Shift Breaker
Member
Oops, I accidentally voted for Stick it Out instead. Let me try again.
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Rock Band 4 |OT| We're Putting The Rock Band Back Together
- Thread starter TheFurizzlyBear
- Start date
YOU HAD ONE JOB
Shift Breaker
Member
OOPS ACCIDENTALLY TYPED IN HEADLONG FLIGHT
I'M JUST GONNA START TYPING LIMP BIZKIT AND WALK TOWARDS MY KEYBOARD SPINNING MY ARMS AND IF IT ENDS UP IN THE SUBMIT BOX OH WELL
PROh1bited
Banned
Freewill is so damn good.
Shift Breaker
Member
Sometimes I have a feeling that they're literally just sorting down the request list and licensing anything they can off the top and sending that out
This is definitely the poppiest Rock Band has been since Blitz released.
lol exactly what i was thinking of
This is definitely the poppiest Rock Band has been since Blitz released.
lol exactly what i was thinking of
Gunstarheroes
Member
Watching the stream right now, and Starships is 100% not masters.
Edit: I'm Yours im about 99% sure is masters all the way across. So there ya go.
Edit: I'm Yours im about 99% sure is masters all the way across. So there ya go.
WB or this guy really hates Rock Band.
Harmonix just doesn't care anymore.
Gunstarheroes
Member
Juke Joint Jezebel
Member
Wasn't going to buy any songs this week but I gave the Jason Mraz song a listen and I kind of enjoyed it, never heard it before. Heard it was pretty popular as well so it'll be good for parties too I guess. Not letting Nicki Minaj anywhere near my hard drive though. Get that filth away from me! Here's my first playthrough scores, track seperation confirmation and impressions of "I'm Yours":
"I'm Yours" - Jason Mraz
Expert Guitar: 125,312 | 100% Full Combo (555 Note Streak) | Gold Stars | Tier 1 (Apprentice)
Expert Bass: 53,829 | 100% Full Combo (233 Note Streak) | Gold Stars | Tier 1 (Apprentice)
Are the tracks seperated?
Confirmed! Gunstarheroe's speculation was correct! Tough to actually make out at first as the song has a acoustic backing track behind the lead acoustic, but yep, the stems are actually seperated for this song. By the time you reach the chorus and the guitar track changes to keyboard it all starts to become clear! Bass doesn't play at all when missing notes as well. No other tracks change in volume! This is a safe purchase.
Impressions
You know what, for a tier 1 Guitar song this is actually pretty decent. It's a jaunty little chart with a few laid back chord hammer-ons and some bouncy alternating doubles strums between singular notes and 2 note chords. So yeah, as far as beginner tiered guitar charts go, this is up there with some of the better ones in recent months! Bass is where the song sadly suffers, when you actually get to play the track it's not bad, some bouncy double strumming and a few hammer-ons, but there's a good 60 seconds total of downtime in the song on bass so overall it falls flat. Shame really, but hey, as far as modern pop tracks go, this is solid!
"I'm Yours" - Jason Mraz
Expert Guitar: 125,312 | 100% Full Combo (555 Note Streak) | Gold Stars | Tier 1 (Apprentice)
Expert Bass: 53,829 | 100% Full Combo (233 Note Streak) | Gold Stars | Tier 1 (Apprentice)
Are the tracks seperated?
Confirmed! Gunstarheroe's speculation was correct! Tough to actually make out at first as the song has a acoustic backing track behind the lead acoustic, but yep, the stems are actually seperated for this song. By the time you reach the chorus and the guitar track changes to keyboard it all starts to become clear! Bass doesn't play at all when missing notes as well. No other tracks change in volume! This is a safe purchase.
Impressions
You know what, for a tier 1 Guitar song this is actually pretty decent. It's a jaunty little chart with a few laid back chord hammer-ons and some bouncy alternating doubles strums between singular notes and 2 note chords. So yeah, as far as beginner tiered guitar charts go, this is up there with some of the better ones in recent months! Bass is where the song sadly suffers, when you actually get to play the track it's not bad, some bouncy double strumming and a few hammer-ons, but there's a good 60 seconds total of downtime in the song on bass so overall it falls flat. Shame really, but hey, as far as modern pop tracks go, this is solid!
