[rezavakili]

I had a blast playing The Roots song, great job. More Roots please. Thanks.

[tonedef]

[sHAMELESS PLUG]

 

Few (drum-only) Roots tracks in my WIP thread.

 

[/sHAMELESS PLUG]

[Atruejedi]

“Somethin’ good comes with the bad; a song’s never just sad. There’s hope…”

I’ll admit I’m unwittingly sexist when it comes to my musical tastes. For whatever reason, the vast majority of songs I listen to are sung by men. Glancing over my top 50 scrobbled artists of all time on last.fm, they’re all dudes except Band of Skulls, Mother Mother, Fitz and the Tantrums, the Zutons, and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. And each of those bands has a chick singing with a dude, not exclusively. Yet those are (obviously and statistically) some of my favorite bands, and First Aid Kit is rapidly climbing the ranks to join them. I’m making a personal breakthrough here, people! Misogyny, I bid thee adieu!

Click here to go to the database entry.

This Rock Band 3 custom song, My Silver Lining by First Aid Kit, is my eleventh release and the first custom by the Swedish sisters available in the database. I’ve been obsessed with them lately, especially their fourth album (just released in January), but this is the song that sparked my fascination.

Marry me. Yes, both of you.

These ladies were added to my suggestions thread in July and My Silver Lining was the Obvious Choice™… obviously. But how this actually turned into a custom is a bit more interesting… but first, check out the video!

[Gameplay video courtesy of Fat Ha1p3rt; video not entirely reflective of custom venue work]

Features:
Fully custom venue from scratch
Vocal chart from scratch
Dryvox lip sync for both vocal parts
Vocal tonic note
Reductions for all instruments
Numeric ID for Wii leaderboards
Guitar by DenVaktare
Drums by Chainsaw Octopus

See that final note there? “Drums by Chainsaw Octopus?” Well, back when I first began frequenting these forums and after I finally got customs working on my Wii, I downloaded a custom of The Heavy’s Short Change Hero from the database. I left the author this comment:

This is awesome. Great work! I hope someday it has harmonies during the refrain! Keyboards would be cool too ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_biggrin.gif” />

Edit: Okay, after playing this many times, now, and having known the song before it was released with Borderlands 2 (hipster here ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” /> ) and listening to it countless times in surround sound, in my car, and with headphones, I am 99% sure that the vocals charts are wrong.

I think you’ve got the harmony charted as the melody during the refrain, and since the “real” melody therefore isn’t present at all, it’s really causing an issue for singers when I play with friends. I was reluctant to point this out in my initial thank-you post because we were all drinking and it was our first time playing it, but now I’m almost positive something is up. But I hate to be the odd man out, so can anybody confirm or disconfirm this? I’d appreciate being called right or crazy!

If you are going to be updating this eventually, I’d be more than willing to help sort out the right notes for this song. It’s so deserving of a perfect chart!

A month later, I got a message in my inbox from the author, Chainsaw Octopus:

Hey man, I just saw your message while I was updating the links to my customs. I can send over my Reaper file if you’d like to tinker with it and fix up the vocals. I am self admittedly not great at charting vocals, so it would not surprise me if they are totally off.

To which I said…

Hey dude. Sure! I have ZERO experience with creating customs, but this would be a good excuse to learn ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” />

To make a long story slightly less long, I told him what notes should go where and he fixed up the song. When he updated it in the database and I got to play the improved version, I posted the new comment:

I’d like to give a big thank-you to Chainsaw Octopus for “collaborating” with me, if you want to call it that! I just figured out the notes themselves… he did the actual work of implementing my changes into the song! Hopefully the beginning of a beautiful partnership ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” />

I hoped right.

Chainsaw Octopus disappeared from the scene for a while shortly after our interaction and, in his absence, I spread my wings and learned how to directly input my vocal chart improvements into Reaper. When he returned, we reconnected and I mentioned how he and I should indeed have a genuine collaboration. Well, here we are.

Since Short Change Hero was the featured tune in Borderlands 2, I thought Chainsaw Octopus might be interested in collaborating on My Silver Lining, featured in the wonderful adventure game Tales from the Borderlands. I’ve loved the song since I first heard it while the credits rolled and figured he would dig it, too. E’yup. In fact, every song that game licensed is delightful and I wouldn’t mind having them all in Rock Band at some point. But that’s an adventure for later!

