Harmonix already teasing next project, and it'll involve "Music Creation"

by Kevin Kelly { Aug 22nd 2008 at 6:00PM }

Like any good developer should be doing these days, Harmonix is already looking over the horizon beyond Rock Band 2, and working on their next big title. Surprise! It'll have something to do with music. However, in a "now we'll be playing catchup to Guitar Hero" reversal, it sounds like they're working on a robust music creation title.

Guitar Hero: World Tour features a fairly involved music creation studio, where you can both create a song, and edit it in pseudo-MIDI software. In fact, it's so robust and technical that we think most casual players will hardly touch the thing. Is Harmonix going to take the concept and make it a little more, oh I don't know, fun?

Hamonix's PR rep John Drake told MTV's Multiplayer: "We've done the whole MIDI creation thing. We think we can do something really ambitious and really great that's going to speak across all the users of the game, not just hardcore users - and that will result in some awesome stuff and not just Final Fantasy covers." Not that there's anything wrong with that. However, we'd love to see a cool music creation game that doesn't require a thick manual and that isn't Wii Music.

[Photo from the amazing Glennz Tees. Check out his awesome artworkz]

Tags: Guitar-Hero, Guitar-Hero-World-Tour, Harmonix, MIDI, Music, Rock-Band-2

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

syrik zero @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:04PM

I'm excited to see the GH:WT creator thing. That will be fun, I hope. When are they releasing their set list?

Jakka(Naked Peach Brigade) @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:13PM

They've lost the pendrive with the setlist so they're remaking the game as Guitar Hero:Soulja Boy.

Now in all seriousness, nobody has heard any news from them since they denied the "rumoured list" back at E3.

Hafk @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:18PM

They revealed quite a bit of songs. It's just that Joystiq never reported any of them. Apparently the send a tip function I have been using is broken.

Jakka(Naked Peach Brigade) @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:23PM

Oh yeah...I remember now.They only got announced like yesterday though.Here are the confirmed 42.Sorry for the formating but I'm to lazy to space this out

Song ↓ Artist ↓
"About a Girl"[31] Nirvana
"American Woman"[31] Guess Who The Guess Who
"Are You Gonna Go My Way"[32][33] Lenny Kravitz
"Beat It"[34] Michael Jackson
"Bullet with Butterfly Wings"[34] Smashing Pumpkins
"B.Y.O.B."[35] System of a Down
"Crazy Train"[13] Ozzy Osbourne
"Dammit"[35] Blink-182
"Everlong"[6] Foo Fighters
"Eye of the Tiger"[35] Survivor
"Feel the Pain"[35] Dinosaur Jr.
"Float On"[31] Modest Mouse
"Hollywood Nights"[35] Bob Seger
"Hot for Teacher"[36] Van Halen
"Hotel California"[35] Eagles Eagles
"In the End"[34] Linkin Park
"Joker" "The Joker"[34] Steve Miller Band
"Lazy Eye"[35] Silversun Pickups
"Light My Fire"[34] Doors The Doors
"Livin' on a Prayer"[31] Bon Jovi
"Love Me Two Times"[34] Doors The Doors
"Low" (Travis Barker Remix)[37] Flo Rida featuring T-Pain
"Misery Business"[35] Paramore Paramore
"Mr. Crowley"[13] Ozzy Osbourne
"Never Too Late"[38] AnswerThe Answer
"No Sleep Till Brooklyn"[31] Beastie Boys
"Obstacle 1"[34] Interpol
"One Armed Scissor"[39] At the Drive-In
"Overkill"[31] Motörhead
"Purple Haze" (Live)[12] Jimi Hendrix
"Rebel Yell"[6] Billy Idol
"Rooftops[31] Lostprophets
"Santeria"[6] Sublime
"Shiver"[40] Coldplay
"Spiderwebs"[40] No Doubt
"Stillborn"[35] Black Label Society
"Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast"[35] Airbourne
"Trapped Under Ice"[35] Metallica
"Up Around the Bend"[31] Creedence Clearwater Revival
"Weapon of Choice"[35] Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
"What I've Done"[35] Linkin Park
"Wind Cries Mary" "The Wind Cries Mary"[12] Jimi Hendrix

syrik zero @ Aug 22nd 2008 7:08PM

Thanks dude! Some good songs, some I don't like and some I never heard of... How it always is =P

Jakka(Naked Peach Brigade) @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:10PM

"We've done the whole MIDI creation thing. We think we can do something really ambitious and really great that's going to speak across all the users of the game, not just hardcore users - and that will result in some awesome stuff and not just Final Fantasy covers."

