Using Rocksmith USB Cable with ASIO

On Octobert 18th, I received with perfect timing from Amazon.it my copy of Rocksmith just released for Windows. I haven't really played videogames for years and years, with the exception of FSX and Xplane, which of course are not really videogames, but something a bit more adult - like a rhythm game playable with a real guitar or bass, indeed. Now, I'll have to stick to the demo for a few days, because the folks at Ubisoft seem to have cocked up on a colossal scale: it looks like if most if not all the activation codes in the physical boxes are missing for the PC version. On amazon.it the release date has been pushed forward to November 29th! Hope to get the new code soon, but Ubisoft doesn't seem to pay extra time to his customer care staff on the weekend following the release..

But I digress: in the Rocksmith box there's of course the 6.3mm jack to usb guitar cable. It's actually a one input audio interface of seemingly decent quality, made by Hercules. The device is recognized as a WDM device in Windows: for example, you can record your guitar from Audigy with no particular configuration.

For more serious guitar software, like Guitar Rig, you would need ASIO driver, but none are included. As a matter of fact you would need different hardware with ASIO, since this kind of driver requires at least one input and one output to be functional, at least in a real time situation. Well, there's the well-known ASIO4ALL universal driver coming to the rescue. Download and install ASIO4ALL, if you don't have it already: then configure it this way from the configuration panel from the advanced options:

It's just a matter of selecting the Rocksmith cable as input and one of your (free) audio outputs as the output for ASIO. If the device you need is busy, try exiting audio software and/or deselecting the output as the default device in the Windows control panel.

This way, I'll be able to play some real guitar with Guitar Rig, waiting for the code to play a guitar game... :-/