How would you change Rock Band?

There's only a select few titles that are really worth obsessing over for nearly half a year, but apparently, Rock Band is indeed a member of that upper echelon. After months of drooling over images of the game's accompanying hardware assortment, the star-studded title has finally landed on store shelves, and according to Electronic Arts, copies haven't been hanging around for long. In a report posted yesterday, EA noted that it moved "hundreds of thousands" of boxes over the Thanksgiving weekend, and judging by most every review we've seen, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. 'Course, with so much critical hardware packed in, it's not terribly surprising to hear that some early adopters found a few flaws, but it seems that EA has fessed up to the issues and is offering VIP treatment (read: immediate replacements) to those with jacked up axes.

Now that you've had some time to work out those vocal cords, brush up on your drum rolls and mosh in your own living room, inquiring minds are dying to know how you would have done things differently. We've already given you a shot to vouch for your rhythm game of choice, but haters and posse members alike can feel free to step up to the proverbial microphone and voice your wishes. Would you have thrown in a Telecaster rather than a Strat? How about embedding an accelerometer in the microphone in order to accumulate kudos for mindless twirling? Totally bummed by the omission of a wildly flamboyant mic stand a la Steven Tyler? Whatever your beef, don't hold back on this one -- your All Access pass to remixing Rock Band has (un)officially been granted.

[isaac @ Jan 23rd 2008 8:06PM]

- for the drums, at least, make the timing more precise: offer a "Sideman" level that shrinks the window to 15 ms or so. As it is, you can ace a song yet still sound really horrible, not even keep a steady beat. Yet keeping a steady solid beat is job #1 for a drummer.

- have a "replay" feature that plays the song back, but with the precise timing given by the player ( this is probably too hard to do, you'd have to separate out the tracks note by note, not feasible ).

Right now

[Sterling Ledet @ Jan 28th 2008 9:42PM]

In RockBand II have it work with a keyboard.

[Ray @ Nov 30th 2007 5:22PM]

Needs Primus, lots of Primus.

[Steppin' Razor @ Nov 30th 2007 6:41PM]

Primus is good, but I want to see some jam bands. Perhaps some Phish or Sublime. But Sevendust FTW!!

[JosephMohmed @ Nov 30th 2007 8:59PM]

I'd rather have songs from one of Claypool's other bands, like the Frog Brigade. Also, Pantera. If I could play Whamola and Cemetery Gates I'd be sold.

[EatingPie @ Dec 1st 2007 11:06AM]

Provide a real guitar (or bass in the case of Primus) and teach us how to be REAL guitar (bass) heroes!

-Pie

[bewlaybrutha @ Jan 4th 2008 4:52PM]

holy shit, am i ever glad you dudes didn't have a say in the final track listing!

[L.Rawlins @ Nov 30th 2007 5:24PM]

All of the instrument volume controls should range from one to eleven.

[Fraggle.Rock @ Dec 1st 2007 3:10AM]

Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...

Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?

Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.

Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?

Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?

Marty DiBergi: I don't know.

Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?

Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.

Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.

Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?

Nigel Tufnel: ...these go to eleven


-- makes me smile everytime :-)

[Tristan @ Dec 1st 2007 5:56PM]

Were you assuming that we all use the "up to 11" reference and don't know what its from, or were you reminding us so we could thank you by clicking green?

[Lucas @ Dec 4th 2007 12:03PM]

haha i love that movie

[Rontalvos @ Nov 30th 2007 5:24PM]

I would change it by being able to actually get one in my area. Everybody is sold out.

[punkintoter2 @ Dec 1st 2007 1:29AM]

I think we should be able to use the headset as a the mic.

[Someguy999 @ Dec 1st 2007 1:00AM]

or even have it available in Canada

[joe Baptiste @ Dec 1st 2007 3:09AM]

just bot one yesterday on Gamestop's web site. there will more in their stores next week, so most likely others as well.

[Garst @ Dec 1st 2007 3:42AM]

I think you can use a headset, at least with the 360 version you can. Or at least that's what I gathered from the tutorial when my sister was attempting to get through the singing one.

[Scott Frazer @ Dec 2nd 2007 4:20AM]

You can definitely use the headset as a mic. The trick is, each instrument is a separate player. so you can't sing along with the guitar in solo mode, but you can definitely start a band tour and hook the headset up to player 1's controller while you play on player 2's guitar.

[topflight @ Nov 30th 2007 5:31PM]

How about making the guitar hero 3 guitar compatible with it!

[onedollarbill @ Nov 30th 2007 5:36PM]

umm it is. I have been using mine since my "Rock Band" guitar has the strum switch issue.

[h0mi @ Nov 30th 2007 5:43PM]

Vice versa, you mean make the rock band guitar compatible with Gh3.

[Mike @ Nov 30th 2007 6:10PM]

He means PS3 Guitar Hero 3 axes, we know the 360 ones already work.

[kamandriat @ Nov 30th 2007 8:07PM]

360 > ps3 ?

[JTM @ Nov 30th 2007 10:04PM]

In this case, the 360 version has an advantage. I chose the PS3 version cause I wanted a wireless guitar. Wireless guitar = PS3 advantage.

I am hoping for a patch that makes GH3 guitars work with Rock Band. Once that's done, I'll be very happy with the PS3 version.

[Joe @ Nov 30th 2007 5:29PM]

I would change all the instruments to real ones so humans could actually create something.

[Ike Skelton @ Nov 30th 2007 5:47PM]

wow, that's original.

