Shagrath

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FAQ
DLC Tiering, Videos, and Marketplace Links
DVDTalk Challenges (Currently in hiatus)

FAQ


Downloadable Content

What's this Pepsi thing I keep hearing about?

Pepsi and Rock Band are currently running a promotion together. Specially marked 20oz and 1L bottles of Pepsi products (Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Max, etc.) will have either a red or yellow cap with one of the Rock Band instrument logos on them. Under the cap is a code that can be used for a chance to win a downloadable Rock Band song of your choice from a select list. So far, pretty much every cap has been a winner.

For more info about the promotion and the place to enter your cap codes, go to www.pepsirockband.com.

pinata242 has made a spreadsheet with a list of all of the songs currently available (Green for songs just added, Red for cover tracks).
pinata's spreadsheet

When are new songs announced?

New downloadable songs are announced every Friday. The official announcement can usually be found first on the Rock Band Official Forums in the Announcements section.

However, someone will more than likely post the information in this thread seconds after it has been announced. If you're not on the boards right when the announcement hits, the easiest place to find it will more than likely be the "Official DLC Post", which is post #2 of this thread, and it will be located near the bottom of that post.

When are new songs released?

New songs are released weekly. The three systems that support DLC release them at different times during the week.

XBOX 360 - Tuesdays at 5:00AM Eastern
Playstation 3 - Thursdays at 5:00PM Eastern
Wii - Tuesdays at ??

How come a bunch of the links in the DLC Post are dead?

The main user that I looked to when linking to the charts for guitar was Npeaen. This YouTube user was shut down by a combination of UMG (Universal) and WMG (Warner) complaints for usage of their music in his videos. I will be working on re-linking everything to working videos in the near future.

How do I redeem the 20 free songs for Rock Band 2?

The first step is going to register.rockband.com and entering the redemption code found on the back of the instruction manual, along with the rest of the information. You will then be sent an email with a code for your specified system. Input that code wherever you normally redeem codes on your system, and the download should start automatically.

Instruments and Accessories

What instruments are compatible?

Harmonix strives to maintain compatibility across all instruments (whether intended for Rock Band or Guitar Hero or otherwise). However, there are a couple of incompatibilities. According to this matrix, there are the following incompatibilities:

Guitar Hero: World Tour drums do not work with Rock Band 1 on the Playstation 3

Guitar Hero: World Tour drums do not work with Rock Band 1 on the Wii
Guitar Hero: World Tour guitar does not work with Rock Band 1 on the Wii
Guitar Hero 3 guitar does not work with Rock Band 1 on the Wii

Lips microphones do not work with Rock Band 1 or Rock Band 2 on the XBOX 360
* Harmonix have stated that they are bringing compatibility for the Lips microphones to Rock Band 2 in an upcoming patch.

Going the other way around (using Rock Band instruments for Guitar Hero) is a little more inconsistent, and I would recommend checking the linked matrix before purchasing any instruments if you are interested in playing both games.

Which guitar is best for Rock Band?

This ultimately comes down to preference. Both guitars have their positives and negatives.

Guitar Hero guitars
* Clicky strumbar - Some people like the feel of this strumbar. It has a very distinct up and down position.
* Raised fret buttons
* The Guitar Hero: World Tour guitar also has a Select/Back button near where your palm would rest on your strumming hand. This can be used to activate overdrive instead of tilting the guitar

Rock Band guitars
* Silent strumbar - This strummer is a lot quieter than the Guitar Hero ones.
* Flush fret buttons - The fret buttons are flush with the neck of the guitar, making the guitar look and feel more like a real guitar instead of a game controller
* Solo buttons - There are a second set of frets located near the base of the neck that can be used during the "Solo" sections on guitar charts.
* The Rock Band 2 Stratocaster comes with a calibration tool (consisting of a microphone and a light-sensing camera that can be used to get a near-perfect calibration on any display device

Which drums are best for Rock Band?

It is generally agreed that the Rock Band drums work best for Rock Band and that while the Guitar Hero: World Tour ones are compatible, it is slightly unnatural playing them in RocK Band due to the configuration they pads/cymbals are in.

If you want to get heavy into the drum experience, the most realistic option is the ION Drum Rocker. This is a professional-grade kit four high-quality heads and two cymbals (with an option for a third).

If you don't want to spend that much on a kit, but still want a more realistic experience, there are cymbal upgrade kits (1, 2, or 3) for the official Rock Band 2 drum kit.

What other accessories are available?

Already mentioned are the optional cymbals for the officialRock Band 2 drums. There are also some other options to liven up your rocking experience The cymbals are universal, however [b]these additional accessories are currently only available for the XBOX 360.