He sent me a drum chart for the song and I put together the bass and vocals pretty rapidly, but never have I spent so much time revising and revising a bass part before. I just kept hearing it… differently. Finally, I let the force flow through me and just felt the bass part. I’ve played it a few times now and it’s delightful. I just hope it’s accurate!

 

The vocals are a real nightmare, by the way. Two full octaves of singing. If anybody can pull this off, I’d love to hear it. I sound awful on this one. ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_biggrin.gif” />

I really wanted to try to get something appropriate for the keys slot. I found this and thought the left-hand part would fit nicely, even if it’s temporary. I should point out that this is a ghost part. It sounds fantastic on a real keyboard, but with non-pro keys it’s nothing special. If you have something better to chart to keys, contact me.

The guitar part is courtesy of none other than DenVaktare. He sent me two versions of the chart and I chose the second option. Why? Well, to quote myself:

Both of these are beautiful nightmares. I think I will go with B, because I do value playability… the song is hard enough as it is! And this is gonna slaughter me either way.

And it’s at that point that I noticed, somehow, every guitar part I recruit him to chart is a hammer-on hellscape. Seriously! And he isn’t just making everything hammer-ons for the hell of it! It’s the nature of the songs! It’s such a strange coincidence. But this only gives him incentive to chart more guitar parts for me… to prove he’s versatile! ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_biggrin.gif” />

If you’d like to contribute improvements or animations or if you have suggestions for how I can do better, please contact me. Now get along, lil’ doggy!

Atruejedi

[drummerockband]

Woah, did not expect to see First Aid Kit make it to Rock Band. And from their best album of all things! Thanks so much for this can’t wait to play it!

[Atruejedi]

“You pour me pond water and I sip it like champagne”

 

Everybody knows Lump. Everybody knows Peaches. But the Presidents of the United States of America have many more songs clever and catchy and cute enough to get caught in your ear.

 

Click here to go to the database entry.

 

This Rock Band 3 custom song, So Lo So Hi by The Presidents of the United States of America, is my twelfth release and one of the all-too-few PUSA customs available in the database. Hopefully this custom’ll spark some interest and get some more made by the iconic executives.

 

Presidents Ballew, McKeag, and Finn.

 

I’ve already documented my love of the Presidents in my suggestions post, so I won’t stuff that down your ballot box again. However, I’ll again mention that my objective was to get made songs that were underappreciated, obscure, or unknown. Well, pull that lever; here comes the dark horse candidate.

 

[Gameplay video courtesy of Fat Ha1p3rt]

 

Features:
Fully custom venue from scratch
Vocal chart from scratch
Dryvox lip sync for both vocal parts
Vocal tonic note
Reductions for guitar, bass and drums (keys and pro keys are too simple to merit reductions)
Numeric ID for Wii leaderboards

Guitar by DenVaktare

Drums by Whizzer

 

Horse? Sorry, I meant fish. And bird. You can understand my confusion when so many PUSA songs are about animals… kitties, boll weevils, frogs, ladybugs, butterflies, turtles, flies, spiders, fleas, mites, rivers of monkeys and cities of bugs. Forgive me!

I will always vote to see more songs by the Presidents in my Rock Band library. They’re one of my favorite bands and severely underrated. Thankfully, Harmonix gave them some love with a song on the Rock Band 2 disc and a fantastic three pack featuring my favorite PUSA song, Ladybug. When GreenPanda12 released Boll Weevil, I was ecstatic. But there are still so many worthy candidates! I honestly expected the self-titled debut to be completely charted by this point. Alas… maybe in four more years.

Me, personally? I didn’t have any actual plans to release a PUSA song so soon, but when DenVaktare dropped a surprise Reaper file into my inbox last week featuring a completed guitar chart for So Lo So Hi, I dove right in and squeezed out the bass chart and vocals. Whizzer supplied the varied and vicious drum chart that makes me wish I wasn’t so damn uncoordinated, because damn, it looks fun.

The venue is pretty simple, but I tried to use post-processing effects to set the mood for a song about a fish and bird pursuing a difficult romance. I also tried to keep it light-hearted and fun, because it is. Two hard-rockin’, delightful minutes await you.

