Old Rock Band Thread - OP has FAQ stuff

Arikado

Links Galore
RockBand.com - Never hurts to see what promotions and DLC is up.
Rock Band WikiPedia - Well kept by the WikiNerds.
The Beatles Rock Band - It's treated as a standalone game so it has its own webpage.
ScoreHero - Notorious site with informative forums (YMMV).
Rock Band DLC - Unless you like to get stuck into the RB forums for Mr. s1ckh4ndsb4ss' videos, this site tends to have a compilation of all the DLC videos hours after they hit LIVE.
Rock Band Scores - Neat webtool that pulls your scores from the Rock Band site. It isn't perfect but it's usually better than the leaderboards.


ROCK BAND RELEASE DATES

Rock Band 1
North America: Available now for PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, and the Wii
Europe: Available now in most countries for PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, and the Wii
Australia: Available now for PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, and the Wii depending on the store/location

Rock Band 2
North America: Available now for PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, and the Wii
Europe: Available now for the Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and the Wii
Australia: No info yet

AC/DC Live
North America: Available now for PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, and the Wii
United Kingdom: Available now for PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, and the Wii
Australia: Available now for PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, and the Wii

Rock Band Unplugged
North America: Available now for the PSP
Europe: Available now for the PSP

Lego Rock Band
North America: November 8th, 2009 for PS3, Xbox 360, the Wii, and the DS

The Beatles: Rock Band
International: Available for PS3, Xbox 360, and the Wii on September 9th, 2009, both standalone software and bundle. Individual instruments have not been dated.

DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT
Rock Band DLC list via WikiPedia
Rock Band Unplugged DLC list via WikiPedia


FREE MUSIC

There are currently four tracks that are absolutely free to download for the 360, PS3 and the Wii. You should be able to find them and download them from the Music Store for $0. These tracks are:

• "Still Alive" by GLAdOS
• "Promised Land" by Vesuvius
• "Charlene (I'm Right Behind You)" by Stephen and the Colberts
• "Headphones On" by Miranda Cosgrove

Along with those songs are the free 20 tracks people can download for buying Rock Band 2. These will be available exclusively to people who own Rock Band 2 on the Xbox 360, PS3 and the Wii. Please remember to register your code (found on the back of the instruction manual) on http://register.rockband.com/ to be able to download these songs. All these songs are masters.

• "Sons and Daughters" by The 88
• "No Regrets" by Authority Zero
• "Prequel To The Sequel" by Between the Buried and Me
• "Bounce" by The Cab
• "Get It On" by The Chevelles
• "Give It To Me" by The Cocktail Slippers
• "Database Corrupted" by Dealership
• "I Wanna Be Your Man" by Endeverafter
• "Ashes To Fire" by The Ghost Hounds
• "Young" by Hollywood Undead
• "The Feeling" by Kutless
• "If I Ain't Got You" by The Len Price 3
• "I'm Gone, I'm Going" by Lesley Roy
• "Burn You Down" by Opiate for the Masses
• "Magnetic Baby" by Semi-Precious Weapons
• "Like a Fool" by Shaimus
• "Crazy Tuesday" by Thenewno2
• "The Time Is Wrong" by Tickle Me Pink
• "Desperate Times, Desperate Measures" by Underoath
• "I.V." by X Japan

EXPORTING IS ALMOST FREE

To export songs from Rock Band 1 for use in Rock Band 2, you will require either a PS3 or an Xbox 360. Start up Rock Band 1, make sure you're connected to the PSN or LIVE so it can get the update. After it updates, go into Options and there should be an Export Songs option. Pay the $4 or so to get 55 Rock Band 1 songs ripped to your hard drive. The three songs that won't make the jump are:

• "Enter Sandman" by Metallica
• "Paranoid" as made famous by Black Sabbath
• "Run to the Hills" as made famous by Iron Maiden

PS2 DLC?

The PS2 versions of Rock Band do not allow for DLC. However, HMX was kind enough to put out track packs. There are currently two volumes out. To see what songs are on those track packs, go here or scroll down a bit more.

