Everything I always wanted to know about custom creation but forgot to ask

[Billkwando]

Hi Guys,

 

I have a lot of questions, and I think each warrants its own thread, but in the interest of not cluttering up the forum, I figured I'd put them all in one thread, but each of them is pretty much equally important to me, so try and answer if you can, please. I want to make my customs as good as they can possibly be. If you're in a rush, I'd rather one good answer to one question rather than a bunch of quick stabs at all of them. ;)

• Arpeggios. I just can't get this right, even after reading the tutorial numerous times. The first time I tried it, it looked right, but when I went to save, I found out that I'd spent an hour making one giant multi-bar arpeggio. The 2nd time I tried, I managed to make one arpeggio that was highlighted in black, and the next one was highlighted in white, and I could never get it to "close" to move on to the next one.How do you do them properly, and is that the thing that shows the shape of the whole chord, but blue brackets where the upcoming notes will be? That's what I'm looking for.
   
• How do you fix lyrics that say they're going to be truncated (32 character, etc)? I have one line in my TMBG song that's "Don't don't don't let's start" and it seems to be getting cut off. I timed the lyrics in Aegisub and exported as an SRT, but is there an easy way in EoF to split the line? Also, I split each line into individual words in Aegisub, but for some reason it displays them all as a single line with no highlighting of words. You can see all that here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivGb5Qv0rDw&feature=youtu.be
  What's weird is that there are lines that appear to be WAY longer that aren't getting cut off. Is it something to do with the apostrophes?
   
• What to do about lyrics that are embedded in the GP file? I did a custom of The Smiths' There is a Light That Never Goes Out, and it has lyrics embedded in the file somehow that get imported in as events, rather than a vocal track...nor does a separate vocal track exist in the GP file. I tried deleting all the events, but that killed the capo support, and apparently the song is completely jacked as a result. I would delete just the vocal events, but there are a MILLION of them. Is there an easy way to either use or delete these lyrics? Here's the culprit if anyone wants to see: http://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/smiths-there-is-a-light-that-never-goes-out-tab-s18092t0
   
• I was trying to reuse an Octave tone from a Muse song, but I changed the cabinet, the distortion, and removed the reverb effect in the toolkit. When pick my custom in tone designer and I load it as an "Authentic Tone" it sounds like it's supposed to, as far as I can tell, but in the song it still sounds totally reverbed out and horrible (for this song anyway). Is that a known issue, a fluke, or are my ears just on crack?
   
• This is probably the least important. Is there a way to restart a song project without having to delete the entire folder? I wanted to keep the guitar.ogg and the preview, and the song title if psossible, but get rid of the rest so I can import the GP files fresh, If this can't be done, no biggie.
   
• Bonus question: Is there an efficient way to back up previous versions/ saves of a project, since no matter how many "save as" backups you make, EoF is still gonna delete/overwrite the RS2 files anyway?
   
• How do you select groups of notes with Shift? I've tried, and it just flat out doesn't work for me. I have to control click everything.

 

I know this is a bunch of stuff and I'm probably going to regret posting it this way, but this is a great community, so I'm hoping I can count on you guys to help me get to the bottom of all these mysteries.

 

Thanks!

Bill

[raynebc]

1. You'll be able to tell where an arpeggio phrase in EOF starts and ends because the entire arpeggio is drawn with a turquoise background in EOF. You just need to author each note of the arpeggio where it is actually going to be played, select all notes that should be in the arpeggio and mark the phrase. EOF will add the turquoise background to show where the phrase is and will automatically add any needed ghosted notes to the beginning of the phrase, which will show the chord shape for the arpeggio. You can alter this initial chord's fretting or fingering as desired.

 

2. If you're getting that message, it's possibly because you're trying to have an entire line of lyrics as a single lyric, which isn't something Rocksmith supports well because of limits to how long it allows each lyric to be. You're going to want to split the lyric up into smaller lyrics. You don't need to synchronize each syllable, but you should at least try to split up each word into a separate lyric. EOF has a split lyric function that can help here, you may just have to correct lyric lengths and positions afterward. Alternatively you could touch up the lyrics in another program and import those into EOF.

