Is there still no answer on guitarists who would also like to sing without having an extra set of hands to bang the mic?
You could always just lose those extra points.
You've got a forehead, right?
I've gotten to the habit of saying "I'm starting to hate this song" and then banging my head to the cowbell in (Don't Fear) The Reaper.
Related anecdote: When playing drunken bouts of Donkey Konga in my household, the de facto way to handle the "clap" in-game is to instead shout "CLAP!" at the top of your lungs into the drum's mic. I see no reason not to do exactly the same here.
White Stripes wouldn't work as they lack bass in most tracks. And when there is any bass, its either carried with the bass drum tempo or it's actually Jack's modified guitar hitting those low notes. Looking back through all my White Stripes cds, I can't find a good song that'd be good for 4 people to play.
Cake would be nice.
I'm not a musical expert but Seven Nation Army sounds like it has lead and bass, the bass is just more prominent but during the chorus you hear both. If worse comes to worse, the guitar player that's left out can use the whammy bar to add trippy filters to the characters playing in the background.
I've just been on a White Stripes kick lately so I'd love to see something of theirs in there but I'd always settle for Steady As She Goes which would be perfect.
I've seen them live before (was going to see them live again but they cancelled the date) and he does Seven Nation Army without a bass player. Work internets prevent me from searching for videos. There are covers from other bands I've seen do Seven Nation Army with a bass player (albeit sounding more punkish) so there's that possibility or modifying the track to include it.
Wikipedia (take it as you will) explains it better:
Jack uses a number of effects to create his sound, notably a Digitech whammy pedal to reach pitches that would otherwise not be possible with a regular guitar. For instance, without the pedal, "Seven Nation Army" would require a bass guitar and "Black Math" would be very difficult to play without a 29th fret (which does not exist on most guitars) on the highest string
Quick question about the microphone as it seems I might get stuck being the singer in my "band": How does it work exactly? Does it recognize lyrics? You have to tap on it along with the beat right?
Just because (I don't think) no one answered before and I'm curious
Question: What if you are a male singer singing a female part? (and vice versa)...DO they replace your customized character with a female for just that song?
Quick question about the microphone as it seems I might get stuck being the singer in my "band": How does it work exactly? Does it recognize lyrics? You have to tap on it along with the beat right?
Just because (I don't think) no one answered before and I'm curious
The game allegedly tracks both the pitch of the melody and general vowel sounds, so you can't just "la la laaaaa" your way through it. And there are non-vocal segments where you're supposed to tap along like with a tambourine or cowbell.
And I don't think the the game would force you to flip character gender just to sing the song ... you can still sing along so long as you bring things up/down an octave, so having a male character sing a girl-power rock ballad would only make things funnier.
Quick question about the microphone as it seems I might get stuck being the singer in my "band": How does it work exactly? Does it recognize lyrics? You have to tap on it along with the beat right?
Just because (I don't think) no one answered before and I'm curious
The game allegedly tracks both the pitch of the melody and general vowel sounds, so you can't just "la la laaaaa" your way through it. And there are non-vocal segments where you're supposed to tap along like with a tambourine or cowbell.
You think we'll get extra points for really "exploring the studio space"?
so the note boards are different, but GH III seems a bit more difficult.
Rock Band's guitar career must still incorporate the bass into the lead guitar patterns, since Guitar Hero III continues with the main riff while RB goes into what sounds like the bass. I'm guessing that if someone's playing bass, the lead guitar won't have that part.
Omeks on
Online Info (Click Spoiler for More): |Xbox Live Tag: Omeks |PSN Tag:Omeks_R7 |Rock Band:Profile|DLC Collection
so the note boards are different, but GH III seems a bit more difficult.
Rock Band's guitar career must still incorporate the bass into the lead guitar patterns, since Guitar Hero III continues with the main riff while RB goes into what sounds like the bass. I'm guessing that if someone's playing bass, the lead guitar won't have that part.
well, the band that is playing, The Strokes, they have two guitarists and a bassist. so maybe it's all combined?
so the note boards are different, but GH III seems a bit more difficult.
Rock Band's guitar career must still incorporate the bass into the lead guitar patterns, since Guitar Hero III continues with the main riff while RB goes into what sounds like the bass. I'm guessing that if someone's playing bass, the lead guitar won't have that part.
I expect it is combined lead/rhythm, not lead/bass, since the bass is separated out.