ROCKIN' WITH YOUR WII

With Rock Band 2, you will have a mostly fully featured game with the only limitation being customized band logos and a few other things. Online stuff, World Tour, BOTB, everything important is there in Rock Band 2. Unlike Rock Band, the Wii version of Rock Band 2 supports downloadable content, and all existing downloadable content will be made available to Wii users over time. While songs can be stored to both the Wii's internal memory and to an SD card, only those songs in internal memory can be played.

PLASTIC INSTRUMENTS ALL UP INS
Here's Harmonix's compatibility chart. LINK

BROWSE BEFORE YOU BUY

Pretty much any on-disc song can be found on YouTube. If you want to see notecharts for DLC or simply want to hear the music, check out the Rock Band DLC Song Database page. They're usually pretty quick in getting videos up the day the dlc drops. You can also hound the Rock Band forums for the new DLC videos.

CHEATS

Unlock All Songs: R Y B R R B B R Y B "Unlock every song in the game!" [Disables saving, acheivements and LIVE multiplayer]
New Venues Only: R R R R Y Y Y Y "Only Show Rock Band 2 venues!" [Only let's you play in the new venues]
Stage Mode: B Y R B Y R B Y R "Apply tweaks that are useful for live, public Rock Band 2 performances!" [Enables No Fail, disables saving, acheivements and LIVE multiplayer]
Awesomeness Detection: Y B O Y B O Y B O "Let Harmonix know that you are really awesome!" [???]

HOW DO I UNLOCK ALL THE SONGS?
Spoiler below contains the fastest way to unlock all the songs.

Blackened15 from the ScoreHero forums wrote:

The fastest progression to unlock the songs in challenge is something like:

1. Play the first challenge for whatever instrument you choose in the first tier (Local Upstart - <instrument> Warmup - 3 songs), this will unlock a challenge for the same instrument in tier2. For Bass, you have to pick the Fender Warmup as your first challenge, afterward you'll be able to access the Bass specific challenge.

2. Play the same instrument challenge in the tier2 (Underground Favorite - <instrument> Apprentice 4 songs). That will unlock the 90' hits Challenge.

3. Play the 90's hits challenge (Opening Act - '90s Hits - 4 songs), that will unlock the Infinite 90's challenge (thus unlocking all the 90's songs in quickplay) and the 60's hits challenge.

4. Play the 60's hits challenge (Chart Topper - '60s Hits - 2 songs), which unlock the 60's infinite challenge (thus unlocking all the 60's songs in quickplay) and the 00's hits challenge.

5. Play the 00's hits challenge (Headliner - '00s Hits - 4 songs), which unlock the 00's infinite challenge (thus unlocking all the 00's songs in quickplay) and the 70's hits challenge.

6.Play the 70's hits challenge (Legendary Act - '70s Hits - 4 songs), which unlock the 70's infinite challenge (thus unlocking all the 70's songs in quickplay) and the 80's hits challenge.

7. Play the 80's hits challenge (The Impossible Challenges - '80s Hits - 4 songs), which unlock the 80's infinite challenge (thus unlocking all the 80's songs in quickplay).

Doing this will unlock every songs in the game, and all you had to play is 25 songs.

That's it, you don't have to play any of the infinite challenge.

BROKEN INSTRUMENTS

Harmonix/EA/MTV have been nice so far and allowed people to RMA their broken equipment via EA's Support Site. After that, you need your reciept to send stuff in. Their live support line is at 1(650)628-1001, 6am to 8pm PST and automated 24hrs a day. Be prepared to submit your receipt to verify purchase. EA is currently only honoring a 60 day warranty for Rock Band 2 gear. YOUR RMA EXPERIENCE MAY VARY.

SCORE TRACKING

Yes, we know Rock Band's leaderboards aren't that great. However, there are a few sites that can do this but even with ScoreHero's little site, you're just as good filling out a spreadsheet. There are some .exe score extractor programs out there that will read your scores off the Rock Band site and make a spreadsheet for you. However, the most useful for most of us here is this site that'll pull your scores for each instrument or for the band. However, it seems some of the math is screwy as it'll list people having 7+ stars on songs (which is impossible). Great tool, nonetheless.

OTHER ROCK BAND GAMES
Here are some Rock Band related games or upcoming games to look forward to.

