All Event and "Bar Night" Organizers Only!!

[Zoologico]

In terms of sounds equipment, I thought the same thing that I did not want to leave such an important component in someone else's hands.

What kind of equipment would you recommend?

[Zoologico]

For an org name I borrow from what's already up and submit:

ORB (organization for rock band)
ORBS (organization for rock band services)
SUPERB (insert creative acronym ending with rock band)

Without fancy acronyms:

Society of Rock Band Event Organizers
Rock Band Knights
Rock Band Event Organizers
Rock Band Organizers Alliance

[LiquidKourage]

Here's a recommendation for a PA system:

http://www.b-52pro.com/models/Matrix600.html

I've heard fantastic things about the Matrix line; it's pretty portable, and this system pumps out 600 total watts, which is more than enough to cover a decent-sized room. The mixer on this system looks pretty user-friendly, even for someone with limited pro audio experience. It looks like it retails for under $1000, which makes for a pretty good setup for a beginning host.

If anyone has other suggestions, by all means throw them out here. Full disclosure, I use a Yamaha mixer (16 channel, not sure which model offhand) with a 1000 watt Crown amp and a pair of Peavey PR-12 speakers. I strongly recommend against monitors unless the stage setup really requires them; a lot of performers (especially singers) can get intimidated hearing their sound coming directly at them, and it seems like a sound setup with monitors can wreak havoc on mic settings.

Which brings me to my next point-- has everyone (either current or potential hosts) considered options beyond the standard RB mic? I've got some suggestions and thoughts, but would like to hear from everyone else first.

[GameRansoM]

As for the rotation, when you say it's a dynamic environment... what do you mean? Are you talking about organized chaos? I am a very organized person, I will planning on having the event setup that way. But from your comment I get a feeling that might not work so well. If you could elaborate I would appreciate it a lot.

Seems this part was in response to my comment, since you used my own wording.
I suppose I was a bit vague, so... You're right; I should elaborate.

When using the words "dynamic environment", I was thinking specifically of our Tuesday night gig. It's in a neighborhood bar/pool hall in north Denver - a sort of a "dive bar" in atmosphere, though it's pretty well maintained. It's full of heavy drinkers, sees heavy traffic with people coming & going, and rarely do people come specifically for Rock Band and post themselves up at a particular table with the sole intention of playing the game.

I'm a pretty organized person as well, and Gabe is a self-described "control freak". So, I like your thinking as far as getting a rotation going based on cards placed on each table. It would seem a good way to organize the chaos. However, it would never work in a setting such as that I just described. People rarely stick to one place, or in one group. For us, the closely-monitored sign-up sheet that gets passed around works best so far.

The sort of atmosphere/crowd you should expect is pretty well-described in RBLA's post below...

Aahh, now you are falling into the same trap Activision keeps falling into with GH. The vast majority of your people will be people who have either never played Rock Band before or have only played it passively. Until you build a strong following of experienced Rock Band players, which may never happen, the majority of the people who are at Rock Band Night will be there because of the bar and the drinks, not because of Rock Band. The vast majority of your players will be playing on either Easy or Medium, which is why it's imperative that you ALWAYS SET THE GAME TO NON-FAIL MODE, or you will be in for a long evening. These same people will also not be interested in contests or points because they are not gamers, which is why we mostly do Rock Band Karaoke. You will have a lot of women playing, and most women aren't gamers, but nothing works better in a bar than women on stage, and make sure you have the No Doubt pack downloaded!

Again, I host three nights a week in Los Angeles, and I have had one contest between two bands, and that didn't turn out well because one person was such a sore loser that I have never seen any of those four players come back again. My job when doing this is to entertain the people that are there, make sure they are having fun so they stay in the bar and order drinks and food. I am being paid by the bar to help them make money, not to host contests between gamers. If I ever start getting that kind of gamer crowd then I will change the format a bit, but I haven't seen it yet. You have to mingle with the crowd and encourage people who are new to try it out. You have to make sure that some people don't hog the stage, yet good players should play a bit more but put them with new people when they need instrument fillers.

Luckily, we do have a pretty good following of experienced players making up the core group of "roadies" as well as the occasional dedicated Rock Band junkie and even full bands that show up at times. This has allowed us to move into the occasional "Battle of the Bands" format.

Nevertheless, the above-quoted post is a very accurate generalization of how these nights run.
He's certainly got his "finger on the pulse", so to speak, after many months of hosting RB Nights!

