The You Rock Guitar – Incredible

The You Rock Guitar answers the call of the millions of music gamers out there looking for the next big thing in gaming and music.  “The You Rock Guitar is the next big thing”.  It’s a hybrid digital guitar. Strings to pluck and strum, but it never needs tuning. It bridges the gap between music games and real music playing, because it eliminates the limitations of existing video game controllers with a real musical instrument feel and technique. In Game mode, people pick it up and instantly start playing Guitar Hero or Rock Band with strings, frets and a pick. Take ti to expert, the tracking is there…In guitar mode, you just plug it into an amp or into a program like Garage Band and start jamming. It is affordable, and it looks and sounds incredible.

Doug Morton, Audio Guru – Powers up the Guitar

Since 1982, Doug Morton has been spinning heads, CD’s and chips when it comes to digital audio. Doug’s company Q-Up Arts is one of the stalwarts in the sampling industry. Now, Doug Morton and Kevin Kent are working together again for the first time in years. Doug and Kevin worked together at E-Mu and a few years later Doug helped Kevin master his solo piano CD, recorded at the Record Plant Recording studios. Doug got the once over from Cliff on the tool kits for the custom chips that make up the audio portion of the You Rock Guitar, the three have been pounding away at the sounds since February. Session after session, one guitar after the other, the boys have finally settled in on their top guitars for the sound library built into the You Rock Guitar.

Inspired Instruments, Inc. announced the introduction of its hybrid guitar the ‘You Rock Guitar’ designed specifically for those who want to migrate from video games like Rock Band and Guitar hero to playing real guitar music. The You Rock Guitar’s patented technology bridges the gap between rhythm based video games and real music.

According to Kevin Kent, CEO of Inspired Instruments “The transition between video games and real music performance has been elusive and real holy grail for the millions of Guitar Hero and Rock Band players who want to step out of the game box and onto a real stage.  Playability must be immediate.  Never having to tune the guitar is essential.  The feature set must include incredible sounds and game-like fun in the jamming. The integration of multiple levels of technology makes the You Rock Guitar the most advanced game and music controller in history – all at an incredible value. This is guitar 2.0”

Inspired Instruments, Inc. is proud to announce that prestigious sound designer and composer, Doug Morton has agreed to produce the sounds and music for its breakthrough new product, the You Rock Guitar.  The You Rock Guitar will include custom internal sounds, including such classics and Les Pauls’, Stratocasters, Telecasters, Hamer’s, ES335’s, Washburn Acoustics,  12 Strings, and some metal and grunge and punk guitars that will melt the paint off your walls. Morton states, “We’re putting in about 20 grand worth of guitars in this thing, its a game changer, its rock and roll.”

The You Rock Guitar, is not just a controller for such hit games as Rock Band and Guitar Hero, but it’s separates the rockers from the wanna-be’s because it is also a fully functional live performance instrument. It has both stereo mini-out for use with an iPod and ¼ hi-impedance output for plugging right into your guitar amp or mixer.

The world’s best guitar sounds included

Morton has promised realistic acoustic guitars ranging from Punk grunge to screaming Les Paul leads as well as nylon, steel and 12 strings, but Doug’s specialty is outrageous electric guitars. “They called it You Rock Guitar, that was the mission. This has been an outrageous project starting with the sampling sessions to modeling the sounds and recording the loops to spec. The only problem is it all sounds so cool, I spend way too much time playing once I get a great sound, and hey, I got a deadline!”

he Chord Progressions That Changed the World and the “You Rock Mode”

Every new guitar player needs to learn and play some basic chord progressions so they can jam with their friends. Start with just two chards then three chords and then on to the major blues in 12 and 16 bars.  And if that’s not cool enough, how about “You Rock Mode” where you can run your fingers up and down the frets without ever making a mistake.  Learn the solo and pentatonic modes by playing, not studying some dry charts. This mode lets you play like a real rock star with the background tracks blazing away. Have Fun, Rock will happen.

