PAX 2009: JoCo adapts 'The Future Soon' at Rock Band Network panel
We've heard about the Rock Band Network's near-boundless technical capabilities. We've seen the technology in action at Harmonix HQ. What we haven't seen is a popular musical artist adapting one of his songs through Reaper, Ember and the Rock Band Network peer-review process for our enjoyment. We got one such opportunity at the PAX Rock Band Network panel, when nerdfolk songsmith Jonathan Coulton (with the help of a few Harmonix devs) converted "The Future Soon" from mere song to Rock Band DLC.
The steps looked reminiscent of previous previews we've seen of the RBN technology. The track was broken up into its core parts (drums, bass, vocals, etc.) in Reaper -- a process that took Harmonix two days, due to Coulton's implementation of 19 freaking chords in a single song. After that, they imported it to Magma, where Coulton's album art was added, the track's genre and pricing information was chosen ("The Future Soon" was set to sell for 240
), a 30-second preview window was designated, and the song's difficulty levels were added.
The song was transferred to Rock Band 2's Audition Mode (which will be tucked away in the Extras menu with the game's next patch for Xbox 360), then played by adoring JoCo fans. We've got a shakycam video of this playthrough -- as well as the original version of the song, which was played by Coulton during the panel -- after the jump.
