No User Music In 'Rock Band 2'

Posted by Stephen Johnson - Thursday, July 03, 2008 7:33 AM

Unlike the next Guitar Hero game, there will be no original music in Rock Band 2.

"We really felt like we wanted to do it right," Harmonix co-founder and CEO Alex Rigopulos told the Associated Press. "We're taking a radically different approach to that problem. It's something we wanted to take more time to do it right. It's actually something we're not focused on in 'Rock Band 2.' We're really focused on other areas related to the music and bringing the community together."

I'm not disappointed with this news. As anyone who has ever heard me play guitar can attest, I'm terrible at creating actual music--let's face it, songwriting is hard. No matter what set of tools are provided to people, it will always be hard, and really, when I play Rock Band, I want to blow off a little steam, not sweat over creating a piece of music.

But maybe you feel differently. Do you think Guitar Hero IV's create-your-own-tracks is a good idea? Let us know below.

CNN: Get ready to jam with 'Rock Band 2'

Permalink Tags: Music, Videogames

Comment(s)

Posted by MK20 - Thursday, July 03, 2008 7:53 AM

I was hoping for my friends to make songs based off their songs, so that I could play a Destroy Destroy Destroy song, or versions of songs that aren't on rock band. I don't know, it could be fun, but that's the point.

Just because something is in a game doesn't mean that you have to do it, it gives the option, and I like options, but I'll still buy Rock Band 2

Posted by Hrolf - Thursday, July 03, 2008 8:10 AM

im more worried that too many games are dropping with special equpiment, why cant the makers come up with a game, and let someone else make the devices, and make them usable to any of the music genre games. im not paying for full band equipment again. im glad RB2 wont make you do that.

Posted by ScottFleener - Thursday, July 03, 2008 8:11 AM

Since I have Rock Band already, I'll for sure buy Rock Band 2 (just the game). Although having the choice to create music is a cool idea. Plus if Guitar Hero World Tour allows you to download user songs for free, that'd be awesome because people will probably spend a lot of time creating some great songs.

Posted by shoryuking - Thursday, July 03, 2008 8:31 AM

Let's go milk the cows some more...

Posted by maxjive - Thursday, July 03, 2008 8:32 AM

GH4's create-your-own tracks has the potential to be awesome. I'd actually written and spoke to one of the developers at Harmonix last year, and he'd said create-your-own tracks was something they've been tossing around for a while, but were still working on the right implementation.

Who knows how good GH's interpretation will be (I'm looking forward to it though!), but so many bands have their own recording equipment and readily record their songs on individual instrument tracks. All that's needed is a way to slice them, make patterns (buttons), and give the user a way of importing them onto their console. Ultimately, the best way would be uploading them to a server and giving everyone the ability to search bands and download tracks!

Posted by yoshiarecool - Thursday, July 03, 2008 8:44 AM

Im not really interested in making my own music. But with Jimi Hendrix being in GHWT, Harmonix needs either Led Zepplin, ACDC, or the Beatles to get my buy

Posted by Jubilantgravestone - Thursday, July 03, 2008 8:49 AM

I'm not going to lie; I was a little surprised about this. But at the same time, I was relieved. How would they be able to make something already complicated in itself (creating a working song on a music/rhythm game) and put it into a game and somehow make it easier? For game developers, it's probably easier, but the creation's will probably only be limited to only 5 notes on the guitar and bass. The whole thing is just so complicated, it most likely won't work...

Posted by joughy - Thursday, July 03, 2008 8:51 AM

DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN...this was something I was REALLY worried about. I have been in bands for over a decade, made songs on my own with drum machines and other equipment for quite some time as well, so this was a feature I was really looking forward to. Oh well, we shall see how it all plays out. I have rock band so I will certainly buy RB2, but I highly doubt I will shell out another (close to) $200 for GH4.

Posted by blckheart_13 - Thursday, July 03, 2008 8:58 AM

i've never played rock band, but i'm a die hard guitar hero fan and i'm in a band and i write my own music so i think it's gonna be pretty cool to have that platform to work with. But just because i heard rock band is awesome, i may buy RB 2

Posted by mathew365dsd - Thursday, July 03, 2008 10:00 AM

Personally making your own music is great, however making your own music and then giving it to a company who will then use your ideas to make money that's kinda B.S. Also what are they going to do about copyrights, will every song that gets uploaded be scanned and checked to make sure that no one has made it before, are they then going to use the P.R from a lawsuit to help market the game. I'm sorry it just seems like Activison is just try to get rich off others while not having to actually come up with any new ideas just helping the genre go around in circles. I would rather have the ability to put whatever song I wanted to into the game, then maybe the user would choose where and how many "notes" are in the song. Also GHWT not being compatible with the old download songs sucks. A lot of people don't pay for good music now what makes Activison think people will want to here bad music and maybe have to pay for it.

Posted by Tmidiman - Thursday, July 03, 2008 10:13 AM

I was looking forward to that feature. Being a musician/songwriter myself I would have at least checked the feature out and if it was useable I'd give it a try.

Come on SJ, songwriting isn't that hard. You gotta just feel it in your gut and get it out there for the world to hear.

Posted by willthegreat - Thursday, July 03, 2008 10:15 AM

I think it's a cool idea, letting the user make their own music. However, I don't think it belongs in Guitar Hero or Rock Band the game. I think it would best be relegated to something like Rock Band: Music Studio. Then you could have cross title compatibility so that Rock Band players could download the tracks that Rock Band songwriters create. I would rather see features that support playing music in different ways in RB/GH.

Posted by maxjive - Thursday, July 03, 2008 11:05 AM

I agree with willthegreat...it may be better to have this be a program/game of its own.

I can't imagine making tracks on anything other than a PC/Mac and then uploading this info to a server to download on my console. There's no way this can work properly, solely on a console with a gamepad, although I look forward to checking out the first attempt!

Posted by changbang - Thursday, July 03, 2008 7:30 PM

the whole idea of making your own tracks is pretty retarded... id rather spend my time trying to figure out how to play a song or make one using a real instrument.

Posted by volcane2004 - Thursday, July 03, 2008 8:37 PM

at least they're gonna have backwards compatibility with tracks that you bought in rock band one. idk if its going to be also true for guitar hero world tour :|???

Posted by volcane2004 - Thursday, July 03, 2008 8:40 PM

at least they're gonna have backwards compatibility with tracks that you bought in rock band one. idk if its going to be also true for guitar hero world tour :|???

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