Happy to pass along the announcement that on March 4th, 2010 the Rock Band Network went live on Xbox in these regions: US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Singapore.
RBN is a great example of a community rising around an idea and a passion, then becoming bigger than the idea itself; shaping and refing that original vision.

In this case the vision was supplied by the team at Harmonix, the company that brought us music gaming with Rock Band, Karaoke Revolution and Guitar Hero 1 &2. The rallying community the gamers, artists and authors that understood that here was an unprecedented opportunity, the chance for emerging or un-sung artists to reach billions of potential fans and thrill their existing fans by connecting with them in new way.
The truly remarkable thing is that while all those contributing songs to the RBN stand to gain so much, these same people have been tireless in helping refine the art and rules of making great game versions of songs for RBN.
I expect great things to continue in the RBN, and hope that it is the success it deserves to be.

Many more songs in the works… check back!

The latest “Too Hot To Handle” by (Kung Fu Fighting) Carl Douglas

We’ll update with final video as soon as it’s possible.

Here’s a very early preview of “Redemption” by Andy Timmons. (No overdrive in this beta)

A preview of “Too Hot To Handle” by (Kung Fu Fighting) Carl Douglas

In the studio with The Pursuits

I’ve been working with Nashville based Alt Rock band, The Pursuits. Good songs, interesting guitar textures, thoughtful vocal performances…. this band has managed to come up with a compelling sound that stays with you.

We used lots of our vintage gear for the sessions; of course the Chilton console and the Altecs were used for the drums, with drummer Ryan Coil playing the house Pearl Maple kit as well as the old Ludwigs. For guitars, our newly built Ampex 351 preamps were unstoppable: 2 each for guitarists Paul Lowder (who made extensive use of Mikey’s old Space Echo), and Grant Stubblefield (his customized Fender Twin was the loudest I’ve ever heard).

Clark Casadas P-Bass went through a V72 and TubeTech Cl-1B, and
for singer Joe Storey I selected a Rhode classic tube, Ampex 351 with some Avalon compression. I’m no wine expert, but I think “fat but transparent” would accurately describe the vocal sound. (really… how do they come uo with stull like “light, with a dark heaviness”?)

I really enjoyed working with these guys and when the record is finished I’ll let you know where to check it out.
Band page http://www.facebook.com/thepursuits

 

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” — Confucius

Musicgamestudio.com is off to a great start. As of today we have 10 confirmed songs to author for MTV/ Viacom’s new Rock Band Network®. It is difficult work requiring many man hours for each song authored, but we are still having a great time doing it!

Here are some pics of play-testing for (Kung Fu Fighting) Carl Douglas’ song “Too Hot To Handle”. Along with staffers Mikey Allred and Bryan Levay, we brought in expert level guitar guru Jake Rudin to check out the playability, musicality and ‘fun factor’ of the song. (Not shown, me testing the vocal part… better to omit that).

 

Rock Band Network, whose official launch date is expected 1st quarter 2010, allows artists and labels to sell their own songs (you must have copyright and mechanical ownership to participate) as Rock Band playable tracks for online download to game consoles via Xbox Live, Wii Ware and Sony’s Playstation Network. Songs can be priced from 1 to 3 dollars, with the artists receiving 30% of the track’s sales. You’ll find more detailed info on the site, musicgamestudio.com

Basically, we will make all 4 necessary versions of your song (expert, hard, medium, easy), author character animations and lip sync, and upload it to the RBN using our creators account. Every  track we do will be extensively play tested by us, peer reviewed by the Rock Band Creators forum, then tweaked before it is ever offered for sale.

Timing will be a factor for artists selling songs on Rock Band Network. When RBN first goes live, the initial artists will have millions of people listening to :30 samples of their songs, lots of forum talk by fans about the hottest new tracks, and higher sales numbers simply because there will be less competition, less clutter. After a year or so, the online store will be more crowded and that kind of mass exposure opportunity will decrease. Of course, selling your music on RBN will never be a bad idea, but the initial artists will have unprecedented opportunities. You definitely want to get in on the ground floor.

If you want to know more about my studio and the quality of work I do, please continue to explore danrudin.com.

I truly believe that this is a great way to give your fans something to talk about and a great way to get new ones.  Let me know which songs of yours you’d like to get started with, and we’ll let you know what we need to make it happen. email studio@danrudin.com today

This tree has endured much

For many, 2009 was indeed the year of survival. Jobs were lost, business slow or non-existent, health care a bloody mess.

I’ve always told my kids that challenges, mistakes and accidents are there for us to learn from; so I wondered, “what have I learned from 2009?”

1. Dignity is more important than wealth.

2. Kindness and generosity are always rewarded, but reward’s not the reason to be kind or generous.

3. Truly understand that “fear is the mind killer, fear is the little death that causes total obliteration” – Dune by Frank Herbert

4. Free enterprise will endure. Those who thrive will be those who will “learn how to price and market goods whose marginal cost is zero. They will learn to profit from giving value away. They will prefer collaboration to competition. They will assume responsibility for the newly measurable ‘externalities’ they impose on their societies”. – Chris Meyer, http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/hbr/meyer-kirby/

5. Don’t panic. Panic leaves us unable to move, change or adapt; this immobility further leaves others powerless to help us.