The keyboard part is a mere 15 seconds long and so simple I only reduced it for easy difficulty. If you’re going to play it, make sure you’ve got a microphone hooked up as well. Voxboardist? Keyvoxer? Take your pick. I also tried to allow for gold starring the part by having a unison overdrive opportunity with bass and guitar, whichever is present. So go ahead and farm an achievement with this tune if you wish.

I’ve also gotten better at implementing overdrive in general, but especially in relation to unisons. It should “sound” better now when you nail those chances. If I ever have to update an older release, I’ll make sure to improve those overdrive tubes as well. It’s the little things, after all. I want every custom I release to feel like official DLC.

If you’d like to contribute improvements or animations or if you have suggestions for how I can do better, please contact me. Now go an’ rock that vote.

Atruejedi

[Atruejedi]

“I gave an apple to my playground crush

She told me that the apple wasn’t bad enough

Aw, shucks…”

 

Have you ever been so damn fascinated with something that you are constantly proselytizing to your friends about how wonderful said something is and how stupid said friends are for not loving it as much as you do? For me, that something is the band Mother Mother.

 

Click here to go to the database entry.

 

This Rock Band 3 custom song, Back in School by Mother Mother, is my thirteenth release and the fifth (!!!) custom by the Canadian creeps available in the database.

 

Is that Dexter Holland!?

 

Mother Mother wasn’t added to my suggestions thread until January because, as I mentioned above, they miraculously have four other customs available in the database. At the risk of repeating myself: download them. They’re all awesome and I want more, more, more. You will definitely be getting more Mother Mother customs from me in the future, god and collaborators willing. But to start us off, here’s Back in School.

 

[Gameplay video courtesy of Fat Ha1p3rt]

 

Features:
Fully custom venue from scratch
Vocal chart from scratch
Dryvox lip sync for all three vocal parts
Vocal tonic note
Reductions for all instruments
Numeric ID for Wii leaderboards

Guitar by mangolatango

Drums by DenVaktare

 

Let me school you in how this project got made. Frequent collaborator DenVaktare was browsing my already-mentioned-always-incredible suggestions thread and Back in School caught his ear. Without consulting me, he whipped up a drum chart for the tune and dropped it into my inbox. I had a ton of other projects on my plate at the time and had no plans to make a Mother Mother custom anytime soon… but here it was. Well, what could I do!? Immediately drop everything to complete and release it, of course. Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

I thought mangolatango would be a good fit to author the guitar part and he did an A+ job of it. It is adequately bad-ass, which is what I expect from both the band and mango himself. Bass and vocals were by yours truly, and boy, those vocals…

This is the most elaborate dryvox session I’ve had to tackle thus far. Using the split option in Reaper, I copied and pasted snippets of my singing into three separate tracks until the thing was damn-near perfect. I’m extremely pleased with myself for how the lip sync turned out for this custom (especially because it only took me one recording take for each section!). I hope you enjoy it, too!

Shout-out to Farottone for his advice on how to handle the so-much-is-happening vocals. I knew Mother Mother’s vocals would be elaborate and challenging, but I didn’t anticipate this much complexity. Nonetheless, the job is finished and I’m quite satisfied! The melody is spot-on, and the harmonies should be pretty darned accurate, but I’ll admit they might not be perfect… I couldn’t find any live and/or acoustic versions of this track to help determine the notes of certain sections.

The venue is definitely a departure from my usual ventures… and it might be my personal favorite creation at this point in my customs creating career.. It’s much more chaotic than I’m accustomed to making because, well, the song seemed to call for it. The beats-per-minute of the tempo map was 160, which made everybody move really quickly all the time. Because of that, I halved the tempo to 80 during the more mellow portions of the song. This seemed like a good compromise, and I would appreciate feedback of any sort.

Something could probably go in the keys slot, but I’m stumped as to what. I marked the custom as having no keys part because I really have no idea. I apologize if I’m incorrect and you feel deceived.

If you’d like to contribute improvements or animations or if you have suggestions for how I can do better, please contact me. Class dismissed.

Atruejedi

[Atruejedi]

Thank you to everybody who bothers to read my exposition for each of these customs. I hope if you don’t actually read the sizeable blurbs, you at least enjoy yourself while rocking out! Thank you for the continued support.

