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.

Dave had mentioned the Rock Band Network on his web site back in July so I thought I’d go ahead and send him an update to let him know about RBYRB and that I was working on some megaphone songs for the game. Well he devoted a pretty good portion of his most recent episode (255) to talking not only about my band (score!) but also about Rock Band Your Rock Band. I just have to say a HUGE thank you to Dave…go check out his show and his eBook!

Xbox 360 / Wii / PS3
Available: November 3 / November 5 (PS3)

Foo Fighters Pack 03* (560 / $6.99):

• “Best of You” (160 / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)
• “The Pretender” (160 / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)
• “Wheels” (160 / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)
• “Word Forward” (160 / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)

Nirvana Bleach Pack* (440 / $5.49):

• “About a Girl” (160 / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)
• “Blew” (160 / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)
• “School” (160 / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)

Individual songs:

• Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – “Fake Friends” (160 / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)

*Track packs not available for purchase on Wii; all tracks sold individually.

PSP
Available: November 5

• Bullet For My Valentine – “Waking the Demon” ($1.99)
• System of a Down – “Toxicity” ($1.99)

[via Joystiq]

We just released a big update to the RBN tools.

We updated Magma (version 1.1.0) to allow PAL versions of Rock Band 2 to transfer songs. There are no other functionality changes, but you will get notified that there is an available update the next time you run Magma. If you are running the North American build of RB2 you can install it if you wish. Just be sure you select the correct region for your Rock Band 2 disc when you install.

We also added a sample song .zip file for you to try out.

We also made a ton of changes to our Reaper addons.

For the PC, install the new Addons after you have installed Reaper. If you have already installed the addons you can safely run the installer again and it will properly overwrite any old files.

For the Mac, double click the .dmg and it will mount a disk on the desktop. Open that and double click the script called “Run to Install”.

Because we know that Mac users are inherently smarter than PC users, we also require you to do more work.* There’s one preference that’s unaddressed with the installer. Go to

Preferences->Media->MIDI

and check “RBN Friendly MIDI editing settings”

That’s it. Now check out these shiny new toys:

RBN Template:
- Fixed note colormap assignments
- Added RBN Preview windows to all appropriate tracks
- Turned off Reasynth playback for Instrument tracks
- Lowered Reasynth on vocal track to -12dB
- Changed Project Timebase for items/envelopes/markers to Beats(position only) to reduce destructive tempo track edits
- Fixed positioning of PART VOCALS track name text event
- Changed example “Lyric” text event to Lyric event type
- Added initial [crowd_intense] text event in EVENTS track at bar 3 as a reminder to add crow animation events.
- Added initial [verse] text event in VENUE track

RBN Blank Template
- Added RBN Preview windows to all appropriate tracks
- Turned off Reasynth playback for Instrument tracks
- Lowered Reasynth on vocal track to -12dB
- Changed Project Timebase for items/envelopes/markers to Beats(position only) to reduce destructive tempo track edits

A brief note about the Blank Template. You should open this template project whenever importing RBN MIDI files into reaper, it will make sure the note name mapping will be applied to the MIDI track you import.

Keymap Changes
- Added Unison Burn action to Keymap
- Added new keymap ‘P’ for opening a selected tracks fx chain, Really handy for bringing up the RBN Preview window quickly and easily
- Fixed keymap for shifting lyrics left and right on Mac

New Templates!

Autodrum Template
This project is designed to automatically generate a great starting point for expert kick and snare authoring when you have separate kick and snare stems.

How to use:
1) Insert your kick stem into the track labeled Kick, and your Snare stem into the track labeled Snare
2) Insert any other tracks you need for tempo mapping into other tracks
3) Tempo map your song
4) When your tempo map is set, open the fx channel for the Kick and Snare Tracks, you’ll notice a ReaGate plugin has been setup on each track.
5) You’ll need to adjust the threshold value on these plugins (the leftmost slider) so that the slider is set a little below the volume of that drum being hit. As you play the kick and snare track, you’ll notice a green meter around that slider that follows the volume of the track.
6) Click on the timeline just before the first hit in your drum tracks and hit record.
7) At the end of your song, hit the record button again. You notice that you’ve recorded a bunch of MIDI notes on the PART DRUMS track
8) You should quantize those notes by selecting them in the MIDI editor window and hitting Q, which will bring up the quantize menu (I recommend quantizing to 32nd notes, or perhaps even 16th notes if your drum part is simple enough.
9) You can then set about cleaning up your expert drum part and adding cymbal gems to it.

