Going Low: a Workaround to get Bass Notes below C1 to register in Rocksmith

[Ross]

Today I found a workaround for getting the low bass notes such as low B to work with Rocksmith. I posted a scrappy test song in the database but they already pulled the plug on that, can't say I blame them :). But I got enough data for it to work as a proof of concept, you can see the discussions we had here. Me and a couple of people got a low B note, the thickest string on a 5-string bass to register in Rocksmith.

 

My theory was that the reason Rocksmith hits the wall at C1 is because after that you go into the zeroes, B0 is next. I thought it must be because Rocksmith doesn't like handling those zeroes in there. So could Rocksmith be tricked into thinking it is still in the 1st octave while in reality it's playing the notes that are of the 0th octave?

 

This brings us to the workaround. First off, you fiddle with the tuning in Editor of Fire. There you set the tuning to whatever is your desired tuning +6. (This is now pretty much obsolete, it's better to set it to +12, see the edits) In my test, I wanted the tuning to be in BEAD, the 4 lowest strings on a 5-string bass, so I set the tunings to 1,1,1,1. Because the B-string would be -5 compared to the standard 4-string E-string, I get -5+6=1, and so forth. Then you just chart the song as it is played in the desired tuning. If you have a chart like that already, just change the tuning accordingly and don't transpose the notes.

 

Next, in the Rocksmith toolkit you set the tuning for the arrangement the same as in eof, in this case 1,1,1,1. But here's the trick: you counter the +6 transpose you did in the tuning by setting the middle A as 311.2 Hz in the tuning pitch section. This causes all notes to be 6 semitones lower than normal.

 

Now, in my case the notes displayed for the strings are F1,A#1,D#2,G#2 but because of the different frequency reference the frequencies correspond to the notes B0,E1,A1,D2 in A440, or the pitch reference we normally use. As you can see, we have technically eliminated the 0th octave from the notes.

 

EDIT: I just realized you can probably do this in a more elegant manner. If you set your tuning to desired tuning +12 and offset that by setting the tuning pitch as 220 Hz you'll get the correct letters for the notes, they'll technically be an octave higher and octave lower at the same time if that makes sense :) The reason I went with +6 is because I first tried this pitch offset on the E standard tuning where you start off from 0 and are capped by the 11 semitone limit in EoF, but for B standard -5+12=7 if my math doesn't fail me here :P

 

Important: Make sure you're not using the same tuning in the toolkit for guitar and bass arrengements. We have already seem some snapped strings because the creator edited the "B standard" tuning in the toolkit to be 7,7,7,7 for bass and that also got applied to the guitar parts. You have to have two separate tunings, one normal for guitar and one with this trick for bass, you can look at LittleLui's post further down to see how he did this.

 

In game when you pick the song it shows the wrong note letters for the strings when you are tuning but they will tune to the correct desired note with the in game tuner (the game says the recording is "slightly" flat or sharp, just 6 semitones :P). Now if you've done everything correctly the chart should come out as it should be played in the desired tuning, and better yet, the game actually registers all of the notes. (EDIT: This bit is obsolete with the +-12 method, the notes should be the same. Though it will say it's in A220 tuning instead of A440)

 

I believe this should work the same for even lower tunings, if you wanna have an A string you just set the tuning on that to -1 (edit: 5 with the +-12 method), or a Bb string with the tuning set to 0 (edit: 6 with the +-12 method) for that particular string.

 

Some funny food for thought: the theoretical lowest note you could pull off with this is Gb0 I believe. Now, the maximum tuning you can set in eof is +11, and if you set the tuning pitch as 233.1, or 11 semitones below the standard middle A you could theoretically have rocksmith register a Db0 note, that is just over 17 Hz :P (actually, after what I realized, see the edit, the lowest you can go is theoretically C0 I think)

 

This will need some testing and fiddling around, obviously it's not an intended solution. Then again, the whole concept of cdlc's were not intended by the developer :)

 

EDIT: Here's a video of an actual cdlc by Rockfirstlast made with this trick, seems to be working perfectly. The tuning is C# Drop B

 

Link

 

Update: LittleLui has done a cdlc with BEAD tuning for bass with the +-12 method and it's working. The cldc is No Love Lost by Carcass if you wanna test it for yourself. He also made this comment in another post where he explains the trick in simple steps for already charted songs, might be useful to post it here:
 

 

...I gave this technique a try and it was both easy to apply and it worked, too. 

