Comments on: Rock Band VidBlog Episode 3: Guitar and Drum Authoring

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By: ImaCarrot

ImaCarrot — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:28:20 +0000

Hope you guys didn’t give up on this, I’m looking forward to the next video.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:42:45 +0000

First of all, this blog is a great idea and a great resource, and not just for musicians and programmers/authors. I am but a simple music-lover and RB player, and I have found it quite interesting. I also really dig the sound of your band, and I’m excited to see how the charts turn out on RBN.

As for the questions [I am an Expert-level guitarist/bassist and Hard Drummer, occasionally vocalist]:
My favorite charts are those with a lot of variety…so single notes up and down the fretboard, hammer-ons and pull-offs, some chords, and good balance. My favorite tracks to play on the RB2 disc are probably Alive, Carry On Wayward Son, Shooting Star, Alex Chilton, Lazy Eye. All have good balance and are challenging without being frustrating. What I find frustrating are chord playing/chord changes that seem intentionally designed (in the RB code, not the music itself) to frustrate you – for example, Lump, One Step Closer, Pinball Wizard. Chords (even 3-note chords) don’t have to be frustrating to play, but it’s a fine line between a good challenge and a throw-your-guitar-in-disgust experience. So yeah, what I would emphasize in guitar/bass charting is just trying to find that balance. Part of it will of course depend on the song itself – some songs are just going to be easy (or hard), but making them fun in either case is the key. And of course this is true in different ways from Expert all the way down to Easy.

Looking forward to the next video!

By: newcoder

newcoder — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:50:21 +0000

probably a very simple question: how do you get the preview window to show up in reaper (i have the RBN extensions installed)

By: Wesj

Wesj — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:44:28 +0000

I was going to come in and comment about the drums but it looks like someone has already.The main reason for using seperated master tracks is so the chart maker can hear all parts correctly.For Expert drums you are supposed to author every hit for every drum.Unless it’s a crazy two footed double bass pedal part of course.If you are having trouble figuring out what to chart…Bring you’re drummer over and have him help you out,I’m sure he knows what he’s hitting.

Good luck and I can’t wait to try out you’re songs on the RBN!

By: Feb

Feb — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:06:47 +0000

Good examples of guitar songs: pretty much any Foo Fighters song. For whatever reason, those are uniformly really fun to play. “Learn to Fly” is a nice one for pointing out what “feels” like the right part to play in the game; if there’s a melody riff, it’s obvious, but if there’s a rhythm figure -and- a smaller but more interesting bit, the game has a way of focusing the player on the part that ‘moves’ most, and I think it could do that even without the subtle increase in volume that usually results from tracking things out into specific parcels.

I find playing on Hard or Expert to be easier, because I play guitar, and therefore have come to expect to be doing something with my fingers for every significant sound I hear. My non-musical friends take to some Medium tracks really well, and struggle with others.

For me, really good Easy or Medium tracks are those which point the player at the rhythm of the most important guitar figures, while not trying to imitate them. At its best, the game has non-musicians thinking more like musicians, and anticipating the moves for upcoming parts. That’s really fun for new people, and fun for experienced people to see. So I worry a little that by leaving Medium for last, it might turn out to be harder to play (as well as harder to program) than Hard.

Maybe you could beta-test on someone who knows the song, but isn’t a big RB player?

By: Grasa Total

Grasa Total — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:33:35 +0000

Expert drum parts that have hits audibly missing are confusing to me. But I’m pretty sure there are times when a light snare tap that’s doubling a cymbal crash is left out and I’d never notice, things like that.

By: Matthew Nordhaus

Matthew Nordhaus — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 04:27:35 +0000

We have an installer for OSX (similiar to the installer for Windows…it’s essentailly just a php script that sticks the files in the right folders), but it’s funky and doesn’t always work. I can certainly forward you all the instructions for setting up your OSX Reaper build. It’s a bit of a pain, but it’s not hard (just making sure all the preferences are set right, and so forth).

And we DO have a preview window plugin for OSX, which you can install too!

Post on the creators.rockband.com forums and I’ll be able to help you out.

By: kcheeb

kcheeb — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:40:04 +0000

I found the blog yesterday, what a great resource for people not able to chart yet!

Nothing wrong with three note chords, unless of course you can’t play them Seriously, as long as the charting is representative of the music, it’s all good.

Keep it up, waiting for the next installment.

By: admin

admin — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:01:09 +0000

Thanks so much Matthew! I’ll definitely re-evaluate the drums with your comments in mind. The documents and the creators.rockband.com site have been a great resource!

You also bring up a good point re: Reaper. There is an OSX version, but to my knowledge the RBN plug-in was only available for Windows (or at least it seemed to be the case when we were initially downloading the tools). I think that’s why we decided to get on top of a Windows solution for everything.

Thanks again – and to Kelly for your feedback as well!

-Tia