The Beatles Rock Band

Release Date: 09/09/09
Consoles: Xbox 360, PS3, & the Wii

Go to thebeatlesrockband.com to check out the gameplay and intro trailers!

DUE TO GAME RESTRICTIONS, THERE WILL BE NO IMPORTING/EXPORTING WITH THIS GAME.

Let's get to the meat of things, the reasons why this game is different from Rock Band 2.

• Vocal Harmonies - Up to three people can sing on tracks that provide harmonies. There is no combo breaking by the back up singers but a "Triple Fab" will put up big points.
• Vocal Trainer - Harmonix have created a new, in-depth vocal trainer.
• Recreated Performances - From Ed Sullivan to Abbey Road studios to the rooftop performance, Harmonix have recreated key moments of the Beatles history.
• Dreamscapes - Various songs will have graphically enticing visuals, be it tripping out on "Within You Without You" or seeing the bright colors of "Strawberry Fields Forever".
• New Instruments - Modeled after Lennon's Rickenbacker, McCartney's Höfner bass, George's Gretsch Duo Jet, and Ringo's Ludwig Pearl drum set. Check out the website for pictures.
• DLC - Abbey Road has been lined up as the first downloadable album. All DLC from the Beatles will only be for this game.

Lego Rock Band

Release Date: Holiday 2009 for North America
Consoles: Xbox 360, PS3, & the Wii and the Nintendo DS

Players will become rockers as they embark on a journey to stardom that the whole family can enjoy as they work their way through local venues, stadiums and fantasy locations on Earth and beyond that mimic the imaginative settings that the LEGO world offers. Also continuing the LEGO “build-and-play” gaming experience, players will be able to create their own LEGO Rock Band style as they customize their minifigure avatars, band and entourage, including roadies, managers and crew. LEGO Rock Band supports Rock Band instruments, as well as other music game controllers. Soundtrack so far is as follows:

• "A-Punk" by Vampire Weekend
• "Accidentally In Love" by Counting Crows
• "Aliens Exist" by Blink 182
• "Breakout" by Foo Fighters
• "The Final Countdown" by Europe
• "Girls and Boys" by Good Charlotte
• "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas
• "In Too Deep" by Sum 41
• "I Want You Back" by Jackson 5
• "So What" by Pink
• "Song 2" by Blur
• "Tick Tick Boom" by The Hives
• "You Give Love a Bad Name" by Bon Jovi

Rock Band Unplugged

Release Date: June 9, 2009
Consoles: Sony PSP

Harmonix/MTV with developers Backbone Entertainment will be bringing a hybrid Rock Band/Amplitude game to the PSP. Using the left and up on the D-pad and triangle and circle on the buttons, you play one of the four intrument tracks of a song (vocals, drums, guitar or bass) and once you cleared a certain section, you then switch tracks. Vocals will be handled as if it were a normal note track with the buttons handling the gameplay rather than require a microphone. When all four instruments reach x4 multiplier, the player achieves Band Groove and pumps the multiplier up to x5. Overdrive in this game increases the multiplier to x11 because rocking out is always about taking it to eleven. There are 4 modes: Band Warmup (Practice mode), World Tour, Quickplay, and Band Survival where all 4 tracks are playing and you need to switch between them in order to get through the track. Unplugged will have its own music store with its own DLC (with 10 tracks available upon release) but there will be no interaction between the PSP and PS3 versions. Here are the 40 master tracks with songs debuting in the game to be made available for DLC for other console versions:

• "3's & 7's" by Queens of the Stone Age
• "ABC" by the Jackson 5
• "Alive" by Pearl Jam
• "Aqualung" by Jethro Tull
• "Buddy Holly" by Weezer
• "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas
• "Chop Suey!" by System of a Down
• "Drain You" by Nirvana
• "Everlong" by Foo Fighters
• "Float On" by Modest Mouse
• "Gasoline" by Audioslave
• "I Was Wrong" by Social Distortion
• "The Killing Jar" by Siouxsie and the Banshees
• "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down
• "Less Talk More Rokk" by Freezepop
• "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi
• "Lump" by Presidents of the United States of America
• "Message in a Bottle" by the Police
• "Miss Murder" by AFI
• "More than a Feeling" by Boston
• "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers
• "My Own Worst Enemy" by Lit
• "Our Truth" by Lacuna Coil
• "Painkiller" by Judas Priest
• "The Perfect Drug" by Nine Inch Nails
• "Pinball Wizard" by The Who
• "Rock Your Socks" by Tenacious D
• "Show Me the Way" by Black Tide
• "The Trees" (Vault Edition) by Rush
• "Today" by Smashing Pumpkins
• "What's My Age Again?" by Blink-182
• "Where'd You Go?" by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones
• "White Wedding, Part 1" by Billy Idol
• "Would" by Alice in Chains

