Those who have seen me bust out the tasty vocals at NAVA meetings should be able to attest for "trusting me" on this ...
It's highly advisable that PS3 gamers who play ROCK BAND and enjoy singing VOCALS either by themselves, or as part of a multiplayer set up SHOULD
NOT DOWNLOAD THE NEW PATCH WHEN PROMPTED.
While this patch contains an in-game music store, and reportedly, allegedly auto-fixes a lot of timing issues with drum-fills and song lyrics, it ABSOLUTELY DESTROYS THE MICROPHONE AUDIO FIDELITY AND SOUND QUALITY OF THE VOCALS, as well as the NOTE/PITCH register.
The short-short is that you will sound like butt coming out of your sound system or television speakers AND you'll have noticeably LOWER SCORES when playing vocals.
If you've already downloaded the patch, on PS3 you can delete the Rock Band game settings (reportedly) without damaging your game saves, however you'll need to re-download all of the songs you purchased.
The litmus test of the marked drop in audio quality (if not evident or apparent from the butt-like-tinny-vocals coming out of the speakers) can be heard by simply tapping your hand on your mic before a song kicks in, or pausing the game mid-song and talking into the microphone. Instead of a deep, bassy "THUNK" from slapping the mic, you'll get a weak, high-pitched, distorted "PING".
If it were on a microphone amp, I'd say that Harmonix somehow turned the GAIN nob ALL THE WAY UP to the point where some people have reported FEEDBACK during play!
The thread on the OFFICIAL Rock Band website details the woes of this patch.
http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?p=448159&posted=1#post448159
Please read it and SPREAD THE WORD so EA and Harmonix can get their butts in GEAR on a new patch. Thanks.
(FYI - on the PS3 and an LCD TV, the timing on the Drums and Guitar portions of the game are fine, post-patch and in fact, I'd say the drums are MORE accurate/forgiving than they previously were prior to patching.)
