RB Vid: Field of Serpents & New Mic!

It's been a while since I have posted an Amberian Dawn video. As you may recall, I have complained a lot about having issues with recording videos in Rock Band from this artist. Any time I try to sing lyrically my notes are so high and loud that there is a horrible crackle and popping sound on the notes. So I started singing soft, flat and without much effort which resulted in videos I was unhappy with.

Recently I had to purchase a new microphone for use in my band (I bought a Shure SM58 A Beta). It seemed to work wonders in practice (the mic we had wasn't working very well for me), and I started to wonder if it might be useable in Rock Band.

RB3 DLC: Red Hot Chili Peppers- Californication (+ other stuff)

Here is one of the 4 videos I recorded of the Red Hot Chili Peppers DLC that was released a few weeks ago. I haven't had much time lately, and I'm quite busy with other things, but thought I would release one from my stock.

Rock Band 3 DLC: Red Hot Chili Peppers- By The Way

The second of 4 Red Hot Chili Pepper's DLC videos I recorded. Honestly this one has a chorus that is fun to sing but the verses are "WTF? XD"

It was hard to try to sing it "seriously" too. Anyway this one should be worth some LOLs. You get to hear me semi-rapping and singing nonsense.

Rock Band 3 DLC: Red Hot Chili Peppers- Otherside

Here's the first of 4 upcoming Red Hot Chili Pepper's DLC videos I recorded and my favorite from the pack.

This song is also the first and only song I've ever sang in a Karaoke bar O_o so it brings back interesting memories.

Also, I've received a lot (well for me) of nice feedback about this video. The like/view ratio is much higher than usually and the comments are nice. Also had a couple of people tweet the link. I had no idea people missed my videos or even cared about them.

Thanks! ♥

The Importance of Calibration in Rock Band 3 Vocals

Overall I love Rock Band 3, but it seems every day or so I find something else that I either hate about it, am annoyed by, or wish there was a patch to correct. I could get into that long list of things (and I will eventually) but right now I'm going to talk about one of them: calibration.

You may remember last week's post: Video of the Week: Song of the Damned (Army of the Damned). Despite all my best efforts I kept getting a 99% FC. I say "FC" because I had managed to keep my combo throughout the entire song (getting "awesome" at the end of every phrase and never seeing a visual break in combo) but ending with a percentage of 99%. Never having encountered such an issue in the other Rock Band games I played, I assumed this was a bug. I wasn't sure if it was a bug with the song itself or with the game, but I assumed it was a random issue with the game because the scores on the leaderboard for this song showed SOMEONE had FCed it.

So I posted my videos and my blog and I got A LOT of responses, help and feedback. My issue wasn't a bug at all, in fact this problem had been encountered in other Rock Band games I never purchased (Rock Band: Beatles & Rock Band: Green Day), so it's been around for a while actually, but being that I wasn't a fan of band-specific games, nor those particular bands, I was afforded the luxury of being ignorant to its existence. Those were happier times.

Video of the Week: Song of the Damned (Army of the Damned)

First off let me start by saying "don't let the title mislead you".

Army of the Damned is a song available on the RBN though Rock Gamer Studios (yes, I plug them a lot. I like them as people, I like their songs & I think they do good work.. so deal with it!), by a band called Pythia.

Pythia's sound has been described as Gothic Metal, Power Metal & Symphonic Metal. Pythia has also supported two of my favorite bands/singers: Amberian Dawn and Tarja Turunen. They have their own little forum topic on Amberian Dawn's forum where we discuss the band.Overall it's a sound and style I can get behind. I like the song.

So yes, this song is a bit easier than stuff from Amberian Dawn and certainly less high. I expected it to be an easy FC but I was mistaken. I've spent some time learning the song (I never heard of the band before the topic on AD's forum & the song in the game) so that created a bit of learning curve... I also always ended up sick whenever I actually had time to get around to recording it.

With the upcoming release of Rock Band 3, I decided it was just better to wait and FC it on Rock Band 3. Looks like that might not have been the best idea...

