[ShinyZeni]

Hey all,

 

Asking for opinions more than anything, as I personally don’t feel there is a “right” way or a “wrong” way to do it, but how does everybody chart snare rolls?

 

What I mean is when the drummer is playing a long soft snare pattern, with harder hits sprinkled in here and there during the roll.

 

I’ve seen HMX do it a couple of ways. One instance is that they will just drop a large number of the notes, and chart patterns based on the hard hits (Image of the Invisible). I’ve also seen charts where the soft hits are charted to Red, and the hard hits are charted to Yellow. I’ve also seen other customs that charted it this way.

 

I personally prefer that all the notes are charted, and I tend to just put them all on Red. It’s less “difficult” and perhaps less fun(?) in the game, but it stays more true to the motions that the actual drummer is going through.

 

Anyway. I’ve been debating on this for a couple of weeks now and I figured I should ask the community what they thought.

[Farottone]

I personally prefer that all the notes are charted, and I tend to just put them all on Red. It’s less “difficult” and perhaps less fun(?) in the game, but it stays more true to the motions that the actual drummer is going through.

But the game engine is missing a key piece of the drumming motion: velocity. For that reason, it is good to drop notes or move them to yellow to replicate visually that part of drumming. Otherwise songs like On The Road Again would completely loose their feel. Staying true to the original motions IS a matter of translating in game, not of simply saying “he’s hitting the snare, it’s red”. ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_wink.gif”>

[ShinyZeni]

But the game engine is missing a key piece of the drumming motion: velocity. For that reason, it is good to drop notes or move them to yellow to replicate visually that part of drumming. Otherwise songs like On The Road Again would completely loose their feel. Staying true to the original motions IS a matter of translating in game, not of simply saying “he’s hitting the snare, it’s red”. ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_wink.gif” />

I can definitely see it from that perspective. I guess it’s a little different for me since I play on an e-kit with headphones. I definitely prefer moving to yellow over dropping notes though. It’s always bummed me out how Image Of The Invisible drops a bunch of those notes. The way that song was charted always felt really unnatural to me because of it.

 

There are definitely songs that would lose lots of character if they were all charted to Red as well. I personally wasn’t familiar with On The Road Again and had to look it up on Youtube to see what you meant, but I had a hunch it was a song like that.

 

I’m certainly going to keep thinking on this. I haven’t actually charted anything major where I had this issue yet.

[Farottone]

I can definitely see it from that perspective. I guess it’s a little different for me since I play on an e-kit with headphones.

 

I do too. I’m willing to place a bet on this scenario though… If you go to a drums teacher and play a buzz roll pattern with accents making one of these mistakes:

1) Playing all notes at the same volume ignoring accents

2) Playing accents correctly but not hitting some soft notes of the roll

My money is on the teacher getting upset at #1 far more than #2, meaning that accents are far more important than the constant buzzing of the snare in that situation. Which is also the reason why Rock Band drums tend to give accents more importance than the constant hits on the snare.

 

Thank you so much for bringing up Image of the Invisible: it’s been a long time since I played that song and I need to add it to my queue. ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_wink.gif”>

[ShinyZeni]

 

I do too. I’m willing to place a bet on this scenario though… If you go to a drums teacher and play a buzz roll pattern with accents making one of these mistakes:

1) Playing all notes at the same volume ignoring accents

2) Playing accents correctly but not hitting some soft notes of the roll

My money is on the teacher getting upset at #1 far more than #2, meaning that accents are far more important than the constant buzzing of the snare in that situation. Which is also the reason why Rock Band drums tend to give accents more importance than the constant hits on the snare.

 

Thank you so much for bringing up Image of the Invisible: it’s been a long time since I played that song and I need to add it to my queue. ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_wink.gif” />

Yeah okay that’s fair too. When my friends play and they are smacking the snare during a roll, when it’s supposed to be played soft I’m always super irritated about it haha. Not to the point that I bring it up or anything, it’s just one of those annoyance type issues. I guess I can see why HMX has charted songs dropping notes then…. but it still bugs me.

 

Oh and about IOTI, it’s funny because I was always really sad that that was the Thrice song they chose to put in Rock Band. I mean it’s fine, but it’s nowhere near my favorites… now suddenly all these years later, I enjoy the song way more than I ever did back then, and I’m glad they put it in. ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” /> have fun playing it!

[Bansheeflyer]

But the game engine is missing a key piece of the drumming motion: velocity. For that reason, it is good to drop notes or move them to yellow to replicate visually that part of drumming. Otherwise songs like On The Road Again would completely loose their feel. Staying true to the original motions IS a matter of translating in game, not of simply saying “he’s hitting the snare, it’s red”. ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_wink.gif” />

 

Yes. This.

 

It’s like why open hi-hats are blue instead of yellow because there’s no hi-hat pedal (well, technically there is, but the game cannot register it as a note).

 

That being said, I prefer all the rolls on a snare to be red.

 

Its actually kinda irritating about the B as open hi-hat because I can’t set up a pro drum kit like an actual kit for that reason.

[Reflexx]

I personally prefer for all of the notes to be charted as red during a snare roll, but I also know that my case is rather unique since I play on an actual drum set and can perform the accents myself by ear. My best example of this is the intro to Planets by Avenged Sevenfold, in which the accented snare notes are charted as yellow, but I just play them on red instead and do the accents myself. However, I understand that most people don’t have the luxury of playing on a real drum set and therefor, it’s probably best to chart them as yellow.

[Grinnz]

As someone who plays rock band drums to feel like I’m playing the real drum part, I cannot stand when notes are charted on a different pad for “accents”, or left out for “ghosts”. These remove my ability to play the song as if it was on a real drumset. I can learn the accents as they are meant to be played, but if the notes aren’t on the right pads or even charted, I can’t correct for that.

[Farottone]

I can understand the sentiment, I play on an ekit too, but authoring rules are clear: “it’s a videogame – not a lesson in drum hardware!”. A chart that doesn’t differentiate the way the game needs is wrong, plain and simple. Rock Band is a great learning tool, in which case you just turn on no fail, you connect your ekit to a separate audio out, you play the part as it’s meant to be (you can commit to mind the missing or different notes as much as you do for accents and ghost notes) and you have fun with that like I do. ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_wink.gif”> But in game authoring needs to follow the rules, so open hi hat goes, when needed, on Bc, snare accents might go on Yt, different sounding toms might be compounded on a single pad during the song, etc. ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_wink.gif”>

[ShinyZeni]

Well hey at least I’m not the only one struggling with this haha.

 

I really can see both sides. I think I’m just going to take it song by song and see which way feels better for that particular song. I really value all of the input though, and it’s helped me understand the logic behind why HMX has done things certain ways sometimes.

[Farottone]

Well hey at least I’m not the only one struggling with this haha.

 

I really can see both sides. I think I’m just going to take it song by song and see which way feels better for that particular song. I really value all of the input though, and it’s helped me understand the logic behind why HMX has done things certain ways sometimes.

 

There is one capital rule: you need to have a link between visual and audio. If it makes a different noise, it needs to be on a different pad; if it makes the same noise, it needs to be on the same pad. There are exceptions, but if you follow this rule you understand the dynamic of the game (why it works so well, why it makes you feel like you’re playing the instrument, etc.) and it makes you also pick the right solution without even knowing the exact rule for the specific scenario, because you can almost infer it from the general rule.

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