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  1. #1
    P308R's Avatar Member
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    Session Mode - The Recordings

    Hello fellow Rocksmithers ,

    I started to play Rocksmith in the end of December 2013 and since then I managed to play for about 20+ hours. Slowly I am making progress through the game and my fingers and brain start to work a bit better. I have to say that I am not "gifted" when it comes to musical talent so I struggle a lot but as said already a few times, there is progress.

    Slowly I am getting into this session mode thing. Something I was very afraid of in the beginning. Mostly I thought, well what am I going in here. I am not capable of producing music my own. But I discovered it was really great fun to just play around. Before you know it, you will have spend 30 to 45 minutes trying stuff within scales. A great tool

    I thought it would be a nice idea to share sessionmode recordings with other players within Rocksmith 2014. Constructive feedback can be given to the sounds provided and I hope it helps to improve as well as to get a bit more creative with well "the session mode".

    A superb topic of the session mode can be found HERE

    For the recordings you will need a pc / mac. On the mac one can use Garage Band and for a PC Audacity can be used. To share the recording "soundcloud" can be used. It all should be pretty straight forward.

    Looking forward to everyone's work!

    SOUNDCLOUD SECTION
    This demo was recorded with an external microphone on a mac. I still have to test with a direct cable plugged into microphone jack.
    G-Major - Demo (Click to hear me struggle....)

    I am still testing this so I will add new info on the fly.

    Kind regards,
    Bas

    TUTORIALS

    CREDITS: spiritofcat_

    Originally Posted by spiritofcat_ Go to original post
    For anyone that needs help setting up Audacity to record Rocksmith 2014 in Windows, here's a little tutorial I wrote on the Steam forums a while ago:

    Step 1:
    Go to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ to download and install Audacity.

    Step 2:
    Run Rocksmith 2014 and make sure Audio Exclusivity is turned off in the Options menu, then quit.

    Step 3:
    Open up the Recording Devices tab of the Sound Control Panel (Easily done by right clicking on the speaker icon in the system tray and selecting Recording Devices.

    Step 4:
    Right click inside the Recording Devices list and ask it to Show Disabled Devices

    Step 5:
    Find the Stereo Mix disabled device and enable it.

    Step 6:
    Run Audacity, and select Stereo Mix as your recording input

    Here's a little GIF I made to illustrate steps 4, 5 and 6:


    Step 7:
    Run Rocksmith 2014 once again, and get ready to play whatever it is you want to record, ie, a song, or session mode, or whatever.

    Step 8:
    Just before you hit the button to begin playing the song or start playing the session, ALT-TAB back out to Audacity and hit the Record button, then ALT-TAB back into Rocksmith 2014.

    Step 9:
    Play

    Step 10:
    When you've finished, ALT-TAB out to Audacity again and stop the recording.

    Step 11:
    In Audacity, hit Play to listen to what you just recorded.
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  2. #2
    You make the noodleing around in Session Mode that I do sound pretty lame by comparison. Keep up the good work.
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  3. #3
    Sounded really inspiring.

    Congratulations on taking it up a level, and expanding your experience.

    What settings in the session mode where you using?
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  4. #4
    spiritofcat_'s Avatar Senior Member
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    I recorded a couple of tracks in Session Mode a while ago.
    You can listen to them here: http://designated-driver.bandcamp.com/

    I'll check yours out later today.

    Edit:
    I had a listen, sounds good!
    Are you using a custom tone, or just the one that Session Mode gives you for that band?
    What instruments are in your band anyway? I think I hear maybe a glockenspiel, and a bass...
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  5. #5
    P308R's Avatar Member
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    What settings in the session mode where you using?
    I will check that this evening when I get back from work

    Are you using a custom tone, or just the one that Session Mode gives you for that band?
    What instruments are in your band anyway? I think I hear maybe a glockenspiel, and a bass...
    I think I used the preset tone of Peace of Mind from Boston. The band is customized. I will check the settings as well this evening and post them in here.

    Thanks for the kind words about the part, but I find it not "clean" enough. There is room (a lot of) for better timing and more fluent movement. Hehe but I can't do all at once hahaha.


    @Spiritofcat_ -> I'll check yours later today!
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  6. #6
    spiritofcat_'s Avatar Senior Member
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    Originally Posted by P308R Go to original post
    Thanks for the kind words about the part, but I find it not "clean" enough. There is room (a lot of) for better timing and more fluent movement. Hehe but I can't do all at once hahaha.
    You talking about clean in terms of tone, or in how accurately you were hitting your notes?
    I thought the tone you were using was a little too noisy and crunchy in some parts, but then again, other parts really shined for the same reasons. I guess it all just depends on how you use it.
    Yeah, there's always room for improvement in timing and precise finger work. I have the same concerns with my recordings too, but we're here to learn, so as long as we can recognise the areas we need to work on, we'll continue to make progress.

