The DLC Process - An Informational Guide

[batsu336]

I have explained before in other people's threads about the process involved in making a DLC song, but people still expect to see their requests up and going a week after they request it. So here is the process as I understand it after reading several interviews and also after having been in a band that released 2 CDs.

1. Harmonix must make contact with the band and company the band was signed with. Some bands marketed CDs with multiple record companies, meaning that multiple companies may need to be contacted.

2. Harmonix, the band, and the company that recorded the master recording must all reach an agreement and sign a contract. If a band released music under Columbia and Geffen Records, but Geffen won't sign, then Harmonix can't use the songs released under the Geffen label.

3. Once the contract is finalized and reviewed by lawyers, The company must provide Harmonix with the master recording of the song. A mixed down copy like you buy in a store is no good; you can't seperate the tracks for the different instruments. If the master is lost, you are SOL. If the master recording has too many layers on one track (old recordings often only had 4 tracks available for recording, so extra instruments would be stuck on the vocal or guitar tracks), you may be SOL. You might be able to edit around the overdubs, but it will take more time. A lot of old master tapes are thrown out, lost or stolen over the years.

4. When Harmonix gets the master tape, they then need to isolate the guitar, drum and vocals they want to use in the game and then map those out to appropriate buttons, pads or pitches in the game. This is easier on newer songs (mid-90s and on) that might have 100 different tracks on the master; each instrument can be isolated. Older recordings were limited to 4 or 8 tracks. So if you had a 4 track recorder for your band and there were 5 band members, then 2 people would have to be on the same track (factoid: The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album was done on a 4 track, so any backing vocals and added instruments had to be put on someone's track).

5. Quite a few songs don't end, they fade out. Harmonix needs to alter the ending of these songs, either by recording a new ending or making a "Big Rock Ending", so that it ends like a live concert song. Think Enter Sandman. The Rock Band ending is completely different than the Black Album ending, and is like how they end the song live.

6. Okay, you got the 4 tracks mapped out. Now you need to code it to mesh with already existing animations and player skins so that nothing looks funky when you switch to DLC songs. You also have to code it so the system doesn't crash when switching from disk-read songs to HDD-read songs on the fly.

7. Now you get to slap the four tracks back together and make it so you can choose to play any one track, or up to all 4 together with no conflicts. Hopefully there is a set process for this that Harmonix can slap on with a minimum of fuss.

That's all there is to it! Harmonix has stated it takes about 3 months from start to finish. That is if the band and company agree right away and the master is easily located.

So the stuff coming out right now is stuff that has been in the works since before the game launched. It appears that Rush and the Police must have been very helpful and easy to work with, since those bands have several downlooads already. Harmonix also told Game Informer that a lot of bands would not sign up until the game was out and people saw it was a success. Hopefully some people read this and stop asking for stuff requested 1 month ago.

If some of you have never seen all the complex wiring and computing needed just to record a simple album, check out my pictures in my profile. I have 4 near the end that are of the equipment in the very small recording studio my band used. Now imagine running that in reverse to tear the song back down again without losing any data, like Harmonix has to do with every song. Then imagine a real recording studio, with ten times the equipment. This is not rocket science, but it isn't easy either.


Related articles on song selection:

http://www.oxmonline.com/article/fea...and-songs-come
http://www.rockband.com/blog/entry/141709
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/846/846387p1.html

[slickpitt]

You forgot the pie. I'm sure at some point they have to have a pie break and stop to have pie. Maybe between items 5 and 6?

[batsu336]

Originally Posted by slickpitt

You forgot the pie. I'm sure at some point they have to have a pie break and stop to have pie. Maybe between items 5 and 6?

As long as it is not "Cherry Pie" by Warrant...

[Centurion]

This isn't quite correct. A four track master is unusable, as is probably an eight track master.

Why, you ask? The drums.

Ever wonder why GH3 had a master of Number of the Beast, but RB has a cover? Because the Master for NotB has one track for the drumline. RB needs each individual drum to be it's own track, so that when you're playing, if you're hitting, say, the snare, but missing the hi-hat, you hear the snare, but get a 'missed' sound for the hi-hat.

[Apples]

Good document. I think if the DLC process was understood in full detail, there wouldn't be such a rush to judgement when a track does not meet their approval.