ROCK BAND UNPLUGGED DLC LIST


AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack

Release Date: Out now in most regions
Consoles: Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, & the Wii

In accordance with AC/DC's partnership with Wal*Mart regarding their latest album exclusive, this one off game will only be available at Wal*Mart or Sam's Club stores. All versions minus the PS2 one will allow for one-time exporting onto the hard drive/SD-card via a code that comes in the package for use in Rock Band. This game is basically a DLC disc with the entire Live at Donington set. The game includes the tracks but none of the major options otherwise available in Rock Band although it does contain its own achievements. The price range nowadays should be below $20 although you could find it used for much less. All tracks are live masters:

• Back in Black
• Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
• Fire Your Guns
• For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)
• Heatseeker
• Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be
• Hells Bells
• High Voltage
• Highway to Hell
• Jailbreak
• Let There Be Rock
• Moneytalks
• Shoot to Thrill
• T.N.T.
• The Jack
• Thunderstruck
• Whole Lotta Rosie
• You Shook Me All Night Long

WHAT ABOUT THE TRACK PACKS?!
Check them out for yourself over at WikiPedia. There are quite a few volumes out nowadays.

Special thanks to midgetspy, Unbreakable Vow, Shady 3011, quovadis13, mxmarks, Joah, Lunker, Smug Duckling, DarkPrimus and many others for their contributions in going through these threads like starving vultures on a dead buffalo carcass.

Endaro

I assume we'll get through another thread or 3 before B:RB comes out. It's always so rough getting so hyped up by E3 and then realizing you still have 3 more months.

Any word on a Friday announcement?

Sanders

Beatles intro video is dead, /www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObEzVj5xMog is still up.
Otherwise nice op.

DarkPrimus

Shouldn't have an announcement for a couple hours still.

Glad to have gotten the Bonnaroo pack last week because I'm not that big of a Maiden fan.

fragglefart

MAIDEN YEAH!

Gonna play the shit outta the Acca Dacca tracks before Wembley at the end of the month.

Fawst

I'm assuming there will be no DLC announcement today, since we already know that Maiden is this coming week. Bummer. The only thing I have to look forward to for next week is mothafuckin' Prototype, beeyotch!!!

Yeah, I really need to play more RB. Haven't picked up a little plastic guitar in days.

BlindPsychic

I really don't know whether I want to get the whole pack or pick. There's just enough songs that I'd want to play that it'd be better to say fuck it and just get the whole pack

Santa Claustrophobia

The thing is, there should probably be an announcement because I don't remember seeing if the Maiden tracks would be released on the Wii. And there's been some screwy things going down at least from a couple of weeks ago which I'm not sure had been resolved.

Besides, have they confirmed the price for the Maiden pack at all?

Wordherder

I love hearing my fiancee sing Run to the Hills. The only way she can nail the vocal parts is if she makes her voice suddenly go up an octave and a half during the "run for your lives!" part.

the Togfather

I will be having some RB fun this weekend. I think I need to throw in a DLC shopping spree...

It's been a while...quite a bit I haven't bought yet.

Zaylenz

Wait? The live versions of the Maiden is from their Somewhere in Time tour and that documentary. Now I'm wishing Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner was one of the tracks. I was at the show at the Meadowlands that they're using the footage from for the Flight 666 Documentary. Of course playing a 15 minute song could get a bit tiring, especially if you're the drummer.

Arikado

I think all the HMX people are on vacation after all the E3 action.

TheBoginator

Could we get a link to that page that tracks your score in the OP?

Arikado

Sure, lemme dig it up.

