From Joystiq:
Aside from announcing the first three Beatles albums to be released as DLC for upcoming tear-jerker The Beatles: Rock Band, MTV Games and Harmonix today revealed intentions to bring the Rock Band DLC count to 1,000 songs by this holiday. At the current rate Harmonix is releasing songs for the franchise — without factoring in the Rock Band Network — that’s roughly 500 songs per year.
My wallet gently weeps.
I don’t know why, but this is my favorite Rock Band track for this week. How can I turn down a song with three awesome and very different solos?
This is an example of a full Rock Band track, with all four parts. The bass is on the left, lead in the center, drums on the right, and the vocal track is not shown, though the lyrics are at the top.
I realize that not everyone who reads may have an understanding of what Rock Band is and why it’s perhaps one of the greatest timesinks I’ve ever run across. I post often about it and will even throw up YouTube videos of note charts for songs I’m really interested in. For those of you who might need a small primer, I present to you this series of videos and explanations.
Rock Band is a “rhythm game”. What that means is that you are handed some music in the form of a track playing on your television courtesy of a video game system. You are also handed a plastic instrument. The first game to tackle this idea handed you a guitar. In Rock Band, there are four instruments: Guitar, Bass, Drums, and Vocals. Each plays slightly differently. The goal is to hit the right “notes” within a certain “window” of a graphic crossing your screen.
The game comes on a disc with about 80 songs, and there are weekly releases of downloadable songs you can purchase and play. The songs cost $2 each, which is a steal considering you’re not only hearing the music, but you’re also “playing” it.
To save those of you who might not want to load everything, I’ll put the rest behind a cut; please read on if you are interested.
Here’s the note chart for Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “Texas Flood” on Expert guitar in Rock Band:
I haven’t picked it up yet, but I find this very exciting. I’d like to drop the couple of bucks on it just to encourage the creation of more blues-related tracks on Rock Band, as it’s an under-represented genre that has solid guitar parts and can be enjoyed without destroying the twitch muscles in your strumming arm (most of the time).
Ryan Markel 