"Quantization"/Tempo Question

[connerton4]

Hi all,

I'm a big fan of Beatles Rock Band. I just started getting into the drums more seriously. I'm a DJ so I'm pretty familiar with the accuracy of quantized/loop-based/sequenced rhythm, and at this point I'm guessing that the tracks aren't, for a lack of a better word, "quantized" in Rock Band games. It seems like I need to adjust my tempo sometimes according to Ringo's fluctuations. Is this correct or did they actually use some sort of a high-end time compression plug-in to make the tempos perfect?

[skysaw]

Hey connerton,

I've been pondering this as well (I work in digital audio production).

I'm positive that Ringo's tracks were in no way altered. He, Paul, et al., would never have allowed anything like that. There are some tiny inaccuracies here and there, which is what keeps the music alive, of course. But the question comes up regarding how this is handled in the game.

For each drum hit, there is a window of time during which the drum must be hit to score, perhaps in the neighborhood of 40-60 milliseconds? Of course it might adjust according to tempo.

So what do the designers do if the note was played inaccurately in the recording? I was thinking maybe they widen the window a tiny bit, or perhaps shift it so it still encloses the quantized note as well as the recorded note, covering all bases so to speak.

A related problem might be what to do in the case of a song like Rocky Racoon, where Paul sings noticeably sharp in several places. Will the player's score be higher if they sing in tune, or by matching Paul's pitch? Or maybe the designers will widen the acceptable pitch range on that? I don't know, but there's no way Harmonix would dare pitch correct Sir Paul!