Richard Mitchell, master and commander over at X3F, has put together a dandy little video chronicling what Xbox 360 owners can expect during the Rock Band export process, which Harmonix fully detailed today. The video shows the relatively painless process (with Benny Hill theme music interlude) involved in the 400 ($5) 1.5GB transfer.

Harmonix just officially announced that the update allowing Rock Band songs to be transferred to Rock Band 2 has gone live. Once Rock Band 2 is released, drummers, vocalists, and plastic guitar players will be able to transfer 55 songs from the original game to the sequel for $5 (400 MS points).

55 songs? That sounds like it's missing a few tracks. The press release details -- in tiny print at the bottom -- that the missing songs are: "Enter Sandman" by Metallica, "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath (cover), "Run to the Hills" by Iron Maiden (cover) and "Monsoon" by Tokio Hotel (a DLC song from the European disc). Sorry folks, but we can probably take a guess as to why Harmonix couldn't re-license some of those tracks.

Serving as a great anecdote for the old saying, "You don't know what you got 'til it's gone," an Activision representative has confirmed that Guitar Hero: World Tour will be lacking Rock Band 2's party-friendly "No Fail" option, either as a menu option or as a cheat code. Also interesting is that you can't save your bandmates should one fail; instead, you can comparatively miss more notes than in RB and stay alive.

The lack of a "No Fail" option certainly isn't going to be a game-changer -- after all, its predecessors (including RB1) sold very well without it. And although the virtual rock elitist might scoff at the notion that it's now harder to fail songs, GH:WT does have the added bonus of presenting a detailed analysis of your performance after each song (we've placed an exemplary image after the break Update: Now it really is after the break). We'll have more on our time at PAX 2008 with the game, specifically the drums, later this week.

Having just exercised our right to go broke at the Pink Godzilla mini-store on this year's PAX 2008 showfloor, we were surprised and elated to turn around and see Darth Vader and a merry band of Stormtroopers taking the stage to play Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know" on Rock Band 2, with vocals being handled by some unknown non-cosplayer. Apologies for the quality, as the moment was rather impromptu, but we had to share this with you.

We knew that as we came closer to the games' respective release dates, the feud between Harmonix/EA's Rock Band 2 and Neversoft/Activision's Guitar Hero: World Tour would reach critical mass. In the quarrel's latest smack talk salvo, Guitar Hero director Brian Bright discussed rival Harmonix's cymbal attachments for their sequel's drum kit peripheral with Eurogamer, providing some highly quotable zingers -- and buddy, we don't mean snack cakes.

Bright condemns Rock Band 2's cymbals for being "dual-mapped", meaning they'll share the functions of one of the pads of the standard kit, making the attachments somewhat unneccessary. He also dismisses them for being a panicked copycat reaction to World Tour's cymbal-equipped kit -- based on the familiar gameplay we've seen from the latest installment in the Guitar Hero franchise, we assume Neversoft would be the unparalleled experts on matters duplicative.

Rather than parsing the info out in tantalizing nuggets, Harmonix/MTV has just given us an expansive look at the future of Rock Band, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly. The magazine revealed six of the full albums headed to Rock Band 2, which we'll now happily pass along to you:

• Foo Fighters -- "The Colour and the Shape"
• Red Hot Chili Peppers -- "Blood Sugar Sex Magik"
• Jane's Addiction -- "Nothing's Shocking"
• Megadeth -- "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying"
• Stevie Ray Vaughn -- "Texas Flood"

The last album is a best-of No Doubt compilation made specifically for the game. Rather than try to impose our own musical tastes on you, we'll just pass the mic your way and ask which of those records has your head banging in anticipation.

[Thanks, Jon]

Bad news, everyone! This week's Rock Band DLC offering -- Rush's Moving Pictures album -- didn't come out today as planned. In a post on the forums, Harmonix's Sean Baptiste said, "There is a technical difficulty that is being worked out. I'll alert you when it is all clear." We wonder if that has anything to do with figuring out how to tell singers they can't wail on "YYZ." It's okay, please stop crying.

No timeline has been given, although at this point it seems more likely the Xbox 360 content will be released alongside PlayStation 3's content this week. That is, assuming they fix the problem by Thursday.

[Update: Gamespy has a post with the official, tiered, in-game rankings for each song and instrument.]