That's pretty much impossible without dumbing the whole thing down.And in the end I'd rather choose a small amount of good songs done by hardcores(Have you seen what people did with Mario Music Mixer!?) then a whole sea of shit done by casual noobs.

Drew @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:42PM

Dude, have an open mind. Casual isn't equivalent to musically challenged. In fact, most musicians I know are who are great suck at games.

Burritoclock @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:46PM

I think that Sea's of shit really get a bad rap, I mean just look at typical joystiq comments...

Jakka(Naked Peach Brigade) @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:56PM

Yeah but you see, while GHWT's Editor is shaping to be a Photoshop, Harmonix's one is already leaning towards Paint.

I never called casual gamers musically-challenged.All I'm saying is that if a casual gamers really wants to use the software then he should simply learn how to use it effectively instead of having it dumbed down to his "pick up and play" level because that already handicaps Hardcore/Professional users.And this definitely shouldn't happen because while most users will just play with it once and never touch it again, Hardcores will be the ones that will design some amazing stuff for it.

Still, I guess I'm gonna have to wait till both GHWT and HMX-Project come out if I want to give any of this stuff credibility.

Bluebrake @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:35PM

I'm with Jakka here. You can't strip a music creator down to the Playskool version and expect to suddenly be able to put out great masterpieces just because it's easy. What you can get out of it is going to depend on what you can put into it.

Frankly, I don't see what everybody's all intimidated about with GH's editor. All of the advanced stuff is completely optional. You can sit down and lay out each track live one by one on the corresponding instruments. You can even use premade bass and drumlines! Honestly, it doesn't get much simpler than that, unless you want the program to write the lead guitar for you too.

On the other hand, if GH is Photoshop and Harmonix's game is Paint, that could be alright! Paint lets you put millions of pixels all over the place, in all sorts of different colors, so it's kind of like... being able to put a bunch of notes everywhere in different, um, octaves, and...

Actually, fuck this analogy. Harmonix's song creator is like a Jello Pudding Pop.

Xoviet chiK @ Aug 23rd 2008 7:57AM

With enough patience and dedication, you can create some amazing sequences with Logic Pro. It'll cost you $500, require tens of hours of reading and learning the software, it's expandability, and it's nuances that differentiate it from other high-end music production software.

Likewise, you can spend $80 on Garage Band. And do much less, with much less effort put into learning the software. And, with enough patience and dedication, you can effectively create the exact same sequence you could have made in Logic at the expense of learning the software and working your arse off exploiting it.

Paint can every bit as effective as Photoshop, if you don't mind working your arse off with the pencil tool one pixel at a time.

Harmonix Music Systems can probably achieve these apparently impossible goals. They've got a pretty substantial musical history, and technical background.

Christian @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:54PM

that photo is just awesome! I have to check it out!

Jakka(Naked Peach Brigade) @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:57PM

Okay this comment is just to check if I'm banned again as my profile suddenly stopped existing...

Jakka(Naked Peach Brigade) @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:58PM

Nevermind...all back to normal.

Haggard @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:45PM

There's probably some kind of philosophical quote about existence and hearing your own voice to be had here, but I'm far too tired.

Jef Sewell @ Aug 22nd 2008 7:00PM

Don't miss the "Living Room Legends!" Guitar-Hero inspired T-shirt too!

http://store.glennz.com/lirole.html

VaultICEE @ Aug 22nd 2008 7:14PM

Come on, I don't think Harmonix is playing "catch-up". Almost each game they've made has been at least a little innovative, and I trust they'll make it good.

But does this mean no Rock Band 3 for a while?

Burritoclock @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:06PM

Your pic is of vault, I like you.

You don't have a vagina do you, because that would be super awesome

Neebs @ Aug 22nd 2008 7:15PM

Frequency or Amplitude sequel, please!

Those games are awesome.

KiraXD @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:17PM

THANK YOU!!!! this is what i think as well... i dont care much for these guitar hero/rock band games..... but Frequency and Amplitude were AWESOME... do want more games like them.

Bluebrake @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:38PM

Does anyone know if you can do multiplayer song creation in GH:WT? In other words, can you record different instrument tracks at the same time with your friends? That's the one thing I haven't heard about yet that would make it certifiably awesome.

OldKingCole @ Aug 23rd 2008 5:34PM

Yeah, and not only that you can do it online. I think you can even save a guitar track, send it to your drummer friend and then he can work with it by himself.

Also, oh dear god I want a sequel to Amplitude.