Harmonix' LoPiccolo wants user music in Rock Band

by Justin McElroy { Mar 11th 2008 at 10:00AM }

Harmonix' Greg LoPiccolo wants you to know that he's thinking about you. He knows that as you play Rock Band, the song that you'd really like to play and spread across the world is your own band's tune. LoPiccolo wants you to know that he wants The Cephalopods' local hit "Three Is a Tragic Number" in the game as much as you do, saying "We would like to make it possible for people to introduce their own music into the Rock Band ecosystem, which is a pretty complicated topic."

Some of those plentiful complications include IP issues and ratings problems, but LoPiccolo still thinks it's the "natural direction" for the franchise. He also talks about the feasibility of a keyboard peripheral for the game. Can we just be the ones to point out that he's missing the obvious? Keytar, people. Keytar. It's staring you right in the face. Pull the trigger on the fun gun. Do it.

Tags: ea, harmonix, mtv, rock-band, rockband, ugc

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

James @ Mar 11th 2008 10:07AM

Pull the trigger on the fun gun? Nice!

NATO_Duke @ Mar 11th 2008 10:11AM

The Keytar is by far the coolest instrument to ever exist.

Now, if you don't mind, I have to go get my Pacer an oil change...

Buckshot @ Mar 11th 2008 10:23AM

How about dual guitars for the true dead/allmans experience. Hell, how abour dual drums/percussion, have a moe. jam.

copa @ Mar 11th 2008 10:31AM

"Can we just be the ones to point out that he's missing the obvious? Keytar, people."

I think LoPiccolo is aware of they Keytar. The problems that he has mentioned before with the Keytar are twofold:

1) 95% of your Rock-and-Roll songs out there give you something interesting to do with guitar, bass, and drums for most of the song. Can you say the same thing about keyboard.

2) The key to User Interface design when you are supporting four people on the screen at once, and keeping the game accessible to newcomers, is restricting each plane to 5 gems (4 and a kick for the drums). Is a 5-key Keytar really going to be compelling?

Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Mar 11th 2008 10:57AM

Maybe not 5, but 8 (a full octave) may be reasonable.

umm....hello??? @ Mar 11th 2008 2:03PM

only compelling if you want some kickass songs from DreamTheater!! = )

Eric @ Mar 11th 2008 10:33AM

Keytar, so i can play some Depeche Mode please!

Dale @ Mar 11th 2008 10:40AM

Kids, keytars ceased to be ironic when Cobra fucking Starship co-opted them. Move along.

NATO_Duke @ Mar 11th 2008 10:49AM

I was just listening to them 10 min ago. Too funny.

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ Mar 11th 2008 10:46AM

Keytar-schmaytar, I need some Theramin support!

danny. @ Mar 11th 2008 10:48AM

if you want the keytar experience today you could just hold your guitar backwards...

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ Mar 11th 2008 11:24AM

You remind me of those dudes who hold their keyboard upside down to play Frets on Fire.

danny. @ Mar 11th 2008 10:49AM

Nice, and agreed. Then we could get the Captain Beefheart song pack.

Tony @ Mar 11th 2008 11:14AM

Troutmask Replica LP download DLC ftw! Oh, and the current guitar is basically a keytar already...der.

Matt B @ Mar 11th 2008 11:33AM

No one actually plays a keytar. They just act like they do on stage since someone in the 80's thought it looked cool(it didn't).

NATO_Duke @ Mar 11th 2008 11:36AM

Yes, it did in fact look cool. Admit it.

vidGuy @ Mar 11th 2008 11:59AM

There's two possibilities for user-created songs here.

1) User created songs shared online. This creates an IP nightmare since there would have to be a screening mechanism to make sure the songs were original and not copies of a copyrighted song that would need licensing.

2) The easier and more interesting option, user created songs that are only played locally. You wouldn't be able to "share your song with the world", but you would be able to play any song you wanted, yours or a copyrighted tune. Of course, if they made such tools available, who would buy DLC?

I know you can import tracks into Guitar Hero through various methods. It would be awesome to easily import into Rock Band, say off the console's harddrive. Unfortunately, this will never happen.

PojoMofo @ Mar 11th 2008 12:29PM

Does this mean I can quit my $100K/year job and live my dream of starting up my very own Rock Band Air Supply cover band!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is the best day of my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

danny. @ Mar 11th 2008 12:38PM

"hey everybody, I have a $100,000 dollar a year job"

that's you, that's what you sound like.

PojoMofo @ Mar 11th 2008 12:55PM

LMAO, I dont make $100k/year, i just said it for comedic value. Your ego can now make a full recovery

danny. @ Mar 11th 2008 12:56PM

haha, I feel better.

vidGuy @ Mar 11th 2008 1:09PM

The fact that I got the picture of Stewie telling off on an internet comment made my day.

tmacairjordan87 @ Mar 11th 2008 12:59PM

how about we get some more decent songs from passable bands (old or new, preferably old) before we even start worrying about hearing everyone's wannabe garage band that they think sounds cool, but in reality is pure shit.

i would rather have the ability to do on the 360 what pc players do and that's to just download note charts for songs i want in the game. that way i wont have to be held hostage when they start releasing nothing but shit every tuesday

wes @ Mar 11th 2008 2:43PM

People who complain about DLC are annoying,If you dont like anything that week...Dont buy it,Its better then the what...3 packs or so that GH3 has came out with? I've gotten about 20 songs or so and im happy with them,I dont feel the need to download everything...

xDr redruMx @ Mar 12th 2008 12:20AM

I think we are all missing the real point here. The difficulty of creating the software to enable users to create music and the IP issues with recreating already existing songs. First the difficulty: there was already a game that featured a music maker using symbols to represent sounds that you could layer to make music... perhapses you've heard of Mario Paint for the SNES. How hard could it be to create a beefed up version of tha software. Second the IP: It's called Phase and it's confirmed for Rock Band II (if it's finished in time). The issue is solved if we can take a CD and copy it to the hard drive and play any song we want. Come to think of it no beefed up version of Mario Paint would be needed. We could use software like that to create the music then use the Phase software to generate the "fret board interface." WOOT! Phase is the awesome!

Rukia @ May 7th 2008 11:00PM

The thing I personally think is that we should be able to create the note charts for any song and be able to distribute the note charts but not the songs itself. However, this creates problems with the point of DLC and also timing issues as some people (aka pirates) have different starting times on songs than others do.