    Originally Posted by P308R Go to original post
    @Spiritofcat_ -> I'll check yours later today!
    Cool, I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.
    My E Phrygian Dominant one is probably the one I'm most proud of.
    I'm fairly happy with all of them though, except for my singing on Tee Vee. I'm definitely a better guitarist than I am a singer.
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  7. #7
    P308R's Avatar Member
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    E Phrygian Dominant Session
    Although the Phrygian scale is not my favorite, I think this is nicely done! There are some very nice fluently parts but I noticed too that sometimes you'd searched for the correct position or note to play Played steady and calm (nice little speed up in the end) and would fit as a background music within the Mummy (movie)

    How long have you been playing?

    My Way Now - Rocksmith 2014 Session 70BPM A Blues
    Nice little blues riff , guitar sound matches perfectly within the group.

    C Major Session Recording Test / Audacity's ability to record it than for any actual musical value
    The idea behind this is quite cool (work on the riff and you could create a song out of it!), but the sound of the guitar I am not very fond of. as stated by you "testing session". I find this the least of the 3. Your Phrygian is the best and you hear the improvement over this session.

    You talking about clean in terms of tone, or in how accurately you were hitting your notes?
    I was talking about how I was hitting the notes. Sometimes the previous string still rang or I messed up with the pick. As you said the precise fingerwork is important and for me it is just to early to speed up because I want to push to hard which causes me again to make errors and disrupt the sound.

    I will be practicing the scale of G-Major this week and by the end of the week I try to record something more decent. Audacity works well now but the mess I recorded yesterday is not worthy of posting..
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  8. #8
    spiritofcat_'s Avatar Senior Member
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    Originally Posted by P308R Go to original post
    Although the Phrygian scale is not my favorite, I think this is nicely done! There are some very nice fluently parts but I noticed too that sometimes you'd searched for the correct position or note to play Played steady and calm (nice little speed up in the end) and would fit as a background music within the Mummy (movie)
    Phrygian is just a mode of the Major Scale. Phrygian Dominant, or Harmonic Minor, takes the interval pattern of the Major scale and then sharpens one of the notes.
    In this case, the E Phrygian Dominany Scale contains the same notes as the A Harmonic Minor Scale, and they're both the same as the C Major Scale except that they replace G with G#.

    Originally Posted by P308R Go to original post
    How long have you been playing?
    I started as a raw beginner in late 2011 when I first got Rocksmith on the 360, so that's a little over 2 years now.
    Rocksmith and Rocksmith 2014 have been my main method of learning, but I've also done a bit of research into music theory online here and there.
    Of course I only really started getting into this sort of improvising when Rocksmith 2014 came along, but all the hours I put into Rocksmith 1 helped me a lot with the mechanical aspects of playing.


    Originally Posted by P308R Go to original post
    Nice little blues riff , guitar sound matches perfectly within the group.


    The idea behind this is quite cool (work on the riff and you could create a song out of it!), but the sound of the guitar I am not very fond of. as stated by you "testing session". I find this the least of the 3. Your Phrygian is the best and you hear the improvement over this session.
    It's funny, listening back to them again now, a couple of months after I recorded them I can really hear where I made mistakes and could improve.
    I think the tone used in My Way Now was just my basic custom Clean tone, although it might have been the automatic tone based on the backing instruments I chose. Not sure.
    You're right though, the tone on the C Major one is pretty awful. That warbling distortion thing it has going on really doesn't fit the slower tempo sections at all.

    Originally Posted by P308R Go to original post
    I was talking about how I was hitting the notes. Sometimes the previous string still rang or I messed up with the pick. As you said the precise fingerwork is important and for me it is just to early to speed up because I want to push to hard which causes me again to make errors and disrupt the sound.
    It's interesting actually, on the topic of technical accuracy, I've found that leaving notes ringing often adds a nice bit of flare to the sound.
    I made up a little riff the other day and was teaching it to my partner.
    He's been a guitar player for years, but only with basic chords, no theory or advanced techniques.
    After I'd taught him how the riff went, he commented on the difference between how it sounded when I played it versus when he played it.
    We noticed that when I played it I was doing little hammer ons, pull offs, and slides almost automatically and it made it sound much more "real music-y" than his simple one note at a time rendition.

    Originally Posted by P308R Go to original post
    I will be practicing the scale of G-Major this week and by the end of the week I try to record something more decent. Audacity works well now but the mess I recorded yesterday is not worthy of posting..
    Cool. I look forward to hearing it!
    I use Audacity for my recording too. It took me a little bit of work to find out how to record my soundcard's Stereo Mix, but once I got it figured out it worked really well.
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  9. #9
    Going to try a few ideas with Audicty and micing up myTV to record, If I come up with a decent sound I will post up some things.
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  10. #10
    Thanks for this. I've been wondering how to record to self-critique, "before and after", etc. I'll give Audacity a shot.
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