About the Rockband keyboard.

[Top Notch Rocker]

So is this true that there will be a Rockband Keyboard? How would this fit onto a screen when you have a bass guitar, guitar, drums, and vocals? Plus, would there be a green, red, yellow, blue, and orange button on the keyboard? Because you couldn't fit all the keys on a keyboard on the screen. This would be kind of ridiculous. Any comments on this possilby new feature to rockband?

[shadebug]

your saying 'is this true?' implies that you heard it from a source. I would love to know what that source was

[MC Anna]

yes it is true, and by true i mean, should be true. i've already thought about how it would work out, first off in band play it could be at the bottom of the screen and just push everyone else up a little (or it could also just pop up during keyboard parts) not sure about button layouts tho.

but once they do get one they need to have the doors light my fire.

[ImajinMyFX]

a simple patch won't make this thing happen. where is your source? .. your pretty much talking about a whole different game being added to rock band over night

[Ultrace]

So is this true that there will be a Rockband Keyboard?
Nothing is true unless you hear it from Harmonix. Until then, speculation is useless.

[hmxhenry]

Here's an interesting excerpt of an interview HMXSean did with Rockgamer.com. Just some info to chew on.

Rockgamer.com: Is there thought to expanding the peripherals, such as keyboard? I would love to play some Doors tunes.

HMXSean: It was something we briefly considered. The problem is multi-fold. First problem- there are many good songs that have synth parts, but if we were to support a keyboard peripheral the right way ALL of the songs in game would have to have a synth part which would really be quite limiting. There is also the issue of taking a 60-80 key keyboard and distilling it down into something readable on the screen. Once that happens would a five to ten key keyboard be terribly compelling idea or just an idea gone awry? Lastly there is the problem of screen real estate. Where would a fifth instrument go, especially if it had a ton of keys on it? Cool idea but a lot of difficult design and implementation hurdles.

For the rest of the interview you can check it out via the link below.
http://www.rockgamer.com/2008/02/17/interview-with-hmxsean-manager-of-community-development-for-harmonix-part-1/

[chugger93]

I've been dreaming about a keyboard being added. What a great idea..and I'd be game

[ImajinMyFX]

screw the keyboard...... give me a sousaphone!

http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/Activision-Reports-Man.jpg
http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/Activision-Reports.jpg

[MC Anna]

i dont get why every song would need to have synth parts... so the keyboard only gets to play on certain songs... oh well? hell, i dont know why there arent other songs that dont have certain instruments? such as just instrumental, so you can't sing that song... oh well? its music, it happens.

[killerewok]

“Who knows? It may happen one day. It is actually conceptually pretty difficult to build in.

“Most consoles are set up for four peripherals, not five, which means you have to drop something. Which means that the song offering is more complicated.

“You know, it is a big commitment. And then the question is, are there enough rock songs with compelling keyboard parts to make it worthwhile? And maybe the answer is yes, but we’ve been pretty busy and we haven’t really gotten there yet.”


http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=33975

So, no, probably not. It wouldn't make sence to have to switch out controllers for certain songs. And the only way you could even do a keyboard is if you made the controller a full octave, (13 keys C to C with the 5 black keys) and that would take up a TON of screen space. Thats without playing with two hands like a real keyboard (not to mention you can really only play in one key, C, to use all the keys). All the best keyboard solos use many octaves. You can't even play both parts of Chopsticks with one octave. I just don't see it as being very fun. As someone who's played the keyboard in the past, I wouldn't really be interested.

[iamtheddrman]

I know it wasn't a hugely successful game in the US, but Beatmania featured a keyboard/scratchpad. It used just 7 keys, which was still difficult considering the charts (Think: GH3 with 7 notes). I actually have that game and semi-enjoy it, and the thought of having a keyboard in Rock Band is pretty cool. But, not being able to play it on every song would kinda suck. There's always the option of having a sort of Rock Band spin-off game that could include a keyboard though. Just a thought

[Dzhokhar]

I don't think adding a keyboard to Rock Band would be practical. I think it would be cool though if Harmonix created a keyboard-based game (maybe keyboard/singer with some Billy Joel/Elton John type stuff). I imagine an instrument with 8-12 keys (4-6/hand) would be a reasonable compromise between realism and fun. I picture a screen layout with separate left and right hand guitar-like charts and a vocal chart at the top/bottom. It would probably also be more of a single player affair like Guitar Hero.

I think that Rock Band has pretty much hit the optimal instrumentation in terms of song selection and screen real estate.

