The issue is the game is sold claiming to be to be a certain way, Dolby Digital Logic sound. That means Surround sound SHOULD work. It works in Metroid Prime, Mario Super Strikers, Wii Sports even. Maybe its not true surround, but at at least the audio will come out of more than one channel.

When you are playing guitar hero, you can hear the main guitar, vocals, and drums. What you cant hear is a second guitar or bass when you are playing against other people or with other people. If the other person messes up, you have a good chance of not hearing it.

To correct something else, The only sounds the wiimote makes is when you messup. It clearly makes a horrendous noise to say YOU SCREWED UP. It does not play the actual song through the wiimote.
Yes, speakers are mono, but when you put them in combination, they create stero sound. And that isnt happening, even though it is advertised to do so.

Ya Know...For a bunch of people who complain about not getting the right products or services, I expect sympathy on this issue. NO a bunch of you are saying "OH THE WII SUCKS or GUITARS ARE MONO, ITs NOT ABOUT THE SOUND" Come one people wtf, This is a Music Game, sound is slightly important.

Sorry for the comment abuse, but those interested need to get the word out!

I created a Facebook group designed to get the word out about ALL of GH3's problems and hopefully pressure Activision into fixing the problems in a timely manner, if at all.

Here is the link:
[uchicago.facebook.com]

Hope some people are interested, thanks.

But to the point, they said it had something it doesn't. What else needs to be said.

@jeg18: All the other fucking comments on this page should be deleted except this one.

Because 99% of the rest of them are "let's just bash the console" and yours sums up the other ones just fine.

Original Xbox (2001): Full 5.1 Dolby Digital support
Wii (2006): 2-channel output only (matrixed Pro Logic support)

Original Xbox (2001): Full 1080i HD support
Wii (2006): No HD support, 480p maximum resolution

I realize the Wii isn't supposed to be an advanced platform, but is it too much to ask Nintendo to at least be five years behind the curve?

@ry81984: That is correct. I've worked with many of the large touring acts and 99% of them run a mono rig. The exception: Pink Floyd with their awesome Turbosound rig. I believe they run a 4-channel setup but haven't worked that one personally. Just about every arena in existence also runs mono.

Last time I checked if you went to a concert the speakers would be mono.

So it being in mono makes it realistic.

@jeffeb3:

Not really... depends on what type of amp you use...

no reason to fret (lol, fret - guitars... sorry)

It's not based off of sound, its based off of beat to finger matching. As long as you can hear the game, you should be fine.

But the big question is...does Heroin hero come in Stereo? I wanna chase the dragon in stereo.

@MYarms:

You sir are a tard, Nintendo did not make the game.

@kpfeif: Yes, the Wii uses phony matrixed surround sound. The box of the game states that it supports said phony matrixed surround sound. The game does not (nor does it support stereo). Do you not see a problem here?

I own the game for the Wii, too. I noticed that the sound was coming out of only the center speaker immediately. So I turned off Pro Logic, played the game and enjoyed it. I can also enjoy watching a movie on a 20 inch TV with a single speaker, too. However, this does not preclude me from enjoying it more on a 42 inch HDTV and Dolby Digital sound system.

I've been following this since the game launched, so I'll add a few details:
Activision has acknowledged in its support tickets that Dolby Pro Logic II mode doesn't work. However, they are still advising people to switch their Wiis to stereo mode, even though that doesn't help. Support tickets for individual customers have been the only place Activision has acknowledged the issue. Activision has not released a public statement, nor has it added this to the frequently asked support questions for Guitar Hero III on the Wii.

Intro movies, crowd sounds, and multiplayer battles are the only place where any stereo can be heard. The actual songs themselves are in mono. The songs in the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are mixed in stereo, just as they would be if you were listening to them on the original album.

Yeah The game is definitely fun I play both a real guitar and this when I'm at someone's place who has it. It's sad though that some people play this obsessively that might get more out of dividing time with a real instrument.

I'm growing weary of the multitude of games that realistically simulate perfectly attainable activities.

Quit knocking the greatest guitar game ever.
Worry about hitting the right notes.
If Slash promotes and plays it, it's perfect

Me? I still don't care."
-KPFEIF

"You know what else is in mono? An actual guitar!"
-JEFFEB3

"While the game should be in stereo, the fact that it is in mono hasn't affected me at all."
-REDDRAGON104

But your ability to detect whether or not the sound is played in mono is not the issue here, is it? Stop derailing the real crux of the matter here.