In response to the "playing lead guitar and vocals how do you tap the mic?" question posed earlier, I'm currently sketching out a solution (incase nothing to make it easier is announced).
For some reason I'm in the possession of a two-axis mic stand and an old bass-drum kick pedal. Never been in a band, so its strange haha. I'd be pretty darn easy to attach a length of wire to the kick-pedal to a "tapper" next to the mic so whenever you press the pedal it taps the mic.
If I ever get round to doing it I'll be sure to post pics.
This just will not do...Rock Band on page 4...blasphemy!
Anyway, Gamespot had a hardware profile the other day...couple things we learned:
1. You can say 'pop' or 'pow' into the mic to activate the tambourine thingie...so if you want to play guitar and sing, you can also still do the 'keep the beat' thing without bashing your head repeatedly. Still hope we can just choose not to do it at all when dual playing, but whatever.
2. Player vocals will not be heard when playing online by the other players. Guess this is due to keeping the lag/latency issues at bay as much as possible. It's slightly dissappointing, but it'll now be a LOT easier to find a singer online at least.
3. 360 headsets will plug into the drums and guitar. Most people expected them to, but at least this is confirmed now.
2. Player vocals will not be heard when playing online by the other players. Guess this is due to keeping the lag/latency issues at bay as much as possible. It's slightly dissappointing, but it'll now be a LOT easier to find a singer online at least.
So you just hear the recorded vocal track, and it drops out when mistakes are made?
2. Player vocals will not be heard when playing online by the other players. Guess this is due to keeping the lag/latency issues at bay as much as possible. It's slightly dissappointing, but it'll now be a LOT easier to find a singer online at least.
So you just hear the recorded vocal track, and it drops out when mistakes are made?
I assume, yes. Although, I guess we haven't had confirmation in any way how the other instruments will sound when you're playing online...whether you'll hear the entire track or if the parts will 'drop out' when a mistake is made on the other end. But yah, it sounds like vocals are going to be handled just like any other instrument now...if the singer misses a note it will be the same as if the drummer misses a beat.
2. Player vocals will not be heard when playing online by the other players. Guess this is due to keeping the lag/latency issues at bay as much as possible. It's slightly dissappointing, but it'll now be a LOT easier to find a singer online at least.
So you just hear the recorded vocal track, and it drops out when mistakes are made?
I assume, yes. Although, I guess we haven't had confirmation in any way how the other instruments will sound when you're playing online...whether you'll hear the entire track or if the parts will 'drop out' when a mistake is made on the other end. But yah, it sounds like vocals are going to be handled just like any other instrument now...if the singer misses a note it will be the same as if the drummer misses a beat.
I remember people's first misgivings about online play being along the lines of "latency problems will make it impossible for the tracks to drop out on the right notes when mistakes are made". I agree that's probably true, but I don't know that it matters. If somebody misses note X and you hear a mistake on note X+1, that doesn't really affect your perception that much.
2. Player vocals will not be heard when playing online by the other players. Guess this is due to keeping the lag/latency issues at bay as much as possible. It's slightly dissappointing, but it'll now be a LOT easier to find a singer online at least.
So you just hear the recorded vocal track, and it drops out when mistakes are made?
I assume, yes. Although, I guess we haven't had confirmation in any way how the other instruments will sound when you're playing online...whether you'll hear the entire track or if the parts will 'drop out' when a mistake is made on the other end. But yah, it sounds like vocals are going to be handled just like any other instrument now...if the singer misses a note it will be the same as if the drummer misses a beat.
I remember people's first misgivings about online play being along the lines of "latency problems will make it impossible for the tracks to drop out on the right notes when mistakes are made". I agree that's probably true, but I don't know that it matters. If somebody misses note X and you hear a mistake on note X+1, that doesn't really affect your perception that much.
Hmm, that's a pretty good point. I'd not thought of it like that. I suppose it kinda/sorta would stink if the player missed just a small little single note, but the delay caused it to appear as if he missed a big long chord, but even then not really that big a deal. Still would be much better than just hearing a perfect track, but seeing via the rock meter that the player is screwing up...especially since you'd have to know when a player needs saving or when you should activate rock power or whatever...hmm, so many questions still swirling around online play. Would love to get some rock-solid details here...more than what we have that is.
2. Player vocals will not be heard when playing online by the other players. Guess this is due to keeping the lag/latency issues at bay as much as possible. It's slightly dissappointing, but it'll now be a LOT easier to find a singer online at least.