[YRDaddy]

**** ****... huh?!

Why does the word R*ck B*nd keep getting bleeped out all of a sudden?? I wonder if this is a legal thing with Harmonix If this is something that has been done by a moderator, or if this whole thread is out of line for some reason, can someone chime in and let us know please?


EDIT: LOL!! Nevermind! I just got it... It's on all the threads... APRIL FOOLS!! Damn you Harmonix, you crafty devils!

[Zoologico]

Which brings me to my next point-- has everyone (either current or potential hosts) considered options beyond the standard RB mic? I've got some suggestions and thoughts, but would like to hear from everyone else first.

I was thinking about getting the MIC which is a wireless mic for the 360.
I am concerned that it will allow the vocalist to control the game or interfere with the control of the game (specially during menu navigation).

This brings me to my next question:

How do current organizer deal with the phenomenon of people banging on the frets and drums when navigating and selecting a song. At home it makes for a silly few issues, but then people learn to not press anything while menus are being navigated.

On the road I think this would be a nightmare. The event would go less than smoothly as people are constantly asked not to press anything, and to boot, people would never learn since they would not spend an extended amount playing and learning not to touch things while the game is being setup!

Thoughts?

[Ravaana]

Honestly man, there isn't really a way to deal with it. Other than asking, them to stop and let us get it to them in a timely manner. It is rather annoying when people keep hitting the RedB-Button and back out during selection.

Now with your mic questions, I have used the blockhead mic setup before. So we had Multiple *****Setups and possibilities. And I was thinking about using my wireless mics, but after someone destroyed a mic, and ****set in a few short weeks, decided against it. All I need is to shell out another $100+ for my mics... Yeah.. right...

Though, if I decide to, I will make sure to find some el cheapo mics. No sense in throwing away too much money, when you do it for free.

[Klubby]

My two cents...

We will have cards (much like karaoke) that the ****s turn in and then we'll announce the next players to come up to the stage. While this is happening, the monitors will be playing a slideshow from a laptop I will have set-up for in between songs. This will have anything from the bar's logo and drink specials, upcoming events, etc. I will be selecting the next song and just as the loading screen is complete, I will pause the game until everyone is ready. Then flip the monitors back over to RB and away they go!

[Calendyr]

Orbit sounds good to me too, so does Marble.

Thank you for the link for the song generator. My next step is to make the songbook. I am sure it will help a lot. I wish there was a way to download the list from my PS3. I can see myself taking a lot of time to make that list now ;(

How many song books do you guys think is best? Ideally it would be one per table, but since this think will have to be updated often, I don't think that is such a good idea. Also how often do you guys download new songs and add them to your list? Can't re-print every week, that would be crazy... so would once a month or once every 2 months be good? Do you also give info in the song list regarding how to play the instruments and select the dfficulty level? I was thinking of doing a 2 page presentation on that at the beginning of the song book. What do you guys think?

For the stage kit, the review I have seen say it's a good value but that the lights are not strong enough to use if there is any light source around. So that is definatelly not something I want. I might add a complex lighting system somewhere down the road, and maybe a smoke machine but I think that could be unpleasant for some customers.

For sound I agree having a sound system is a good thing. You get more control on how sound is projected and in the case you want to do an event somewhere that has no sound setup, you are not stuck.

[YRDaddy]

My two cents...

We will have cards (much like karaoke) that the ****s turn in and then we'll announce the next players to come up to the stage. While this is happening, the monitors will be playing a slideshow from a laptop I will have set-up for in between songs. This will have anything from the bar's logo and drink specials, upcoming events, etc. I will be selecting the next song and just as the loading screen is complete, I will pause the game until everyone is ready. Then flip the monitors back over to RB and away they go!

I think by using the card method that people will feel like they have to have a full band in order to play. They wouldn't just be able to sign up for some random instrument. They also wouldn't be able to see what songs have been played or what songs are coming up, which would lead to duplicate songs or last minute changes by that band which would cause more time to be wasted. Your slide show idea is cool but I hope you have help because just getting 1 band off, the next band on, song selected, and *****ist volumes adjusted will take up the time needed to switch between the laptop slides and Rock Band again. It might just be my preference but I focus on getting the finished band off and the next band up as soon as possible in order to keep music playing. I usually have the next bands song selected and waiting for them to chose difficulties by the time they get to the stage. Usually not more than a min. or two between songs all night.