Mix Template (found in your Program Files/REAPER folder, or in the Templates folder in the Mac install DMG file)

This is a Template made to get your tracks much louder. We’ve been very impressed with the quality of the mixes being submitted to RBN, so for most people this won’t be necessary, but this template can help if you need a little more oomph from your tracks. I’ve also included a “Mix Game Stems” action in the Mix Template folder that you can import from the action list in Reaper. This action, used in conjunction with the Mix template, will normalize all tracks to the same gain value, and will render new files including the fx in the template. You should use this action with caution, as it’s a pretty drastic change.

* Technically that’s what we call in the industry “Not True”, except for the more work part.

The GameSoundCon in San Francisco 1/14 & 15
Rock Band Network Training Sessions

Sessions cover:
• Musician’s Introduction to the Rock Band Network
• Creating Rock Band Stem Mixes
• Using REAPER to map controller data to your song
• How to use the MAGMA tool to package your song into Rock Band format & Xbox 360 Auditioning
• Uploading your song for peer review & download
• Making your song fun to play
• Controlling Lights, Crowd Reaction and other Rock Band features

For more information on the conference:
http://www.gamesoundcon.com/

Use Promo Code “HARMONIX” and register for only $295

Also, according to the official GameSoundCon site, they don’t have any plans to bring RBN training elsewhere in the country but if you want to see it near you, you can contact them at info@gamesoundcon.com

At the same time, when a field is as new, exciting and has as much potential as the Rock Band Network, the other most important question to ask is, “How do I get in there asap?!”

When you’re in a band, you absolutely need to have a loyal fan base. Without people who listen to, enjoy, and most importantly, buy your music, you’re not going to get very far. When targeting potential new fans, it’s important to consider your demographic. Some bands may cater more toward older dudes who ride motorcycles while some may be better suited for young girls who buy school supplies with pictures of their biggest crushes on them. Despite the wide variety of music fans out there, there’s one major quality that every band has to look for in potential new fans: disposable income.

Consider the introduction of online music stores like iTunes and Amazon. Rather than relying on brick and mortar music stores to lure customers, bands were given the opportunity to have their music displayed on the computer screens of millions of people with disposable income. Fans could find their favorite bands with a simple search and buy albums with a single click. It started to revolutionize the way musicians made a living and it’s still not finished. That’s where the Rock Band Network comes in.

Imagine if, when the iTunes store first launched, only a handful of independent bands’ albums were available. Imagine how many sales would have resulted for those bands based purely on the novelty of purchasing music online. While the Rock Band music store has been open for a while, up to this point it has only offered music by major label bands. When the new store launches in November, it will be the first chance for people with disposable income to log on and buy songs by brand new, undiscovered bands.

Where this experience differs completely from iTunes, however, is that after they buy these songs, rather than the static experience of simply listening to them, they get to play the songs themselves! They learn how the songs were built, they focus on each individual part and they get to pretend to be you! If they dig your music enough in the game, it’ll be stuck in their heads when they’re commuting to work or mowing the lawn…and you know what that means. They’ll be more likely to buy your album and stick it on their iPods. Not only did you just make a new fan, you made a new fan who knows more about your music than most of your other fans do and you made multiple sales. Is there a down side?

Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that your music will make it into the store. There is a certain standard to which all recordings in the Rock Band store will be held, but if you think your music is fit to be sold, there’s no reason not to get involved as soon as possible.

Xbox 360 / Wii / PS3
Available: October 27 / October 29 (PS3)

Rob Zombie Pack 01* (440 / $5.49):

• “Burn” (160 / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)
• “Dragula” (160 / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)
• “Superbeast” (160 / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)

Wolfmother Pack 01* (680 / $8.49):

• “New Moon Rising” (160 / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)
• “Pilgrim” (160 / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)
• “Sundial” (160 / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)
• “White Unicorn” (160 / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)
• “Woman” (160 / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)

Individual songs:

• Liz Phair – “Rock Me” (160 / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)
• Morningwood – “Best of Me” (80 / 100 Wii Points / $.99)
• Morningwood – “Sugarbaby” (80 / 100 Wii Points / $.99)

*Track packs not available for purchase on Wii; all tracks sold individually.

PSP
Available: October 29

• Sonic Youth – “Kool Thing” ($1.99)
• Steely Dan – “My Old School” ($1.99)

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!):

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

Anyways, if you’re here, it means you’re either looking for information related to programming songs for the Rock Band Network or you want someone to do it for you. We can take care of both! We’ll even provide general Rock Band news…if you’re into that sort of thing. Poke around, ask some questions, and then go do something else!