Status updates

Okay, so I haven't made a post in over a month, but I wanted to let you know where we stood. We've been cranking out many hours of practice with the DLC. I sent my GoodWoodMods in for warranty repair (the heads were getting really soft and missing notes) and just got them back. I haven't even had time to get them remounted yet. We're still working on getting all of the DLC and with the holidays, money's been an issue, but I guarantee that we will have all of the DLC when we do the run on the 9th. We are having trouble securing the location that we originally had planned, so we might be streaming from our house. Again, sorry for the lack of updates, but I'll get back on it.

GoodWoodMods are in; ACDC Track Pack Soon

So, my GoodWoodMods stealth mesh drum heads came in yesterday. I'm shocked at how quiet they are. I'll post a review pretty soon. Also, expect an update of DLC downloads. Sounds like I'll be getting some DLC with some money I'm getting in. Also, the ACDC Track Pack is getting released on November 2nd, 2008. It  will be priced at $30 for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and PS2 versions.

New Mods; Back In Order; Updates on Status

After taking a break from Rock Band (I know, such sacrilege), RedDevilD and I are back in Rock-Band mode. We've been playing around with drum kits and guitars. We've found a good mod that will work REALLY WELL with an EL kit.

What the mod is: Take the heads off of a QM set, put them in a specific way on a EL set.

What this achieves is this: You get a lot more rebound and the notes always register. How to make a bad EL set and a bad QM set good essentially. If you take the red pad, there will be a post on the bottom of the drum head that is supposed to go into a slot. Well, the EL kit doesn't have these slots, so we are going to put that post on the Southwest corner of the drum kit. The yellow pad post is going in the Northwest corner. The blue pad post in the Northeast corner. The green pad post is going in the Southeast. This makes the posts as far as possible from each other, cutting out the crosstalk.

Also, on a side note about drum kits. If you are experiencing crosstalk (you hit yellow only and the blue fires as well in game), take the pad head off and rotate it 90 degrees. The post should be farther away from the pad it was crosstalking with. Like if I hit the yellow pad and it crosstalks with blue, I would turn the pad 90 degrees clockwise to get the post farther away from the blue pad.

Guitar mods: If you take a pedal and plug it into the tiny headphone jack (located near the XBox/PS3 button) on the new RB2 guitar (the sunburst one), you can use the pedal to activate Overdrive. Protip: If you hold down the pedal, you won't be able to activate Overdrive by tilting the guitar. If your guitar is activating Overdrive a lot on it's own, look into this.

RedDevilD recently moved in with me, so we are playing Rock Band a lot more now. This is gonna be interesting to see JUST HOW MUCH we play now. Don't worry guys, we are still doing 500 Songs to Freedom.

Crunch Time, T-Minus 3 months

So, with the beginning of the next week, we've hit the 3 month mark. We've hit crunch time. This is the time when we kick up our practicing and we start refining our technique. We start making it so that we aren't practicing passing songs now; we are working on getting great scores. Some people still call this a long shot for us, but it's not a long shot, not by any means.

New DLC is being released every week. It's hard to afford it all, but we are making due. If anyone would like to help us out, feel free to donate.

RockPedal Review

Okay, so here it is. The RockPedal review I promised. Let's start from the top.

The RockPedal comes in a big brown box. It's a decently weighted box and the pedal is surrounded by your standard brown paper (similar weight to newspaper). It also comes with a very professional warranty and info sheet to help you get your pedal to the appropriate settings for you. Also, this sheet also contains information needed to contact the people at RockPedal in case you have any trouble whatsoever. On to the pedal itself.

The pedal is very solid. It's full metal, top to bottom, save the sensor itself, and the velcro on the bottom. The bottom is a solid plate, so it sits flat on the floor. There are 3 strips of velcro on the bottom of the pedal, each about 6 inches long, to keep the pedal from moving on carpet. This works very well. 

Moving up from the bottom plate, we have two spikes (one on each side of the footboard) that can be screwed down into carpet to keep the pedal from moving, if it's still moving after the pedal is placed on carpet. These spikes have not been needed in my playing with the pedal. 

If you have the pedal facing you (it angles up and away from you and the carpet spikes are on the far side of the pedal), on the right side, you will find a screw sticking out away from the pedal and at an angle upwards. This screw allows for you to clamp the pedal down onto a practice pad (from what I gather). Right above this clamp screw (still on the right side), we find the spring tension adjustment screw. How this works is a three step process. The first step is to loosen the screw that is holding the spring tension adjustment from moving. The second step is to adjust the spring tension adjustment to pull on the spring further, or to release the spring a little to make the pedal easier to push down. This won't make a huge difference in your play. The last step is to tighten the screw back down once you have made the adjustment to suit your needs. 

