How can I fix bends?

Question

The game won't recognize bends, even if played correctly. Is there a solution to fix this or will I need to wait for a patch?

Answer 1

The most common mistake I make when playing bends is picking the note as I'm bending.
The game wants to 'hear' the note before the bend in addition to the bend itself.

Also, play the Temple of Bends mini-game. It really helps.

Answer 2

Are you sure you are bending the strings the right way? If the note detection works otherwise and your guitar is in tune, it should recognize the bend, but my experience is, that the note has to be played and held quite precisely.

Since bends are usually longer notes, you have to bend it to the right amount at the right time. For example, in some songs there can be a very long bend for a whole note, but the peak of the bend might not be in the middle of it, or the bend back down might not start in the middle. To be recognized, the game wants the bend to be played very similarly to the recording, so I recommend listening to the original recording of the song and trying to duplicate that.

It's also important that you hold the note, because longer notes such as bends only count if you hold them for as long as the beam shows.

Also, there are half and full bends. With a half bent note you try to achieve the note one fret up (e.g. bending at fret 7 to make it sound like 8) and with a full bend you go for two frets up. In some songs it can even be higher than that. If you bend it too much or too less, it won't be recognized either.

In some songs, you could try to substitute the bend with a slide, meaning sliding up one or two frets, depending on whether you want a half or full bend, and sliding back down at the right time. However, there are several problems with this: It sounds different, it might not be recognized, when you should bend and you slide instead, and in some situations it does not work at all (e.g. when you want to bend while playing another note).

In my experience the note detection works quite well in Rocksmith 2014, so (without wanting to offend you) I would suspect you're not bending quite right. If you don't know it already, there are bending lessons in the lesson section. I remember I repeated one section of a song and it never recognized a bend, until I heard the original recording and found out I had to bend it slower, and then it worked.

If, however, you are sure you play it right, I'm afraid there is no way to manually calibrate the note detection and so yes, you would probably have to wait for a patch.

Reading this again, I feel I should add that I don't want to question your ability, I just want to give some tips that could help the bending recognition.

Answer 3

You can try substituting slides for bends to advance the mastery, then switch back to bending during normal gameplay. It may not recognize all of your notes, but who cares.

Agreed, this is an imperfect solution, and for some licks impossible if you need to hold the bend while hitting other notes. Like I said you can use it to advance the mastery if you are stuck on something, but you could always allow more slop to advance the mastery too. If the bends truly are being played correctly, and still not registering, then you may want to try messing with your volume / tone / pickup switches, or possibly try with another axe.