 

A big, big thank you to Fat Ha1p3rt for all the preview videos he’s made me for today’s releases. I honestly refuse to release finished songs until I have gameplay videos because I believe it increases the chance of people downloading and enjoying my customs. Plus, I put a lot of effort into the venues, and I want to show off

 

Yeah, a definite understatement. The force is ridiculously strong with this one! I swear I enjoy his blurbs as much as the content itself and it’s insane that both are of the same quality! Thanks very much to all guest authors as well! ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_biggrin.gif” />

 

Oh, you. It’s the least I can do to show my appreciation for all my collaborators. I couldn’t do this on my own! …well, I could, but the product would feature terrible guitar and drum parts ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_biggrin.gif” />

 

Yup, wasn’t aware of these guys…but this Black Skulls number you did, definitley cast some kind’a voodoo hoodo juju on me!

Great stuff, thanks for the recommendation! (and your energy put into making it as well as sharing it) Nice job! ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_biggrin.gif” />

 

I hope you listen to more of their songs! I meant it when I said they don’t have a bad song or a bad album. In fact… everything is at least good, more often great. Dive in!

 

I had a blast playing The Roots song, great job. More Roots please. Thanks.

 

Ask and you (coincidentally) shall receive. The Seed 2.0 is in the works! But don’t expect it for a while… I have other songs in my WIP thread I need to release first!

 

Woah, did not expect to see First Aid Kit make it to Rock Band. And from their best album of all things! Thanks so much for this can’t wait to play it!

 

As my post above said… if you can actually sing this well, I want video! Enjoy!

[Atruejedi]

“We are now accepting callers for these beautiful pendant key chains…”

You know, sometimes you can have your cake and eat it, too…

Click here to go to the database entry.

This Rock Band 3 custom song, Comfort Eagle by CAKE, is my fourteenth release and the sixth custom by John McCrea and Company available in the database. But the word “my” is a little misleading…

Instead of a new album, have this flower. It has a smaller carbon footprint.

Even though I am a huuuge fan of the band, CAKE was never featured in my suggestions thread because of the cornucopia of customs available by them in the database. Hell, I didn’t even know I’d be involved with this custom until it was virtually ready for release!

[Gameplay video courtesy of MrPrezident; video not entirely reflective of custom venue work]

Features:
Fully custom venue from scratch
Vocal chart from scratch
Vibraslap
Dryvox lip sync for all three vocal parts
Vocal tonic note
Reductions for all instruments
Numeric ID for Wii leaderboards
Guitar by MrPrezident
Bass by MrPrezident
Drums by MrPrezident
Keys and pro keys by MrPrezident

I cannot stress how little I contributed to this custom (but I’ll sure try!). The guitar, bass, drums, keys, and pro keys parts were all sent to me intact by MrPrezident, along with nearly half of the vocals. I finished up the talkies, implemented the lyrics, added harmonies, and tweaked the bass part, but that’s it. Well, beyond the lip sync and the custom venue, of course. In essence, Prez did the baking and I applied the icing. It’s a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake… if the way is TEAMWORK.

Truth be told, it shocked me when Prez asked me to finish this one up and publish it in the database. I mean, seriously! The fellow did all the work, right?! Surely he desired the glory, and rightfully so! But, hm…

Maybe he saw my custom of Back in School by his Canadian countrymen Mother Mother and thought, “This Jedi fellow is an artist. I must have him direct my music video!” …Yeah! That’s the ticket. That’s gotta be it. It couldn’t be that he’s released more customs than you can shake a bag of milk at and simply wanted to share the wealth a bit. No. He needed that custom venue from me. Well, I hope he’s satisfied! I tried to make it adequately trippy while remaining light-hearted and bright. Comfort Eagle is a fun song and should be represented as such when you play it with your plastic band mates!

Even though this custom wasn’t my idea and, all things considered, I barely helped bring it to life, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t consider releasing a song or two by CAKE in the future! As I told Prez, Jolene is probably my favorite CAKE song. And I’d be interested in working on You Part the Waters, Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle, Wheels, and Love You Madly as well!

Oh, and what would a CAKE custom be without a sprinkling of vibraslap? Half-baked, I say! So I made sure to add a pinch of vibraslap into the recipe by using it for the count-in and the truncated ending. Hipster, hip, hooray!

*Dooonnnnggg*

If you’d like to contribute improvements or animations or if you have suggestions for how I can do better, please contact me. Now go forth and rock on completely with some brand new components.