Juke Joint Jezebel
Member
BREAKING NEWS: In one of the worst cases of "DIY stems" to date, you can actually whammy bar Nicki Minaj's vocals on "Starships" when playing the "guitar" chart and even potentially break the vocals slightly as well, as shown here: https://youtu.be/FiVoXVkDK0c?t=3m2s
Yeesh!
Yeesh!
PROh1bited
Banned
Juke Joint Jezebel
Member
Gross.
Oh I meant the song it's self.
Yup, it's a horrible song. If I wanted to listen to crap dance music I'd just go to one of the many shitty clubs in town at a weekend!
One of the quintessential 'white guy with acoustic guitar' songs and Harmonix charts the piano? Huh?
Crimsonclaw111
Member
Holy shit this is awful Lmao
Eanan
Member
Jesus thats horrific.
Gunstarheroes
Member
My slow-swaying back to customs is rising.
I don't understand why we've been getting DIY stems for these more recently recorded songs. Like Get Lucky 100% has stems because you can find them on the internet right now. I'm sure Starships does too. Are labels just asking for way more since these are current hits still on the radio?
Who knows, really?
My theory is being totally indie now, budget is an issue, and they have less leverage with labels to acquire stems as well.
In any case, the end result is we're getting way more lower quality product than we ever have before.
Juke Joint Jezebel
Member
Kind of glad they did to be honest. The main acoustic hook throughout the entire song would've been way too repetitive.
This is amazing
Juke Joint Jezebel
Member
It could've just been a case that the label didn't give HMX the masters. A large handful of songs this year that haven't had stems are from different Sony record labels. Tonic are now signed to a Sony label (429 Records). When Band Hero was fresh off of the presses, the band was signed up with Universal, who may have been way more willing to give Activision the stems of the song back then.
If it's the labels, they're seriously being dumb. YOUR CONTENT WILL SOUND ACTIVELY WORSE THAN OTHERS IF YOU DONT LET HMX USE THE MASTERS. ugh.
It's especially dumb for the multiple songs that have their masters on the internet already. Like, the damage is done, it's too late.
It's especially dumb for the multiple songs that have their masters on the internet already. Like, the damage is done, it's too late.
Juke Joint Jezebel
Member
I doubt certain record labels like Sony give a shit to be honest. Less paperwork on their side to just give HMX the permissions to use the songs but provide none of the stems I guess. The only people who'll really care are the avid fans and hardcore players like myself and the folks in this thread, as well as the scattered rhythm game communities out there on the internet. I doubt we even make up the majority of these sales when big 90's hits like the songs we've had lately come out. Your average casual player playing on lower difficulties won't be too phased. They'll sell regardless.
That's not how it works though, is it? I'm pretty sure that song licenses don't migrate between labels. There are a bunch of examples of old labels releasing a Greatest Hits compilation of a band while that band is tied to another label. So Universal would still have the rights to If You Could Only See and Harmonix would have to contact them, not Sony, about licensing the song.
hodayathink
Member
But, correct me if I'm wrong, the label aren't the only people that have to give the okay. Isn't it possible that while that label is okay with masters, someone else involved with the rights process could not be (i.e. their new manager/label has convinced the artist that giving out masters is a bad idea)?
That depends on the song. I remember that Mike Patton and Jack White for instance didn't even know that songs of theirs were in Rock Band, implying that Harmonix only went to the label for those. On the other hand, you have other artists who actively promoted the release of their songs in Rock Band.
It's something like all involved in a song:
- label
- old label, depending on how many rights were acquired by the new label when the band moved. for instance, new label might have publishing rights, the old one has distribution (yes, those are separate)
- band members (usually their agents)
- song writer(s), if different from the band members
- if any member deceased, then Harmonix had to go find and track down their estate and anyone with a say in it. I think something they mentioned in that non-public Rock Band panel was that one of the songs they did, they had to track down someone that owned like 1% of one of the songs they released, or else the song couldn't come out.
- depending on the case, current licensees of the song may have a say (when HMX and Acti both had exclusive musicians all the time is an example of this)
probably a couple more things.
and the fun ones where they had the rights to the song but not to certain instruments in a song so the song got re-recorded or edited. RBN had a song where one of the vocalists was just edited out, Styx re-record was due to band issues, Last Resort had to have a new drummer re-record. Movin' Out by Billy Joel has the car driving away FX removed, probably because whoever owned the sample wouldn't clear it. Black Magic Woman is missing Gypsy Queen at the end because the label considers them two separate songs for licensing and wouldn't license Gypsy Queen, so it abruptly ends.