Moving on the other side of the pedal, on the left side of the footboard, we find the holder for the drum key. In the middle, facing you so that you can read the word "pulse" inscribe on it is the footboard. This is where all the action takes place. You push this part down to activate the sensor and cause the pedal to hit. 

Moving further up the pedal, back over to the right side, and above the spring, we have another tension adjustment that does this in a roundabout way. How this tension adjustment works is when you loosen this screw, you increase the angle of the pedal, causing it to travel further to trigger the sensor, and causing it to pull the spring farther which creates more resistance.

Moving on over to the left, the next screw we find is for the beater to be inserted. The next screw is the lower of the two last remainng screws. This screw is what determines exactly when your pedal will trigger and how much your pedal will travel past the trigger point. This one was the one I spent the most time adjusting first. Once I got this one right, it's pretty much a "Set it and forget it." I have not touched it since I got it exactly where it is. How it works is that it has you increase the angle of the pedal to trigger the sensor later and decrease the angle to have it trigger earlier. Decreasing it too much will cause it to smack into the clamp bar, while increasing it too much will cause the pedal to not trigger at all. 

The last screw is the screw that releases the double chain drive from the pedal. You shouldn't ever need to touch this.

I think one of the coolest things about this pedal is the use of a proximity-style sensor. It doesn't have any parts that smack together, nor do any of the sensor's parts move. If this pedal didn't have a wire, you would probably never have know it could be used for Rock Band. The sensor blends in with the rest of the pedal. This pedal is the most professional looking pedal I've seen.

Playing with the pedal is interesting. It can be played out of the box, but I was double hitting with it a lot out of the box. I adjusted the pedal to hit just before the pedal bottomed out. Being that this is pretty much an actual pedal that can be used with a drum kit, you can do a lot of the foot techniques to achieve double bass hits and other pedal tricks. 

I've used the pedal for a good week now, and it's phenomenal. It's well worth the money. If you've hit the brick wall with the stock Rock Band pedal, or you pedal has broken one too many times, I would suggest investing in this pedal. I hit the brick wall with the stock pedal, and I've stepped my game up by investing in this pedal. It is the Official Pedal of 500 Songs to Freedom.

The link to the RockPedal website is RockPedal.com.

RockPedal Teaser

Rock Pedal is THE official pedal of 500 Songs to Freedom. I bought it and it is amazing. It is very smooth to play with. I have nothing but praise for this pedal. I'll do a much more in depth analyzation of it at a later date.

13 Hour Rock Band 2 Review

After playing Rock Band 2 for around 13 hours, RedDevilD and I have some thoughts about it. RedDevilD's main thought is: "Everlong occurs way too much in the later Mystery Setlists." My main thought: "Rob the Prez-o-Dent is BS."

Overall, the setlist is pretty good. Some songs I could care to do without. The rerecorded Ace of Spades '08 was a pretty big letdown. It seems like it was trying to be too "heavy" if you will. Some songs to note were Eye of the Tiger, Battery, and Painkiller. Eye of the Tiger was the first song we played and was actually pretty fun. Battery wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be on drums (sightread expert with a 90%). Painkiller, there's not much to say except for this is REALLY hard on drums. Everything is fast in the expert chart.

I was surprised at the types of charts. The drum charts seem to be taking a very different path than Rock Band did. There's much more varied charts earlier on, and the latter tier chart are much more difficult. There were multiple songs that were FC'd by myself and RedDevilD. I thought that the timing window was smaller and so did RedDevilD.

The World Tour isn't much different from Rock Band. There are now daily challenges. There are new venues and the venues that are there are much better looking. Anytime you get the option do to a music video with lasers, do it.

Week of 9/15 DLC: Peace Sells . . . but Who's Buying? and Rock Band Tour 1 pack

So, this coming weeks DLC is going to be the Megadeth album Peace Sells . . . but Who's Buying? and the Rock Band Tour 1 pack. The Megadeth album looks very promising in my eyes, and RedDevilD and I feel the same about the RBT1 pack. We aren't fans of it. The songs are:

Peace Sells . . . but Who's Buying?