Atruejedi

[MrPrezident]

 

As I told Prez, Jolene is probably my favorite CAKE song. And I’d be interested in working on You Part the Waters, Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle, Wheels, and Love You Madly as well!

 

 

 

You’re very kind, but when I started this one I really hoped you would be the one to breathe the life into it and apply the finishing touches. So thank YOU!

 

Yes, I think Jolene should be next, I’ll map that and send it over.

Keeping the content Canadian since 2017!

SomeOldGuys: https://db.c3universe.com/songs/all/__user/someoldguys
MrPrezident: https://db.c3universe.com/songs/all/__user/MrPrezident

[Atruejedi]

I am required to change my song IDs from 1392100001, 1392100002, etc. (10 digits) to 649200001, 649200002, etc. (9 digits). Since that will be happening, I am posting here to request that if any of my fourteen customs released thus far needs additions/changes/fixes/tweaks, please let me know! Feedback makes me stronger.

 

Planned changes include reducing the number of vocal overdrive opportunities (divide phrases by 5… thanks, ws54!) and making overdrive for instruments better than it is (from serviceable to professional).

 

Oh, and I’ve gotta figure out how to wrap that Runaway Train bass line

 

So, sock it to me!

 

P.S. Anybody wanna adds pro keys to What They Do or Runaway Train?

[Atruejedi]

“… but it’s easier on me than having to admit that she likes someone else “

 

Are you suffering from emotional distress after being callously kicked to the curb by your significant other? Do you find that numbing yourself with alcohol is less and less effective? Well, try turning the tables and benefiting from that bad breakup! All you’ve gotta do is weave a sob story about your partner’s untimely demise… consistency be damned! Turn that dump into a bump!

 

Click here to go to the database entry.

 

This Rock Band 3 custom song, My Girlfriend’s Dead by The Vandals, is my fifteenth release and the first (FOR SHAME!) custom by these pilfering punks available in the database. If all goes according to plan, it won’t be the last. The barbarian horde has set its sights on the C3 database and invasion is imminent… even if the army is only a single song for now. An army of one!

 

“Ladies, from now on you’ll never see one of those men without the other three!”

 

My first memory of the Vandals was hearing their cover of So Long, Farewell from The Sound of Music while using the Yahoo! Radio function built into Yahoo! Messenger in the late ’90s. While I’m a bit surprised they never had a single released by Harmonix as DLC, I’m even more surprised they have no customs in the database. Luckily, this song request post by Seahorste lit a fire under some Roman asses.

 

[Gameplay video courtesy of MrPrezident; video not entirely reflective of custom venue work]

 

Features:
Fully custom venue from scratch
Vocal chart from scratch
Dryvox lip sync for all three vocal parts
Vocal tonic note
Reductions for all instruments
Numeric ID for Wii leaderboards (Song ID 649200015)

Guitar by MrPrezident

Keys and pro keys by MrPrezident

Drums by Sideshow

 

This adorably sad tune was the Obvious Choice featured in the Vandals entry of my suggestions thread last July. Only a few weeks ago did Sideshow, MrPrezident, and I begin collaborating to bring this custom to life, but within a week everything was ready to go!

…and then I had a hard drive failure.

So just like Rome, this song was indeed built in a few days*, but then Rome got sacked. Luckily, I didn’t lose any work related to this song, but having to deal with the fallout of that situation distracted me from finishing up all the little details and delayed the custom’s arrival in the database. But I think it was worth the wait! The lip sync turned out wonderfully and I got to experiment with some venue options I hadn’t yet had reason to use; namely, the silhouette spotlight effect at the beginning and the strobe light effects throughout (especially during the ending). I hope the custom venue will make this song a party pleaser!

I had a hell of a time charting the bass part for this song. No matter how I adjusted the audio settings, I couldn’t really “pull” it out in certain sections, and a MIDI I acquired to assist me proved horribly inaccurate in many places. I think the bass chart is good enough, but improvements and suggestions are more than welcome.

I had an even hellier of a time charting the vocals for this one because I consistently got slaughtered during playtests. Why? Because I was experimenting with Tuning Cents and altering Tuning Cents after “installing” a song into the Wii’s library requires a cache refresh for the changes to go into effect. So I wasted a ton of time and made a million tweaks to the vocals thinking it was a problem with my chart, but, no, it was the gosh darn Tuning Cents. Lesson learned!

