Should Rock Band have a jam feature?

[21stbionic]

I think it would be great if you could jam in addition to playing tunes.Imagine everyone pulling out some improvised set.I imagine after years of playing all these good tunes we could master the instruments themselves and bust one out of our own.

[miketoast]

Unfortunately you're not really playing anything, you're hitting buttons on a controller that correspond to notes on a screen. Any "jam session" would have to be programmed in by the developers in order for you to hit the notes thus taking away any definition of freestyle I've ever heard.

It would be awesome, but expect it not to be in there.....

[vichnaiev]

Can't be done for strings instruments, can be done VERY VERY VERY VERY poorly for drumms and can be done perfectly for vocals, but hey, you don't need a game to do acapella stuff.

So I guess it won't be done, and I won't miss it, don't think it would be fun.

[VocalKnight]

The closest they could probably come would be some equivalent of a "level builder" like they have in certain other games. But with all they're packing in already, I doubt that'll happen.

[BeckRokk]

Look, if anything it would be like Freq and Amp remixes. That wouldn't really be fun given that remixes are part of the DJ aesthetic which is what Freq and Amp were tapping into.

Rock Band is a totally different demographic, and therefore a jam session like you are proposing would be nigh impossible, not to mention a rehash of whatever songs do wind up in the game because that's where the samples would come from.

[shrimp-n-gritz]

I posted something like this in a similar thread, but I had the same thought as 21stbionic. I was thinking of it sort of as a "free-play" mode where you don't have any note patterns or anything else. And you can just practice and experiment with the notes and different chord combinations. Say each fret and combination of frets is mapped to a particular note so that there are many different notes possible. If I am not mistaken, there is not an exact 1:1 note mapping for the songs, meaning that sometimes when you play green it may be one note and another time it is something different, depending on the song and situation. If I am wrong, let me know. But for the free-play mode, just intuitively (though not necessarily realistically) map certain notes to certain fret combinations so that each one you play makes a different sound. Then you could essentially "jam" and experiment and make up riffs and even whole songs. Maybe even throw in an effects console so you could tweak things like tuning, distortion, feedback, echo, etc. I don't think it would be impossible to do, and it would give player's something to do between band sessions, maybe to kill a few minutes, or just to limber up before diving into career mode. I don't know if it something that would make it into the game, but I would enjoy it. I have been wishing for something like it since GH.

21stbionic, I don't know if that is anything close to what you meant, but it's my $0.02 worth.

[21stbionic]

That is exactly what I meant.

[SwordofWhedon]

There could be improv sections built in, with some kind of engine to rate your performance (like how well you kept within the tempo of the song)

[Smidget]

But for the free-play mode, just intuitively (though not necessarily realistically) map certain notes to certain fret combinations so that each one you play makes a different sound. Then you could essentially "jam" and experiment and make up riffs and even whole songs.

thats pretty much how it would have to be done, yeah. Maybe the five buttons equal a certain scale and the combinations fill out the scale, idk. Would it be cool? perhaps. Would people really use it? I don't think so honestly. And is it worth the time/effort for HMX to put it in the game? Probably not. :)

For custom gameplay, I would rather like to see a chart-editor in the game. This would much more doable I think and much more rewarding. Writing your own songs, making the song-chart, and sharing them over the intraweb.