Bon Savants Rock Band Network Blog

[adamlathrom]

Added part 3 today (09-07-09)

From Scorehero's "Shiznat",

There's a band on YT that are going to be charting their own songs and submitting them to the RBN once Magma becomes available to the public. They'll be chronicling this in the form of video blogs. Here's the first one:

Part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZDBB_HK8eg)
Part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcUVQC48VM4)
Part 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg9QoJRhCyM)

Sorry if there is a thread about this but I googled and searched the site.

This is a pretty good watch.

edit: Link (http://rockband.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27064) to scorehero topic:

[HMXEnosity]

These are must watch

[Apples]

I have my reservations about a band charting their own stuff without a lot of experience with the game.

If you don't have a bit of experience at an expert level, you're not going to know the conventions, layout, and format that people expect.

This guy really seems to know his stuff though, so maybe I will be pleasantly wrong. :)

[HMXEnosity]

They have our authoring documentation. It contains a "how-to" for all the convention, layout and format you know and love.

[SwordofWhedon]

I wish Harmonix could have published this kind of information for the rest of us, even basic information like how our tracks need to be set up and how we can interface with the program. Like can I jack my original RB strat or drums in and "play" the song to develop a baseline which i can then go in and tweak? Is there any way you can post whatever these guys have on an open server? We're buying our XNA membership once it's ready to go, but we don't have it yet since we want to have as much "active" time for our $100 as possible

I know I'm not alone in wanting to prep as much as possible before the tools are in our hands so I can spend more time learning to do it right than figuring out what I want to do in the first place.

[HMXEnosity]

We're still in Closed Beta. When we're ready to release documents to the public, the public will get them. Remember that after Closed Beta is an Open Beta period. During Open Beta, anyone can join the Creators Club and get access to the store before it goes live later this year.

[Grey_Street]

This is pretty cool. I'll definately be watching. I keep telling myself that I'm not going to have time to join XNA and be able to review all this stuff, but the more that I know about it, the more I thnk I'm just kidding myself. I don't think I'll be able to stay away. Might just have to wait for the new baby goes to sleep at night and get less sleep myself to make time!

[iruhlman]

I have my reservations about a band charting their own stuff without a lot of experience with the game.

If you don't have a bit of experience at an expert level, you're not going to know the conventions, layout, and format that people expect.

This guy really seems to know his stuff though, so maybe I will be pleasantly wrong. :)

I'm gonna have to agree here. While I haven't charted before, I've played GH1-4, 80's, Metallica and RB1 & 2 with 300 DLC songs. I know by now how alot of songs have been charted and I also already have ideas of how I would want to chart that people maybe wouldn't know to expect. I listened to them on youtube and the good thing is their music is pretty slow and mellow and shouldn't prove to be that difficult to chart, again I don't know as I haven't played with any of the tools thats going to bring this about. So him having these docs, he's got 1 leg up on me in that respect. lol

I plan on doing something similar on youtube (if all goes to plan) with you'll actually see me and others recording the tracks as well as the charting process for each song much like his blog. I think people will be more interested in seeing you play the songs as opposed to watching someone chart them. Like I would like to see HMX chart the next Megadeth album, that would be cool. Can't say the same for bands I don't know of but again I loved the 20 free tracks as they exposed me to new bands and thats what this is all about.

best of luck to him!

[SwordofWhedon]

I understand that there's a closed Beta. This guy has never even played the game really and he's got it. Hence my frustration :) Is there any way those details on input can be given out in the meantime? I'm going to be firing up for XNA as soon as the open beta starts, but at $0.65 a song or whatever, split with the bands it's going to take a lot of songs to make back our $160 investment in Reaper (even though we already have Sonar) and the membership, so you can understand the "iron is hot" mentality :)

[iruhlman]

This is pretty cool. I'll definately be watching. I keep telling myself that I'm not going to have time to join XNA and be able to review all this stuff, but the more that I know about it, the more I thnk I'm just kidding myself. I don't think I'll be able to stay away. Might just have to wait for the new baby goes to sleep at night and get less sleep myself to make time!

i feel ya, that baby part has ahold of me as well and is probably what will ultimately hold me up from doing this full time. Its mainly just going to be about getting some tracks into the game for me anyways. If your focus is strictly getting in this to make a ton of money i think those folks are going to be hard pressed and i hope they realize XNA pays quarterly. Tough only getting a check every 3 months.