 

About the opening Ba ba ba ba ba vocals: During live shows, the Vandals don’t whistle the whistling part, they “ba” it, and the audience joins in. So to increase the fun factor, that’s how I tried to chart it. Because whistling this would be very tricky, I excluded it from solo play. It’s only present in the harmonies version, and it’s charted to the third harmony slot. Witness me! (Thanks for reminding me to explain this, BornGamerRob!)

 

Shout-out to my collaborators, Prez and Sideshow, for the wonderful work they contributed to this custom. Sideshow’s drum chart is one of the most intense featured in any of my customs, and Prez went above and beyond with the pro keys chart. While I wouldn’t be playing the drum part anytime soon (because I am awful), I’ll definitely be giving the pro keys part a playthrough soon!

If you’d like to contribute improvements or animations or if you have suggestions for how I can do better, please contact me. And Jerry, just remember… it’s not a lie if you believe it.

Atruejedi

P.S. Dave Quackenbush is obviously the great-great-grandson of Lida Rose Quackenbush.

*This may not be historically accurate.

[ejthedj]

I love it when a song evokes as emotional response like this one; It’s both sad and silly at the same time 😣

[Atruejedi]

I love it when a song evokes as emotional response like this one; It’s both sad and silly at the same time

I’m glad you enjoyed it. ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” /> Thanks for the feedback!

[Atruejedi]

“He’s writing revelations for the showdown…”

 

Jukebox the Ghost were, for the longest time, a band just out of my Rock Band library’s reach. They were never featured in my suggestions thread because they have an astonishing five tracks from their wonderful sophomore album available on the Rock Band Network. Joy of joys! Too bad those songs were never officially released for Wii users

 

Click here to go to the database entry.

 

This Rock Band 3 custom song, Static by Jukebox the Ghost, is my sixteenth release and the third custom featuring my indie-rock idols available in the database. The project came together and was completed in about two weeks because I couldn’t contain my enthusiasm when SteveHasAMustache posted Beady Eyes on the Horizon in the database. I immediately reached out to him about collaborating on another Jukebox the Ghost song (JTG for the rest of this post) and he asked me what I’d like to get made. There was no question. “Static to to the Heart!”

 

A handful of handsome hipsters having their hair heated.

 

Then Steve informed me that it’s actually just entitled Static. All these years and I never realized I was adding three words to the title. Heh. Some fan I am. ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_frown.gif” /> But I swear, I have been a huge fan of the band for years! My first memory of hearing their music was over the venue speakers during the intermission at a live show while one band left the stage and another set up their equipment. I didn’t have SoundHound yet, so I just memorized a few of the lyrics and, when I got home, typed them into a Google search as a quote with the word lyrics attached. Bam! I discovered JTG (the song was Hold It In, available as a C3 release!). I devoured their first two albums and have followed them ever since. I’ve seen them three times in concert and own two t-shirts. This means I’m cool and have street cred. The band still makes good music, but nothing touches those first two releases. Since the second album is so well represented on the RBN, I thought I’d show the debut some more love. I’m glad Steve agreed!

[Gameplay video courtesy of MrPrezident; video not entirely reflective of custom venue work; here is the video on Mega]

 

Features:
Fully custom venue from scratch
Vocal chart from scratch
Dryvox lip sync for all three vocal parts
Vocal tonic note
Reductions for all instruments
Numeric ID for Wii leaderboards (Song ID 649200016)

Guitar by SteveHasAMustache

Keys and pro keys by SteveHasAMustache

Drums by SteveHasAMustache

 

Steve did all the heavy lifting for this one. I am both humbled and gracious that he trusted me to apply the glossy paint and publish it in the database after completing the vocals. Steve did the charts for the guitar, drums, keys, and pro keys. He didn’t chart the bass part, though… because there is no bass part. Which actually sucked for me, because I thought I could contribute that to the project!

 

Alas. But having the standard three instruments made rigging up the custom venue much simpler; there’s no need to account for “what-ifs” of when an instrumentalist is or isn’t on stage. So I was able to make an impressive, rigid spectacle to entertain the players and audience when the rocking begins.

 

As for the vocals, I’m really proud of the charts. After completing the melody and beginning the harmony, I realized something sounded… off. While ignoring Tuning Cents worked for the melody, once I was listening to the harmony, I realized it needed tweaking. So all parts are jacked up a quarter of a note, and I can happily say after testing out the vocals multiple times that this seems like the sweet spot.