It would seem I'm damned to never FC the song. (see what I did there? title makes sense now in 3, 2, 1..) I FCed the song, not once, but TWICE and was credited with 99%. Twice on video and despite never breaking combo I got a 99% when the song was over. I was disgusted.

Surely, I must have missed and not seen. I went back through both videos, nope. It was an FC alright but damned if the thing is bugged. Is it only this song that is bugged? I don't know.. I doubt it, I think it's kind of random (I'll get to why in a bit).

This is the first encounter I have ever had with the 99% bug. Poking at the scorehero vocal forums I found that it seems to have existed in other games like The Beatles: Rock Band. I wouldn't know about that as I didn't buy the game because I don't like the Beatles.

After the first recording I went back and tried to FC it again to only have the same result. I didn't activate intentionally on a part I seemed to have difficulty with the first time to see if that yielded different results, it didn't.

My first run ended with a pretty good score (because I activated where I didn't in the second run) which put me at 2nd place on the leaderboard, behind first by 3,744 pointsish (you can see it in my video anyway).

Now.. that makes me wonder, did the 1st place player (I need to look who it is to ask them) manage to get credit for FCing the song (be given 100%)? Because that would put them at about 4 thousand more points than me (for not breaking combo where I apparently broke it [but didn't]). Which would technically land me in 1st place, but that's only assuming that this bug that gave me 99% actually docked my score for it. I can't say if it did or not. I have no way of knowing.

I'm honestly not a super great squeezer, so it's possible the other person had a better path (I don't look up optimal paths out of sheer laziness and lack of care), or squeezed better than I did. Yet, it is soooo close to 4 thousand points difference that is does make me wonder.

Score isn't that big a deal (though it'd be awesome to have a 1st place score on something) but not getting 100% on the song irks the crap out of me. It's disgusting, I feel a little ripped off.

And I'm left wondering: Is this just a bug? Am I doing something wrong? Perhaps I'm not sufficient enough? How do I consider this in my personal goals? Is it an "FC"? It is a bare miss?

Blah either way I'm rather disheartened about it...

In order to actually manage an FC I couldn't sing this in my FULL voice. It was too over powering on the microphone. Expect a vocal cover on my new channel in the future... it's too fun a song to NOT sing properly.

Here are the 2 videos I did. I seemed to have some sort of sound issue in both where I came out really quiet despite eating the mic or being really loud. I think I didn't have something plugged in all the way somewhere. Next time I record I will also lower the band a bit to help with that like I used to with my purple microphone.

BTW the guitarist.. that is my Anex character. My "me" character is the vocalist.. whenever Harmonix decides to patch Rock Band 3 (if ever) to fix the female hairstyles, I will have curly long hair. For now it's dreads in a pony tail because it sort of simulates curly hair in a ponytail.


UPDATE: I've been told that this has to do with the little pie-filling thing. Apparently there are a few places I didn't fill it completely. I'm going to have to try harder and poke at calibration to see if that will help and I can get a "true" FC.


Army of the Damned- 99% FC Best Score Run



Army of the Damned- 99% FC Attempt to Duplicate Bug or FC

Video of the Week: Evil Inside Me (RBN)

This week's video is another Amberian Dawn song. What can I say? They are probably the songs that are the most fun on vocals. Plus it is nice to have music you like in one of your favorite games. ;)

I really like to listen to this song, but sadly (and oddly) it wasn't as fun for me to sing as LionHeart or Kokko (which I didn't really like to listen to as much as some others). I think my main problem is I just don't like the way I sing it.

Also I think it is charted weird.. generally I don't have issue with anything Rock Gamer Studios has charted, everything is pretty good and rather accurate. I've noticed that often the lyrics are slightly off on the Amberian Dawn songs, but it's generally really minor.

Video of the Week: Lionheart (RBN)

This week saw the release of TWO Amberian Dawn songs, Lionheart and Evil Inside Me.

I had intended to do both today but I ran out of time, so you only get one :p

Like Kokko, this song really wasn't one of my favorites to listen to.. again, not that I hated it.. just there were other songs I liked more. However, Lionheart has grown on me.. BIG TIME. I REALLY like it.. vocally it is fun, lyrically it is awesome.

