Jeff Marshall Interview

GameTrailers sat down with Jeff Marshall for an interview about the Rock Band Network.

Jeff’s the Executive Producer for RBN, which is a fancy way of saying he’s in charge of the whole shebang. I got to meet him during the Master Class Harmonix held at their HQ, and he’s genuinely a nice guy, and uber-excited to get RBN off the ground.

Check out the video below.

RBN Network Presentation Part III

You’ve likely already seen part one, and part two of Caleb Epps’ Rock Band Network Presentation videos.

Part III is upon us now, and covers the Rock Band Network Creators website. Caleb covers the various aspects of the site, including the forums, documentation, and how to upload a song for review.

Check out the video below.

RBN Network Presentation Part II

Earlier, we found the first part of the presentation, done by Caleb Epps (Sound Designer for Harmonix), and now we bring you part two.

In part two, Caleb discuss Audition mode, the various features of audition mode, and the Rock Band Network store.

Be sure to check out the second part below.

Caleb Epps Demos Reaper

GameTrailers has a great video demo of Caleb Epps, one of the Sound Designer’s on the Rock Band Network. He was also one of the guys who we spent two full days with learning the ins and outs of Reaper, Magma, and the whole Rock Band Network at Harmonix HQ in Cambridge.

This first demonstration video is Caleb talking about (and showing) the Reaper tool. It’s got some great info in it that you may not have been aware of.

Check it out below.

Inside RBN Article

Damian Boyer may just be famous, someday.  Who is he? Glad you asked. Damian’s the first non-audio team member of Harmonix to use the RBN tools (Reaper and Magma) to author a track for his band.

When we went to the Harmonix training program, they used one of Damian’s tracks as an example to show us how things worked.  He’s written a great article detailing the process, and pointing out some things that may cause your track to fail during compiling.

The article’s hosted on Rock Band’s Zine, and can be found by clicking here.

How long does it take to author a track?

If you’re thinking of authoring your own track for RBN, you’re probably wondering how long it’s going to take you to do it.  The honest answer is that it varies pretty dramatically based on the track you’re authoring.

For example, if you’re authoring a fairly simply track that has repeating choruses and versus with a simple guitar solo; you’re looking at 15-20 hours total.
If you’re authoring a complex Steve Vai guitar diddy, or a King’s X prog-rock 10 minute song; you’re looking at closer to 40 hours.

As you author more tracks, you’ll learn more shortcuts in the process, and are able to get things done in a more timely fashion.  Expect your first track to take somewhere between 40 to 50 hours, not including auditioning, peer testing, or QA.

Some of the authors at Harmonix have said that they can get a song done in about 12 hours, including all the parts.

An in-depth look at the authoring process

As we get closer to the launch of the Rock Band Network store, it’s become more evident how this process is going to completely change the way bands distribute music to their existing and new fans.  Since we got involved I’ve been fielding a great number of questions about the process, and how we, as a company, are handling the authoring of tracks.  A great number of bands have shown a lot of interest, but still feel it’s too early to dive in.

On the other hand, a number of people that we’ve spoken with plan on authoring the tracks themselves, once the program opens its beta to anyone who wants to be involved.  We’ve tried to dissuade people from doing so, not because we want to do the work for you (and get paid for it), but because the process is much more complicated that some people are anticipating.

Joystiq has put together a pretty comprehensive article on the process, what’s involved, and has a fairly good write up on the process as a whole.  That article can be found here.