RockBand / GH Cover songs (paranoid)

[guitarnoob]

I noticed they recently also announced Paranoid by Black Sabbath for Guitar Hero 3.
Also a cover, like Rockband.

The thing I am curious about is if the covers will be the same, or each game will have their own artists (studio) covering the song for them...

I hope I haven't overlooked this issue when searching the forum for it...

[AVC808]

does it matter if the cover bands are different? im wondering what kind of licensing is involved in a cover. since obviously they dont have the full rights, does that mean they have to change a couple notes or lyrics so it's not the original song? or can everything be the same, just that the actual band is not performing the song?

[MotleyPriest111]

They get the right to put it in the game, but sometimes they don't have the master track (Living Color had to re-record for Guitar Hero III Cult of Personality) or sometimes they are only allowed a cover.

[MrMet2087]

it's much more expensive to get the rights to a song to use it in a movie or video game or tv show, if u use the origional recording. it's less expensive to just get the rights to the song, and have a band u know cover it for u to use.

[Bakkster_Man]

does it matter if the cover bands are different? im wondering what kind of licensing is involved in a cover. since obviously they dont have the full rights, does that mean they have to change a couple notes or lyrics so it's not the original song? or can everything be the same, just that the actual band is not performing the song?

In music, the rules for a cover song are that you can cover any song you want, but something like 10% of your sale price for that song goes to the copyright holder. I'm sure there's something more involved here, whether it's required or a common courtesy, I'm not sure.

[AVC808]

it's much more expensive to get the rights to a song to use it in a movie or video game or tv show, if u use the origional recording. it's less expensive to just get the rights to the song, and have a band u know cover it for u to use.

makes sense. thanks for the explanation. good to know i wont have to stick in a strange word when singing during a cover song in the game :)

[karlkaza]

I don't think they will change much.
Cover or no cover

[MrMet2087]

lol yeah they're not gonna throw a random word at u for no reason lol

[Kang_Zircon]

The two are very likely different if the developers are making the covers themselves. GHI & II added extra solos & changed some other instruments to guitar. That's less likely to happen with RB since there isn't a direct focusn on guitar. Chances are, the track layouts for the same songs won't even match up between GHIII and RB.

[nicko68]

The two are very likely different if the developers are making the covers themselves. GHI & II added extra solos & changed some other instruments to guitar. That's less likely to happen with RB since there isn't a direct focusn on guitar. Chances are, the track layouts for the same songs won't even match up between GHIII and RB.

That will be a bit confusing for the people playing both GH and RB (guitar part).

[Kang_Zircon]

That will be a bit confusing for the people playing both GH and RB (guitar part).

It can't be helped, unless the two developers are actually working together. But does that sound likely?

[Bakkster_Man]

That will be a bit confusing for the people playing both GH and RB (guitar part).

Meh, I'm sure they can deal with it.

[guitarnoob]

The two are very likely different if the developers are making the covers themselves. GHI & II added extra solos & changed some other instruments to guitar. That's less likely to happen with RB since there isn't a direct focusn on guitar. Chances are, the track layouts for the same songs won't even match up between GHIII and RB.

Funny how only one person gets my point, instead of generalising the 'coversong issue'.

However since the previous GH covers were recorded at Wavegroup, it would be funny if they get to record the same song twice in a tad differrent formation orso for RockBand and GH3.
And indeed different track layouts / notecharts would be an interesting issue if they would either be different or similar :)

[trashthisdumptim]

The reason why Paranoid is a cover in both games is because the song is very old (1970). Master tracks to songs that old are generally not available or not usable. Older master tracks had all the instruments on one track and they couldn't be separated. Newer masters already have guitar/bass/drums/vocals separated. It isn't a question about forking a lot of money for it, but in cases of older songs, masters are unusable or nonexistent.

[Phrank-E]

They had 4 and 8 track machines back then.. Just not digital and analog degrades over time.

Wavegroup was brought in by HMX for GH and I would bet my money that Wavegroup is handling RB as well. Neversoft likely found another production company to use.

[kilinor]

Trashthisdumptim has a point though Phrank-E.

They did have 4 and 8 track recording, but since they would often use more tracks than that, they would merge a couple of tracks to free up the space. For example the drums and bass may be on the same track, several layers of vocals on another, etc.

The surviving master tapes for a lot of older recordings are riddled with this sort of thing.

The "Classic Albums" series is a great reference for this, as they sit someone in a studio with the masters and go through the tracks :-)

[Young_Nastyman]

The reason why Paranoid is a cover in both games is because the song is very old (1970). Master tracks to songs that old are generally not available or not usable. Older master tracks had all the instruments on one track and they couldn't be separated. Newer masters already have guitar/bass/drums/vocals separated. It isn't a question about forking a lot of money for it, but in cases of older songs, masters are unusable or nonexistent.

But castle records remastered Black Sabbath's catalogue up through The Eternal Idol in 1996. Who's Next was released remastered the year before. I see no other reasons besides the record label or the band wanting too much money for the use of the original, or the band not liking the thought of bad gamers butchering their version of the song :p

[Magnet]

But castle records remastered Black Sabbath's catalogue up through The Eternal Idol in 1996

A re-mastering doesn't mean much if the original masters weren't in a Rock Band usable form to begin with.