Rock Band 3 Update

While there are many speculations that the rhythm-action genre has become over-saturated with similar titles and is in decline, they may have spoke to soon. According to an interview with the Chicago Tribune Dhani Harrison stated that he is "working on 'Rock Band 3' and making the controllers more real so people can actually learn how to play music while playing the game." While he promises nothing in the immediate future, it's reassuring to see that Harmonix is continuing their overall mission of creating games that can impart the joys of musicianship to those who are not trained in music, not to mention continuing to not be satisfied for a set formula of what makes a rhythm action game.

When It Rains, It Pours - REO Speedwagon Game Announced

A press release from Merscom Games announced yesterday that it would be publishing a hidden object game developed by Curious Sense featuring REO Speedwagon. The game is called "Find Your Own Way Home" will require you to click the screen a lot to find a missing rock star for an album release party. The game will feature 12 REO Speedwagon songs two of which are unreleased recordings. The press release states that the game "is the first of several games Curious Sense will produce with music acts"



We may have just figured out where Margaritaville (see previous post) is going...80 levels of finding lost shakers of salt? Hells yes.

Margaritaville: The Game

There comes a time when everyone's beliefs are shaken. They question the higher power of their choosing, be it God, Jesus, Mohamed, Vishnu, or M. Night Shyamalan. This day has come for me, and I'm sure many of you as well, which is why I find it important for you to here this from a source as distressed as yourself.

"Margaritaville" has filed for trademarking in the realm of "Interactive Game Software". While it's impossible to tell if this is simply a legal precaution or if Mr. Buffet does have plans to release a game regailing us in the story of Mark, a late 40's, sock and sandal wearing "laid back kinda dude" just the idea is a bit frightening.

Check out joystiq for some humorous game theme possibilities.

Incredibox - Hey look, the french did something

Incredibox is a interactive flash based website that allows you to play around with a set of loops created by musician and beat box artist Paul Malburet. While the idea of an intuitive graphic interface to allow users who are unversed in music tech to mix and explore the creation of music is nothing new, this particular example has a great art style and unlockable "bonus" cut animations. The personality of the style in which the site is done leads one to wonder why more artists have not created similar applications to allow fans to engage in the music and artist if they're not comfortable giving out their complete stem recordings.

Alice in Chains releases iPhone App

Alice in Chain's iPhone application for their new album "Black Gives Way To Blue" was released today, and according to its one planted (either that or Alice in Chains fans care about "easy connectivity built right in" more than I thought) review "Alice in Chains rocks hard and so does this app!" The application features all the now standard features of streamed songs, video, connection to social networking and pictures. The major addition is the interactivity of the CD's liner notes. Each track on the album is accompanied by an interactive picture that the user can manipulate by draging various elements. The application is produced by mobile roadie and costs 99 cents. You can view a video demo of the applications features here.

Hollywood Music in Media Award Nominees

HMMA is an awards show celebrating the best placement of music in visual mediums. This includes Best Original Score, Best Original Song, and Outstanding Music Supervision, all for video games. Here are the nominees:

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE - VIDEO GAME
Inon Zur - "Dragon Age: Origins" (BioWare/EA)
Tom Salta - "HAWX" (Ubisoft)
Stephen Rippy - "Halo Wars" (Ensemble Studios)
Joris de Man - "Killzone 2" (Guerrilla Games)
Jim Dooley / Amon Tobin / Mel Wesson / JD Mayer- "Infamous" (Sucker Punch Productions)
Winifred Phillips / Winnie Waldron - "Spore Hero" (EA)
Jesper Kyd - "Assassins Creed 2" (Ubisoft)
Martin O'Donnell - "Halo 3: ODST" (Bungie)
Greg Edmonson - "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves" (Naughty Dog)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG - VIDEO GAME
Inon Zur / Aubrey Ashburn - "I Am the One" (Dragon Age: Origins)
Carmen Rizzo / Sony Computer Entertainment - "Road to Shambhala" (Uncharted 2: Among Thieves)

OUTSTANDING MUSIC SUPERVISION - VIDEO GAME

Giles Martin - The Beatles: Rock Band (Harmonix/MTV)

Emily Ridgeway - Brutal Legend (Double Fine Productions)

Simon Pressey - Dragon Age: Origins (BioWare EA)

Martin O'Donnell - Halo 3: ODST (Bungie Studios)

Chuck Doud - inFAMOUS (SCEA)

The awards will be given out on November 19th.

CMJ Mobile Panel

Once again CMJ has taken over Manhatten. Here's a quick summary of some fun facts and predictions that came up in the Mobile Technology panel:

• Jonathan Dworkin from Nokia said that the company plans to roll out their Comes With Music phone service globally in the next two years.
• Users of the current Comes With Music plan download on average across 7 genres, those who buy a la carte buy across an average of 3.
  
• About 8% of Shazaam inquiries end in a purchase according to Will Mills.
  