Megadeth - Wake Up Dead

Megadeth - The Conjuring

Megadeth - Devil's Island

Megadeth - Good Mourning / Black Friday

Megadeth - Bad Omen

Megadeth - I Ain't Superstitious

Megadeth - My Last Words

Rock Band Tour 1

The Cab - One of those Nights

Dashboard Confessional - Hands Down

Panic! At The Disco - She's a Handsome Woman

Plain White T's - Natural Disaster

The Megadeth album should be available for $10.99 (880 MS Points) and the RBT1 pack should be $3.99 (320 MS Points).

On a side note: RedDevilD and I have been playing Rock Band all day. Tomorrow, we'll be playing most of the day, and on Sunday, we'll be going through the career mode on RB2 with a few other people (probably 5-6 total).

More DLC

Just bought more DLC, bringing my total DLC count to 159 songs. My total song count is 217. RedDevilD and I are planning on finishing up the remaining DLC on Saturday, and playing Rock Band 2 all day Sunday. Hopefully, we can get some reviews of the songs up for Rock Band 2.

All That Remains + Stephen and the Colberts DLC

The All That Remains pack was released today for PS3 ($2.99) and earlier this week on Tuesday for the 360 (240 MS points). The ATR pack is definitely a pain in the butt for drums and from what I understand, and from RedDevilD's point of view, really fun to play on guitar. Haven't looked at the other charts really, but will definitely have to.

Also, Stephen and the Colberts have a song for free up on the XBox marketplace and soon to be on the PS3 Store for free.

This DLC is definitely welcome. I've been waiting for some joke songs (Colbert) and songs to make me cry (ATR). The New Songs are:

All That Remains: Chiron

All That Remains: This Calling

All That Remains: Two Weeks

Stephen and the Colberts: Charlene (I'm right behind you)

EDIT: PS3 Store just allowed me to download the ATR pack, but SaTCs still wasn't available. It's 5 before 5pm on the east coast.

In the Meantime . . .

So in the past 2 weeks, there hasn't been much updating on my part. RedDevilD went out of town and took a break on the 3-day weekend from Rock Band. I've downloaded a bunch more DLC (all of the packs/albums minus the Cars). I'm now up to 130 songs of DLC, which brings my total song count up to 188. RedDevilD and I have been rocking on the new DLC I bought (under the team name Bob Marley and the Joan Jetts) and we can be found on this page:

Team Page

We haven't played any of the main setlist stuff yet. Maybe I can con RedDevilD into it sometime.

Locksley Pack Up for grabs on the Market

Locksley pack is indeed up for grabs on the market. I just checked and it can be purchased.

Behind the times, but I'll update you on the Moving Pictures DLC

I know I'm behind on the Moving Pictures DLC updates. Moving Pictures is delayed. There's rumors of new DLC being put up on the market in Moving Pictures' place. The rumored DLC is from the band Locksley, and the three songs are "All Over Again", "She Does", and "Don't Make Me Wait." There's isn't a definite release date on Moving Pictures yet, but I'll keep you updated. Supposedly, the Locksley DLC is up on the market already, but can't be purchased. I'll update when I get home.

Downloading DLC at the moment . . .

Waiting for the DLC to download. Picked a bunch of the harder songs for the drums charts. RedDevilD is doing a similar thing but with the guitar charts. We are definitely in for a wild ride when 500StF comes around.

Currently downloading Nine Inch Nails pack 1. Just got done installing Best of the Who. A lot more songs to play once all of this finishes and I can play. I'm gonna cry when I look at the entire list to play.

The one song I'm afraid to play is Kool Thing. I don't like the song, and I'm afraid of what I'm going to get hit with in the drum chart.

What is 500 Songs to Freedom?

I was thinking about this over my lunch of Teriyaki Stix's Hot 'n Spicy Bowl, and I really don't think I've ever state EXACTLY what is 500 Songs to Freedom.

500 Songs to Freedom: A two-man effort (RedDevilD and GQD2008) attempting to complete all of the Rock Band, Rock Band 2, and Rock Band Downloadable Content as of January 7th-9th, 2009. A live stream will be available. We are currently working with the school we attend to see if we can do it at the school.

Harmonix has stated that there will be 500 or more songs by the end of the year. So, whatever is available as of January 7th, 2009, we are committed to playing. It doesn't matter if it gets released January 6th. It will be played. I just hope we don't get screwed with a bunch of t9s.