[MC Anna]

i get the fact that it would be hard to have the part on the screen, but i dont understand the switching out of instruments problem. i dont like singing, so i dont switch out for the mic, but its still part of the game. i dont like playing drums, so i dont switch out for the drumset. i like playing keyboard so i would switch out for keyboard. it could just be an optional instrument you could buy, and it wouldnt have a solo tour or anything (kinda like another instrument that is recognized by rock band...)

hell, i would love to pretend i was geddy lee (not really pretend cuz thats ***) but be playing bass and singing and then throw my bass behind my back and start soloing on keyboards...

[iamtheddrman]

By switching out we mean that only 4 controllers can be recognized by the Xbox360 at any time, so since 4 instruments are already present, that would create a problem. If you have 4 people playing, and your bass player wants to start playing keyboard on the next song, you would have to unplug the bass and plug in the keyboard. I do think the separate game idea is cool though.

[bluGill]

screw the keyboard...... give me a sousaphone!

I thought I swore off Activision, but if they give me sousaphone hero I'll be buying!

[mgd3434]

Nice idea, but absolutely not feasible. I could see a keyboard with a completely separate game, but not RB.

[DethBoxx]

The 'guitar' is already a keyboard.

[chillzatl]

keyboard would be epic fail. 18-1 style... Just say no. Then again, there's no reason for me to wish against it, Harmonix knows it's a bad idea for this game.

[WillDrum4Food]

screw the keyboard...... give me a sousaphone!

http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/Activision-Reports-Man.jpg
http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/Activision-Reports.jpg



This post delivers! :D

[mattfish]

From what I hear, they've broken into playable keyboard parts by giving them to the bass player for downloadable content. This prompts an interesting possibility:

I know I've seen bands where the bass player is the "utility" player, playing all manner of instruments. Already the bass is arguably the easiest instrument to play in RB, being mostly a chordless guitar. Perhaps with bass players getting keyboard parts, the ability to fuse both together under the guise of bass with a different peripheral is in order. Someone above mentioned the Beatmania controller. Now that Beatmania (IIDX) was released here in some fashion, their 7key+scratch table controller is available. The BMIIDX game is absolutely rife with complicated piano songs, and although it plays nothing like an actual keyboard, neither does RB/GH/GF play like a real guitar.

Ignoring for now the fact that Harmonix would obviously want to design their own peripheral instead of support Konami's, the 7key could seamlessly take the place of the second guitar that is not packaged with the game bundle.
The tradeoff between a 7key keyboard and a 5fret bass is evident: strumming. Nobody would want to switch peripherals in the middle of the game, so regardless of the bass or key content of the song, the bassist could play either peripheral. The 7key controller would take the guise of a synth, which can often be used as a bass, or a piano or whatever, and the notecharts could "open up" to use the extra keys as a difficulty compensation for lack of having to strum notes. Both would be "bass", regardless of what you have plugged in and what the song features, but the charts would change slightly to fit the inputs.

Yeah, it seems like it would be awkward with some of the original bass notecharts, but if designed for it would be fantastic. The scratch turntable could control overdrive, or be used as a separate input, or whatever. It opens up so many possibilities to play the bassist's role completely differently than guitar.

Just dreamin'

[imzadi3015]

How would it work? Just like the vocals - side scrolling - in fact, the keyboard could use the same bar as the vocals, since the words are below the bar in italics. Or, make the vocal bar a bit wider.
Regarding the other question, how many people are going to have 5 or 6 people in their living room playing Rock Band? Most people are alone in their room online playing against/with others around the world. For those that do have 5 or 6 people at a time, chances are they have a really wide screen high definition television.

[KenneyvTX]

I see the only way to intergrate this is with it being an addon, like the cymbols, but with software. I would suggest the addtion of rhythm guitar line as well as keyboards. The keyboard would consist of two sets of the 5 keys, set in mirror images of one another. When the keyboard is used, it would take 2 instrument slots on the screen so you would be limited to keyboard, vocal, guitar or keyboard, drums, vocal, etc... Now, if both players have the addon, you can network together and have all six instruments, ie Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Bass, Drums, Keyboards, and Vocals all going. I suppose if you had 2 xboxen in your living room you could have the whole thing in one place as well. This eliminates the major overhaul of the UI and squeezing even more on an already very populated screen and gives more of a "keyboard experience" by allowing/requiring the use of both hands. Now, on the flip side, it would proabably require significant engineering on the networking and song production.
I think it could work, although as most have noted, not easily, and be a blast in the end.