mad Catz Rock Band Overdrive Pedal.

This is as simple as it looks. It’s a freakin’ metal box with a switch that you plug into your Rock Band guitar (if you haven’t noticed, the port is on the side of every guitar). When you stomp on it, it activates Overdrive — aka Star Power.

I scanned in the manual, so you can get the gory … er … details.

Note that you don’t need a fancy Electro-Harmonix branded box to do this; you can also plug in a plain old drum kick pedal into your Rock Band guitar and it will work fine, too. (You’ll probably want to get an extension cord, though, as the standard kick pedal cord is far too short for this purpose.)

Now, on to my review. The box itself is quite nice and very solid. It feels like it’s cast out of a solid block of aluminum. This thing will probably outlive you and me both.

While playing guitar, it is fun to use the floor switch to activate overdrive, but be warned: unlike the drummer, you don’t typically have to pay attention to where your feet are as a guitarist. But now you do! So when you put this box on the floor, imagine where your feet are and where you need them to be to activate overdrive. It takes a little bit of practice, planning, and anticipation compared to the old semi-reliable practice of tilting the guitar to activate.

But, it is definitely more immersive and feels more “rock” to use the pedal. In particular, since overdrive often implies an actual guitar sound effect in Rock Band (the little switch on every Rock Band guitar lets you choose between flange, echo, chorus, wah-wah, and none) it’s analogous to a real world guitar effect pedal, like so:

On the whole, the Rock Band Overdrive Pedal is in no way essential (unless your guitar tilt-activate is utterly broken), but it is a fun item to experiment with, and it definitely adds to the immersion of the overall fake plastic rock experience.

I guess the pedal is something of a specialty item, so can be a little hard to find. Try the Mad Catz online store if you can’t source it locally.

Piano Hero?

Jeff Atwood — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 06:59:22 +0000

Engadget reports that the game Easy Piano for the Nintendo DS will launch in November in Europe and Asia. There is no US launch date yet.

8 note piano keyboard peripheral
Requires GBA slot, so only works on the classic Nintendo DS and not the new DSi
Includes 40 songs, such as Bohemian Rhapsody, Bittersweet Symphony, Every Breath You Take.
Lesson mode and mini-games for learning to play the piano
Creation mode allows recording up to four 3 minute songs

There have been arcade piano games, like Keyboard Mania (scroll to bottom of that post for video). But actual fake plastic music games with keyboards are somewhat rare.

New Logitech Ultra Premium Guitars

Jeff Atwood — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:59:28 +0000

Remember the original Logitech Ultra Premium Fake Plastic Guitar?

It must have been a modest success, because Logitech has introduced two new, updated ultra premium fake plastic guitars:

Playstation 3 Black Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller (v2)

Xbox 360 Orange Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller

MSRP is $199 on both models, a small but welcome drop from the $249 of the original Logitech guitar, which was also a Playstation exclusive.

Based on the reviews, it seems that the new version of the guitar includes several refinements and player-requested improvements over the original guitar. It is definitely an investment, but I for one am much more comfortable making that investment if I’m not buying the first version of it!

The Logitech guitar will work with both the Rock Band and Guitar Hero series of games, but includes the touch-sensitive slider pad that is only functional in later iterations of the Guitar Hero series.

Between these new Logitech premium guitars and the Mad Catz premium bass and guitars, there’s no lack of choice in the market — if premium fake plastic guitars are your bag!