According to Kevin Kent, CEO of Inspired Instruments “Doug and I first worked together almost 25 years ago. His work and quality speaks for itself, and when you get your hands on a You Rock Guitar and just play the sounds and music, you just may forget that you bought a real electric guitar that doubles as a game controller.  This instrument will take you and your family to new levels of music entertainment.

Kent, goes on to say “Having Doug produce the sound library and music says one thing about the You Rock Guitar… it will rock.  He is a good friend and at the top of his game, there is no better person in the world to develop these sounds.”  

To hear just a few of the guitars and You Rock sound loops:

Why did we call it “YOU ROCK GUITAR?”

With Guitar Hero, you felt like a real guitar hero within the first ten minutes you started playing. With Rock Band, you joined the band. How cool was that?  Now, just a few short years later, there are 35 million gamers out there wanting to know what’s next. They want to really play. They want to Rock. They want to play guitar. 

With the You Rock Guitar in “You Rock” mode, YOU will really ROCK in the first 5 minutes of play. We guarantee it. And you won’t be out of tune, and you won’t be playing any wrong notes. And all that time playing rhythm only games will pay off in metal, punk, blues and rock and roll and in fact– YOU WILL ROCK!

World Class Rock and Roll Guitar Sounds

The You Rock Guitar is a great compliment to any guitar player because:
It’s small, lightweight, and portable – perfect for travel/on the road playing along with your iPod and iTunes library or any MP3 player.

You don’t have to carry multiple instruments to practice along with you tunes or jam along with some of the coolest progressions in history, featuring the perfect mix of rock and roll and great guitar sounds.

Use headphones or amps with batteries and the on-board sequencer allows you to play the blues from LAX to London’s Heathrow.
Learn – Create – Share

Here’s a 1.5 minute demo of some of the splash sounds and some of the guitar loops from the You Rock guitar… yeah we had to add the applause cause its just so fun… Enjoy it.

You Rock Mode – For First Time Rockers

There is nothing worse than sounding bad on a guitar. Maybe losing your cookies at dinner.  Let’s face it, whether you’ve been playing for 7 minutes or 7 years, when you pick up that guitar, you want to sound and look cool. The looking cool part is up to you. (The You Rock Guitar looks cool, so please do your part.) But as to the sounding cool part, we have added features galore and even invented some new ways of playing guitar.

In the YOU ROCK MODE you:

1. Jam to outrageously rocking tracks.
2. Never make a mistake – each track has a finger pattern that eliminates mistakes.
3. But  you’ll learn the right notes by staying away from those string dings, etc.
4. You’ll develop muscle memory and finger patterns while having fun.
5. You’ll never sound out of tune.

The You Rock Guitar is a great learning tool for anybody that wants to play. Strumming strings on the right hand allows realistic finger-picking and feel.

We call it, learn by rocking, and because you sound good, you’ll play more.

See it at E3, June 2nd-4th.

Gamer Focus

The You Rock Guitar is the first instrument to truly bridge the worlds of gaming and real music playing, enabling you to use the guitar as a real instrument and as a more realistic guitar game controller.  The instrument (combined with a Game Flex Module) works with existing games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero.  There’s no additional functionality yet, but you will naturally develop finger picking techniques, speed, and accuracy.  So when you start using the guitar as a “real” instrument your speed on strumming and picking is light years ahead. You walk away with some real skill. And that’s just the beginning.

As game developers/publisher start to take advantage of the You Rock Guitar, there’s no limit to what kinds of innovation will be possible with the “in-game” play.  Both developers and gamers creativity will drive game development and a natural evolution between 100% game (role play) and 100% performance (music play) will start to emerge. The games appeal will broaden as more people of all ages & skill  relate to the more realistic and beneficial experience.

The best thing for now is that there are over 30 million of us out there who have loved playing RockBand or Guitar Hero and everyone asks the same question in one way or the other; “How do I take this up a level?”,  “How can I take this new-found love of Rock and Roll and turn it into playing real music?” And most importantly, how do I have fun and not look like a fool doing so?”

THE ANSWER?  THE YOU ROCK GUITAR