Monday, February 1st, 2010
We stumbled upon an interesting article from USA Today that gives an overview of some Fender’s digital strategy. The No. 1 guitar manufacturer is embracing the Rock Band phenomenon (we noticed this trend in 2008) by trying to bridge the gap between the casual gamer and the beginner guitarist. The article is also interesting in that in gives some industry-wide figures on sales for last year.
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
We used to talk about Rock Band and Guitar Hero quiet a bit. Not so much anymore. Turns out 2009 was a down year for those games but there are still millions of players. You Rock Guitar is a both an actual guitar and a game controller for the popular Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games. You Rock Guitar comes out next month for $180 (USD).
You can plug into Guitar Hero and bust out perfect version of “Stranglehold” and then plug into your computer, play that same song for real, and be brought back to reality. Sign me up.
Friday, July 24th, 2009
In demonstrating proof that some great legends never sell out, Jimmy Page has ruled out the possibility of a “Guitar Hero: Led Zeppelin”. After bands like The Beatles, Metallica and Aerosmith made their likeness and songs available to the makers of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Jimmy Page has stood firm in his belief that Led Zeppelin would not translate well to video game format.
Just don’t tell him that we’ve all spent countless times in our bedrooms, guitar in hand and Led Zep blasting over the stereo, pretending we were on stage with Led Zeppelin…
Thursday, April 16th, 2009
Many musicians tend to debate the whole benefit of video games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero. We’ve posted a number of times on this debate here, here and here. Some see it as poor substitute for the real thing but I find myself in favor of the game; mainly because it increases exposure to music and teaches some basics around rhythm - something I don’t have much of if you ask my band mates.
It looks like the next version of Rock Band, which features The Beatles, is going to up the ante and start getting players to try and sing vocal harmonies. Wow, now that is cool… Full story
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
I’ve always argued that Guitar Hero is a tragic diversion for potential musicians who will never learn how to play an actual guitar. Worse, anyone playing Guitar Hero is not even responsible for making the music; they can only “hit” or “miss” the notes already laid out for them. The only way to remove a person any further from the process would be to handcuff them to a chair and blast an iPod Shuffle from across the room.
But Zivix’s Headliner electric guitar has just given me a glimmer of hope…
Friday, March 6th, 2009
I can’t decide whether this is a legitimate rehearsal implement, or a ridiculous novelty, but either way it exists: the Shred-O-Meter, a speedometer for your guitar. Coupling an analog needle-based display with a “super-metronome” that goes up to (brace yourselves) 1300 bpm!, this device finally allows guitarists to know when they’re playing fast enough to travel backward through time. Full story…
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
We have never understood why anybody (even a child) would pick up a guitar that looks like it was made by Fisher Price rather than a real one. But they do. In 2007, Guitar Hero III (the latest incarnation) generated over $1 billion in sales. And that is just Guitar Hero, we’re not even talking about Rock Band and its own monster sales. While to some (i.e., us Fretbasers) this might sound like gloom and doom for the creation of new music, a correspondent for The Atlantic doesn’t think so. Read on to find out why not.
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
I know that when you first read the headline you were optimistic that this would be an article about Heidi Klum (see relevant video here), but I’m not talking about female models. I’m talking about *guitar* models.
Inc. Magazine recently published an in-depth story of the making of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. It is a great story about the long and winding road to creating the games that went on to gross billions (yes, billions) in sales. But we’re not that into Guitar Hero and Rock Band. We’re into real guitars. The story identifies the real-life guitars used as models for Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Do you know what they were?
Sunday, November 30th, 2008
We’ve posted before on the question of whether Guitar Hero and Rock Band helps to promote people playing the guitar or detracts from it. It looks like some research has been done on this very question.
Guitar Center, MTV Games (Rock Band) and Activision (Guitar Hero) have collaborated on a national survey of 7,000 respondents to see how the players of Rock Band and Guitar Hero felt about playing an actual guitar.
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
Ignoring it’s prime directive, a robot out of Cyth Systems overtook it’s human masters and proceeded to absolutely destroy it on Guitar Hero, achieving 98% accuracy on Expert level playing Cult of Personality.
The robot remarked afterward that it could have achieved 100% accuracy if not for a programming error by it’s flawed human creators.