"Whether mono or stereo is realistic or whatever is not the issue here. The sound should at least be comparable to the way it is on other consoles."
-SHADOWMAN615

You're close, but still off-base as to what the real issue is.

I think DAVEBG5 hits the nail on the head. If, in fact, the sound is in mono, this situation is more analogous to the situation where the person who bought a hard drive from Best Buy but found bricks in the box. In both instances, what was advertised by the merchant was not the actual product purchased.

In this case, Activision (the publisher) and Red Octane (the developer) have advertised and offered for sale a game for the Nintendo Wii that supports a specific sound type. The game offered is Guitar Hero 3. The specific sound type is Dolby Pro Logic II. A consumer would reasonably expect, upon viewing the offering, that the consumer is purchasing Guitar Hero 3 with Dolby Pro Logic II sound. However, that is simply not the case.

This is a situation of misleading the consumer, at best, and simply false advertising, at worst. Whether a person can detect the difference in sound, whether the Wii is a comparable game system to the 360 or PS3, whether the Wii version includes the Les Paul guitar, etc., are simply distractions. The point is that Activision, and possibly Red Octane, have knowingly or unknowingly, have offered a product to the public for purchase based on false pretenses.

None of you play guitar in a real band, do you? If you do, and you're on-stage, you'll have either a floor-mounted monitor speaker or in-ear monitors.. BOTH are mono! Imagine that. Yes, that's the way it works in the real world kiddies, even on the megatours.

What do you expect from the company that makes kiddie games? And how many kids and grandparents do you think actually own and know how to use a surround sound system? Buy an Xbox or quit complaining.

Wii users are generally non-caring people: poor graphics: we dont care. Poor sound: we dont care. Most games = bad mini games = we dont care.

The Wii is NOT capable of discrete surround - just the phony matrixed surround that DP II does. If you want true digital surround, time to buy some other console.

Me? I still don't care.

@redragon104: According to recent surveys of people who owned PS3s and 360s the vast majority of people either didn't know that their next gen system was capable of displaying in HD or they thought they were displaying in HD when they really weren't.

Does the fact that the gereral public is unaware of what their gaming system can do mean that I shouldn't be pissed if my PS3 didn't display in HD? Of coruse not. Same thing for Guitar Hero III on the Wii not supporting stereo, let alone surround sound.

@quiksilver180: This makes no sense. Your receiver can't turn mono into stereo. Sure, you can set it to play out of L/R channels, but it's still mono. This is not a case of user error.

Maybe I'm asking too much, seeing as they clearly can't even handle stereo.

The other rant is that for a game on a "next gen" system that, while Nintendo never really touted the hardware's capabilities as compared to the PS3 or 360, should at least keep up with this century's advances in technology. Mono is for Victrolas and AM radio. Not "Next Gen" gaming consoles.

If its not though, and the game was mistakenly developed with mono-sound, there could be a VERY big problem.

And to put some understanding to this, the game outputs mono to the guitar (which is using the wii-mote speaker to simulate the sounds coming from the guitar), but stereo to the band. It would seem, the game is outputting EVERYTHING mono, both the guitar and the TV sound.

The problem is that the game is a virtual 'simulation' of a band performing. An appropriate simulation would be (at least) in stereo, to faithfully replicate the different positions of each instrument on stage. The way it is now in GHIII is akin to the entire band sharing one amplifier.

Maybe I'm off base, but I see the point of the fuss.

Uh, that would be Tecmo Bowl.

Disclosed on the box? It's my understanding that the box states that it supports Dolby Pro Logic.

This is a bug and a pretty big one at that. Normally such issues in next gen games are resolved via a downloadable patch. However, the lack of significant space to store such a patch on the Wii may complicate such matters.

DISCLAIMER: I have no idea how large such a patch would be or how much of the Wii's internal memory it would take up, but I'm reasonably certain that it would be larger than that copy of Techmo Bowl that I downloaded from Virtual console.

As for the two comments above me, of course the guitar is mono, but the band comes out in stereo (or should).

I'm still playing my LameCube.

Shh! No confusing the issue with facts! These people are angry! And must rant!