* Stage Kit - Have lights and (optional) fog in your living room! The cool thing about this is that every song has its own unique sequences programmed in. So it's not just a generic set of lights going off, but specific to the song.
* Fender P-Bass Replica - A *wired* bass guitar. The build is very similar to the official Rock Band Stratocaster, with the silent strumbar and the flush fret buttons. The feature that sets this apart from other guitars is that it has a split strumbar for two fingered upstrumming like a true bass player.
*a wireless version will be available soon in the standard black/white, as well as red/white, and seafoam green/white version
* M.I.C. - A premium wired microphone with a built-in XBOX 360 controller, so that the vocalist doesn't have to have an additional device tethered to them for picking songs and difficulties.

Gameplay

What are gold stars, and how do I get them?

Gold stars (GS) are attainable only on Expert difficulty. The general guideline for the GS cutoff is 1.52x the 5-star cut-off on Expert.

If I play Endless Setlist on Expert, and my friend is playing on Medium, will I still get Platinum Artist?

The short answer is no. You are only awarded Platinum Artist if everyone in your band is playing on the Expert level. If someone is playing on Medium, then you will only be awarded Vinyl Artist.

How come they don't log how many stars I got in quickplay?

Your guess is as good as mine as to why this was taken out in the transition to Rock Band 2. It will be added back in with the next patch, but it is doubtful that the stars will be assigned retroactively. This means you'll probably have to play through everything again to get the stars to show up.

What's the fastest way to unlock all of the on-disc songs in Rock Band 2?

The fastest way to unlock songs is through the "Tour Challenges". Start with any of the instrument-specific challenges in the Warmup section. By doing one of those, it should unlock one of the "Decades" challenges. Doing each of the "Decades" Challenges will unlock the one for the next decade. Continue doing these until you have unlocked the last one (don't even have to play it). This will unlock every song on the disc, and you will have only played 21 songs, with very little duplication.


Challenges

What is this Challenges thing all about?

A couple of months ago, I came up with the idea of setting up some "Battle of the Bands" style challenges for the users. A different challenge was sent out each week with different songs and criteria to be met. These were not meant to be a competition, but a way for the regulars (and lurkers) to play the game in a way that they may not have tried, and for us to play together during the week, although not in the truest sense of the word.

Why are they on hiatus?

I'm trying to come up with a way to make the challenges better. Several users have given me feedback and said that longer than a week would give more time. I've also toyed around with the idea of prizes. They will come back at some point, and this thread, obviously, will be the first place to find out about it.

Shagrath

Official DLC Post

New format!

The Guitar and Drum links take you to the youtube vids, as per usual.
Clicking the song title will take you straight to the XBOX Marketplace for easy purchasing!

This Week's DLC
<iframe src="http://www.game-programmer.net/RockBand/CurrentWeekSongs.html" scrolling="yes" frameborder="1" height="500" width="100%"></iframe>

Currently Available DLC

Albums (All Released Albums by Artist/Title)

Packs (All Released Packs by Name)

Archive (All Released Songs by Artist/Title)


Announced DLC (by Date)


Totals

Shagrath

DVDTalk Rock Band Challenges

*Currently on hiatus

Shagrath

To go along with the REO/Styx Tour pack, and the Bonoroo Pack this week, there's a couple of other tours that Rock Band is sponsoring this summer.

Warped Tour - They have already confirmed that we will be seeing at least one pack from artists on this tour.

Warped Tour Artist List


Mayhem Festival - Rock Band is also sponsoring this tour, but have not confirmed that they will be releasing any songs to coincide with it. It'd be kind of silly not to.

Mayhem Festival Artist List


There's a couple bands I'd already interested in out of the Warped Tour's gigantic list. Although admittedly, I've only even heard of a fraction of those bands. However, I can almost assuredly say I'm down for whatever they release from Mayhem Fest. I listen to/have heard most of those bands and would enjoy seeing any of them in game.

Michael Corvin

I think I've only heard of two of the Warped bands. The Ataris and P.O.D. I've heard of more out of the Mayhem list but am unfamiliar with the actual music.

Shagrath

But P.O.D. is not on the list.. It's P.O.S., which is that hip-hop act that someone mentioned on here in the last thread, I believe.

Supermallet

I didn't notice they had released two Zombies songs. I will pick those up.

But what I'm really waiting for is MAIDEN!

Michael Corvin

You're right. I misread. However I did enjoy that P.O.S. Vid that
Superfro posted a while back.

pinata242

Where else are you going to go from The Zombies to Ben Harper and Phish to Iron Maiden in the span of 2 weeks?