 

3. Lyrics in GP files often don't follow Guitar Pro's standard method of authoring lyrics so getting lyrics from them is often hit or miss. Deleting the text events won't remove the capo or destroy anything important (to Rocksmith) in the chart except for phrase and section placement.

 

4. You may want to double check the tone changes in EOF to make sure it's changing to each tone the way you expect.

 

5. You can just delete or move the .eof files in the folder and create a new project specifying that guitar.ogg file if you wanted to start over.

 

6. All you need to keep is the .eof file and the chart audio (ie. guitar.ogg). All other files (XML, WAV, etc) are built from those two.

 

7. If SHIFT+click isn't working for you, I don't know why. You could try the DEBUG release of EOF, which has some extra details in the Information Panel that should indicate when EOF thinks you're holding the modifier keys (SHIFT, CTRL, ALT). When you press SHIFT, make sure EOF displays the * next to that modifier name in the Info panel, otherwise it wouldn't seem EOF is able to detect that key press on your keyboard. It could be an issue with the keyboard or perhaps one with the keyboard layout (ie. some international keyboards have special modifier keys and one SHIFT key may work but the other may not).

[Billkwando]

1. That sounds like the instructions in the tutorial. If I make a video of me trying to do it, can you tell me what I'm doing wrong? Something's going wrong in the "mark" part of the steps.

 

2. Did you watch the video? MUCH longer phrases aren't being split, so this is one time I'm inclined to think the problem is EoF, rather than me. Also, I did say that I split each line and then each word in Aegisub. I don't know why it's not working. I will look into the EoF word splitter, cos I don't understand that part of the program at all. I was hoping Aegisub would be enough and it would just import happily.

 

3. Like I said, I deleted all events....which was clearly a mistake....but how do I delete just the lyrics events without clicking 50,000 times and going blind? Also, I edited my post above to include a link to the tab if that helps to see it first hand.

 

4. There are only 2 tones in the song. It plays the default the whole time, switches to "Octave" for the solo, then goes back....so if you're thinking I have the wrong tone in there, it's not that. If I'm misunderstanding, please elaborate.

 

5. Thanks! I'll try that! :D

 

6. I see. I've just had instances where the guitar "goes bad" in one version, and bass "goes bad" in the other version, and wished I had the 2 individually good XML files to mash together......but that probably wouldn't work anyway, I'm guessing.

 

7. Just in case I'm stupid, could you walk me through the sequence of events? You hold shift, then click the first note and last note, and that should grab everything in between?

 

Sorry to be such a painus in teh anus... I just really wanna do this right, and I'm sure future members will benefit from these clarifications as well.

[MVega]

For the lyrics, I find it really easy just entering them manually using EOF itself. Go to the Vocals track - right-click near the lyrics line to place the "note" -- this opens a dialogue where you can type in the phrase. Keep each phrase short - there's not much screen space for lyrics after all. You can then use the scroll function to make the "note" as long or as short as it needs to be to match the music.

 

After you've placed the lyric you have to mark them -- ctrl-M (I think) does this. Marking them makes the lyrics turn color as the song reaches them. You can mark two shorter phrases together -- select both before marking them. This places them on the same line, but keeps the 'bouncing ball' effect of the lyrics turning color. NOTE: if a lyric isn't marked, it won't show up in the game. (My guess is the words that don't show up in the video somehow didn't get marked).

 

EOF does all I need for lyrics -- I think it also supports more advanced functions (using dashes or whatever) that allow you to sync the lyrics exactly to the song. But that's really for karaoke enthusiasts. For Rocksmith's purposes, you just need the lyrics to show up.

 

For the Tone problem, did you rename and then save the tone and then reassign the tone to the arrangement? I find the way the Toolkit handles this a bit confusing, because not only do you have to save the tone with its own name as a separate file, but you also have to give it the same name as the name the tone uses in your arrangement. So if, in EOF, the tone is called BassLead, it has to be named BassLead in the Toolkit as well (this isn't as much of an issue if you're not using tone changes).

 

In GuitarPro you can add lyrics as text in the track itself (I do that to help me keep track of where I am in the song). It's possible those were imported when you said yes to importing the file's events. You can delete them easily enough in GuitarPro -- click on the note where the text begins, chose 't' -- this should open a dialogue with the lyric line, just erase that. (Of course, you might be having a different issue).

