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Rock Band 4 |OT| We're Putting The Rock Band Back Together

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CloudWolf

Member
I'd love me some more Rush too, but honestly at this rate the only way we will see more Rush DLC is if they score a major Top 40 hit in the USA.
 
S

Shift Breaker

Member
FyreWulff said:
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
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4OhOC38.jpg
 
Juke Joint Jezebel

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!
 
C

CloudWolf

Member
Juke Joint Jezebel said:
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.
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One of the quintessential 'white guy with acoustic guitar' songs and Harmonix charts the piano? Huh?
 
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Gleethor

Member
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?
 
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vg260

Member
Gleethor said:
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?
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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.
 
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Gleethor

Member
Through independent study, I can confirm that the stems used for "If You Could Only See" in Band Hero are 100% real, clearly separated stems. Why Harmonix didn't use these is a mystery to me.
 
Juke Joint Jezebel

Juke Joint Jezebel

Member
Gleethor said:
Why Harmonix didn't use these is a mystery to me.
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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.
 
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Gleethor

Member
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.
 
Juke Joint Jezebel

Juke Joint Jezebel

Member
Gleethor said:
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.
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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.
 
C

CloudWolf

Member
Juke Joint Jezebel said:
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.
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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.
 
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hodayathink

Member
CloudWolf said:
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.
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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)?
 
C

CloudWolf

Member
hodayathink said:
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)?
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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.
 
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FyreWulff

Member
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.
 
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vg260

Member
Juke Joint Jezebel said:
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.
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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.
 
S

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?
 
O

Ozone

Member
I'm super glad I came in here before buying "Starships". Did all the people who care about quality leave during the great HMX exodus?
 
V

vg260

Member
Ozone said:
I'm super glad I came in here before buying "Starships". Did all the people who care about quality leave during the great HMX exodus?
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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.
 
C

CloudWolf

Member
2n2 said:
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.
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I fully imagine that some people at the audio department hate this, but are too happy that they got to keep their job to say anything about it.
 
F

FyreWulff

Member
Ozone said:
I'm super glad I came in here before buying "Starships". Did all the people who care about quality leave during the great HMX exodus?
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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?
 
R

Resseh

Member
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?
 
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