Electric Mandolin successfully hooked to Playstation

[Andyesquire]

Just picked up a copy of Rocksmith 2014 for the PS4 and it allegedly works with electric mandolins. I thought that I would post my initial impressions. It comes with a USB to quarter inch jack.

1. Does it work? Yes, with a few caveats. First... only one game mode works with mandolin, "Session Mode." A mode designed to teach improvisation. Meaning you can't play along with the pre-recorded songs in the "game."

Second, you have to plug an electric guitar in. Tune the electric guitar, then unplug the guitar and plug in the e-mando. After that it works pretty well. There is a slight bit of lag, but it doesn't make it annoying or unplayable. Note detection is pretty good.

2. Is it fun? Yes! I was surprised at how robust "Session Mode" is. It is really an improv teaching tool. It starts very, very basic, but it is really fun. It has "missions" which are really little lessons.

An example of a "mission" would be play a solo focusing heavily on chord tones for 20 minutes. This could be kind of boring given the limited number of notes. However, it is surprisingly fun wailing away on a distorted mandolin backed by the "heavy metal" band in a box that reacts to your playing.

It goes without saying that Rocksmith isn't for everyone. But if you were curious about it, hopefully this helps!!