 

I agree that Shift-Clicking is difficult. A big problem I have is that I find it very difficult to know when a note has been selected -- the difference between the non-selected and selected states isn't obvious enough for me (I'm partly colorblind, which doesn't help). So I end up left-clicking a couple of times to make sure I've selected the note before pressing the shift key. Strangely, once a group of notes has been selected, it's easier to see.

[raynebc]

1. That sounds like the instructions in the tutorial. If I make a video of me trying to do it, can you tell me what I'm doing wrong? Something's going wrong in the "mark" part of the steps.

If you like. 

2. Did you watch the video? MUCH longer phrases aren't being split, so this is one time I'm inclined to think the problem is EoF, rather than me.

I'd need the EOF project file to confirm this, but the short answer is that EOF will not export a Rocksmith lyric that is longer than 32 characters long if RS1 export is enabled. If RS2 export is enabled and RS1 is not, the lyrics are allowed to be 48 characters long.

I will look into the EoF word splitter

This is the "Note>Lyrics>Split lyric" function. Basically you add spaces to break up the lyric into equally sized pieces. 

3. Like I said, I deleted all events....which was clearly a mistake....but how do I delete just the lyrics events without clicking 50,000 times and going blind?

You could try the "Beat>Rocksmith>Clear non RS events" function, which will remove all events that aren't a RS phrase, RS section or RS event. 

4. There are only 2 tones in the song. It plays the default the whole time, switches to "Octave" for the solo, then goes back....so if you're thinking I have the wrong tone in there, it's not that. If I'm misunderstanding, please elaborate.

If the tone changes are in the right place, then I can't think of anything EOF related to suggest. The rest of it would have to do with the toolkit part of the authoring process. 

could you walk me through the sequence of events? You hold shift, then click the first note and last note, and that should grab everything in between?

You do a normal (left) click of the first note you want to select, then without deselecting that note (ie. avoid clicking other things, which can cause the note to be deselected), find the last note you want to select, hold the SHIFT key down and click on the note. All notes from the first to the last clicked one should become selected.

[Billkwando]

 

1. Arpeggios. I just can't get this right, even after reading the tutorial numerous times. The first time I tried it, it looked right, but when I went to save, I found out that I'd spent an hour making one giant multi-bar arpeggio. The 2nd time I tried, I managed to make one arpeggio that was highlighted in black, and the next one was highlighted in white, and I could never get it to "close" to move on to the next one.How do you do them properly, and is that the thing that shows the shape of the whole chord, but blue brackets where the upcoming notes will be? That's what I'm looking for.

 

I just wanted to let you guys, and anyone else having this problem, know that I got it figured out.

 

The trick is, when you finish an arpeggio, you need to click on something else that isn't a note, in order to deselect the current arpeggio. What was happening with me was, I'd finish the first arpeggio, and when I'd move on to the next one (unbeknownst to me) all the notes from the previous arpeggios were still selected, which is why it was connecting them all into one huge arpeggio. 

 

4. I was trying to reuse an Octave tone from a Muse song, but I changed the cabinet, the distortion, and removed the reverb effect in the toolkit. When pick my custom in tone designer and I load it as an "Authentic Tone" it sounds like it's supposed to, as far as I can tell, but in the song it still sounds totally reverbed out and horrible (for this song anyway). Is that a known issue, a fluke, or are my ears just on crack?

 

 

The solution to this was to create a new tone in the tool kit, then just note all the settings from the original tone that I wanted, and then just go into the options on the blank tone and recreate those settings. Then I deleted the old inexplicably 'verby tone and named the new tone to match the name of the one I deleted.

 

Thanks for the help so far guys! When I figure out the other issues I'll post back.

 

 

@@MVega I can't touch type, so the fact that you can't copy and paste text into EoF is a total deal breaker for me, lyric-wise (especially since many of the songs are in Japanese, which I don't speak). I'm typing this message right now with both index fingers, whilst half-looking at the keyboard!

[GetTheLedOut]

Hopefully you're able to figure everything out! There's some good advice being thrown around this thread.It was kind of hard for me to tell which questions you might still be hung up on, so it might be worth reiterating that in your next comment :D I'd be happy to chime in where I can. Good luck!

