Rock Band 2

Elysium wrote:

I wonder if the Enter Sandman omission is because of licensing agreements with Guitar Hero franchise or because Metallica is made of WHORES!

I don't think these are mutually exclusive. I think the licensing is what stopped all three songs, actually.

Elysium wrote:

I wonder if the Enter Sandman omission is because of licensing agreements with Guitar Hero franchise or because Metallica is made of WHORES!

Wasn't some Metallica new single coming out on Rock Band? Or was that cancelled?

But yeah I thought the same thing, since Metallica might (or is already?) be a GH-exclusive artist, maybe they can't put out songs with Rock Band anymore.

Stupid Guitar Hero exclusivity. =(

Does anyone have a definitive answer on whether the guitars from GH will work with RB2 or vice-versa? I've heard both yes and no...

Trainwreck wrote:
lancejt wrote:

Sunday cannot come fast enough. I'm also hoping to get my ION kit before the weekend but I'm sure that I wont.

They start shipping on the 15th so I'm afraid not.

Actually, they have said the sets will arrive within a day or two of RB (doesn't specify before or after). Also they have said that shipping will begin this week.

Oh and all guitars are supposed to work on both games now.

I can't believe we're not even a week away now. Christ.

Has anyone seen any reviews on the Ion kit and how it performs as a real electronic kit? I know it is a decent set, but just wondering if there were some official reviews out there. I'm thinking of selling of my full acoustic set, and the cash from that should get me an Ion set with the cymbals and double bass. I'm hopefully moving to a new apartment soon (if my house sells) and will need a quieter rock band/drumming solution. Ion covers both.

Actually, I would look at reviews for the Simmons SD5K. If you look closely those are they exact same pads from the ION kit. Price there is including a drum unit.

Yoreel wrote:

Has anyone seen any reviews on the Ion kit and how it performs as a real electronic kit? I know it is a decent set, but just wondering if there were some official reviews out there. I'm thinking of selling of my full acoustic set, and the cash from that should get me an Ion set with the cymbals and double bass. I'm hopefully moving to a new apartment soon (if my house sells) and will need a quieter rock band/drumming solution. Ion covers both.

I'd look up the reviews on the EDIT Simmons SD5K (link below, lancejt got it right!) if you are looking for reviews... the Ion Kit is essentially this without the drum module (brain) /EDIT.

Also, Mad Catz began shipping their Bass guitar, and dang if it's not tempting me even though I already have 3 plastic toy guitars cluttering up my game room!

Elysium wrote:

I wonder if the Enter Sandman omission is because of licensing agreements with Guitar Hero franchise or because Metallica is made of WHORES!

Little of column A, little from column B.

On RB2, it's like the amount of DLC from the first game isn't driving me nuts, now there's more? I still need to ferret out $60 when I get paid in October. Love to buy it day one, but not likely to happen

I'm a filthy skimmer, and I admit it. Does anyone know if the vocals mode has speech recognition as well as tone recognition?

The reason I ask is the tracklist has a lot of songs that I only know by their Weird Al parodies.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

I'm a filthy skimmer, and I admit it. Does anyone know if the vocals mode has speech recognition as well as tone recognition?

The reason I ask is the tracklist has a lot of songs that I only know by their Weird Al parodies.

At least in RB1, you can do really well by just mumbling along in tune, so no.

I actually have friends who sing with Weird Al parodies to good effect. It cares about tone in singing sections, and rhythm in spoken-word sections. They've mentioned something in the past about tweaking it a bit for Rock Band 2, but I think that's just little changes in how it figures out accuracy.

edit: what Swiss said.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

I'm a filthy skimmer, and I admit it. Does anyone know if the vocals mode has speech recognition as well as tone recognition?

If there is a vocal tone line to follow for the singing parts (majority of the songs) then it's just detecting tone. However for the "talkie" parts (Beastie Boys Sabatoge), where there's just words and no associated tone line, it does use some form of phoneme detection.

They've said they've totally revamped the way talkie sections are detected for RB2, but I'd assume whatever the change it doesn't affect the normal singing parts.

Sometimes I just sing "meow" when I don't know the words, or I just feel like it.

invoice wrote:

Thank you for purchasing Ion Audio Products from inMusic.
This is a copy of your invoice. Please retain this email as proof-of-purchase.

Your Order Number is: DRXXXXXX_XX

Wooot!

Ranger Rick wrote:
invoice wrote:

Thank you for purchasing Ion Audio Products from inMusic.
This is a copy of your invoice. Please retain this email as proof-of-purchase.

Your Order Number is: DRXXXXXX_XX

Wooot!

Congrats. I actually may have lined up a guy to buy my acoustic set, so I may be one step closer to my Ion Rock Band Drums of awesomeness.

Rick - have they given you any timeline on when to expect the drums? Is there a big waitlist?
It's good to know they're still taking orders, but I haven't actually committed yet.

Scaphism wrote:

Rick - have they given you any timeline on when to expect the drums? Is there a big waitlist?