I'm sure part of it is latency, but I'm sure the other part of it is to prevent situations where you hear more 'SHITCOCK EAT A DICK FUCKPUPPET!!!' in 2 minutes than you've heard in your entire life up to that point.
2. Player vocals will not be heard when playing online by the other players. Guess this is due to keeping the lag/latency issues at bay as much as possible. It's slightly dissappointing, but it'll now be a LOT easier to find a singer online at least.
So you just hear the recorded vocal track, and it drops out when mistakes are made?
I assume, yes. Although, I guess we haven't had confirmation in any way how the other instruments will sound when you're playing online...whether you'll hear the entire track or if the parts will 'drop out' when a mistake is made on the other end. But yah, it sounds like vocals are going to be handled just like any other instrument now...if the singer misses a note it will be the same as if the drummer misses a beat.
I remember people's first misgivings about online play being along the lines of "latency problems will make it impossible for the tracks to drop out on the right notes when mistakes are made". I agree that's probably true, but I don't know that it matters. If somebody misses note X and you hear a mistake on note X+1, that doesn't really affect your perception that much.
So they appear to perfectly nail that difficult bit, but then immediately screw up on the following easy part. :P
2. Player vocals will not be heard when playing online by the other players. Guess this is due to keeping the lag/latency issues at bay as much as possible. It's slightly dissappointing, but it'll now be a LOT easier to find a singer online at least.
I'm sure part of it is latency, but I'm sure the other part of it is to prevent situations where you hear more 'SHITCOCK EAT A DICK FUCKPUPPET!!!' in 2 minutes than you've heard in your entire life up to that point.
Thats what I've thought from the beginning. Getting your mates all ready to go for a face-off then some dumbass on the other end screaming at you for 15 seconds then disconnecting.
My wife was really excited about this game and playing it with me and her best friend in california. She wanted the singing parts because she loves karaoke revolution, but without the voice being heard online she says there is no point for her anymore and she no longer wants to get the game.
Bah, that sucks a lot more than a little. Live already has voice communication that is darn near instant, what is the issue? Has anyone ever noticed any lag in the voice in 360 live? I played a lot of coop gears of war and the oh shits were perfectly in time with the oh shit moments as far as I could hear.
I can't see any reason for this to not be at least an option. I can see not wanting to hear others, or not wanting others to hear you, but when both parties WANT to be heard... what the fuck?
Im sure ive read somewhere that if the person is on your friends list you can hear the voices, but in a pick up game you cant. im not sure.
im not entirely down on how the online works. but im positive someone said somewhere you could sing with people.
The_Scarab on
0
Options
mntorankusuI'm not sure how to use this thing....Registered Userregular
edited September 2007
The lag issue is that timing in music is really important. With the guitar, bass and drums it doesn't really matter if the notes you miss are the ones your online band members hear you miss, since for the other players it is only an indication of how good or bad you're doing, but with voice it has to sync up exactly on everyone's box.
Of course, this could be solved by making the singer do their part a little earlier than the others, and then having each receiving box adjust the timing of the playback accordingly, but then you have the timing of other players' missed notes a little worse for the singers.
It's pretty pointless if you can't hear the people singing though, so a little bit of extra lag would be worth it.
My wife was really excited about this game and playing it with me and her best friend in california. She wanted the singing parts because she loves karaoke revolution, but without the voice being heard online she says there is no point for her anymore and she no longer wants to get the game.
wow, your wife sounds like a spoiled brat. have you not taken the necessary measures to make her appreciate what she gets? jesus, man, take a stand and make it clear to her that she WILL play the game, whether she wants to or not.
But really, the more I think about this, the more I think it's a non-issue. I'm more than willing to sacrifice having people three states over hear my semi-competent singing voice for quality online gameplay. You'll still 'see' how the person is singing, where their pitch is at, etc....and if the really blow a section, the game voice will reflect that. So it's just like any other instrument now, but is still judged accordingly, still contributes to the overall success of the band. Sure, when I get a live band together for a party or something, I'm gonna have the player vocals way up and be belting them out like a champ, but for online play I think it's a wise decision to preserve the performance of the gameplay over letting Celine Deon wannabes take over the intertubes.
The 'codec' and bit rate XBL uses for voice sounds horrible when someone is singing anyway and even if Harmonix had their own solution that would add even more lag and basically online play with any singer would be an abortion.