- label
- old label, depending on how many rights were acquired by the new label when the band moved. for instance, new label might have publishing rights, the old one has distribution (yes, those are separate)
- band members (usually their agents)
- song writer(s), if different from the band members
- if any member deceased, then Harmonix had to go find and track down their estate and anyone with a say in it. I think something they mentioned in that non-public Rock Band panel was that one of the songs they did, they had to track down someone that owned like 1% of one of the songs they released, or else the song couldn't come out.
- depending on the case, current licensees of the song may have a say (when HMX and Acti both had exclusive musicians all the time is an example of this)
probably a couple more things.
and the fun ones where they had the rights to the song but not to certain instruments in a song so the song got re-recorded or edited. RBN had a song where one of the vocalists was just edited out, Styx re-record was due to band issues, Last Resort had to have a new drummer re-record. Movin' Out by Billy Joel has the car driving away FX removed, probably because whoever owned the sample wouldn't clear it. Black Magic Woman is missing Gypsy Queen at the end because the label considers them two separate songs for licensing and wouldn't license Gypsy Queen, so it abruptly ends.
Hopefully people start to realize something is amiss when all the DLC starts sounding like crap, and start putting more pressure on Harmonix, who should be, in turn, impressing upon the labels the need for stems in order for the song to actually work properly in their game. If neither happens and this game turns into GH Live, what made RB speical is gone, and it might as well end as far as I'm concerned, even though RB is one of my favorite games of all time.
Shift Breaker
Member
So, in a mix of making an investment and also maybe being an honorary member of Drunk GAF, I've purchased a PS3 Warriors of Rock guitar. And so far it looks and feels great. But I've noticed that I'm unable to use it as a controller, it won't navigate the PS4, however when playing Rock Band 4 it controls fine. This would be fine, except I'm unable to log in and save scores. I didn't have any problems like this with my GH5 guitar, so is there something I'm missing with this on the PS4? Firmware updates or whatever?
Any ideas?
Any ideas?
I honestly wonder that. I think it's possible the original staff there during the creation and early days of GH/Rock Band have a better appreciation of/respect for the game concept.
A good amount of the team is still there all the way from GH2. Most of the people that left recently were their community managers, which is common, and I still prefer the way Aaron ran the twitter (it was more personable and interactive, the new Twitter runners aren't as much)
That being said, I feel they know some people don't like this. I don't like it, at all. But I guess in business terms, we now have both Rocksmith and Guitar Hero selling DLC and doing well with zero stems. Harmonix basically had to decide "do we pass on songs that will sell and let the other two make all the money with defacto exclusives due to our stem requirement, or at least license those out to fund the stemmed songs from other artists?"
Myquestions off the top of my head would be
1) would they have relaxed the stem requirement for RBN in kind, or would that still require stems or homemade stems
and
2) I wonder if some of these songs are charted with the stems and then are made stemless for the final release for licensing reasons
3) A large chunk of the stemless songs appear to be releasing around when RB PC would have been in development. Was releasing stemless songs a compromise of releasing for PC for licensees where the files would have been cracked wide open, in addition to the above reasons?
Just picked this up for £50 from Argos but I'm sad that the exports have now expired. I was all set to buy a metric butt-tonne of songs when they did their half price sale but the price of the game put me off. Shame they couldn't have released it with a more reasonable price
I don't suppose they will be allowing the export for rb1 or 2 in the future?
I don't suppose they will be allowing the export for rb1 or 2 in the future?
Juke Joint Jezebel
Member
Wouldn't count on it with the amount of re-licensing they'd have to do.
HOW WILL I PLAY THE RB1 OST NOW?
Baron von Loathsome
Member
Shift Breaker
Member
Aw, that's not a song from Dreamboat Annie. Eh, whatever, bought.
Juke Joint Jezebel
Member
Called it! I mentioned a while back that Heart had tons of number one hits besides what we already have in RB and "Crazy On You" and "Magic Man"!
Cheat Code
Member
Not Crazy On You?
Well what's the point, really.
Seventeen being back is nice though.
Well what's the point, really.
Seventeen being back is nice though.