Guitar Hero Co-op sound woes

[NuurAbSaal]

Ahoy Lurkers!

I rather enjoy playing Guitar Hero on my 360, even though I've been stuck on the last (GH:3) battle against Lou on Hard forever. I'm lucky to have a few friends who share my love of the game and we occasionally waste an afternoon away (har, usually from around 5pm to midnight:P) playing co-op mode on my box.

What greatly detracts from the fun of said endeavor, is an annoying bug that affects the volume of the guitar vs the bass track on GH:2 and the GH:Metallica Demo. Occasionally the guitar will be almost muted while the bass plays super-loudly, sometimes both instruments can't be heard well, sometimes it works fine for half a song.

Changing any of the sound settings on my Xbox or the GH games did not affect this. My weak google-fu did not produce any reports on similar problems for other players. I noted that some Lurkers enjoy the game as well and would like to hear if any of you encountered the same or a similar problem and if you could fix it.

My next stop would be the Xbox online support, but I had negative experiences with them so I rather ask you guys first (despite the BILLIONS of negative experiences I of course had with you;))

Cheers in advance

take care
Tarabulus

[[wcip]Angel]

Get a Playstation 3!

*ducks behind chair*


Seriously, I've never encountered your problem or even heard of it before. I think this is fairly unique. I'd try the support-thing and hope for the best. If you have a couple of tens lying around you could also spring for Rock Band or Guitar Hero World tour:)

Best of luck!
- [winzip]Angel

[NuurAbSaal]

Angel' date='Jun 5 2009, 01:58 PM' post='168269']
Get a Playstation 3!

*ducks behind chair*

Nevers!

Seriously, I've never encountered your problem or even heard of it before. I think this is fairly unique. I'd try the support-thing and hope for the best. If you have a couple of tens lying around you could also spring for Rock Band or Guitar Hero World tour:)

Best of luck!
- [winzip]Angel

Well, since the problem appeared in the Metallica Demo, I am hesitant to spend cash on a new game only to have the same issue pop up there, greatly diminishing the co-op experience.

take care
Tarabulus

[vor_lord]

Are you sure this isn't a sound hardware issue? Everything else works fine?

That is a very bizarre problem.

[NuurAbSaal]

That is a very bizarre problem.

Tell me about it, I usually get the "yeah, right" treatment when I tell people about it:o

I have no problems at all playing any other game, only my GH games (and with the exception of GH:3) are affected.

take care
Tarabulus

[Chesspiece_face]

Are you sure this isn't a sound hardware issue? Everything else works fine?

That is a very bizarre problem.

I second this. What are you broadcasting the sound through? TV/computer/theatre system? And what model? This is more than likely not an issue with the game or the xbox and more likely an issue with the sound output proccessing. If you have the option to output the sound through another device try that first and see if the problem persists.

Edit: And i'll second Angels comment about springing for a full band game. Although i'll say don't bother with GH:WT, Neversoft just hasn't gotten a hold of designing these games yet and the mistakes are still multitude. You and your friends are obviously playing at a high enough level to want a challenge but aren't at a score hero level to want manufactured challenge. The manufactured challenge is mostly what higher levels on the neversoft GH games offer with note charts that in no way correspond to the actual difficulty of the music. If nothing else i'm sure you can pick up a used copy of either RB1 or 2 for very cheap, extra instrument controllers can come later.

[Taem]

Your coop friend is probably just missing all of the beginning notes on his solo - that mutes it also. I have GH 2 and 3 and haven't had your particular problem unless I'm missing notes.

[NuurAbSaal]

I second this. What are you broadcasting the sound through? TV/computer/theatre system? And what model? This is more than likely not an issue with the game or the xbox and more likely an issue with the sound output proccessing. If you have the option to output the sound through another device try that first and see if the problem persists.