• Michael Schneider of Mobile Roadie talked about the development of technology that would allow artists, through their phone applications to send out to send out files/messages based on the users location (e.g. at their concert).
  
• Verizon's Tom Constabile stated that the company was currently working on developing a network with speed and reliability on par with broadband.
  

The panel was moderated by Peter Kirn from Create Digital Music which covers the role of mobile devices in producing music. So if pixelh8 and RjDj peaked your interest you may want to consider adding it to your blog checklist.

Additionally, the phrase "contextualized sonic bombardment" was used at some point, or so my scribbled notes tell me. I've decided to form a Prog Rock Band to release an album under that name. Any band name suggestions for such a release are more than welcome.

Rock Band Do It Yourself Is Approaching

As we get closer to the "end of 2009" launch given by Harmonix, details of the new DIY Rock Band Network are becoming increasingly clear. A quick summary: this past summer Harmonix announced it was planning to open its track creation software and in game store to the masses in an attempt to exponentially expand its DLC collection. Artists and labels or any other copyright holders can create rock band tracks, submit them for review and hopefully make some money. Sound interesting? Here's a brief summary of what you need:

• Reaper mixing software available here. They offer a free 30 day trial, afterward you can purchase the discounted license for $60 or the full commercial one for $225. If your only using it for personal/educational/non-profit use or for a for profit venture making less than $20K a year the discounted license will be fine for you.
• Rock Band Plug-in available for Mac OSX or PC
  
• Magma (PC only)- to create a wav/midi file that can be read by an Xbox
  
• Xbox Live Gold membership
• XNA premium membership to audition songs on the Xbox (a feature added in a rock band 2 patch) and to receive payment through.
• 20-40 hours of free time (for your first time through depending on experience)

While the review process has yet to be outlined in specifics it seems that it will be community based, with approved users of a certain skill level playing through, reviewing and helping revise tracks. If you make it to the DLC promise land you'll get 30% of your sales.

For those looking to dominate the PS3 market hold tight, no word yet on negotiations regarding the selling and uploading of songs for that platform.

Like the idea of your music on Rock Band? Not so much the work? There's a healthy list of companies looking to help you out for a small share on the Rock Band Forums. But if you haven't been scared off yet and want to give it a shot yourself you can find more detailed instructions here.

Bravo Gustavo

The LA philharmonic has a rock star conductor and an iPhone app/online game to match. Gustavo Dudamel, a 27 year old Venezuelan, has been conducting since his teenage years and is now trying to bridge the cultural gap between the philharmonic and it’s surrounding ethnic communities and their youth. In line with this new approach the game “Bravo Gustavo” is now available on iPhones and online . It’s a side scrolling rhythm action game where you cue in the different orchestra sections using either touch screen or keyboard. According to LA Philharmonic CEO Deborah Borda, the game garnered about 5,000 plays in the first 3 hours after its launch.

In conclusion I’m now calling that that “Harpsichord Hero” is soon to follow.

Sources
http://www.laphil.com/gustavo/bravo.html#
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=a4hHZTO2uZ8Q

RjDj Carl Craig and Acid Pauli Create Interactive Album

A new addition to the iPhone app store this week is an interactive album called “Kids on DSP”, a collection of collaborations between Carl Craig and Acid Pauli. The album uses the RjDj audio synthesizer app to integrate sounds picked up from the microphone into the albums track as they’re being listened to. Different tracks place different filters on the input sounds to incorporate your current ambient noise into the song, allowing you to never listen to the same song twice.

This is a great example of new technology in the realm of interactive media forcing us to completely reconsider what recorded music actually is and what it can be. Not to mention showcasing that there are other ways to get people to interact with the music they’re listening to than playing along on plastic instruments.

Check out more on the album and the different applications of RjDj here.

Because You Can Never Have Enough Plastic Guitars

Peripherals have had a good last few years. They’ve gone from a subset of vision to a music video game industry wide pissing contest, and now it seems two more will be joining the competition.

Activision’s Bobby Kotick was quoted as saying “…you should expect to see many of our products to be playable on the television independent of console” at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference. (source) This comment was brought up after inquiries of the possibilities of a guitar hero that would plug directly into the television a la Hannah Montana Guitar Video Game (no seriously it exists).

Also, the You Rock Guitar (official site) is trying to bridge the gap between guitarists and guitar hero enthusiasts. Inspired Instruments is now taking pre-orders for this $180 stringed and fretted digital guitar that functions as both an instrument and game controller with the addition of $20-$30 console cartridges. It also acts as a USB/MIDI guitar and has an input for iPod’s to allow users to stream their own music with their guitar playing.

Pixelh8 brings chip tune music to the DS

Pixelh8 has released a YouTube video demoing his new Music Tech Master Stroke for the DS. The beta is available now on his website for the next week. He explains all its functionality in the video much better then I ever could, so just watch it.