I wonder why almost half of the dated downloadable songs are covers...

[Magnet]

44% (12 of 27) of the announced and dated downloadable tracks are covers. Anyone else find this odd compared with only 15% (7 of 45) covers in the game? I wonder how many of these were due to unusable masters (pretty obvious that at least Fortunate Son had to be a cover) or if any were due to making the songs cheaper. One of the questions asked in that "What Should Download Songs Cost?" thread was...


Are songs from original masters worth more to you than covers?

This makes it sound like using covers may indeed be more financially viable than masters for keeping a low DLC pricing structure. What do you think? I realize it's hard to answer at the moment since the quality of these covers is completely unknown, but if the masters were usable for any of these covered songs, do you think you would have paid more for the masters? If so, how much more?

[MundaneSoul]

You may be right, but also keep in mind the potential mixing issues with older tracks.

[espher]

The line to date has been that covers have only been used when masters were unavailable or unusable. I'd assume the same reason is in place now.

[Magnet]

Yeah, the skew of the Rock Band retail disc is with the 90s and 00s so I guess it makes more sense that the ratio in the retail disc is much lower for covers. I just realized how many of these downloadable tracks are from right around the 70s, which would lead to a greater prevalence of covers regardless of whether they wanted to use the masters.

I'm still left wondering if they're ever going to use (or already have used) a cover over a usable master to reduce the price of the song. I don't think we've heard of that happening yet.

[SmokaCola]

Fortunate son IS a cover? Ah, doesn't really bother me. Probably my favorite song of all time that has to deal with war, But I'm not one of the guys that jumps and goes "PMFG NO WAI! COVER OF MY FAVORITE SONG?! AUTOMATIC ****!!!" Who knows, if the cover is ANYTHING like run to the hills I will be extremely happy, if not. I'll enjoy it either way :p

[Apples]

I think it has to do with the age of the songs, since many of the DLC tracks are older where masters are not available. Random speculation on my part.

[Feigned]

The line to date has been that covers have only been used when masters were unavailable or unusable. I'd assume the same reason is in place now.

This is exactly what I was told when I hung out with John Drake, so that seems to be the case. The only other exception to the rule was if there was a song that they *had* to get into the game, then they would settle for a cover. He didn't mention if this was a situation that they already encountered, or a possibility in the future.

[ZkDotNet]

I think it also has to do with how songs were recorded decades ago. I bet several of those masters are still available, but not tracked in a way that is needed for RB.

Why didn't they forsee this? They should've have totally realized that in the future, some electronic thingie would need their instruments on separate tracks.

[Supergeek]

I don't think the numbers are statistically significant.

[Siberian]

Harmonix is all about multiplayer so every track needs to work for all 4 players which means you need instruments to be in separate audio tracks.

Neversoft decided that a master track was more important then having multiplayer. That's why "Paint it, Black" in GH3 can only be played in single player. All the guitar parts in that master recording are in one track, so while your playing lead if you screw up the backup guitars drop out of the sound too. And because of that you can't play it coop.

Honestly I'd have been happier have a cover then the single player only master of "Paint It, Black" particularly since with the way the sound drops out it feels more like a user-made custom track then a professionally made track on the CD.

Many of these older tunes from the 60s and 70s simply don't have proper masters available. Sure there is a good clean master you can use if your putting out on CD, but it's not separated tracks. This seems to be the case with all the Black Sabbath stuff which is why it's been consistently covers in every game (GH1,GH2,GH3, Rock Band) and lots of the older stuff too.

Me? I'm happy I get to have War Pigs, N.I.B., Sweet Leaf and Fortunate Son in Rock Band. I'd rather have fully playable covers then limited playablity masters like what Neversoft did w/ "Paint It, Black"

[admanimal]

Personally I don't mind covers. Sure they don't always sound perfect but I actually think they give the experience kind of a more authentic feel, since it's supposed to be -your- band playing the song, not whoever the original artist is.

[MrTorso]

It is nice to see that Blitzkrieg Bop had good masters. For an album that was recorded for less than 10k in 1976. I hope we see the whole first album as DLC

[Ryder35]

Good points all, while I am not totally happy about the number of covers I can see the logic. Bowie is wierd tho, 2 covers one original recording. All from the same era

[Oblong]

This may be a silly question, but on older songs without a master track could they not lift just the vocals and then do cover portions to separate the drums/guitars/bass?

It seems to me the instrument portion of covers are fantastic, it's the vocals that tend to make you realize they are covers.

Would this be possible from a technological and/or licensing standpoint?

[MaineDrummer]

This may be a silly question, but on older songs without a master track could they not lift just the vocals and then do cover portions to separate the drums/guitars/bass?

It seems to me the instrument portion of covers are fantastic, it's the vocals that tend to make you realize they are covers.

Would this be possible from a technological and/or licensing standpoint?

I can't answer your question but I have thought of this too. The covers don't bother me much. The vocals are the only thing that "lack" in a few songs. But hey, you know what they say..if you don't like it, sing it yourself!

[DansNutz]

If using covers keeps the price down, I have no problem with that as long as they're quality covers. Some of those covers it's very hard to even tell the difference. I think it's worth the sacrafice to keep a low price.

And when you think about how many people are going to be singing over it anyway, I don't think it really makes that big of a difference.