Edit: And i'll second Angels comment about springing for a full band game. Although i'll say don't bother with GH:WT, Neversoft just hasn't gotten a hold of designing these games yet and the mistakes are still multitude. You and your friends are obviously playing at a high enough level to want a challenge but aren't at a score hero level to want manufactured challenge. The manufactured challenge is mostly what higher levels on the neversoft GH games offer with note charts that in no way correspond to the actual difficulty of the music. If nothing else i'm sure you can pick up a used copy of either RB1 or 2 for very cheap, extra instrument controllers can come later.

I got my 360 plugged into an old skool TV via the standard Cinch (sp?) cables. If it's a sound "hardware" problem, why aren't any other games affected? Mind boggling.

About the challenge thingy: I can finish all songs on Hard without breaking a sweat (although only after some heavy practicing of the "Mosh" part of Raining Blood:P) and only got stuck on the guitar battle against Tom on Expert (I hate those battles, pointless crap in my opinion, I can play a LOT farther on Expert in practice mode but the battle is a cockblock). Definitely not score hero material though:). I chose GH over Rockband because I prefer the music selection, going more towards Metal and stuff. Though it's been a while since I checked and that might have changed.

I'll bother MS supprt with the problem I guess (or rather, bother myself with the support...).

thanks for the input guys
take care
Tarabulus

[NuurAbSaal]

Your coop friend is probably just missing all of the beginning notes on his solo - that mutes it also. I have GH 2 and 3 and haven't had your particular problem unless I'm missing notes.

If only it were that simple. Definitely not, as we have switched guitar/bass roles around and tried like every possible combination of guitar controller/player/track.

take care
Tarabulus

[Chesspiece_face]

I got my 360 plugged into an old skool TV via the standard Cinch (sp?) cables. If it's a sound "hardware" problem, why aren't any other games affected? Mind boggling.

thanks for the input guys
take care
Tarabulus

I'm thinking it's an issue with the way GH uses sound channels to differentiate between the players. With your more old school tech your hardware is trying to force some multichannel sound down into a single channel. Other games probably don't have much of a problem with this because they are still mostly utilizing a single sound track. GH and music games needs to have multiple layered tracks (one for you when you play single player and add in a second for the second player.) Depending on how this is programmed to output can have a big effect on how older hardware successfully compacts these to output.

[Nystul]

This is probably too obvious, but there isn't some audio setting on the game that is set to surround or 5.1 when it should be stereo is there?

[shoju]

This is probably too obvious, but there isn't some audio setting on the game that is set to surround or 5.1 when it should be stereo is there?

Both Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero Metallica have a fully integrated "mixer" in the game that will allow you to individually adjust the volume of each instrument. I'm not sure if the demo has it.

I play on the Wii, and never have any problems with Volume. my GH, 2, and 3 are PS2 versions, and I never experienced a problem like that either.

ANd what Nystul Said about surround /stereo settings. My PS2 games had that setting while my Wii doesn't because the Wii has it's own audio controls on the menu.

[NuurAbSaal]

As of today, the issue remains unresolved. I rechecked all possible settings for the box and in the games. I received a generic answer mail from support monkeys and beat "Message in a Bottle" on Expert on the first try.

Other people I told about the problem also described it as "weird", "crazy" or "unpossible".

More "news" when I get them.

take care
Tarabulus

[Taem]

As of today, the issue remains unresolved. I rechecked all possible settings for the box and in the games. I received a generic answer mail from support monkeys and beat "Message in a Bottle" on Expert on the first try.

Other people I told about the problem also described it as "weird", "crazy" or "unpossible".

More "news" when I get them.

take care
Tarabulus

1) Try taking your 360 to another persons house (with a 360 and your version of Guitar Hero) and see if the problem persists on their TV/sound system. If it does not, then your home system is most likely the problem.

2) If the problem persists, use his/her copy of Guitar Hero in your system and see if the problem persists. If it does, the problem is most likely with the sound-driver software in your 360 - you should talk to Microshaft about your warranty.

3) If problem #2 was fixed with a different copy of Guitar Hero, then try using your copy of Guitar Hero in your friends 360 and see if the problem persists. If so, then you know your copy of Guitar Hero is broken - you should see if you can repair scratches on the disc or return it to your game store.