1. Overview

Rock Band is a new platform to experience music on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Create your band and seek worldwide rock stardom while learning to master guitar, bass, drums and vocals.

1. 1 – 4 players
2. Guitar, Bass, Drums, and Vocals.
3. Solo, multiplayer cooperative, and competitive music making.
4. Local and Online.
5. Lots of original master recordings.
6. New music regularly available for download.

The full list of songs is available at http://www.rockband.com.
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A master track is an original recording laid down by the artist(s) who performed and/or wrote the track.
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These are extra songs which are available to play on any instrument and in any game mode. We will be providing downloadable content regularly on the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live and on the Playstation 3 through the PlayStation Store.
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The Xbox 360 version is more or less the same as the PlayStation 3 version.
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The microphone works across consoles. Sadly, drums and guitars do not.
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Sadly, no.
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We are working as hard and as fast as we can to make individual instruments available. Stay tuned at RockBand.com as more information becomes available.
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For those of you having issues getting your Rock Band controllers to work, try unplugging all of the instruments from the hub and then reconnecting everything securely before restarting the game. This will ensure that your controllers are connected and getting a proper signal.
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If one or more of your peripherals are still not working, or you can’t find one of the peripherals in your box, you should visit the Rock Band Warranty site for assistance. The Warranty site is designed to guide you through proper controller setup and, if necessary, get replacement gear out to you as soon as possible.
Rock Band Warranty Site:
http://support.ea.com/rockband/
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2. Microphone

Each USB microphone you plug in requires a standard Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 controller to bind to – you'll need to have a basic controller AND a microphone plugged in to navigate menus and play.
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1. The awesome Rock Band mic, for one.
2. Most other USB mics should work. Let us know if you find one that doesn’t.
3. You can also sing or chat on the Xbox 360 headsets.
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Normally when a TV has a slow display, we compensate by starting to play the expected notes before the player does. See the section on calibration for more details. However, we can't predict freeform vocals, so these can exhibit lag and / or echoing on specific TVs. This primarily shows up on DLPs and Plasma TVs, and certain Dolby Digital™ 5.1 setups.
1. If your TV has a "Game Mode" or "Low Latency Mode," make sure you have that enabled.
2. If your audio receiver has adjustable latency, turn that latency off.
3. If you go through digital, turn off Dolby Digital™ 5.1 from in-game.
4. If the lag is still bad, try going through analog cables into an external speaker.
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Simply spoken, LAG. It takes a second to transmit voice over the network, and that's far enough behind to make it sound awful if you're singing. Because of this, we don’t transmit the voice.
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Hold down one of the big shoulder triggers as the singer to talk. You only have to do this to chat to your band when you’re onstage: outside of a song you can talk normally.
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What you want to do is octave wrap. Without delving too much into music theory, you get the same note by singing at twice or half the frequency. If you shoot quite a bit higher or lower than the note you need to sing, you’ll see the arrow wrap around to the other side of the staff. Then tweak your voice a bit up or down in the other octave by watching the arrow. It’s tough at first, but you’ll get a feel for it.
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Never swing your microphone around by the cord! Do that too often and the cord will come loose inside of the microphone, which leads to a crackling sound or no sound at all. We’re not trying to be spoilsports or anything, but be nice to the cord, OK?
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3. Guitar

Nothing, really. Like the whammy bar, it's mostly about personal expression
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1. You may be holding the guitar too vertically. Try holding the guitar more horizontal.
2. You may be holding the guitar with the face a bit upwards. The tilt sensor won’t work if the guitar is too flat.
3. You may need to contact EA’s customer support. In the meantime, the Back / Select buttons also trigger Overdrive.
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God no. Please stop that. You get extra energy for whammying energy phrase sustain notes. Whammying anything else is just for artistic expression / annoying your bandmates.
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4. Drums