I never pay too much attention to lyrics, I generally read through them once when I get the album and then they end up forgotten. However playing the songs on Rock Band

Video of the Week: I Will Not Bow (DLC), nor will I scream or growl.

This week's video is Breaking Benjamin- I Will Not Bow. This song is actually fun to play in game even if it's not my favorite.

Difficulty wise this song isn't hard at all, so I can't really offer any tips or major problems I had with it.

The song does however contain screaming and growling which honestly is not something I'm good at, nor do I enjoy doing or listening to it. So the "talkie" parts of the song are meh. I didn't scream or growl for those parts.. I just can't and when I try it sounds like ultra crap in a can.

Video of the Week: Shallow Waters (RBN), Eating My Oxygen

This week's video is more Amberian Dawn! This time, Shallow Waters and as you can guess from the title it isn't an easy one.

Hardest problem I had was managing to sing that fast and high without that many chances to get a breath. Really really hard on that level. If you're doing the song in a lower octave though, it's a piece of cake. I played it in a lower octave the day it came out because I was a bit congested and I just didn't have it in me to try to sing it in a higher octave physically.

I did this song over and OVER and OVER again trying to make my struggle to breathe sound less obvious and it did indeed become easier the more I did it (yes, yes, I know practicing helps!) but still it's a killer.

Video of the Week: Incubus (RBN), I sense and know its presence yet I'm asleep.

 Incubus is out for purchase today via the Rock Band Network on Xbox 360, yay! I was starting to get impatient for some new Amberian Dawn songs, so it's about time another makes it out of Peer Review.

This song took me a few tries before I managed an FC. I guess most of it is I'm really out of practice with singing. I didn't have a mic for a long time and I've been having a hard time FCing any Amberian Dawn songs when it used to be so easy in the past. :/ I also did this song as soon as I got up so my voice wasn't really awake yet.. but I was so impatient to play it that I tried anyway.

Anyway after I got the FC my new problem was "How to FC this and not sound like crap?". I hate to say it, but it's something I didn't find the answer to.

My voice is weak in the song. It's especially noticeable in the phrase: ".. to take over me and choke me!"

Video of the Week: Wytches 2010.. (Isis Astarte Diana Hecate Demeter Kali Inanna...)

So in other non-WoW related news I have acquired a new microphone! Yay! I actually got this while visiting a friend in Amsterdam for cheaper than what it would have cost online (double yay!)

It's basically the one I had before (previous to the purple one): The Logitech Vantage.. you'll notice though that this one is black. It is in fact the one for the PS2/3 (it was all they had) but clearly it works with the xbox 360 as well.

Anyway this week's video is Wytches 2010 by Inkubus Sukkubus.

Video of the Week: Valkyries (RBN), choosers of slain!

Just what I've been waiting for, more Amberian Dawn in Rock Band! Yay!

If you don't know already (shame on you) I am a HUGE Amberian Dawn fan and helped bring them to the RBN for the enjoyment of all.

Valkyries is actually one of my favorite AD songs so I was really happy when this went for sale yesterday on the RBN.

This song SHOULD be hard to sing, but since you don't have to sing it as high as Heidi does, it's not really as hard as it sounds. I managed to sight-read FC this yesterday but didn't get a video up as I had planned because my monitor died during the recording. I was forced to hurry my butt to the stores before they closed to buy another.

I chose to sing it as close to the original version as possible, for me that's the fun of AD's songs on vocals anyway so why ruin it?

OMG RBN! Video of the Week: River of Tuoni

I totally had intended to remake my first ever youtube video but I had a change of plans.

It just so happened that while I was failing at FCing Forever by only getting a strong on the last note Dpritch sent me a message on xbox live talking about the ever spreading rumor that the RBN was coming TODAY!

I immediately decided it wasn't worth continuing to kill my voice for In This Moment- Forever and hovered over twitter watching for the latest news..

And then it came... Rock Band Network was listed under the Music Store and I instantly downloaded the 2 available Amberian Dawn songs (Hey! I helped get them in the RBN ok?) Naturally I went straight for River of Tuoni.. I mean I love Amberian Dawn but He Sleeps in a Grove is not one of my favorite songs of theirs. (I can't wait for the incoming 5 new ones)

I'm actually EXTREMELY lucky I got to play these songs at all because the RBN was not available everywhere.

