Interested in becoming an author, have a question
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So I just recently found this community and the ability to add customs to RB3. I would LOVE to be able to give back and learn to author tracks, however I have a quick question.
Starting out, how long does it take to chart a song, start to finish? I’m talking full band, all difficulties, polished, ready to play, etc. I do work a full-time IT office job, so I am busy during the day and would only have time in the evenings and the weekends. I would imagine it does get easier the more you do it (maybe?), but was wanting to get some time frame perspective on how long it takes to author songs.
I really, really appreciate everyone’s hard work in this community and finding these customs has rekindled my love for Rock Band, so I would just like to help out in anyway I can.
I’d figure at least 40 hours for your first.
Established authors range from 10 hours on the low end to 40ish on the high end.
I don’t think asking experienced authors for timing is the best way to approach this. My very first songs, years ago, took very few hours, way less than 10. They had issues, which I then fixed, but if I had to spend, at the time, 40 hours for ONE song (which honestly I don’t do now, but admittedly my non-instruments work is far less polished than other authors) I think I would have given up then.
I’d say be smart, cheat, chart songs that have Guitar Pro or MIDI files available, start from there and finish up a song in less than 10 hours. It’s gonna be low standards but you will feel like you accomplished a lot. And from there you get better, you polish up stuff, you trim vocal note tubes, etc.
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_wink.gif”>Thanks so much! I think I may dabble in my first one a bit this coming weekend then.The first one is always the hardest, if you manage to create a song you can play it is a great feeling & it does get easier as you become familiar with Reaper, Magma etc
Although I have not authored a whole song I have made a couple guitar only tracks for myself to start out, they are not perfect but it’s a great feeling to play something I made.
Pick a simple song. 4/4 time, few BPM changes (click track or electronic/dance songs work for this), start with the instruments you know (as a player). Do not make the “mistake” a lot of people do and dive in with your favouritest craziest Rock Band-iest song.
Thanks a bunch you guys. And espher, I definitely had easier songs in mind to try out for a first attempt (something by Finger Eleven or Cold)…there’s no way I would attempt anything too difficult on the first go round. I think I am going to toy around with the tools tonight to just get a feel for everything and hopefully get started on making my first one by this weekend.
I’m starting with a second song as the first didn’t work out too well, though I may go back to it.
My first song was Focus – Sylvia. I got the guitar, Bass and most of the keys part correct, however the Drums part was causing me no ends of issues. I chose an instrumental song the first time as I did not want to worry about vocals the first time around.
I’ve recently gone back and tried again on another song just recently, namely Joe Jackson – Steppin out. The drum part is easy, the bass is complicated to play, but easy to chart, theres no guitar part and I have the sheet music for piano and vocals so overall, as it currently stands I have worked on it for about 6-7 hours and charting wise just have regular keys to do. Then after that it will be camera effects and the rest.
It helped on the second as I was experienced with tempo mapping and filtering out the instruments in my mind as I listen to it.
I have the sheet music for piano and vocalsGreat to hear you’re doing good.
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif”> Just one quick suggestion: for piano sheet music expect a ton of repetitions where in fact the song is much different, so look out for that; for vocals, sheet music almost never has any slide transcribed, so expect the source to be a rough guide that you still need to fine tune.Good luck and kudos for getting into this crazy world.
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif”>I’ve noticed it with the song in question. For teh most part the piano part played during the actual song is just the chord played at the start of each measure on the sheet music. Thankfully the vocal track is just about right, save for some of the timings which I am adjusting based on the tutorial video I saw by Nyxyxylyth.
I’m hoping to have the Expert tracks completed this evening, followed by a little fine tuning. Then altering for the lower difficulties.
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