News - Fender launches the Slide, a USB musical instrument interface

[HEXUS]

The dongle connects your guitar or bass to a PC/Mac or iOS device.

Read more.

[KrisWragg]

I assume this works in a similar way to the RockSmith cable? Recently got RockSmith 2014 and quite enjoying it, made me pick up my guitar again after not playing it in a long while.

[wasabi]

Not bad if it is full Amplitube included, but you can get Behringer ASIO cables for about £35 already. It works very nicely with Amplitube and a load of other software too.

[crossy]

I assume this works in a similar way to the RockSmith cable? Recently got RockSmith 2014 and quite enjoying it, made me pick up my guitar again after not playing it in a long while.

+1 on this - I got my cable with the XBox version of Rocksmith 2013.

<off-topic>
When Rocksmith 2014 came out I upgraded to it on a PC, oh, and traded the Epiphone LPJ that came in the RS2013 pack for a Fender Stratocaster Modern Player HSH.

RS2013 made me want to buy a guitar (I didn't play ANY musical instrument before) but RS2014 made me want to play it better. Shame that Ubi managed to break the "60 day challenge" that would have made it a more useful tool.
</off-topic>

Be years before I'm good enough to need one of these dongles - by which time the market will have moved on I guess. I thought that there were quite a few of the modern "practice" amps that had some capability to hook up to a PC for recording etc. Needless to say the cheapo Digitech effects pedal I got doesn't.

[Odeas]

Seems like your paying a fair amount for the software.

Having a built in volume control is hardly special as all guitars with a jack output have volume & usually tone controls anyway.

Unless you really wanted the supplied software I think you'd be likely better off buying something else unless the premium components are really something special.

RE: Rocksmith, good software, 2014 is a step up from the original, you can play without the realtone cable but can give some latency/detection issues.

[wasabi]

I assume this works in a similar way to the RockSmith cable? Recently got RockSmith 2014 and quite enjoying it, made me pick up my guitar again after not playing it in a long while.

I tried it round on my neighbour's laptop at Xmas. It has some nice touches but found too many annoyances to get on with it or buy. it teaches some songs the wrong way, with crazy positions on the neck that no sane guitarist would use - presumably to make the game harder? Also it struggled to detect string bends very reliably, especially when I tried Alice in Chains stuff that uses lots of bends and wah pedal to get the sound. Oh and the way it picks semi random notes here and there then pieces them together as difficulty progresses just didn't work for me as a way to learn.

Might be good if you come from a guitar hero type background - for someone used to just learning riffs off Youtube, meh. Better off with a cheap ASIO device and something like Amplitube (or a bunch of free VSTs like Camel Crusher) and just learn yourself off Youtube - IMO. Best thing about it was that it proveded good background tracks for playing over.

[crossy]

I tried it round on my neighbour's laptop at Xmas. It has some nice touches but found too many annoyances to get on with it or buy. it teaches some songs the wrong way, with crazy positions on the neck that no sane guitarist would use - presumably to make the game harder? Also it struggled to detect string bends very reliably, especially when I tried Alice in Chains stuff that uses lots of bends and wah pedal to get the sound. Oh and the way it picks semi random notes here and there then pieces them together as difficulty progresses just didn't work for me as a way to learn.

If you check out the Ubi forums then you'll see a LOT of folks complaining about latency, and worse still event skips. Haven't had the latency issue myself, but there's one of the minigames that you have to do, that - for me at least - has thrice damned event detect issues. In fact it's so bad that I find it unplayable - and I need to complete it to move on. Very frustrating!

The manual provision also is dire - Ubisoft need to hang their head in shame.

From my point of view - as a total n00b whose current playing "skills" are only worthy of derision - RS2014 is a good thing generally because it's a low cost way to get some coaching. If you've got the RT cable then the software itself is about the same price as an hour-long guitar lesson.

Actually getting back to the Slide - the inclusion of the Rock Prodigy app - especially if it's able to use the Slide for feedback, not just the usual "here's a lesson, we'll let YOU decide how well you did it", looks interesting to me. Might be worth looking at, although £80 is a pretty appreciable amount, and if I've got that to blow then maybe some lessons with a proper teacher would be a better "investment".

PS kudos for the Behringer cable recommendation - I'm using a Behringer amp at the moment and while I'd prefer something like a Fender Mustang II.v2 or Peavey Vypyr VIP, it's good enough for the slightly-better-than-one-finger-plucking I can do at the moment. Actually, just checked and both of those amps I named look like they could be used instead of the Slide.