Rock Band 2 Song List Difficulties up on Wiki; GameSpy Shows Instrument Order

Using GameSpy's article that was put up on the 20th, the List of Songs in Rock Band 2 Wikipedia page has been updated to reflect the song difficulties. Everything's been put in order and made pretty to boot. I found the article particularly interesting since it has the order of songs for each instrument. The mashup images they made are fairly tall, so you'll be doing some scrolling, especially if you want to look at the high quality versions.

Rumors and DLC: Rush's Moving Pictures and rumor of a Metallica Track

So, today Rush's Moving Pictures album was released for Rock Band today. A quip I have with the new DLC is that YYZ has NO VOCAL TRACK. The reason this is a problem is because it's taking away from what makes Rock Band. Rock Band is a group game. More than one person should be able to play. I'll stop before I get into full blown RAVING RANT mode. The list of the new songs is:

Tom Sawyer (Original)
Red Barchetta
YYZ
Limelight (Original)
The Camera Eye
Witch Hunt
Vital Signs

I wish I could provide a review of the new Rush DLC, but it's gonna have to wait. Funds are short right now. I've got a lot of DLC to buy if I want to ROCK. I'm playing catch up, so this is gonna be pretty brutal on my account.

The new Metallica track rumor is called "The Day That Never Comes". Not sure if/when we'll see that one, but it's supposed to be more of the older style, much like "One" and "... And Justice For All". Somewhat of a fan to Metallica, so we'll see how their new stuff plays out.

Double Endless Setlist Day (Complete)

RedDevilD and I (GQD2008) are going to do two endless setlists today in a row. I'll be posting throughout the day so keep your eyes on the lookout.

9:54AM: 20 songs in.
20 songs in, feeling pretty good. Taking up as much as our 30 second break will allow. RedDevilD has FC'd 5 or 6 songs so far. Me, not as good.

12:28PM: 50 songs in.
We are about to play Green Grass and High Tides. Feeling pretty good. 4 hours and 15 minutes after we started. Wish us luck. Not that we need it of course.

1:30PM: First Endless Setlist Complete.
We just finished the first Endless Setlist. We finished right around 5 hours total for all 58 songs (we had to redo Pleasure (Pleasure) because RedDevilD took a poo and forgot how to play). We both feel pretty good. We should be starting up the next Endless Setlist Pretty quickly. I'll post right before we start.

Stats on this Endless Setlist:

284/290 stars obtained (Both on Expert)
40,000 fans gained
$37k earned.
5 FCs on Guitar by RedDevilD
We posted all of the Scores up on our team on RBScorehero.

Link: Team Page

1:37PM: Second Endless Setlist Starting.
We are having another join in. Erefe will be joining us for this one around.

Wish us luck.

3:03PM: Finished song 83 of 116.
Just finished song 25 of the second 58. Getting a little tired. We'll still truck along.

Everything seems on autopilot at this point.

4:25PM: Finished song 96 of 116.
We finally hit the 8 hour mark in which we get 15 minute breaks in the challenge. We narrow it down to if we can get around 100 songs in an 8 hour period, then we could probably get this done in about 40 hours. Somehow, that figure seems REALLY low.

It took us about 5 hours to do the first Endless Setlist, and the second Endless Setlist seems to be going faster. It's because we aren't recording our scores this time around because we have a third person. Estimate completion time: 4 hours, 45 minutes.

4:37PM: 100 songs in.
We are nearing the end. Fatigue is starting to show.

6:24PM: Double Endless Setlist Day Complete.
The second run consisted of no songs failed (which is a really good thing once you've hit the 100 song mark). Everyone is pretty beat. Especially RedDevilD and I. 116 songs later. 556 stars later. Double Endless Setlist Day is complete. Thanks all who read (if anybody). We (RedDevilD and GQD2008) plan on doing a 24 hour rock out when Rock Band 2 gets released. Keep on the lookout for that.

Second Endless Setlist breakdown:

272/290 stars obtained
1+ million fans
$33k fans
3 FCs on Drums by GQD2008
Endless Setlist #2 time to complete: 4 hours, 35 minutes. (If you don't count the 15 minute break.)

Finally got a blog for 500 Songs to Freedom

Been meaning to do this for a while now. We've had the facebook group for a couple of weeks. We are also working on an app for Rock Band and the Guitar Hero games, so be on the lookout for that as well.

As time goes on, I'll be updating this blog with details (such as Song Order) as time goes on. reddevild and I were talking about doing reviews and breakdowns of songs as things progress. We'll keep you posted.