For existing songs its simply

• change tuning in EOF by adding 12
• deny the popup question suggesting auto-transposing
• edit your custom tunings file for csct (additional bass tunings +12)
• change the tuning of the bass part in csct to the +12 tunings, and the pitch to 220

 

where csct stands for the toolkit of course.

[TheBestAlex]

Oh yeah, had a question as well. Couldn't get a bonus arrangement to work. Do you have to already have a guitar track to add a bonus arrangement?

[firekorn]

you can set

-5

-4

-5

-5

-5

-5

and A220 it will work the same way

 

but as long as it's the good note that your playing it doesn't really matter.

 

About the bonus arrangement not working if you have a normal one, don't know... Never tried but that's not impossible though.

[QOTSANINSOADKORN]

FOR these versions we need Them clearly marked as alternate versions...

Don't replace the main downloads...

this might not be the solution...

AFTER PLAYING KORN - "RIGHT NOW" i take my words back...

LOVE this solution... worked great...

_____________________

i wasted a bunch of time trying to work out using CEAD not BEAD with some of my W.I.P. and 2 Customs...

Queen of the Damned - Slept So Long - Which many Notes miss...

& HIM - Heaven Tonight - WORKS PERFECTLY, WTF SAME TUNING...

[QOTSANINSOADKORN]

Oh yeah, had a question as well. Couldn't get a bonus arrangement to work. Do you have to already have a guitar track to add a bonus arrangement?

I Think So...

[firekorn]

I was able to make a bonus arrangement to work but RS display a X and if you still choose to play the song will automatically load the bonus arrangement so even if RS doesn't display the arrangement as available, it is.

[Swutch]

Hey Guys,

i really need your help.

 

Im new to all this custom song thing and got some CDLC for RS 2014.

i downloaded 3 songs i cant play, because i cant pass the tuning section in the game. it always says +999 when i try to tune it.

i came across this topic and was reading every single page but i still have no clue what to do. (Even with the 4 "simple" steps from LittleLui)

i downloaded EOF and RS Custom toolkit, but i dont know what i have to do with the programms.

 

So maybe someone can explain it to an absolute noob like me with an example.

 

(sorry for my bad english but i try my best ;) )

[firekorn]

hum, not sure if that's really your problem here.

 

First off, what does the tuning screen in RS indicate (is it A440 or A220? what note can't you get to register?)

 

Then if it's really a problem of note below C1 that doesn't register (only the lowest strings that doesn't work and the A is not at 220). No need to use EOF, the toolkit have a nice function thanks to the dev to correct that by clicking only one button, in the toolkit (make sure you have the last version available) in the Packer/Unpacker tab, you can simply click on the low bass tuning fix button and indicate which .psarc need this fix to be applied. Then it's done.

 

This fix won't work for 5 strings bass part though.

[Swutch]

hey firekorn,

 

thanks for the quck reply.

 

after updating the toolkit i fixed all the song i could not play and they all work now.

 

 

Thank you so much!

[Alex360]

Sometimes I think that we made things too easy for the beginners, that's really easy now :lol:

The more musicians can just use Our tools to get things done faster and cleaner, is that all the world is doing for whole life-time from a Big Bang? C:

[Fatalmasterpiece]

Hi, sorry to necro a post. I did the above fix and it works. What you need to make sure to do is delete the original unfixed song, otherwise you'll still get the wrong tuning so be sure to check "Delete source files" before clicking "fix low bass tuning".