[Billkwando]

Hopefully you're able to figure everything out! There's some good advice being thrown around this thread.It was kind of hard for me to tell which questions you might still be hung up on, so it might be worth reiterating that in your next comment :D I'd be happy to chime in where I can. Good luck!

Thanks! Numbers 2, 3, and 7 are the main outstanding ones at the moment. I'm basically ok with 1, 4, 5, and 6 now. I can see that you're a helpy d00d, from your posts around here. All you guys are what make this community great! :D

 

Edit: I haven't had a chance to try the solution for #2 yet (the EoF word splitter) so I may have that one solved too. I haven't actually counted, but I still don't think that line is as long as some of the others that aren't cut off. I'd be happy to upload the project file if one of the devs would like to take a look.

 

Edit 2: Actually I just checked it in Word, and "Don’t Don’t Don’t let’s start" is 29 characters with the spaces included.

[raynebc]

I offered to look into #2, but I'd need the EOF project file to see what's going on.

[Billkwando]

Yes you did! :)

 

Truth be told, I don't know what the project file is. Is that notes.eof or do you need the whole folder? Whatever you need, no prob.

[raynebc]

The .eof file.

[Billkwando]

Here it is!

 

https://www.mediafire.com/?68v6q1cm6oa3s1q

[GetTheLedOut]

When it comes to your "embedded lyrics" issue, the best solution might have been to select "no" when RS asks if you want to also import the GP file's sections and phrases. If you're at a point in the project where it would make sense to erase the tracks and re-import, that's what I'd do. Especially with the strange capo removal thing you described (which I'm afraid I can't explain). You'll just have to add sections and phrases manually. If you're going to add DD later, than you don't need to add phrases, just sections. The DDC will automatically add all the phrases for you.If re-importing would cause you to loose a good amount of work, you can got to Beat>All events. From here you should be able to delete only those pesky "lyric phrases." In order to select multiple notes, just click on the first note (then release), then press and hold shift, then click on the last note in the string (while still holding shift). I think only the left shift button on my keyboard works for this -maybe my keyboard is just quirky...Above all else, listen to raynebc :D He knows his stuff, and has done some epic work on EoF.

[raynebc]

I took a look at the project file, the issue is exactly as EOF says and I recommended against: You are authoring entire sentences as individual lyrics and they are too long to work in Rocksmith. Something to keep in mind is that certain characters like the apostrophe have to be written in a special way as per the XML specification (for example, an apostrophe has to be written as ') and the added characters do count toward the limit. If you break up the lyrics so that there's one word per lyric, everything should work just fine.

[Billkwando]

I see, thanks! The reason that I didn't get it right away was that when I made the srt file in Aegisub, I did split everything into individual words, but somehow that didn't make it in when the file was imported. Sorry about the trouble. I will probably just set it to rs2 only in the future, while I learn to get it right. I'm going to try the EoF word splitter today, and probably Ultrastar as well, just so I know what my options are.

 

GetTheLedOut, on 18 Apr 2014 - 9:13 PM, said:

  In order to select multiple notes, just click on the first note (then release), then press and hold shift, then click on the last note in the string (while still holding shift). I think only the left shift button on my keyboard works for this -maybe my keyboard is just quirky...

  Above all else, listen to raynebc [:D] He knows his stuff, and has done some epic work on EoF.

 

 

This was indeed the solution to #7. I use the mouse left-handed because of the layout of my couch, so I normally use the right shit key. I never even thought of trying the left. Thanks! :D

[GetTheLedOut]

Awesome! Glad that worked. Another helpful one is SHIFT + end. This'll select all notes after your initial selection.

[Billkwando]

Also now that I've tried Ultrastar Creator, I pretty much wanna marry it. I went from thinking I was basically never gonna do lyrics cos it's such a PITA, to doing lyrics for almost all of my songs in a day. I'll probably try it for subtitling videos too, cos this tapping thing is relevant to my interests (insert dog w/ glasses here)

 

 

GetTheLedOut, on 18 Apr 2014 - 9:13 PM, said:

When it comes to your "embedded lyrics" issue, the best solution might have been to select "no" when RS asks if you want to also import the GP file's sections and phrases

 

Oh, I forgot to tell you! This was indeed the solution to #3! All fixed now, thanks! :D