Rock Band Your Rock Band » Tips

Respect the Metronome

scott — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:02:40 +0000

This is less of a Rock Band tip and more of a general tip for musicians. When you’re recording your next hit record, one of the most important things you can do is make your drummer record to a metronome. I’ve known some drummers who absolutely hated metronomes and refused to (or simply couldn’t) play to one. There’s no excuse. Drummers need to use metronomes! (sorry…I’m passionate about it) Now let me explain how this relates to Rock Band.

When you’re setting up your Reaper project, one of the first things you need to do is set the tempo of the song. When I started charting megaphone’s songs, the setup process was simple because, as the drummer, I know the tempos of all of the songs. I’m a strict disciple of the metronome (I use it live, at rehearsal, recording, always!) so setting the tempo took literally two seconds and one mouse click.

If you’re thinking about charting your own band’s songs but your recordings weren’t set to a metronome, you’re in for some extra work. It’s not the most painful part of the process, but it’s certainly not as easy as typing a BPM. The Rock Band Creators page has a tutorial on how to set a tempo map here.

Playing a song without a metronome certainly has its merits. Some of the greatest rock songs of all time were played without one. But when you’re considering having non-musicians try to play along to your songs in a video game environment, they’ll have a much easier time trying to follow a consistent beat rather than a roller coaster of tempos.

Loading Color Maps in Reaper

scott — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:02:51 +0000

One tip that I found was overlooked on the Rock Band Creator site was how to load a color map. In Reaper (the MIDI charting software), the default colors of the MIDI notes make no sense to someone who’s familiar with the Rock Band video game. The drum pads and fret buttons on the controllers are bright colors for a reason. If the colors in your MIDI editing window don’t make sense, go up to “File > Load color map from file…” It should default you to the Reaper > Data > color_maps folder but if not, you’ll have to find it. Once you’re there, pick which map you need for the part you’re working on (guitar, drums, or vocals) and hit enter (or return on a Mac). That’s it. You’ll have to repeat those steps for each MIDI track but now you’ll actually be able to see which buttons you’re charting without having to look at the key on the left.

Audio Tracks – Do It Right

scott — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:38:16 +0000

I’m going to start this off with a very simple tip that some people may not realize before getting started with the Rock Band Network. You will be doing yourself a huge favor to get all of the proper audio tracks. I’ll list them past the break so you can see what I’m talking about. If you’re trying to chart a song that has only one track that’s a mix of all the guitar parts or all the drums, you’ll not only have a hard time charting, you’ll also end up with a lame experience. Let me explain.

Forgive me if this seems elementary to you, but some people may not realize how Rock Band works. The typical audio track configuration for a Rock Band song involves three separate drum tracks: the kick, the snare, and then everything else lumped into one track. With this configuration, the game can mute the individual tracks as the player misses notes. So if the player misses a kick drum note, the kick drum can mute while the rest of the drums are still audible. If you program a song that only has one stereo track for all the drums, then when a player misses one beat, the entire drum kit will mute. That’ll be distracting to the player and it’ll make it harder for him or her to get back on the beat.

It’s a simple piece of advice, but it’s extremely important. If you or your buddies have songs that you want to chart but you don’t have the proper tracks, my advice to you is to skip them or try re-recording them so that you have what you need. Here’s the list that Harmonix recommends (I’ll get more in-depth in the eBook so make sure you download that too once it’s available!):

K – Kick Drum: Mono
SN – Snare Drum: Stereo
CYM – Kit Mix: Stereo (Usually Overhead Mics plus any direct Tom Mics)
BASS – Playable Bass Part: Mono (Stereo if using any Stereo Phase or Heavy Chorus effects)
GTR – Playable Guitar Part: Stereo
VOX – Playable Vocals Part: Stereo
TRKS – All Other Instruments and Backing Vocals: Stereo