So, I popped in Rock Band to play a few songs.  The blade slid on screen, informed me of an update, which I downloaded promptly. 

"Enter Sandman" was one of the last songs I had yet to Gold Star on Expert using the guitar -- my high score was 173,000 and change.  I played it first, cruised through the solo, and the game awarded me with Gold Stars.  My score was 132,000. 

I had yet to break my own (non-Gold Star) high score, much less the cutoff for the Gold Star rating, but the game awarded me the rating regardless.  The same "early Gold Star" event happened once more in "Tom Sawyer", and again in "Flirtin' With Disaster" (read: I had not yet broken my own high score, yet the game awarded me with a Gold Star rating). 

Is this an isolated case, or is this something people have been noticing post-update?

The update lowered the gold star cutoff for all songs.

From the website:
"So there is a 360 title update coming out for Rock Band today, PS3 will follow and we'll let you know when we have an idea when it will drop. What's in it? A couple of things.

First of all - it updates RB1 so you will still be able to purchase DLC from the Rock Band store. Downloading this patch is required if you'd still like to do that.

Second - Lowers the threshold on gold stars making it easier/possible to gold star songs. This won't affect leaderboards as it only affects the threshold, not the score.

Third - Lately a few songs have had unhittable notes. This should be fixed now.

Lastly - It will allow you to export your songs from the RB1 disc to the hard drive for play in Rock Band 2. Official language follows for this feature-"

Why'd they do that?  What's their logic behind lowering the Gold Star threshold?

I've got the PS3 version, so I haven't experienced this, but I really have to wonder why they lowered the gold star thereshold. Shouldn't it be something really really hard to get. Wht else is the point?

The reason they lowered the Gold-Star cutoff is because some songs were mathematically impossible to Gold Star. Seven on Drums, Bang a Gong and Rockaway Beach on Guitar, etc.

"The reason they lowered the Gold-Star cutoff is because some songs were mathematically impossible to Gold Star. Seven on Drums, Bang a Gong and Rockaway Beach on Guitar, etc."

If that was the case, then why change all of the songs?

Honestly, I'd rather have the harder scores still (except for the bugged songs, obviously). Gold starring should be challenging, and if I start gold starring songs that I shoulnd't be I'm going to be disappointed.

"If that was the case, then why change all of the songs?

Honestly, I'd rather have the harder scores still (except for the bugged songs, obviously). Gold starring should be challenging, and if I start gold starring songs that I shoulnd't be I'm going to be disappointed."

Yeah its funny when you have a high score and you don't have gold stars, but then get a lower score and recieve gold stars, but it still keeps your previous score. I was freaking out because i thought i was badass because i finally GSed Tom Sawyer and then i learned that they lowered the threshold.  Its good and bad IMO.

It just leads me to the conclusion that it's impossible to program the threshold to be lower on a certain song based on a certain instrument without lowering the cutoff for all instruments.  Doing so must introduce a bug or some-such.

"It just leads me to the conclusion that it's impossible to program the threshold to be lower on a certain song based on a certain instrument without lowering the cutoff for all instruments.  Doing so must introduce a bug or some-such."

I'm ok with them lowering the GS cutoff, but I wish there was some kind of separate distinction for FC'ing a song (5 platinum stars maybe? something would be nice..). I've got a few FC's that are not GS, and a lot of GS that are FC's.

"I'm ok with them lowering the GS cutoff, but I wish there was some kind of separate distinction for FC'ing a song (5 platinum stars maybe? something would be nice..). I've got a few FC's that are not GS, and a lot of GS that are FC's."

"I'm ok with them lowering the GS cutoff, but I wish there was some kind of separate distinction for FC'ing a song (5 platinum stars maybe? something would be nice..). I've got a few FC's that are not GS, and a lot of GS that are FC's."

"I'm ok with them lowering the GS cutoff, but I wish there was some kind of separate distinction for FC'ing a song (5 platinum stars maybe? something would be nice..). I've got a few FC's that are not GS, and a lot of GS that are FC's."