The rumor mill has been saying that the Ion kit will start shipping on the 15th, but the official site for the kit just updated their FAQ:

Q: If I preorder from you guys, do I get it the same day as Rock Band 2 is released?
A: We will be shipping Drum Rocker the week of September 8th on a first come, first served basis. If you've placed your order on drumrocker.com before that date, you should expect to see your kit either shortly before or shortly after the September 14th launch of Rock Band 2, depending on when your order was placed and where you are located (Canadian orders may take longer). An email confirming that your order has shipped will be sent on the day that your Drum Rocker leaves our warehouse.

I ordered my kit a few weeks before E3, so we'll see if my experience is any different than Rick and his more recent preorder.

Ion isn't planning on making a limited amount of the drums are they? I know right now there will be an influx of orders and things will be tough to get, but they are not planning on making say 10,000 and then not making more are they... cause that would make me a very sad panda... very sad indeed.

Scaphism wrote:

Rick - have they given you any timeline on when to expect the drums? Is there a big waitlist?

I just got another email:

ION Audio wrote:

Subject: Your ION Audio DRUM ROCKER is Now Shipping!

Greetings from DrumRocker.com

Good News: We are preparing your Drum Rocker drum set for shipment. In a few days, you'll be rocking out with the Official Premium Drum Set for Rock Band 2! If you ordered accessories for Drum Rocker, such as the Cymbal Expansion Pack, ION Drum Throne, or Double Kick Expansion Pedal, they will be shipping in a few weeks. We will not charge your credit card for the accessories until they ship.

More Good News: We have been able to reduce the shipping cost of Drum Rocker from $45.00 to $25.00. That's more than 44% savings! You should be receiving a shipping confirmation with tracking information in the coming days. We also anticipate a reduction in the shipping cost of your accessories.

So it looks like pretty soon.

We pretty much ordered as soon as they were announced, so I'm likely reasonably near the front of the line.

Video on Kotaku showing the drum training mode - you can also hear how loud the new drum kit is, doesn't seem to be much of a difference to me.

My order went in around 15 minutes after pre-orders began, I would like to think that my email has gone out... Unfortunately it's not coming to my email address so I can't be sure.

Yoreel wrote:

Ion isn't planning on making a limited amount of the drums are they? I know right now there will be an influx of orders and things will be tough to get, but they are not planning on making say 10,000 and then not making more are they... cause that would make me a very sad panda... very sad indeed.

Damn, and here I am thinking it might be a smart idea to just wait for reviews to come in instead of putting my order in right now.

Okay, I just need to calm down... and relax. And breathe.

Atras wrote:
TheWalt wrote:

It's my understanding that all the DLC will (already?) work with Rock Band 2... am I correct?

As far as I know, yes. With this five dollars spent, I should have in the ballpark of 200 songs when I put in the Rock Band 2 disc. Harmonix rules.

All of the DLC will work instantly. If you exported your RB1 songs, RB2 will instantly recognize them, also, and add them to your playlist.

and this comes from the RockBand forums (yes, I braved the rabid [read:whiny] fanboys to bring you this information)

BONUS Downloadable TRACKS

If you have an internet connection and an Xbox LIVE account , you can Download 20 BONUS songs to your Xbox 360. Go to http://www.rockband.com/bonustracks and enter the registration code shown below along with a valid email address. When the tracks are available , you will recieve a token via email that will allow you to download 20 additional songs for Rock Band 2.

When you recieve the token:

1. Log into Xbox LIVE with your gamer profile.
2. Access Xbox LIVE marketplace through the Xbox 360 dashboard
3. Click "redeem code".
4. Enter the Xbox LIVE marketplace token from the email when prompted.

So, with the 85 RB2 tracks, 55 RB1 tracks, 20 bonus songs, and my DLC.....I'll be tipping the scales at 315 songs. That's a lot of SpaceBucks I've blown.

p.s.
in other news: People are reporting that stores are breaking street date....so the Goodjer hunt is on!

Ranger Rick wrote:

We pretty much ordered as soon as they were announced, so I'm likely reasonably near the front of the line.

Supposedly if you look at your original order confirmation email the digits in your order number after the underscore are your place in the queue. I ordered on July 14 and was 179th in line, and I got the shipping confirmation yesterday evening. I didn't see a UPS tracking number anywhere, unfortunately, so I don't know what the odds are of it getting to me by Friday. Here's hoping.

wonderpug wrote:

Supposedly if you look at your original order confirmation email the digits in your order number after the underscore are your place in the queue. I ordered on July 14 and was 179th in line, and I got the shipping confirmation yesterday evening.

Ah, cool. I'm in 94th place, then, and I ordered on the 12th. *crosses fingers*

I was 74th (after ordering on the 11th), but there was a mixup with the credit card info, so I had to replace my order, which dropped me to 2,614th place. I did talk with an Ion sales rep, and he said no worries, they should have my order shipped in the next day or two.

RangerRick- thanks for hosting your DLC page, I used it quite often. I totally understand about the financial burden of running that site and the reasons you've stopped updating it... your song costs were often my savings ;).

According to the information about the number following the underscore, I am 4th. Yes, single digit number, 4th. Received a confirmation email yesterday showing that number, but have yet to receive anything with any kind of shipping information in it.

I guess we'll just have to see.

If you're 'confirmation' email is a receipt, then that means your kit has shipped.

I am regretting cancelling my preorder for the drums now. But i need to be strong (free shipping at Amazon).... NO!