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  1. #1
    thoman23's Avatar Senior Member
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    Singing Game?

    Since it's becoming clear to me that Rocksmith will possibly never add support for scored vocals to the game, I am renewing my search for a great singing game for my family. Here's what I know of so far. I'd appreciate any pointers to options I may have missed.

    REQUIREMENTS:
    - The game must listen to your vocals and score you based on your performance. Just showing lyrics is not enough.

    OPTIONS:
    - SingStar - The granddaddy of them all. Problem: I don't have a Playstation and I don't play any video games (other than Rocksmith if that counts as a game).
    - UltraStar/UltraStar Deluxe - The PC open-source knock-off of SingStar. Problem: It seems to be dead and I've had stability/reliability problems in the past.
    - Smule Sing! Karaoke - It's a non-starter as I refuse to support this company (google "Smule lawsuit" to see what I'm talking about)

    QUESTIONS:
    - Is SingStar still going strong? Is it worth buying a used PS3 just for this? Is a PS3 good enough for my purposes of playing only this one game? Are PS3's even supported anymore?
    - Has anyone had any success with UltraStar Deluxe?
    - Am I overlooking any options? Are there dedicated karaoke systems I should look into?

    Thanks...I really feel like the feedback mechanism that Rocksmith uses helped me get started on guitar, and I think having a game with scored vocal feedback would really help improve my vocal skills as well, and would be fun to use with the whole family.
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  2. #2
    SeattleSauve's Avatar Senior Member
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    Why not get Rock Band 3 or Rock Band 4? Massive music library for Rock Band 4, scored vocals, vocal harmonies, etc...
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  3. #3
    thoman23's Avatar Senior Member
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    Originally Posted by SeattleSauve Go to original post
    Why not get Rock Band 3 or Rock Band 4? Massive music library for Rock Band 4, scored vocals, vocal harmonies, etc...
    Hmm, I didn't even think of Rock Band as an option. So there's more content available for Rock Band than for SingStar? Can you play the vocal part of the game without anyone playing one of the instrument parts? How about platform...is a used PS3 good enough?

    Thanks for the tip!
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  4. #4
    SeattleSauve's Avatar Senior Member
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    Yes, you can absolutely play the vocal part with no other instruments.

    Well, for Rock Band 3 you can use PS3 or 360... Rock Band 4 is next gen (PS4 and Xbox One) specific, so if you don't want a next gen console I think you're stuck with Rock Band 3.

    Now, HMX is no longer releasing DLC for Rock Band 3, only focusing on Rock Band 4 at the moment (where legacy DLC will import).

    That said, if all the legacy DLC is still available for RB3, then there are thousands of songs. The thing I'd need to double check is if they are still selling the legacy DLC for RB3... Still appears to be there in the xbox store for RB3...
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  5. #5
    I love rock band 3 for vocals. Play it all the time with my wife. It also has vocal harmony trainers. There's a lot of crossover in songs between rocksmith and rock band so you can practice singing while playing with either of them depending on what you're concentrating on.
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  6. #6
    I've tried Performous because I wanted something that was a karaoke style game on PC that actually tracked what you were singing and gave you some kind of visual feedback, in the hope it might improve my fairly poor singing. It's Open Source and as far as I can see it's re-uses UltraStar code with some tweaks.

    It's not bad, in fact it's a remarkable achievement for Open Source, but it makes you realise exactly how much work the Rocksmith guys put in to making their software and how slick the end product actually is.

    I would be very interested if anyone can suggest any commercial alternatives for the PC, I would be really happy to pay for something that works, just don't want to buy a console......
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  7. #7
    thoman23's Avatar Senior Member
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    Originally Posted by DaveSpoons Go to original post
    I've tried Performous because I wanted something that was a karaoke style game on PC that actually tracked what you were singing and gave you some kind of visual feedback, in the hope it might improve my fairly poor singing. It's Open Source and as far as I can see it's re-uses UltraStar code with some tweaks.

    It's not bad, in fact it's a remarkable achievement for Open Source, but it makes you realise exactly how much work the Rocksmith guys put in to making their software and how slick the end product actually is.

    I would be very interested if anyone can suggest any commercial alternatives for the PC, I would be really happy to pay for something that works, just don't want to buy a console......
    I haven't tried Performous yet...I guess it is essentially the new UltraStar Deluxe from what I can see. I completely agree with what you said about how the PC singing games, slick as they are, really make you appreciate how much work went into Rocksmith. Rocksmith truly is on another level, and I would pay almost anything to have a really polished singing game with a vast high quality DLC library available on the PC. I wasted enough time struggling with UltraStar that I decided I only want to spend time with high quality software and DLC from now on.

    So after Seattle's Rockband suggestion, I started looking into it and I am completely sold. The potential seems good enough that I'm willing to buy a console just to have something that is close to Rocksmith's league for singing. Throw in the ability to use real (as in really real, just like Rocksmith) keyboards and electronic drums and I'm getting pretty excited. I think I'm going make a significant investment into a really good RockBand setup. If it helps me with vocals/drums/keys even half as much as Rocksmith has helped me with guitar, it will be money well spent.
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  8. #8
    SeattleSauve's Avatar Senior Member
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    One thing to keep in mind is that RB4 cut out the keys, pro guitar/bass, and formal ekit support - which are supported in RB3. On xbox one there still isn't a solution for ekits yet for RB4, but PS4 has a workaround.

    I have a TD9-kx2 kit hooked up to my RB3 on xbox 360 and it is really fun to play drums in the game. I never hooked up an e-keyboard to the game, but I did play the keyboard instrument that came with the game a lot, and I didn't find it near as fun as drums, or singing.
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  9. #9
    thoman23's Avatar Senior Member
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    Originally Posted by SeattleSauve Go to original post
    One thing to keep in mind is that RB4 cut out the keys, pro guitar/bass, and formal ekit support - which are supported in RB3. On xbox one there still isn't a solution for ekits yet for RB4, but PS4 has a workaround.

    I have a TD9-kx2 kit hooked up to my RB3 on xbox 360 and it is really fun to play drums in the game. I never hooked up an e-keyboard to the game, but I did play the keyboard instrument that came with the game a lot, and I didn't find it near as fun as drums, or singing.
    Wow, nice drum kit. Right now I'm looking at starting with an XB360 and RB3, some microphones, and a synthesizer with midi output (haven't decided on a model yet). Once I decide that the game is really worth it, I'll look into investing in a good drum kit and I guess probably move the whole setup to the garage and start my garage band about 30 years later than I should have.
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  10. #10
    SeattleSauve's Avatar Senior Member
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    Yeah, this is my kit for RB3


    Again, so the one problem right now with xbox path is if you eventually want to move to RB4 on an xbox one they don't currently support ekits, works great in RB3 on 360 though.

    So, right now I'm not moving to RB4 until there's some workaround for full ekit support on RB4 for xbox one. If I had a PS4 I might consider moving to RB4, primarily because all new DLC will be released for RB4. That said, there's a ton of legacy DLC for RB3.
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