quickRS 0.3.0

A practice player for your own Rocksmith 2014 songs. This is the first update
since 0.1.0, so everything below is new if you have 0.1.0: a first-time
setup, the 3D note highway, note by note, takes checked bar by bar, recording
what you hear, a pedalboard and an amp room, stems and pitch shift, and an
updater, so this is the last zip you download by hand.

Downloads

• quickRS-0.3.0-windows-x64.zip: Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. Unzip and run
  quickrs.exe.
• quickRS-0.3.0-macos-universal.dmg (or .zip, the same app): macOS 11 or
  later, Apple silicon and Intel. New, and a beta: see Known issues.
• SHA256SUMS.txt: checksums. The updater checks downloads against it.

Neither build is signed with a paid certificate. Windows: More info, Run
anyway. macOS: see
docs/INSTALL.md.

From 0.1.0

0.1.0 can't update itself, so download this one by hand, once:

1. Close quickRS.
2. Extract the zip. Copy the new files over your old quickRS folder, or keep
   the new folder beside the old one and copy keys.json across (or paste
   the keys in Settings > Directories later).
3. Start the new quickrs.exe.

Your settings, song folders, scores, favourites and playlists carry over
(they're in %APPDATA%\quickRS\data, not in the program's folder). From now
on quickRS checks for new versions itself and installs one when you say so.

Settings > Audio is now Audio input / output, Library is Directories
and Guitar tone is Raw guitar tone. Details in
docs/UPDATING.md.

Setting up

• A first-time setup over the app: Look (the theme), Your guitar, Low
  latency, Note widget, Keys and folders, Done. Each page says where
  to change it later. It opens by itself on a new install; Run the
  first-time setup again at the top of Settings opens it any time.
• Your guitar is a guided setup (also in Settings > Audio input / output

  Set up your guitar): the input and its channel, the output, a level
  check in words, what's plugged in (guitar straight in, amp modeller or
  microphone), calibration, your input settings, and an open-string check.

• Calibration the Rocksmith way: knobs up, 2 seconds hands off, then strum as
  hard as you can until the bar fills. It recommends a trim and a pluck
  sensitivity, shown as sliders with live meters, and tells you to turn the
  interface's gain down if it clipped.
• Keys: paste them in Settings > Directories (or in the setup) and press
  Save keys, or Load keys file.... keys.json.txt is read too. Songs
  waiting for keys are read as soon as the keys arrive: no restart, no F5.
• Song folders are listed in Settings > Directories, with Add folder...
  and Remove. Search Rocksmith's dlc folder can be turned off, to read
  only your feedpaks. Each song is marked feedpak, psarc or feedpak + psarc.
• Updates: quickRS looks for a new release at most once a day, asks first,
  checks the download against SHA256SUMS.txt, and never touches your keys,
  settings or scores. Settings > Updates.
• Report a bug: Settings > Updates > Report a bug opens a new GitHub issue
  with your quickRS version and system filled in. Show the log file finds
  the log to attach. Nothing is sent by the app itself.
• Low-latency output is highlighted in Settings, so it's easier to find.
• On Windows the window is drawn with DirectX 12, which fixes the window
  flashing and closing on some Intel graphics.

Practising

• Note by note (W, or the lamp above the transport): the song waits at each
  note or chord until you play it.
• Ear mode (H): the notes stay hidden until you play them.
• Takes (Ctrl+R): play the loop once and a second later see each note and
  chord right, wrong (and what you played), missed or extra, your timing, bar
  by bar, and your own tab over the chart. B plays it back. Done on your
  computer: no AI model, no upload.
• Recording (R): what you hear, the song and your guitar through the rig, to
  a WAV. R pauses and resumes, Shift+R stops and saves. Files are named
  after the song (<song> - quickRS <date> <time>.wav) and appear in your
  recordings folder when you stop, complete and ready to open (default
  quickRS Recordings in Music). In a song and in the amp room.
• Synth or real guitar (G): the synth plays the part you're on in place of
  the recording's guitar, with speed, loops and pitch shift.
• Chords score like Rocksmith's: a chord counts when at least half its notes
  sound. Strums are found much better through clipping or distorted inputs.
• Pitch shift, -12 to +12 semitones (Shift+Up / Shift+Down, or the
  TRANSPOSE stepper in the header). The tab stays as written; scoring and
  the tuner follow the new pitch. Remembered per song.
• A feedpak split into stems plays every stem, each with a level, on/off and
  solo (Controls > PITCH & STEMS).
• Saved licks (Ctrl+S) and a Saved licks page. Space plays and stops a
  selection.
• The end-of-song card closes (x or Esc) and leaves you on the song;
  Backspace goes to the library.
• Every key on one sheet (F1 or ?). What's switched on shows: red when
  something is taken away, amber when something is changed from normal. The
  lamps above the transport can be clicked.

Sound

• The pedalboard: 54 models in 10 kinds for a dry guitar input, each drawn
  after the unit it models. Rocksmith songs bring their own rig, their gear
  matched to the models by what each unit is.
• A detailed editor (double-click a block): tips, sweet spots, starting
  points, Save as my default, A/B, undo, delay time to the song's tempo;
  amps' back panel (sag, bias, power tubes, rectifier, power master), drives'
  clipping diodes, the tape echo's heads.
• The amp room (AMP ROOM at the foot of the sidebar, or A on Home): play
  through your rig with no song. Scenes on 1-4, saved sounds with tags,
  colours and favourite slots, starting rigs, every song's tone to try, a
  tuner, a noise gate.
• Your saved sounds on the Pedalboard tile in a song (Shift+T).
• Pause and play no longer click.

Views

• The 3D note highway (V, or RS Highway, the first key on the tab's
  toolbar), with a Rocksmith-style camera or a steadier one, note speed, and
  inverted strings (I).
• Tab shape: bar width and string spacing (Alt+arrows), compact rows (C),
  full-screen tab (F), and a floating toolbar for all of it. The current row
  sits near the top, and the tab follows a long loop's jump back.
• The note widget shows the key's scale on the whole neck.
• Tiles fold to a slim strip.
• A new look: matte wells, glass panels in the dark themes; the logo steps
  through the three themes. The sidebar is Library, Playlists, Tuning; the
  library search has a Clear key. Home is faster on big libraries.

Known issues

• Mac: tested on one Mac so far (Apple silicon, macOS 15, a Focusrite
  Scarlett Solo); reports welcome, especially about other Macs and audio
  inputs. On a Mac the Ctrl keys are Cmd (a take is Cmd+R).
• With the more lenient chord scoring, a chord strummed again while the last
  one still rings can now and then count for the next chord.
• Scoring has been tested on a few setups (a Focusrite Scarlett, a USB
  multi-effects, a USB microphone). Other interfaces and the Real Tone Cable
  should work; tell me if yours doesn't.
• Recordings are WAV only.

Found a bug? Settings > Updates > Report a bug, or
open an issue.

No songs or keys are included. quickRS isn't made by or affiliated with
Ubisoft. Rocksmith is a trademark of Ubisoft Entertainment.

Thanks to u/New_Ease_3692 for volunteering to test the Mac version, and to
r/rocksmith for the feedback and support since 0.1.0: much of this release came from it.

quickRS is free. If it helps your practice: https://ko-fi.com/arpanmitra