1. Good foot pedal technique is all about moving your foot as little as possible. Try not to keep your foot floating in the air. This is guaranteed to tire you out quickly. Instead, leave your foot resting on the pedal at all times. Once you’re comfortable with that, practice keeping your foot fully down after every hit; Don’t raise it back up until just prior to the next hit. If you can do that, you’ll find using the pedal much less tiring.
2. Similarly, make sure your stool / chair isn’t too low. You don’t want your knee to be higher than your hip in a resting position.
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1. Try getting a little closer to the pedal. It moves less if you press down like tapping your foot, rather than pressing forward like flooring a gas pedal.
2. Stick something heavy behind the drum set.
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Coffee Table Mode. Put the drum pads directly into the drum feet (without the legs). Then put that on top of your coffee table. The kick pedal goes on the floor beneath the coffee table. You might want to brace the pedal against something heavy.
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We'd love to do this too, but no.
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5. Bands

You can form a band with as few as 2 people.
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Nope. Only the designated band leader and one other player (who can be a substitute) need to be present to play as that band.
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No. The founding member of the band is the leader, and cannot be changed.
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The leader needs to be signed into the same profile, on the same instrument, that started the band. They will have to select the same character, too.
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1. No.
2. Ok, you sort-of can if you pretend that you are two different people.
Setup one character with a guitar or drums, the other with a controller and microphone. Then just play as if you were two people. One last thing; ignore the percussion notes as the singer. They’re just a bonus... you don't get penalized for missing them.
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Scroll through your closet or the instrument store looking for an “Add Art” button to pop up on the help bar. The exact button varies by instrument. Not everything has space for more artwork, though, and you can only add art to things that you’ve already purchased.

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6. Calibration

1. Some TVs, especially high-end TVs, have trouble keeping the audio and video in sync with each other. In other words, the audio and video aren’t playing at the exact same time. You probably wouldn’t even notice this when watching a movie or TV, but if you’re trying to play a rhythm-based video game, it will be VERY noticeable and problematic. If it seems as though you’re hitting all the notes correctly but the game says that you’re not, you may need to try calibrating. Calibration can re-synchronize the video and audio.

2. Before you start calibrating, check to make sure that your console is running at the highest resolution your TV supports. If there are component or HDMI inputs, use those to connect your game system. This is important. Using composite cables with a high definition TV will result in worse lag, as the TV buffers up some of the video to perform filtering on it. Then check the console’s available resolutions, and set them as high as your screen can handle.

3. Next, check your TV for something called a “Game Mode” setting. If available, this sets your TV to the lowest possible lag. You may have to dig around in your manual to find it. Not all TVs have this option.

4. Now you’re ready to calibrate. Go into Rock Band, and go to Main Menu -> Options -> Calibrate System

5. If you know what type of TV you have, select it here. Now go back and try your new settings in the game – This should work most of the time, but different brands do have different lags. If the timing still seems off, try going back into Calibrate System and select “Manually Set.”

6. Adjust Audio / Video sync. This will determine how far apart the sound effects and the visual display are on your system. Move the slider to the left and right until the little icon is passing through the target at the exact same time that you hear the accompanying sound effect. This can be tricky, so sometimes it helps to move the slider way out to the right, then figure out where on screen you hear the click. Move the slider back to that point.

7. Lag Compensation. This figures out how long it takes between when you send input to the system and when the system receives it. You should try the auto compensation first, before attempting this manually. Strum, drum, or hit a button as the icon crosses the target in the middle of the screen. If that still feels off, you can adjust that number up or down a little bit with the manual option.

8. Overscan. If you've got black borders around your TV (where it doesn’t seem like the game image is taking up as much of the screen as it should) check this option to enlarge the game image. Checking or unchecking the overscan box won’t affect your sync at all, it’s just an aesthetic thing.

9. Okay, you’re done! If it STILL feels off, just go back and try playing around with the variables manually until you find something that “feels” right. In extreme cases, try going through an external audio source, or turning off Dolby Digital™ 5.1. We have yet to find a TV setup this won't work for.
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