Video of the Week: Interstate Love Song

This week's video is Stone Temple Pilot's Interstate Love Song.

I've always liked this song and it is short and sweet (like this entry about it will be) so that was definitely incentive to choose it for my video this week. The song is a bit on the low end and this is where I tend to have more trouble as I just fail so much musically that I can not find out how to make myself sing it in a higher octave.. I managed to make 100% anyway so I guess it doesn't really matter.

As before I have included external audio along with the capture for volume reasons. It does seem though that since filming this video I have found a solution that will allow me to use full direct audio for next week.. yay! ^^

Sadly I also had my camera too zoomed in and cut off part of my head.. ooops.

Video of the Week: Just A Girl (who spied ass-chaps)

We're going to pretend I wasn't bad and totally forgot to blog about my last 2 videos ok? :p (So Cold and Call Me When You're Sober).

This week's video was "Just A girl" by No Doubt, the good Ol' Tragic Kingdom No Doubt that was the one of the first CDs I had ever purchased (which was a big deal at the time because cassette tapes were still used and around).

Overall I found this (as with most old No Doubt songs) easy for me. My real problem was actually preventing myself from "over-singing" the song. By that I mean singing it so enthusiastically that the game was not happy with my singing. Sadly because of my enthusiasm it took a few takes, but it wasn't because it was difficult.

I kind of took this song in full stride, I mean I am indeed a girl and when I was 13 it was a great "motto" song of sorts. I sported my "Things you learn from video games" t-shirt so show my female gamer spirit.

One thing though that I did NOT expect in the entire recording of this video was a male character in a pair off ass-chaps.

Weekly Rock Band Video: Superbeast (DLC)

As a member of Team Cena I post gameplay videos of Rock Band 2 every week on youtube. My sponsored instrument is vocals, so that is what my videos mostly consist of. The videos I post are split screen (meaning you can see me AND the gameplay at the same time). I decided to do this after asking my subscribers what they would like to see and looking for something to make my videos a bit more entertaining. I also play with the original vocal track turned all the way down just because it is more fun that way.

What I would like to do (and intend to do) is post here every week with a bit more insight into my video for that week. I generally record them on Thursdays and upload them shortly after. It really depends on the amount of time/work I have involved.

So this week I did Rob Zombie- Superbeast (DLC). I found this song to be REALLY fun for my last 2 videos (I had done a bonus guitar one). It may just be that this is a genre of music I enjoy (outside of my usual symphonic metal) whereas usually there aren't too many songs on Rock Band I actually like (that will change with the RBN).




For my guitar video, skill wise it wasn't too hard. Expert guitar isn't my primary instrument, but it is what I started Rock Band on (from previously playing Guitar Hero). My main difficulty was actually a physical issue: my finger nails. As I tried to slide down to catch the yellow/orange "chords" my finger nails would actually catch the raised frets on the guitar and I'd end up missing. I'm pretty sure that if I worked at it (and cut my finger nails) I would probably FC (full clear) it without a problem.
Overall fun song and honestly not hard at all on expert guitar.



Vocally I would say this song wasn't too challenging either. It mostly consisted of talkies that were pretty easy to manage. The hard part for me I would say, was the " a ragged they come and a ragged they kill" phrase.
I really struggle with low marked stuff, so I didn't sing it in original octave. It came out a bit higher (and stranger) sounding than the original. Even in doing this I barely made the phrases. Looking back at the video I honestly don't know how I did. The pitch marker was so often in the red. One of the mysteries of the game I guess.
I also didn't manage to activate overdrive at minute mark 2:47.. I don't know if it's an early window or what.. I honestly hate that though, especially when I'm recording my weekly video, but I'm honestly not the kind of person who looking up optimal paths as I personally hate score whoring songs.

Slightly off topic I did happily wear my Knights of the Ebon Blade shirt for this video. If you play World of Warcraft you know what I'm talkin' about. Being that my main is a Death Knight tank, I really am attached to my shirt :)