Rock Band - Impressions...

[jondiehl]

My pedal broke within the first week and I was not hitting it any different than my replacement one which has now lasted for months. I really think they just had some defective pedals out there.

Are you guys playing "heel up" or "heel down"? Heel up is the preferred method and also puts more pressure straight down on the ball of your foot,
which might make your pedal not break as easy. It's also a lot easier on your calf muscles than heel down.

Actually, I would think that heel down would be better because you wouldn't have as much weight to your foot. Heel down your just pushing forward with your foot, heel up and you're pretty much stomping down with your foot. Did I misinterpret that? I play heel down and mine is just fine.

My heel is down at all times. So is my toe (fully engaging the pedal for most the song). I just lift my toe and put it back down to hit the drum note, never lifting my foot off the ground. No fatigue at all.

[ScoopBrady]

That's exactly what I do. Pretty much as if I was playing the real thing, or at least with the limited experience I have playing the real thing.

[webdanzer]

Heel down is really difficult on high level hard and expert. In fact, the Harmonix drummers recommend heel up, which is how they claim most rock drummers play.

'For Easy and Medium, the natural inclination is to use Heel-down, as described above. This gives the player more of a feeling of control. But to get your speed up, you have to practice a lot to maintain that control without tiring, or hurting the muscle next to your shin.

For Hard and Expert, where kick gems begin to come in more rapid succession, we would recommend that the player experiment with the “Heel-up” technique, which is more commonly used by rock drummers (see images at right, source). This means that the ball of your foot stays on the pedal, while the heel is raised about an inch.

When a series of kick gems come down the lane, the motion becomes a controlled bouncing. The pedal will hold the weight of your leg while you flick the ball of your foot downward. You can also choose where the ball of your foot lies. If you rest your foot a few inches back on the pedal, you can reduce the travel distance of the pedal, which means you can achieve greater speed. But since the game pedal lacks the mechanics of a real kick pedal, pushing against the spring will be tougher.



Just by playing, I ended up doing what they said; I started heel down but naturally moved to heel up when I encountered the rough stuff. It was cool to read this after I had done that myself!

Anyway, I thought this had already been posted here, but if not, here is a link to the full 'Tips for Drummers' article. Some good stuff in there:

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/01/roc ... featu.html

[James_E]

I play heel up, as I do on my real kit. (I use my real bass drum pedal and practice pad with rockband)

Heel up allows you to use the rebound of the drumhead, and find the "sweet spot" of the pedal as it rebounds, to bounce it like you would a basketball.

(I actually try to do it the "Matt Ritter" way

http://www.unburyingthebeater.com/BassD ... tPage.html)

[JackB1]

OK OK I finally got it!!

Just tried out a few songs on guitar so far.... I like the size of the new guitar and the fretboard, but like others have said, like the strum bar better on the GH guitars. On GH I played on hard, but hard on this seemed a bit too easy. I went up to expert and found it to be pretty challenging for the 1st set of songs. I know i am in the minority here, but so far I like GH better just for playing solo with the guitar. I find the way the notes are laid out in GH more "interesting". In RB they are more linear and less chords, it seems like.

Question....is there no "Star Power" type of thing in RB? Is there anything to worry about while playing through a song except hitting as many notes as you can? Also, when you have those little solo parts where you are supposed to use the little keys, what exactly are you supposed to do? It seems silly to just tap all the buttons at random as fast as you can?

Anyway, can't wait to try out the drums. Will be unpacking and trying out the drums next.

[Spooky]

Heel down on slow, easier songs (just more relaxing) and then definitely heel up on more challenging songs as it is almost impossible to play fast kick drum parts heel down.

Here's my question though...

Do you guys play/drum with shoes on or just socks?

[ScoopBrady]

Question....is there no "Star Power" type of thing in RB? Is there anything to worry about while playing through a song except hitting as many notes as you can? Also, when you have those little solo parts where you are supposed to use the little keys, what exactly are you supposed to do? It seems silly to just tap all the buttons at random as fast as you can?

Welcome to the club Jack, we've been expecting you.

Star Power in Rock Band is called Overdrive. You earn it by playing the sections of songs that are white notes. It's activated the same way on guitar. I highly recommend going through the tutorials for drums and vocals so you understand how everything works.

[James_E]

Jack.. I'm up for playing online tonight. Are you available? What time?

[JackB1]

I highly recommend going through the tutorials for drums and vocals so you understand how everything works.

Will do.

[JackB1]

Jack.. I'm up for playing online tonight. Are you available? What time?