The 'codec' and bit rate XBL uses for voice sounds horrible when someone is singing anyway and even if Harmonix had their own solution that would add even more lag and basically online play with any singer would be an abortion.
Hmm, yah I hadn't thought of that either. Not only would they need to transmit voice, they would need to tansmit high quality voice for it to even sound halfway decent, which the current method of voice transmission just would not do. And of course improving the quality of the voice transmission would suck up more of the bandwidth and be much more likely to cause lag. Make perfect sense to me. I guess they didn't want to give up hope that it was impossible, but they really probably should have said this a long, long time ago. A lot of people just assumed that voice would travel over online and now have their panties in a bunch.
I'm over it. This is just another good reason to be glad they're preserving online play.
I dunno. I feel like there needs to be some level of human interaction in the game or else it'll feel like I'm playing with robots hitting notes. Really, I think in order to be done properly, it would need to use the XBox Camera gadget and show your other band mates rocking out in little side windows, as well as having the option to hear the actual singer's voice.
My wife talks to her friend in california almost 8 hours a day over the MSN voice codec, which isn't exactly the best thing since sliced bread.
They are hardly having discussions like "oh, wow Linda, the quality and pitch of your voice are wonderful today!"
What you consider 'an abortion' others would really love to hear. Hearing a friend or a loved one singing a song they love comes through just about any voice codec. But I am so glad there are audiophile snobs like you around to tell me what does and does not sound good enough and to PROTECT me from what does not sound optimal by making it utterly impossible to even try.
Hopefully there are enough options to make everyone happy, and the voice over live is optional. For me, the lack of voice over live takes it from a 'camp out to get it day 1' to a 'don't bother to pick it up until more DLC shows up'. Either way I am probably buying it, but it won't be right away without voice over live. It is a big deal for some of us. Emotion is conveyed just fine even through poor codecs, and for some of us, that is what music is all about. The game is about music to me, not pressing buttons.
It also leads to some confusion, isn't voice over Live a REQUIREMENT of having a game certified by MS? So no band members can talk to each other during the song? No "Hell yas", or anything like that? That would also suck majorly. I don't know about you guys, but when friends are over and we are playing ANYTHING together, exclamations of accomplishment and ripping on failure is what makes it fun. We NEVER sit there with our mouths shut and just play the game. That would be lame.
As far as lag, I have never noticed lag on xbox live voice communications, am I in the minority?
As far as lag, I have never noticed lag on xbox live voice communications, am I in the minority?
You may not have noticed it, but it is there.
It is *impossible* to have a network connection without lag, period. And that is entirely independent of how much data you're sending (ie, bandwidth). Even if you sent only one byte, you cannot eliminate that lag.
An extremely "lagless" connection tends to have lag of 40-50ms, which is about 3 game frames. A more typical 100-200ms would be 6-12 game frames... For chat, no big deal. For music rhythm games, it's deadly if things get out of sync.
Most net games can do some sort of predictive analysis and correction, which gets done in RB to a degree when dealing with the non-vocal parts. Since we're not sending audio over the net (just playing back the song's audio tracks), it's a non-issue.
Sending a player's vocal performance isn't impossible to do. It could probably even be done without adding additional lag (though, not being the audio guy, I'm not sure the details of that or the quality you would get). Even without additional lag, however, you can't escape the initial, existing lag. ("You cannot change the laws of physics!")
And before I get jumped on as far as what we could have done... believe me, if you suggest it, we've already tried it and a dozen other things. (And no, I'm not going to go into detail, confidential and all that, so don't ask...)
We NEVER sit there with our mouths shut and just play the game. That would be lame.
Have you ever played guitar hero? In the middle of the song I find almost anyone who isn't terrible/drunk isn't exactly the most talkative person while they're playing.
Posts
You've got a forehead, right?
I've gotten to the habit of saying "I'm starting to hate this song" and then banging my head to the cowbell in (Don't Fear) The Reaper.
Related anecdote: When playing drunken bouts of Donkey Konga in my household, the de facto way to handle the "clap" in-game is to instead shout "CLAP!" at the top of your lungs into the drum's mic. I see no reason not to do exactly the same here.
This is why I hope Metal Health by Quiet Riot somehow finds its way onto the DLC.
I've seen them live before (was going to see them live again but they cancelled the date) and he does Seven Nation Army without a bass player. Work internets prevent me from searching for videos. There are covers from other bands I've seen do Seven Nation Army with a bass player (albeit sounding more punkish) so there's that possibility or modifying the track to include it.