[Nick @ Dec 3rd 2007 12:25PM]

hahah couldn't agree more man real musicians ftw

[Jarhead2012 @ Dec 4th 2007 5:50AM]

@Nick.
Seriously. I play guitar and piano/electric keyboards. I think it's great that developers are coming out with these rhythm games. Some people just don't have the hand/eye coordination to play a real instrument. Games like these help to improve that coordination. Besides, when I'm not actually playing, I love to chill out and play Rock Band or Guitar Hero in my basement.

[Adoniteking @ Nov 30th 2007 5:28PM]

i would add Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight to list of tracks so i could put on my gorilla suit and rock out like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbLr2NEV_7o

[JuggleNuts @ Nov 30th 2007 6:52PM]

Amazing. Thank you, sir.

[Strider @ Dec 1st 2007 5:26PM]

lol that is the exact same thing i told my roommates! even used that video as a refrence would also be cool to play some others like:

Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water
Eagles - Hotel California
Guns N' Roses - Knockin' on Heavens Door
Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child of Mine
Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
Lynard Skynard - Freebird

[onedollarbill @ Nov 30th 2007 5:28PM]

I like that the drums have a height adjustment, but I'd really like to adjust the angle of the heads too.

[joegibes @ Dec 1st 2007 12:05AM]

And more foot pedal placement options -- right below the drums doesn't work well for me (if you sit close). The big drum set feet are in the way of putting it where I want.

[evilmicah @ Nov 30th 2007 5:29PM]

More Cowbell

[rTwelve @ Nov 30th 2007 6:25PM]

Ya gotta have more cowbell.

[Kevin @ Nov 30th 2007 8:58PM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlqLLZQLNiA

[Fank @ Nov 30th 2007 5:29PM]

I would pull EA off the project.

[Canada984 @ Nov 30th 2007 5:30PM]

make the rock band guitar more like the guitar hero guitar. i know they wanted to make it look more realistic, but my fingers get lost a lot easier on the rock band guitar than the guitar hero one because the rock band buttons are flush with the neck.

[BSP @ Nov 30th 2007 5:32PM]

quality control on axes in the the first place

[amykwyjibo @ Dec 3rd 2007 5:34PM]

No joke. If the game actually worked like it was supposed to, that would be the best improvement possible. Sad.

[Daniel @ Nov 30th 2007 5:38PM]

my main complaint has to do with the singing aspect.

if you sing a song exactly like the singer, you do not get 100%, because the game does not take into account the beginning and end of words not being sung at full volume at the exact same pitch as the rest of the word. therefore, you are penalized for singing normally, and to achieve a high/perfect score, one must begin singing before the word is sung in the actual song, which, if you are playing with other people, makes you sound like you dont know what you are doing.

[Mike @ Nov 30th 2007 6:22PM]

@Daniel

It shouldn't be penalizing you for that. The game does not count the very beginning of a note or the very end of a note, which allows you to do exactly what you're talking about. Not many songs feature singers who sing a note at the exact tone all the way through, they accent the note, and the game does factor this in. Even if you were penalized for this little tiny bit, you would have more than enough of an opportunity to make up for it; to fill the whole circle and get "Awesome" on a phrase, you can miss slightly. Singing isn't as precise as playing the guitar or drums, and Rock Band (thankfully) recognizes that. However, when singing on Expert, Rock Band is much more of a stickler for you to sing as the original singer does, so if you're looking more for a karaoke "add-my-own-style-to-the-song" kind of singing (which most people unintentionally do), switch to Hard or Medium (or even Easy).

[jdog1056 @ Nov 30th 2007 5:34PM]

I would add another pedal for the hi-hat (and some double bass)and a rig that lets you position the pads where you want them.
It might suck, but it would be fun to be able to use your own CDs to jam to. It'd be sweet if it could process a song on the fly.

[aeromat @ Nov 30th 2007 6:32PM]

Yes, the positioning of the pads and pedal is quite awkward. It's cool for drum solos but it takes some getting used to during regular play. The ability to jam would be great as well.

[Kaijin @ Nov 30th 2007 7:12PM]

I'll second the second pedal! Adjustable angle would be good too. I don't know if this is a flaw with my set, but it'd be nice if they were a bit more sensitive so I didn't have to whack them so hard and disturb the neighbors. Wireless drum and mic are a no brainer. Graphically I like the flaming notes of GH better, the boxes on RB are a bit boring. It'd be nice if they could dress up the power bar too. It needs the option to change the leader of a band (although I understand that the band is in the saved game profile for the leader player).

[joegibes @ Dec 1st 2007 12:20AM]

Possible double bass solution:
Step 1: Get another kick pedal. Use a standard (but preferably mono) headphone splitter.
Step 2: Plug both pedals into it, and the splitter into the drums.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit!

[Andy @ Dec 1st 2007 5:32PM]

I agree on adding your own tracks. That would take these games over the top. Its obviously possible.... that new iPod game will analyze the music of your choice. Simplified yes, but it obviously could be done.

[xbit @ Nov 30th 2007 5:37PM]

I'd change the European release date. I want it NOW!

[topflight @ Nov 30th 2007 5:38PM]

@onedollarbill

I'm talking about the ps3 version, not the 360 version.

[rzlmlchm009 @ Nov 30th 2007 5:40PM]

Make the guitar vibrate whenever the onscreen character smashes the guitar into the stage. :)

[SteveMB @ Nov 30th 2007 5:42PM]

Better songs. Or for the next Rock Band/Guitar Hero, let the consumers pick the song. Hold a poll on your site or something.