Pass these on if they ring true to you, or share your own “realities” from 2009

5 Mistakes I've made and the lessons they've taught me

We all make mistakes, it’s just human nature. Here are a few I’ve made and the hard earned lessons they taught me. I hated living through each one of these, but freely admit that they’ve made me better at my job, and hopefully a better person too.

5. When introduced to the artist’s wife, don’t say “Sorry I didn’t get to meet you when you dropped (the artist) off here last week”.

Wife happened to be out of town last week, that was the girlfriend I saw him kissing.

Lesson learned: Shut up.

4. I erased something and regretted it later.
From analog machine mishaps to trashing takes you think “they won’t ever need”, I’ve been in dumpsters looking for discarded data CD’s and bummed when the singer never “really gets it better than that first take”. No fun.

But the worst erasure happened while record aligning a 24 trk machine very early in my career. There were 2 machines needed for the mix session, a master and a slave. I checked the label on the Master tape box; pretty standard, alignment tones (played back to set machine levels), record pad (blank tape for setting record levels), and then the songs. No problem. On to the Slave tape. Box reads the same…. tones, pad, songs. Unfortunately, there was no record pad on the slave reel and, trusting the label, I had ERASED the percussion intro of this song (due on the radio later that week). And, there were NO safety copies of these tapes, which was unheard of at that time. Yeesh, I regretted this one immediately.

Lesson learned: Keep all takes, read all labels carefully and then double check them for accuracy. And always have at least 2 back-ups of every project (if it’s not backed up twice, it’s not backed up). I haven’t yet made that mistake again.

3. I used profanity in a very public venue.
My mission was simple; record 2 shows with a remote truck at a live venue in Colorado. I was happy… I love Colorado. The truck shows up 6 hours late and is crap. The truck’s crew is crap. With 15 minutes left before downbeat I was standing on stage screaming for an extension cord.

Now, both shows that day were sold out to employees of “Focus on the Family”, a conservative Christian network based nearby. It was their yearly family outing. So, out flies the extension cord, the frayed and plugged-in extension chord, which I snatch from the air with my right hand. F*#K!!!!! I yelled in front of 1500 adults and children as 120 volts rushed through me. All audience conversation stopped.

Lesson learned: Hire a better f*#king remote truck.

2. I took a gig I really didn’t want to do.
It just wasn’t my thing and, I’m ashamed to admit, I was so embarrassed to be on this gig that I told EVERYONE I met that “this isn’t REALLY what I do”. This went on for a while until I noticed that the clients had pretty much stopped talking to me. I realized that they had overheard me and that their feelings were hurt. I offered an apology, but I knew they didn’t really accept it. They didn’t thank me for my hard work at the end of the session, and they never called me again.

Lesson learned: With so many talented people around, everyone deserves to have hired help that is happy to be there. If you just don’t want to be seen at a gig for ANY reason (politics, personality, religion, etc), just don’t take it.

1. I assumed I knew more than someone else on a session.
Fortunately, again I learned this one when I was pretty young… but it’s also an easy one to forget. When I was about 22, I was assisting on a record by the legendary African horn band, OsiBisa, and was especially thrilled to be in the engineer’s chair for the horn overdub sessions. After much anticipation, I rolled tape on the first song. After about a minute, I stopped the tape.
“Why did you stop?”, asked band leader Mac Osei.
“Um, you guys were a little out of tune and a bit out of time”, I said as politely as I could. Having gone to music school, I considered myself expert on such things.
“Okay”, he replied sounding confused, “we’ll try it again”. I roll the tape, same thing, I stop.
“WHAT??!!”, demands Mac.
“Well, you guys were still a little out of tune and way behind the beat”, I repeat as if talking to grade school students.
Mac glares at me through the studio glass. “NO! You LISTEN!!”, he commands. Shaking, I roll the tape. Still the horns are grating on me…. for a little while. Then, slowly, my head starts to nod with the groove and I begin to smile. By the last chorus, I got it. They were AWESOME. I’d been expecting cool “western” style horns (TOP or EWF), but this was its own cool. I remember thinking that I could never play anything like that, and I never have been able to.

Lessons learned: 1. Listen critically but without judgment. Initially, you might not understand someone else’s art. If not, ask questions before rushing in to “fix it”. If something leaves you feeling emotionally flat, discuss it with the artist, band or team before declaring “YOU’RE DOING IT ALL WRONG”! Lesson 2: Never assume that someone is just what their role is that day. Drummers CAN be well read, fiddle players sometimes have a PHD from MIT (Woody Paul of Riders In The Sky).

Got any mistakes of your own? Please comment or email, I’d love to hear.