Wikipedia (take it as you will) explains it better:
Just because (I don't think) no one answered before and I'm curious
XBL: Slimebucato
The game allegedly tracks both the pitch of the melody and general vowel sounds, so you can't just "la la laaaaa" your way through it. And there are non-vocal segments where you're supposed to tap along like with a tambourine or cowbell.
And I don't think the the game would force you to flip character gender just to sing the song ... you can still sing along so long as you bring things up/down an octave, so having a male character sing a girl-power rock ballad would only make things funnier.
You think we'll get extra points for really "exploring the studio space"?
so the note boards are different, but GH III seems a bit more difficult.
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
Rock Band's guitar career must still incorporate the bass into the lead guitar patterns, since Guitar Hero III continues with the main riff while RB goes into what sounds like the bass. I'm guessing that if someone's playing bass, the lead guitar won't have that part.
|Xbox Live Tag: Omeks
|PSN Tag: Omeks_R7
|Rock Band: Profile|DLC Collection
well, the band that is playing, The Strokes, they have two guitarists and a bassist. so maybe it's all combined?
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
I expect it is combined lead/rhythm, not lead/bass, since the bass is separated out.
For some reason I'm in the possession of a two-axis mic stand and an old bass-drum kick pedal. Never been in a band, so its strange haha. I'd be pretty darn easy to attach a length of wire to the kick-pedal to a "tapper" next to the mic so whenever you press the pedal it taps the mic.
If I ever get round to doing it I'll be sure to post pics.
The Sixth Annual Triwizard Drinking Tournament Part 1 |
Pokecrawl Episode 4: The Power Of One!
Portalflip
Pokemon X: Atlus | 3539-8807-3813
Did you only read the first sentence of my post? :P
Anyway, Gamespot had a hardware profile the other day...couple things we learned:
1. You can say 'pop' or 'pow' into the mic to activate the tambourine thingie...so if you want to play guitar and sing, you can also still do the 'keep the beat' thing without bashing your head repeatedly. Still hope we can just choose not to do it at all when dual playing, but whatever.
2. Player vocals will not be heard when playing online by the other players. Guess this is due to keeping the lag/latency issues at bay as much as possible. It's slightly dissappointing, but it'll now be a LOT easier to find a singer online at least.
3. 360 headsets will plug into the drums and guitar. Most people expected them to, but at least this is confirmed now.
discuss...
twit feed
That was me doing the cowbell beat in Don't Fear the Reaper.
So you just hear the recorded vocal track, and it drops out when mistakes are made?
I assume, yes. Although, I guess we haven't had confirmation in any way how the other instruments will sound when you're playing online...whether you'll hear the entire track or if the parts will 'drop out' when a mistake is made on the other end. But yah, it sounds like vocals are going to be handled just like any other instrument now...if the singer misses a note it will be the same as if the drummer misses a beat.
twit feed
I remember people's first misgivings about online play being along the lines of "latency problems will make it impossible for the tracks to drop out on the right notes when mistakes are made". I agree that's probably true, but I don't know that it matters. If somebody misses note X and you hear a mistake on note X+1, that doesn't really affect your perception that much.
Hmm, that's a pretty good point. I'd not thought of it like that. I suppose it kinda/sorta would stink if the player missed just a small little single note, but the delay caused it to appear as if he missed a big long chord, but even then not really that big a deal. Still would be much better than just hearing a perfect track, but seeing via the rock meter that the player is screwing up...especially since you'd have to know when a player needs saving or when you should activate rock power or whatever...hmm, so many questions still swirling around online play. Would love to get some rock-solid details here...more than what we have that is.
twit feed
twit feed
So they appear to perfectly nail that difficult bit, but then immediately screw up on the following easy part. :P
:P
Thats what I've thought from the beginning. Getting your mates all ready to go for a face-off then some dumbass on the other end screaming at you for 15 seconds then disconnecting.
I think I'd just find it distracting anyway.
My wife was really excited about this game and playing it with me and her best friend in california. She wanted the singing parts because she loves karaoke revolution, but without the voice being heard online she says there is no point for her anymore and she no longer wants to get the game.
Bah, that sucks a lot more than a little. Live already has voice communication that is darn near instant, what is the issue? Has anyone ever noticed any lag in the voice in 360 live? I played a lot of coop gears of war and the oh shits were perfectly in time with the oh shit moments as far as I could hear.