Rock Band is kicking the ever-loving shit out of the rhythm game concept with this single-platform concept. I sure hope that Lego RB doesn't break that concept and allows me to import back into RB2 (not as interested in RB2->Lego). Beatles would be awesome as well, but I'm not holding my breath on it and will be able to look past the seclusion.

tonyc3742

Yeah, I think if they advance via new disk releases, without allowing importability at least to the "core" game of RB2, they will lose a lot of fans and momentum.

I don't think I have much interest in Lego Rock Band..I still don't even know what the point is...Rock Band with Lego characters instead of the more "lifelike" characters? BFD. Has a set list been announced? Will it be full of "family friendly" songs to go with the Lego brand? I'll admit I don't play some songs around certain people, but most of the setlist on RB2 and many of the downloads are suitable for most people. My six year old was singing Poison the other day. (At least it wasn't Police Truck, although I did first aim him toward School's Out.)
I know they have said "Rock Band is a platform", but with Lego, Beatles, and rumors of an RB3, they're sort of waffling on that. I think every upcoming disk should be fully backward compatible with all existing DLC, and should be exportable to the main RB2 interface.

Shagrath

I feel all this talk about *not* exporting is a bunch of FUD.

Harmonix know what they're doing. They've stated many times that Rock Band is to be seen as a platform. I have absolutely no doubt that with the release of LEGO Rock Band, there will be an export option. I don't know if that's to LEGO or from LEGO. I have a feeling it's the latter (LEGO -> RB2), seeing as LEGO is not the "main" franchise game.

In honesty, I'd be surprised if the Beatles stuff doesn't integrate into the main platform. I know that they're fairly exclusive with how they want their music to be played/viewed, but Harmonix wants their game to be seen as a platform as well. There has probably been some butting of heads over this between the two camps. I'm guessing we'll probably hear some more concrete information this week during E3. I can see an "Export to RB2" option being available at an additional price. Most people wouldn't take it, as they already bought the songs, but some who want everything from one disc would. That'd be more money for The Beatles, and a lesser number of people playing "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" with Mothership Q or Buzzsaw.

pinata242

The Beatles don't need to butt heads with anyone. They get their own way. If they allow it, that'd be great. But I don't think there was a back-and-forth with Sir Paul and Ringo over it via a Tuesday morning conference call or an email chain.

shaane

I want to throw this out there...after getting a look at the rumored artist list (I'd provide a link, but I don't have enough posts for that...) for Guitar Hero 5, I'm concerned that Harmonix might be making the Rock Band platform a bit outdated by not "counter programming." Lego and The Beatles don't really count, in my opinion.

So I ask, do you guys think they have something planned for E3? If it's not Rock Band 3 (which I don't think will be announced, personally) what about a track pack or a major announcement in terms of DLC? Or do they just wait it out and aim for 2010?

I think they need make some sort of move to keep pace with Activision. I hope a surprise track pack with some major artists is in the pipeline.

Anyone else have any feelings on this?

WMAangel

They have already stated that The Beatles RB game will not be exportable, and I don't think that will change no matter what....I mean, if any band deserves the standalone treatment, it is THE BEATLES.......they seem like they want their own game to be specific just to them and more "special" than the standard RB/RB2 interface & presentation.....after all, they are going out of the way to make specific replica guitars and what not just for this title, which is a lot more than just a Aerosmith face-plate (or nothing at all like Metallica got).....

While I generally hate the disc-swapping of the GH series (and is just one of the reasons why the RB platform is superior IMO), I think I can look past it this time for the one band considered perhaps "the greatest of all time" by many....

Shagrath

First I'd like to say welcome to the boards. It's always nice to have a new rocker to add to the conversation.

I don't think that Harmonix need to release a bunch of disc-based titles to "keep up" with Activision. People on the internet seem to frown upon Activions/Neversoft for releasing so many titles and "milking" the franchise. Sure, it gets them retail space, and their product is right in front of the eyes of soccer moms. However, with a new title being released every two months, it can lead to them cannibalizing their own sales. People have seen how fast Aerosmith dropped in price, and Metallica is doing the same thing. Your shopping-savvy consumer is going to wait it out on Smash Hits and any other titles that come out, knowing they'll drop in price sooner rather than later.

With Rock Band, it's all about the DLC for the time being. They're pulling out major artists left and right, and giving them more than just one song (as you'd see on a disc-based title). Granted, not everyone is online with their next-gen consoles (a travesty in my eyes), but it's obviously working for them enough to turn a profit on this stuff and keep releasing new songs every week for over a year and a half.

tonyc3742

And there have been a couple of disk-based DLC collections.