If you're anything like us, you've been gearing up for Rock Band 2 by poring through the track list and carefully studying YouTube performance clips of the songs to gain an edge in your own virtual rocking. But staring at grainy video is only so useful for determining which songs are really going to put blisters on your fingers (and uh, vocal chords). Luckily, IGN has come through with a set of comprehensive difficulty rankings, for all 84 RB2 songs, ranked by individual instrument and as a full band.

We're not entirely sure where IGN's rankings are coming from -- we can only assume they're based on the difficulty rankings provided by Harmonix (don't ask us how ties are broken). That said, based on our extensive knowledge of all things rock, it seems pretty accurate -- any group that can pass Judas Priest's Painkiller on Expert without turning on No Fail Mode should just start a real band already.

Over the past week, we've had a chance to check out ION's premium Rock Band 2 drum set, the Drum Rocker (We've played it once before at E3 2008). We're waiting for a copy of RB2 for our final impressions; in the meantime, here are our initial thoughts of the set with the original Rock Band.

• Our order arrived in two boxes weighing in at 33 lbs. and 6 lbs., respectively. The lighter box contained the third cymbal and colored discs to put on all three cymbals for differentiation.
• Total time to unbox: 20 minutes (although, to be fair, we were taking a lot of pictures). That said, total time for setup (no camera usage) was close to an hour, with a large amount of time spent trying to screw in the cymbal clamps. Just another 2 or 3 mm on the screw length and we would've had a much easier time here.
• Protip: Make sure you screw everything in very tight, or you'll be having to either pause the game to make fixes mid-song or learn to adjust to the added difficult of a drooping tom or cymbal. Even then, adjustments will have to be made to get the toms placed just right.

Read on for more impressions.

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]

Harmonix has sent out the first Rock Band Community Zine, which revealed (rather earlier than usual) that Rush's Moving Pictures album will be available to download and play next week. Hopefully the band has been practicing.

Rush - Moving Pictures (880 / $11)

1. Tom Sawyer (Original) (160 / $2)
2. Red Barchetta (160 / $2)
3. YYZ (160 / $2)
4. Limelight (Original) (160 / $2)
5. The Camera Eye (160 / $2)
6. Witch Hunt (160 / $2)
7. Vital Signs (160 / $2)

Videos for the tracks can be found after the break. The songs will be available for download next Tuesday and Thursday for Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively.

We're not exactly sure how much of MTV Multiplayer's information about transferring Rock Band songs to Rock Band 2 is new, but it gives a tiny bit more detail to the process, which has yet to be fully explained. We knew that the transfer would cost "under $5"and that RB1 would receive a patch the day RB2 released, but we believe the detail about a "password" bundled with RB2 is new ... maybe. Either way, we haven't written about it.

Harmonix's John Drake tells MTV that when the game releases on Sept. 14, the RB1 patch will add an "export" feature to the game. Selecting to export will prompt the user to add a password included with Rock Band 2, after which a payment screen will be displayed. Told you it was a tiny detail!

Well, this should make the patented Joystiq Instrument Compatibility Matrix a bit easier to memorize. Straight from our special Leipzig correspondent Jem Alexander, Activision says that If you play Guitar Hero World Tour on PS2, PS3 or 360, your instrument is going to work. Whether it be from Rock Band, Rock Band 2 or whatever, it works with Guitar Hero World Tour.

Now, what does this mean for the Wii version of the game? We have absolutely no idea. But hey, what are you complaining about: It's got Miis in it! Isn't that enough?

With Sony shedding some new light on the sea of plastic instrument compatibility nonsense, we thought it was time to update our compatibility charts for the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series, as well as newcomer Rock Revolution. Introducing the Instrument Compatibility Matrix, version 3.0. We'll keep updating this page as new information percolates out, hoping one day to fill in every square with a green "yes." Until that time, check out our chart skills.

Update: Now with more green care of Microsoft's compatibility commitment.

Rhythm games have certainly been keeping the tempo up for financial growth in the industry. GameDaily notes UBS analyst Ben Schachter's report, showing "music-themed games" have made up 15% of software sales year-to-date and 32% year-over-year growth so far.

The Guitar Hero franchise is already up 82% this year, with Guitar Hero: On Tour taking in $15 million in July alone. Meanwhile, Rock Band, across all platforms, took in $47 million in July ... and that doesn't even count any DLC sales. Unless the rhythm game bubble bursts in the next few months, GH: World Tour and Rock Band 2 sales -- along with their respective DLC sales -- could make up a significant portion of another record-breaking year for the industry.