I can't see any reason for this to not be at least an option. I can see not wanting to hear others, or not wanting others to hear you, but when both parties WANT to be heard... what the fuck?
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
MMOG Comic, Quests, and News. www.thebrasse.com
im not entirely down on how the online works. but im positive someone said somewhere you could sing with people.
Of course, this could be solved by making the singer do their part a little earlier than the others, and then having each receiving box adjust the timing of the playback accordingly, but then you have the timing of other players' missed notes a little worse for the singers.
It's pretty pointless if you can't hear the people singing though, so a little bit of extra lag would be worth it.
wow, your wife sounds like a spoiled brat. have you not taken the necessary measures to make her appreciate what she gets? jesus, man, take a stand and make it clear to her that she WILL play the game, whether she wants to or not.
But really, the more I think about this, the more I think it's a non-issue. I'm more than willing to sacrifice having people three states over hear my semi-competent singing voice for quality online gameplay. You'll still 'see' how the person is singing, where their pitch is at, etc....and if the really blow a section, the game voice will reflect that. So it's just like any other instrument now, but is still judged accordingly, still contributes to the overall success of the band. Sure, when I get a live band together for a party or something, I'm gonna have the player vocals way up and be belting them out like a champ, but for online play I think it's a wise decision to preserve the performance of the gameplay over letting Celine Deon wannabes take over the intertubes.
twit feed
Hmm, yah I hadn't thought of that either. Not only would they need to transmit voice, they would need to tansmit high quality voice for it to even sound halfway decent, which the current method of voice transmission just would not do. And of course improving the quality of the voice transmission would suck up more of the bandwidth and be much more likely to cause lag. Make perfect sense to me. I guess they didn't want to give up hope that it was impossible, but they really probably should have said this a long, long time ago. A lot of people just assumed that voice would travel over online and now have their panties in a bunch.
I'm over it. This is just another good reason to be glad they're preserving online play.
twit feed
They are hardly having discussions like "oh, wow Linda, the quality and pitch of your voice are wonderful today!"
What you consider 'an abortion' others would really love to hear. Hearing a friend or a loved one singing a song they love comes through just about any voice codec. But I am so glad there are audiophile snobs like you around to tell me what does and does not sound good enough and to PROTECT me from what does not sound optimal by making it utterly impossible to even try.
Hopefully there are enough options to make everyone happy, and the voice over live is optional. For me, the lack of voice over live takes it from a 'camp out to get it day 1' to a 'don't bother to pick it up until more DLC shows up'. Either way I am probably buying it, but it won't be right away without voice over live. It is a big deal for some of us. Emotion is conveyed just fine even through poor codecs, and for some of us, that is what music is all about. The game is about music to me, not pressing buttons.
It also leads to some confusion, isn't voice over Live a REQUIREMENT of having a game certified by MS? So no band members can talk to each other during the song? No "Hell yas", or anything like that? That would also suck majorly. I don't know about you guys, but when friends are over and we are playing ANYTHING together, exclamations of accomplishment and ripping on failure is what makes it fun. We NEVER sit there with our mouths shut and just play the game. That would be lame.
As far as lag, I have never noticed lag on xbox live voice communications, am I in the minority?
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
MMOG Comic, Quests, and News. www.thebrasse.com
You may not have noticed it, but it is there.
It is *impossible* to have a network connection without lag, period. And that is entirely independent of how much data you're sending (ie, bandwidth). Even if you sent only one byte, you cannot eliminate that lag.
An extremely "lagless" connection tends to have lag of 40-50ms, which is about 3 game frames. A more typical 100-200ms would be 6-12 game frames... For chat, no big deal. For music rhythm games, it's deadly if things get out of sync.
Most net games can do some sort of predictive analysis and correction, which gets done in RB to a degree when dealing with the non-vocal parts. Since we're not sending audio over the net (just playing back the song's audio tracks), it's a non-issue.
Sending a player's vocal performance isn't impossible to do. It could probably even be done without adding additional lag (though, not being the audio guy, I'm not sure the details of that or the quality you would get). Even without additional lag, however, you can't escape the initial, existing lag. ("You cannot change the laws of physics!")
And before I get jumped on as far as what we could have done... believe me, if you suggest it, we've already tried it and a dozen other things. (And no, I'm not going to go into detail, confidential and all that, so don't ask...)
Now, I've heard you're pretty busy...should you even be here?!?!
twit feed
It's downright distracting actually.