You might want to mention or detail a few more things:

* Bands/labels can request unreasonable accomodations or licensing fees--making them unattainable

* Some bands/labels are simply too protective of their work to partner up with

* Note charts aren't as simple as throwing colored dots on a page. Guitar, bass, and drums each need 4 difficulties, and the tug-of-war charts. Unison phrases, overdrive, etc all needs to be balanced against itself.

* All of that needs to be QA'd across each instrument, each difficulty


The 3 month timeframe in itself is interesting, I was under the impression it was more like 6.


Also, here are some production articles relating to song production:
http://www.rockband.com/blog/entry/141709

Article on DLC strategy, song selection:
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/846/846387p1.html

[HMXHenry]

Originally Posted by slickpitt

You forgot the pie. I'm sure at some point they have to have a pie break and stop to have pie. Maybe between items 5 and 6?

That's actually what takes so long to approve the DLC. We could crank these suckers out in a week if we weren't constantly stopping to have pie.

Pie is our Kryptonite.

[HeXcoda]

Also worth note...

It was mentioned band animations need to be selected; this includes special instrument playing animations, like drum crossovers or big-bang moments on the drums, or zoom-ins on the vocalist during key lyrical moments. But this also includes selecting the timing of the lighting, and what colors are used, what visual filters are used -- like the band lightups right before Long Time, or the 60s filters in Paranoid, with variants for small-club vs. large-stadium. Needless to say this needs to be QA'd on every stage in the game to make sure none of them glitch out.

Also, if no master track is available or it's mixed too far down, a cover song has to be produced via a contracted group like WaveMusic -- that takes time and money and legalese. In the end, it's just as much work as the masters, since you still need to take those four game-ready tracks and mix them, notechart them, choreograph them, etc.

[gocryemokid]

Ahh this all makes much sense. I knew it took a while but never looked at all the aspects. I figured there was a reason the Police and Ramones etc. continue to appear. Those are the bands they could secure a while ago, and had those completed a while ago. So as I expected variety is on the horizion, and I'm excited. lol

P.S. poster above me I deleted that after I figured that out. Thanks though, lol.

[Abaddon]

Originally Posted by Apples

Some bands/labels are simply too protective of their work to partner up with

Also, it is very likely some bands are simply waiting for a larger install base before they agree to license their songs. From some reading between the lines on some previously released information I would guess this is one of the things Led Zepplin is waiting for, as an example. Hopefully the 2.5 million downloads in the first few months of release will convince some of the hold outs that there is good money to be made here, but if it does, we won't know for a while.

The 3 month timeframe in itself is interesting, I was under the impression it was more like 6.

I seem to remember hearing 3 months, but maybe it's more like 3-6 months depending on all of the factors mentioned above.

One other note, you can get a little sense of how things can change even during the process by the fact that the March DLC release is scheduled but was quickly clarified as "tentative". Maybe the masters aren't in great shape, or doing the Rock Band mix from the masters proves difficult, or whatever, and they have to push back the date. Also, HMX has stated Who's Next will be given every effort to make sure it is a high quality release (for which I applaud them) despite "unexpected difficulties". My guess is some of the masters from the album were not as in good shape as Won't Get Fooled Again and it is taking them much longer to chart the music and produce the RB mix from the master tapes.

[batsu336]

Originally Posted by Centurion

This isn't quite correct. A four track master is unusable, as is probably an eight track master.

Why, you ask? The drums.

Ever wonder why GH3 had a master of Number of the Beast, but RB has a cover? Because the Master for NotB has one track for the drumline. RB needs each individual drum to be it's own track, so that when you're playing, if you're hitting, say, the snare, but missing the hi-hat, you hear the snare, but get a 'missed' sound for the hi-hat.

Actually, a lot of old four track recordings mix down the drums to just one track before they are recorded to the master, so they are usable and don't eat up all your tracks.
Early Metallica albums did this, up until And Justice for All. My band would do this in practice via 5 mics into a mixer and a mono output from that to a 4 track recorder. It allows you to set drum levels while only using one recording track.
Harmonix seemed to be able to use those songs fine. I assure you they were not using digital multi-track recorders in the 60's and 70's, they were all 4 or 8 track, hand edited, tape masters, and Rock Band has gotten those to work.
Having one track for drums just means being more careful with mapping each hit to the approppriate drum pad, and is more time consuming than just assigning a pad to a track for coding purposes. On some songs with complicated drums it might be easier just to record a new drum track on a multi track recorder rather than spending a week dissecting the original...which is probably what they did on Number of the Beast...or maybe the drum track had another instrument mixed in with it that they could not separate...dunno for sure.