"Jam Along" feature suggestion

[j076]

We should add a feature called "Jam Along" or something like that where only the "song.ogg"and "bass.ogg" plays and the player uses a real guitar to play along . The guitar could be hooked up to the computer using this pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Behringer-Guitar-Link-UCG102?sku=241228

This could be more like a toy with no score or notes cause I know it's kinda hard to get the computer to recognize real guitar notes

what do you guys think?

[fude]

Honestly I don't see a point in this. First of all, most of the people playing this game hardly will have a real guitar. They may not even have the plastic one - some have come here looking for a guitar game to play with their keyboard. Implementing this kind of feature would be a joy for few, making us consider does it really fit the overall game.

Second thing: like you said it's hard to get computer to recognize the notes of a real guitar, almost impossible I might say. Why bother hooking it in pc then?

You could do this just by playing the .ogg files in audacity or something, hook your guitar in your amplifier and start jamming. Comparing this option in this feature you suggested, there's really much no difference, Frontman wouldn't do nothing else than playing the .oggs while you jam with your guitar, right?

But hey, thanks for the effort of suggesting something new!

[j076]

well, the player could also record his song and then make a chart using an in-game chart editor (like Ftrets on Fire or Guitar Hero World Tour)

[fude]

Again, you wouldn't need Frontman for that. Also in-game chart editors are just wrong.

Can I agree to anything today? I sound so negative..

[Confusingboat]

I agree with fude. If you want to jam to songs with your real guitar, just open up the song in your favorite media player. Windows media player supports ogg playback.

Also, getting a computer to recognize real guitar notes is no different than getting it to tell you the pitch of your voice. When you plug your guitar into the computer, you either use the line in or microphone port, depending on whether you have an amp supporting analog or digital output, or are just using the guitar alone. Either way, it's just a simple pitch calculation, as done by the vocal track of Rockband or Guitar Hero World Tour.

All that being said, I guess a highly modified version of your idea could be implemented, but the songs would be played from Guitar Pro charts, and you'd be best learning the song beforehand. The guitar would be plugged into a line in or microphone port, where the game would use ASIO drivers (note this would also require an advanced low latency sound card that actually has ASIO drivers; we're talking 1-2ms lag at most) to input the sound from the instrument and calculate the pitch, make sure it's within a resonable amount (~3Hz?), and then calculate if you hit the note at the right time. This would definitely set the game apart from any other, but would also have much greater requirements. Such as the ability to actually play guitar, and having the necessary hardware to interface your guitar directly with your computer via sound card.