[davidshek]

Its mainly just going to be about getting some tracks into the game for me anyways. If your focus is strictly getting in this to make a ton of money i think those folks are going to be hard pressed and i hope they realize XNA pays quarterly. Tough only getting a check every 3 months.

If any unsigned band is trying to get into RBN thinking they're going to make a pile of cash from it, they're deluding themselves pretty severely. And especially if they try to post their songs for any more than $1...there's going to be a slew of great music posted for $1. The whole point of this should be for the exposure, the chance to get your music in front of (potentially) 3 million+ players of Rock Band.

It's a chance that most of us struggling musicians NEVER get. Until now. :)

[iruhlman]

If any unsigned band is trying to get into RBN thinking they're going to make a pile of cash from it, they're deluding themselves pretty severely. And especially if they try to post their songs for any more than $1...there's going to be a slew of great music posted for $1. The whole point of this should be for the exposure, the chance to get your music in front of (potentially) 3 million+ players of Rock Band.

It's a chance that most of us struggling musicians NEVER get. Until now. :)

yeah this is a golden opportunity for someone like me that mainly plays at home with friends. I don't really want to tour (I'm 34 - great job & married with a baby and possibly another on the way)

Me getting an original track out a month for $1 is my current goal for this RBN. Maybe even 50 cents, who knows. Certainly not 2 bucks. Don't think I'll be buy anything from RBN priced at 2 bucks and up.

where you getting the 3 million number from? Is that just total Xbox users?

[davidshek]

where you getting the 3 million number from? Is that just total Xbox users?

That's an estimation of the total number of Rock Band 2 discs sold worldwide, across all platforms. Last I read, they had sold over 2 million copies, and that was back in February. 3 million was my estimate of how many have sold since February. :)

That's why I said "potentially", since we don't know what (if any) songs will make it over to the PS3 and Wii.

[iruhlman]

That's an estimation of the total number of Rock Band 2 discs sold worldwide, across all platforms. Last I read, they had sold over 2 million copies, and that was back in February. 3 million was my estimate of how many have sold since February. :)

That's why I said "potentially", since we don't know what (if any) songs will make it over to the PS3 and Wii.

I'll see if I can find any solid numbers. So then on average every one that bought the game downloads what 15 tracks?

[davidshek]

I'll see if I can find any solid numbers. So then on average every one that bought the game downloads what 15 tracks?

No clue. Isn't the number of DLC downloads over 80 million now? That would put it at around 25 downloads per person average. (80 / 3 = 26.something)

[HMXEnosity]

Part 3 is up - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg9QoJRhCyM
covers Tempo mapping, Guitar and a little on Drums.

[cherokeesam]

Part 3 is up - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg9QoJRhCyM
covers Tempo mapping, Guitar and a little on Drums.

Very informative. :)

I've learned a lot more about Rock Band just watching the Bon Savants...the software for Reaper doesn't look that hard to figure out, either --- will have to check out the Magma docs when the Savants release more video....

[Knucklesdude]

Very correct guitar charting there, in my opinion. That is how you do it.

[MarsPhoenix]

Yeah, there's a few other ways I could think to do it as well, but there are many right ways to chart that sort of thing anyways. Good video series thus far. Much thanks to the Bon Savants.

[Knucklesdude]

Yeah, I was very happy to see that they knew to go back to green and bring the notes up. Many novice charters try to chart by pitch (a "lower stuff near green, higher stuff near orange" mentality) and fail miserably.

[jeronemitchell]

That was VERY cool.

I really wonder whether or not it would be helpful for me to step my Guitar game (my weakest of the four) up to Expert level. I plan on doing mostly hip-hop initially, so there shouldn't be anything too hard for me to figure out on Expert. Once I start working with the local reggae band I know of, however... ya never know.

[adamlathrom]

Part 3 is up - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg9QoJRhCyM
covers Tempo mapping, Guitar and a little on Drums.

Couple days late but I'll add to top. I just went to check on it lol.

Pretty informative video...I can't wait for them to show the vocal part of things.

[JMaqIsYourHero]

This is the most helpful explanation I've seen yet as to what I'm going to be getting myself into. Thrilling stuff.