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.