If it weren't bad enough that Activision shipped out Guitar Hero III with no offline co-op quickplay mode, a few careful listeners have noticed another thing they left out - a few channels of sound.
Audiophilic owners of Guitar Hero III for the Wii have noticed that not only does the game not support Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound systems (despite that feature being advertised), but it doesn't even output sound in stereo. As we all know, it's nearly impossible to pass "Cult of Personality" on Expert unless the manic shredding of Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid washes over you from six different angles.
Apparently, Activision is looking into the problem, though they said in regards to a fix, "the time frame is still unknown." For the time being, we're afraid you're going to have to learn to rock out monaurally.
source
I honestly don't know the different with all this sound stuff. As long as I can hear it, I'm happy.
Mono is 1 speaker, Stereo is 2 speakers, and Dolby Pro Logic can be like 5 with a surround sound system if set up a certain way.
So right now users who own GH3 for the Wii are getting sound out of 1 speaker.
Haven't taken notice to that tit bit of detail on the game... having a crazy loud and intense sound system blowing my cilia from my ears probably makes it a bit difficult.
I probably wouldn't have noticed something like this anyways. I'm not a big audiophile.
It's not really a big deal with something like guitar hero, though... Most songs are in stereo, IF THAT, and that's usually just for some sort of trippy Doppler effect and nothing more.
Also, it outputs monaurally, but it'll still come out of all of your speakers, kids--it'll just be the exact same track from each speaker.
Really, this game doesn't need stereo OR surround support--just some quality speakers and a sub, really (that's what I've got and it works just fine)
Stereo and surround are really only helpful (as far as video games go) in things like Stealth games and FPSs so you can detect which direction an enemy is coming from. In movies, of course, it is simply to further immerse you into the plot--if something is coming from the side or the back visually, it's nice to have it do so aurally as well
Mono is 1 speaker, Stereo is 2 speakers, and Dolby Pro Logic can be like 5 with a surround sound system if set up a certain way.
So right now users who own GH3 for the Wii are getting sound out of 1 speaker.
o
You're half right, which is also half wrong.
Mono and stereo are not delineated by amount of speakers, but rather amount of sources.
You can have mono sound coming out of 3,000 speakers.
Mono is a single source. It's harder to create any sense of depth or space with mono.
Stereo is two "distinct" sources.
Dolby Pro Logic II will create a "fake" surround field from the original stereo source.
Haven't taken notice to that tit bit of detail on the game... having a crazy loud and intense sound system blowing my cilia from my ears probably makes it a bit difficult.
Hope you didn't spend alot for that thing if you can't even tell the difference.
They have the capacity to fix it, let's hope they get on to it:
As it stands right now, Guitar Hero III for Wii uses only mono sound, which basically boosts the same signal out of each speaker regardless of position. When asked about the issue Activision confirmed that it was a known issue, and that the possibility of changing the Wii audio settings still exists via a downloadable update. There are currently no plans set in stone, however, so Wii owners may want to think twice about picking up the Wii version of GHIII should they be multi-console owners.
This is a pretty embarrassing mistake to make - shipping out the game knowing this was an issue. Personally I think they just didn't care. And they probably won't fix it any time soon. Why should they? They've already made tons of money on the game. I bet they'll take their sweet time looking into the problem - if they do so at all. Yeah, I'm a skeptic.
Unless you're a true audiophile with a HIGH end sound system, the difference between mono and stereo is negligible at best, when encoded at a decent bitrate. Chances are the slight differences are only exacerbated enough if you have a $5,000 audio system (you'd most likely have opted for the PS3 version in that case, as the PS3 has the most superior sound technology of the three consoles.
Stereo is a lot more of an advertising technique than anything else. Most artists would agree, those who worry about the equipment are usually the artists who aren't that good.
TBH i think the audio, shall we say, "channels" dont matter. Mono is the same schannel through (for most people) 2 speakers, where as stereo is 2 different channels through 2 speakers. This, from my experience, is only really noticeable when you're wearing headphones, and that is when you have one headphone off so that you can only hear half of what you want to hear. All the people who are moaning about this are overreacting slightly i think.
i dont buy video games for the sound but thats just me
Unless you're a true audiophile with a HIGH end sound system, the difference between mono and stereo is negligible at best, when encoded at a decent bitrate. Chances are the slight differences are only exacerbated enough if you have a $5,000 audio system (you'd most likely have opted for the PS3 version in that case, as the PS3 has the most superior sound technology of the three consoles.
Stereo is a lot more of an advertising technique than anything else. Most artists would agree, those who worry about the equipment are usually the artists who aren't that good.
perhaps your right, but it's still a mistake that should have never happened. We can all talk about how sound may not matter to some people, but when the other versions of the game seem to be just fine, but this one somehow slipped through the cracks and was released with improper sound, then it may show that the game creators are taking less time on the Wii versions and not quality testing them near as much. That is not good for a Wii owner.
Even though sound doesn't matter toooo much, it's a mistake I'd like to think is akin to releasing a movie on VHS instead of DVD. It's old tech.
Unless you're a true audiophile with a HIGH end sound system, the difference between mono and stereo is negligible at best, when encoded at a decent bitrate. Chances are the slight differences are only exacerbated enough if you have a $5,000 audio system (you'd most likely have opted for the PS3 version in that case, as the PS3 has the most superior sound technology of the three consoles.
Stereo is a lot more of an advertising technique than anything else. Most artists would agree, those who worry about the equipment are usually the artists who aren't that good.
perhaps your right, but it's still a mistake that should have never happened. We can all talk about how sound may not matter to some people, but when the other versions of the game seem to be just fine, but this one somehow slipped through the cracks and was released with improper sound, then it may show that the game creators are taking less time on the Wii versions and not quality testing them near as much. That is not good for a Wii owner.
Not really, because there's no need to make a big deal out of this. It's not like they took out some songs and decided to have you play a didgeridoo instead of a guitar.
i dont buy video games for the sound but thats just me
I would normally agree on that, but we ARE talking about a music game here...
This was a stupid mistake, i'm glad i didn't get this game. I guess it wasn't too horrible seeing as how my friend never mentioned this after playing it for a few weeks.
i dont buy video games for the sound but thats just me
I would normally agree on that, but we ARE talking about a music game here...
But it's not like it's even noticeable. Not a single reviewer or average gamer picked up on this. It took those obsessive audiophiles on the internet to uncover it.
But it's not like it's even noticeable. Not a single reviewer or average gamer picked up on this. It took those obsessive audiophiles on the internet to uncover it.
I think we need to get out of the Happiness Mode that says anything that's released on the Wii is Awesome, because it's for the Wii. A mistake is a mistake and something like this should easily be picked up by quality control.