I can see the Beatles as a standalone disk. They're definitely important enough to music to have their own disk and be the main name on their game. (Although I do have some concerns as to how well this release will be received, and would like to be pleasantly surprised.)

I definitely think that DLC can be a better and more profitable way to go than disk-based iterations.

GH is in danger of watering down the brand with all its releases. One of the best things the two franchises did, however, is allow instrument compatibility (of course at this point I think it would have been foolish not to.)

I hope talk of non-exporting (except for the possible exception of Beatles) *is* FUD. Beatles is big enough to stand on its own, but it would definitely support the "platform" concept if it was exportable. It seems like band-specific, standalone titles don't sell allt that well, do they? GH: A and RB: AC/DC's sales were disappointing, but I haven't looked into GH:Metallica's.

Michael Corvin

Sorry but us 'internet folk' don't count for shit. Guitar Hero is a multi-BILLION dollar franchise while Rock Band is expected to lose a half billion this year. Activision is obviously doing something right no matter how you choose to look at it.

If anything this proves that the vast majority of consumers aren't giving up retail packaging anytime soon in favor of a disc-less world.

Spiderbite

I really like having the two Zombies' releases.

I wish they would dig into the 60's a little more often.

Mazje

Hadn't heard about RB losing half a billion this year...should we take that as a sign to enjoy RB while we've got it then? Will there even be a RB3?

PerryD

If Rock Band is going to keep allowing me to import music from one game to the next, they need to allow me to delete individual songs. I have the PS3 version, and I'd love to streamline the song lists down to a manageable number, remove the free 20 songs that came with RB2 and cut out some of the songs from RB1 that don't interest me.

tonyc3742

The funny thing is, normally I am a big fan of hard copy disks and retail packaging, I do not want the entire industry to go digital-download. I'm even holding off on the Fallout DLC because I'm debating waiting for the inevitable complete GOTY edition (I waited on Mass Effect, and that PE came with the DLC). (It's funny, I was listening to a podcast last week where they were musing as to why MS doesn't have sales all that often....because if you control the entire market, you don't *have* to have sales or price drops.)
But a song here or there for 160 or 440 points for a pack, or better yet, 80 point sales, are a lot easier to 'impulse buy'. (Same thing with an XBLA game that costs 5-10 bucks; resale value on most retail games older than 3 months is around that much so I'm not losing much if any.)

I would like to delete individual songs or at least lower the chances of them appearing in random setlists, that would be a good feature. Can't you go into the Hard Drive section of System Settings and delete songs? You might have to delete the entire 20 song pack, and I don't know if you can delete individual songs from RB1 export....or how hard it is to get them back.

If those dollar figures are correct, I'm interested in knowing how it breaks down. Was it the licensing fees for Beatles? Was it Guitar Hero living on royalties for GH 1, GH2, GH 80s, and the other versions, whereas RB has only had 2 main titles, 1 band back, and 1 or 2 disk add-ons? Equipment replacement costs?
Is it simply that GH has the mindshare, and the "average Joe" doesn't care about the inner workings of the companies, they simply see "Guitar Hero" and think "Hey, I loved GH2 onPS2, let's get this game"?

I will say that it seems to me, except for a few notable exceptions, though RB DLC greatly beats GH in quantity, RB is getting more of the 'bigger' more popular names. I know, Pearl Jam, RHCP, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden; vs Metallica, Aerosmith, and some other GH DLC. RB has lots of 'indie' stuff, in which the 'big names' might be hard to see (I'll admit, however, my personal lack of familiarity with lots of the indie stuff could be coloring this perspective).

Mad Dawg

It's been reported a couple of different ways, but it's more likely that EA expects Rock Band to be down $400M in sales year over year, not not that it will actually lose $400M. Not good either way, but it makes more sense.

tonyc3742

That could simply be people who bought RB1 and instruments, buying RB2 disk-only, couldn't it? Still, fewer dollars in their accounts, which is not good, but not as earthshattering as "losing half a billion".
If that includes a slowdown of DLC purchasing, ok, that's not good.

Mad Dawg

Well, it could be due to a lot of things. But music game sales are supposedly down by a great deal overall. The difference is that GH can "afford" to lose year over year. But the hit GH has taken has to be somewhat sizable as well, since there were reports that they actually lost a good deal of marketshare to RB (but still had a pretty commanding lead) last year. So if RB gained ground on GH while by most accounts selling below forecast, that's not great news for Activision, either.

porieux

IRON FUCKING MAIDEN!!!! Woooot!