 

“Hey! Jay Tee Gee has two singers! Why does this song has three vocal parts?”

 

Yeah, Ben and Tommy usually trade off on main vocal duties with two-part harmonies, but I swear I hear another harmony on this track, albeit rarely. After watching and listening to a handful of live performances of the song, I put that real, official harmony in the HARM2 slot and added the phantom harmony as a bonus in HARM3. It’s only present for four phrases in the entire song, so I almost feel like advertising the song in the visualizer as having three vocal parts is lying… so, now you know the story!

If you’d like to contribute improvements or animations or if you have suggestions for how I can do better, please contact me. Now let’s burn this motherfucker down because.

Atruejedi

[Atruejedi]

“Maybe you will always be just a little out of reach…”

 

Some things take time. Life gets in the way of what we have to do versus what we want to do. And when we do get the time to do what we want, we often learn there aren’t enough hours in the day if you really want to do something right. But some things are worth the wait… and the moment has finally arrived.

 

Click here to go to the database entry.

 

This Rock Band 3 custom song, Satellite by Guster, is my seventeenth release and the first full-band custom available in the database featuring one of my very favorite bands. The project took a long time to complete because the wheels of custom creation can grind quite slowly sometimes. But I guess it’s appropriate that the satellite we inhabit has nearly made a complete revolution around its sun since the idea was sparked. And we totally did gang up on this custom.

 

Making Dad Rock since 2016.

 

Guster was the very first band featured in my suggestions thread because I wanted this exact song made into a custom. So let me share with you the journey this song made to land in your library!

 

[Gameplay video courtesy of Fat Ha1p3rt; video not entirely reflective of custom venue work]

 

Features:
Fully custom venue from scratch
Vocal chart from scratch
Dryvox lip sync for all three vocal parts
Vocal tonic note
Reductions for all instruments
Numeric ID for Wii leaderboards (Song ID 649200017)

Vocals by BornGamerRob

Guitar by TomGuy

Drums by Chainsaw Octopus

 

It all started when Chainsaw Octopus and I finished up collaborating on Moving to New York by the Wombats. The next song I wanted made was Satellite, so Chainsaw Octopus cracked out the tempo map ‘n’ drums chart ‘n’ sent it my way… but nothing came of it. Back then, you see, I didn’t have the requisite skills to create and publish my very own custom; I was only capable of contributing vocals to the works of other authors. In the past year, that’s changed.

 

Also in the past year, C.O.’s Reaper project ended up in the hands of BornGamerRob, who laid down the initial vocals chart. BornGamerRob was himself just getting into authoring at the time, but his work was completely serviceable. Only because of my crippling perfectionism did I invest so much (practically unnecessary) time into polishing his melody and adding the harmonies. B.G.R. laid a very solid foundation upon which I was able to build a vocalist’s villa. And yes, that sounded better in my head. Many thanks to him!

 

So, now the drums and vocals were accounted for. I knew I could handle the bass and rudimentary pro keys myself, but tackling the plastic guitar intimidated me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it justice, so I concentrated on completing the other two parts. I really love my bass chart for this song, and I think you’ll dig it, too.

The critical absense of a guitar chart held this sucker up for much longer than I had ever anticipated. The dryvox and venue (typically my final steps when I’m publishing a custom) were complete and collecting dust, holding out for a hero to chart the guitar. Enter TomGuy. Tom and I have worked together in the past and he’s a swell chap. When I decided to contract the job out to a freelancer with more experience, he was one of the first authors I thought of contacting. Lucky for me, he was eager to contribute to such a special song. He whipped up a lovely guitar part for Satellite and the final piece of the puzzle was now in place.

That isn’t to say the puzzle is perfect, though. I’ve done my best with fleshing out the pro keys chart as best as my ears would allow, but there’s definitely room for additions and improvement. If any keyboard and/or Guster enthusiast is up to the task, get in touch. We already have four authors involved with this song, so why not make it five? ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” />

It was an honor working with all of the above authors to bring this to life after such a long wait. I hope you enjoy it! If you’d like to contribute improvements or animations or if you have suggestions for how I can do better, please contact me. Thanks for reading!

Atruejedi

[Author]

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