Learning to chart?

[trg007]

I was wondering how difficult it would be for a newbie like me to learn how to use Reaper & the RB plug-ins to author vocal charts. I'm not in a band myself but thought it might be something I could do as a freelance sort of thing for bands or for someone like RhythmAuthors if they needed anyone that specializes in vocals.

I'm mainly interested in the vocal part of it, since it's my favorite RB "instrument" and I imagine there already are (or will be) a bunch of people that focus on the guitar/bass/drums and lighting/animation side of things.

[dragonflyr]

my suggestion is go download reaper and start playing with it.

there are many mixing sites/forums where you can download free audio loops and remix tunes. that would be a good start. it would atleast help you get familiar with reaper.

type the following into google and get a buncha loops: free audio loops, acid loops

that'll get you going.

[HMXEnosity]

The toughest part of authoring vocals is matching the pitch. This takes some practice if you haven't done it before and it really helps if you're a musician.

My advice. Download Reaper (30 day free trial), load in a song and try to match up the vocal pitches with Midi notes of the same pitch.

[trg007]

The toughest part of authoring vocals is matching the pitch. This takes some practice if you haven't done it before and it really helps if you're a musician.

My advice. Download Reaper (30 day free trial), load in a song and try to match up the vocal pitches with Midi notes of the same pitch.

I don't think that'd be a problem for me. I can play tunes on a piano/keyboard by ear, from memory if it's a song I know, or I can hear someone sing a note and find the matching note on a piano/keyboard without any problem. The only hard part might be figuring out exactly what octave they're singing. :)

When the plug-ins for Reaper are released I think I'll give it a shot!

[Vedicardi]

I was hoping there would be pitch recognition software that would automatically chart the vocals

sad face

oh well lol. Something fun to learn.

[HMXEnosity]

I don't think that'd be a problem for me. I can play tunes on a piano/keyboard by ear, from memory if it's a song I know, or I can hear someone sing a note and find the matching note on a piano/keyboard without any problem. The only hard part might be figuring out exactly what octave they're singing. :)

Actually the octave they're singing in doesn't matter much for charting. The range of the vocalist may matter, usually not. Playing piano will be a big help. You'll most likely get the hang of it quickly.

[Soratar]

I would love to do this, but sadly, I do not own a 360 and I have school coming soon.

[Sound_IMP]

Reading this brings a question, does this mean that there is is only 1 vocal chart for all the difficulties? It sounds like you would make one pitch chart and the game would adjust its sensitivity to that chart for each level. Or is it where you would make the chart and then make a copy for each level as a place holder? If this is the case then, the vocal chart has to be very accurate, right? or am I just completely wrong on this?

[HMXEnosity]

Vocals are only charted once.

[Knucklesdude]

And yes, they need to be very accurate. :D

[trg007]

Reading this brings a question, does this mean that there is is only 1 vocal chart for all the difficulties? It sounds like you would make one pitch chart and the game would adjust its sensitivity to that chart for each level. Or is it where you would make the chart and then make a copy for each level as a place holder? If this is the case then, the vocal chart has to be very accurate, right? or am I just completely wrong on this?

Why would it not have to be accurate? It's not like easy/medium/hard are "less accurate" versions of the chart. If you sing with perfect pitch on Expert, the arrow is in the center of the line, and if you do the same on Easy, the arrow is still in the center of the (much fatter) line. :)

[Sound_IMP]

Maybe accurate was a bad choice. I was meaning since there is only one one chart it would have to be like an absolute center line, as opposed to say drums or guitar where a medium level chart is not as accurate as the expert chart. Maybe correct, full, or 1:1 would have been a better choice of words.

[afterstasis]

i always assumed HMX used a program like melodyne or autotune to aid them in making sure the charts were accurate.

[kh-cat]

well, there is this program called frets on fire (FoFiX) and it now supports the ability to play vocals and stuff. i've tried it and it works fine with my rb mic, but it's very glitchy cause it's new and still in a beta phase. they do have a program for it that lets you chart songs into midi's (it's called EOF), but idk if you can chart vocals yet, but if you can, then that would be great free unlimited practice right there

[SFenton]

Though I'm not sure if it's exactly practical to the Network, look over at the ScoreHero software side... they have a great tutorial on how to chart vocals!

[iruhlman]

Though I'm not sure if it's exactly practical to the Network, look over at the ScoreHero software side... they have a great tutorial on how to chart vocals!

I seem to be reading alot around on the net and most (Rock Band fans) aren't very fond of how those guys chart stuff. why is this? is it the typical over charted GH way or something?

[LyokoFreaks]

I seem to be reading alot around on the net and most (Rock Band fans) aren't very fond of how those guys chart stuff. why is this? is it the typical over charted GH way or something?

It's the fact that anybody who wants to can chart songs and there's no way to regulate quality. If customhero.net had gotten off the ground, it would have had very high quality charts (the ones that are on there are great). All of the guides and everything on ScoreHero are great and written by people who know what they're talking about and are great resources to use until HMX releases their documents.

[socrstopr]

I seem to be reading alot around on the net and most (Rock Band fans) aren't very fond of how those guys chart stuff. why is this? is it the typical over charted GH way or something?

The post above me is rather dead on. The problem is that the top notch stuff that comes from ScoreHero is a very small percentage of what is available. You have hundreds of kids who don't even know what BPM stands for trying to translate music into another format, and it just doesn't work.

Unfortunately, word of mouth tends to travel further on the crappy stuff than the good stuff, and we therefore seem to have built a somewhat negative reputation with a lot of people. Don't worry, the guys from SH working for Rhythm Authors are believers in top quality authoring; not the spammy, 'lol hardest evar' crap you may have seen around. I'm sure the same will be true of other RBN authors as well, especially with the HMX docs to guide you along.

[SFenton]

Most of the Rock Band charts are very well done, as there are sites that people upload them to that REQUIRE high-quality, all instruments. I'm one of em, I haven't specifically tried vocals though. Heck, some of the Wii-specific ones have animations. But this thread isn't one about if custom charts are good. In short: Read those guides, they DO work.