I can play at 11 ET. But I cannot do the drums yet. It's too loud late at night until I do some type of mod. But I can do guitar or bass or maybe vocals.

Just tried the drums for the 1st time and wow are they a blast! I did about 4 songs on medium and did OK (3 stars). It definitely takes a while to learn to use your foot and hands independently.

[James_E]

I'll drum with you tonight at 11pm ET then.

See you then.

Anyone else want to join in?

[Naples39]

It seems the DLC for Rock Band for the rest of the month was accidentally leaked.

Definitely will pass on the Oasis pack, and while I don't know the songs from the prog pack specifically, sounds temping.

http://kotaku.com/345790/rock-band-gets ... this-month

[JackB1]

I'll drum with you tonight at 11pm ET then.

See you then.

Anyone else want to join in?

James, that was a lot of fun. Great choices on the songs you picked out.
I am still getting used to that new guitar and I never played most of those before. That was why I was stumbling around a little from time to time. You did great on the drums! Hopefully next time we can recruit more guys.

Couple of questions on multiplayer for anyone....

1) is there any way to chat while playing or deciding on what songs to pick? I tried also hooking up my headset and normal controller, but it was identifying it as a whole different gamertag? Why didn't they include a way to plug your headset into the guitar controller?

2) did they fix the problem where you can't hear the person singing?

3) how do you help out another band member who is struggling? Isn't there a way you can "save" him?

[Gurantsu]

There should have been connectors in your box that let you connect the headset to the guitar.

[JackB1]

There should have been connectors in your box that let you connect the headset to the guitar.

Seriously? What do they look like? Where/How does it connect?

[webdanzer]

There should have been connectors in your box that let you connect the headset to the guitar.

Seriously? What do they look like? Where/How does it connect?

IIRC, they came in their own little bag w/instructions.

See the bottom of this page:

http://www.mahalo.com/How_to_Set_Up_Rock_Band

[JackB1]

My new guitar's strum bar is SWEET. Its the the magnetic one ( i opened it up and looked) and works VERY WELL.(

How can I tell which one I got?

[jondiehl]

Couple of questions on multiplayer for anyone....

1) is there any way to chat while playing or deciding on what songs to pick? I tried also hooking up my headset and normal controller, but it was identifying it as a whole different gamertag? Why didn't they include a way to plug your headset into the guitar controller?

2) did they fix the problem where you can't hear the person singing?

3) how do you help out another band member who is struggling? Isn't there a way you can "save" him?

1) Use the headset adapter and you can plug it into the drum kit. Not sure on the guitar, I haven't looked for the input on that one, gotta think it's there though.

2) It's not a problem, it's designed that way (watch the tutorial). Short answer: they removed it because if you could hear the person singing on the other end, it would be delayed with the song you're then trying to play and would probably screw you up.

3) Engage the overdrive (star power), that usually gets them back after they get kicked out.

[Diablo25]

Some guy came up with software that lets you use your Rock Band drums as "real" drums. I have linked the story and a video below.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/17/rock ... improve-y/

[JackB1]

thanks jon and web......I found the headset adapter. boy that hole on the guitar is so small, it took me 10 minutes to find!

anyways, I went to the crafts store and did the felt/foam mod....cost me $7 and it makes a huge difference! I can now play late at night and you can actually hear the music, not the clickity clack of the sticks

Question.......with the drums, do you have a choice WHEN to activate overdrive, like with the guitar or does it automatically kick in when you hit the last yellow note after a freestyle fill part?

[ScoopBrady]

Overdrive for drums is activated when you hit the last green note at the end of a drum fill. You do not have to hit that last green note if you want to save your overdrive. You don't lose any points if you don't hit that last green note.

[Spooky]

My god Jack!!! Do you ever just learn from experience or do you run to your computer every time the first thought of a question comes into mind?

[JackB1]

My god Jack!!! Do you ever just learn from experience or do you run to your computer every time the first thought of a question comes into mind?

Sorry - I don't have the manual (using Gamefly's copy) and it was a little vague in the tutorial.

[webdanzer]

Article on Rock Band's DLC:

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/846/846387p1.html

2.5 million song downloads in 2 months, well ahead of where they expected to be. Some bands really into the process, like Metallica. Over 200 songs to be released on 08, full albums still coming....

Well, as someone who has already spent more $$$ on Rock Band DLC than he has on everything else combined since the release of the 360, this comes as no surprise to me! I'm going to need a bigger hard drive!

[JackB1]

Overdrive for drums is activated when you hit the last green note at the end of a drum fill. You do not have to hit that last green note if you want to save your overdrive. You don't lose any points if you don't hit that last green note.

thanks