It is http://www.keldon.net/rockband/scores.cgi

Jubal77

Nice Maiden! Man I might have to get rockband... i told myself only one of em so I got Guitar Hero cause it tends to have the songs I like but man...

Fear of the Dark (Live) is one of my favorite Maiden songs.

Smug Duckling

Yay rock band! Yay Maiden!

blue dot

Shady3011

Maiden pack next week makes me happy.

Dehumanized

Yay, I managed to beat Teenage Riot on expert drums.

Omeks

Smug Duckling wrote: »

Yay rock band! Yay Maiden!

blue dot

Yay Rock Dot!

blue band.

Asciipanda

ROCK!

Totally not a blue dot.

lionheart_m

Dehumanized wrote: »

Yay, I managed to beat Teenage Riot on expert drums.

Damn! Grats. I don't what's tougher. The speed on the chorus or the awesome fill. I'm still working on E-Pro :P.

Dehumanized

I was much more worried about those ridiculous awesome fills in the bridge because they come basically right after a chorus.

Bartholamue

Wow, Teenage Riot looks fun.

Arikado

Kool Thing is the real workout in terms of Sonic Youth drumming. Every now and then, everything will click and I'll actually hold a combo for a long time.

Asciipanda

For some reason after getting completely stonewalled by stuff like Everlong and Teenage Riot (rolls) on expert I tried out Everlong and beat it with 4 stars first try. And now I eat that shit up since Its so easy.

mspencer

hmxmoss wrote: »

mspencer wrote: »

I can't wait to finally try Unhandled Exception Power. It makes the crowd go crazy and massively unwinds your call stack!

See what happens when hmx tries to go beardless? The lack of beard is obviously costing them. :-P

Eh, it's okay. Every time you see that screen, you can think of me.

Apparently Unhandled Exception Power also works on forums! :-(

Plus I don't know how practical it's going to be during gameplay. I hear it takes forever to fill up your stack frame.

(OK I'll stop. This isn't even good programmer nerd humor.)

Mechanical

Hooray for the promotion thing right now. I've snagged 3 more tracks already, and knowing soda addicts without the game might not hurt...

Fine, I'm marking the topic.

Smug Duckling

Today has been weird. Got home from class with a bad fever, popped some aspirin, then decided to play Rock Band guitar.

I was just noodling around in practice mode feeling like shit between every run and knowing I was destroying my body's ability to defend itself by exerting myself, and telling myself to just take a goddamn nap.

Then I try Caprici di Diablo.

And I 5-star it. o_O

Arikado

Neat, I won a free RB track with Pepsi without even buying Pepsi.

metaghost

Arikado wrote: »

Neat, I won a free RB track with Pepsi without even buying Pepsi.

Tell me your secrets!

Arikado

I actually signed up for the promotion a while back and they gave me a token number to redeem today which showed me the video of some nerds saying I won a free track.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

MrDelish

So, has Harmonix ever explained why the vocals track can never be completely muted?

Arikado

Which song in particular? Cause in some songs (off the top of my head) the vocals die out altogether when the singer fails out.

MrDelish

Most songs do this from what I recall

But especially any of the Boston songs, namely Peace of Mind and More than a Feeling

Dehumanized

likely because the vocal track is heavily multitracked, and removing all the backing vocals would be hard to do

MrDelish

It's not the backing vocals but the primary singer's voice that stays. I guess I could try removing all vocals and see what that does

Esh

Does anyone want my "20 Free Songs" code from the copy of Rock Band 2 I bought yesterday? I have zero interest in those songs.

EDIT: It's for the 360 version.

Doctor Fink

Esh wrote: »

Does anyone want my "20 Free Songs" code from the copy of Rock Band 2 I bought yesterday? I have zero interest in those songs.

I'll bite if you have the PS3 version.

Esh

Doctor Fink wrote: »

Esh wrote: »

Does anyone want my "20 Free Songs" code from the copy of Rock Band 2 I bought yesterday? I have zero interest in those songs.

I'll bite if you have the PS3 version.

Ah, sorry, shoulda said it's for the 360 version.

Dehumanized

MrDelish wrote: »

It's not the backing vocals but the primary singer's voice that stays. I guess I could try removing all vocals and see what that does

just because it's following the main vocal line doesn't mean it's not on a different track