About

The Rock Band Network Megamix Project was conceived and coordinated by members of the RBN community as a way to expose new and existing Rock Band players to the Rock Band Network who might not have otherwise ventured into this new and exciting expansion of the Rock Band platform.

The Idea

The community decided to take a small sampling of tracks that were already available on the RBN store and create a calling card for the entire service, in the process producing a unique Rock Band experience.

Each of the 12 authors negotiated with the artists whose songs were to be used to waive rights to earn revenues from the project. The hope and intent from the outset was to offer the project for free. The community decided that the promotional nature of the project would be lessened by charging for the track, and so we put in a request with Harmonix representatives to allow us to give the track away.

In the meantime, the Megamix went though a preparation and brainstorming period where the basic properties were decided upon by general consensus, including the project's title and length, the track selection process, etc. We also considered any obstacles to our goal of promoting the Rock Band Network to players, and in the end decided that the experience of the player should be priority one. We still weren't sure if we would have to charge for the track, so we figured that it better be worth every one of those 80 Microsoft Points! No matter what, playing the Megamix should be fun before it was promotional.

Putting it Together

The task of assembling the Megamix from the source projects of the 12 authors was taken on by Brian Krueger of Scratching the Itch, and the task of "MCing" the mix was taken on by former radio DJ and voice-over artist Mark LaCroix of authoring service Noble Rhythm. In addition to assembling the project, Brian also painstakingly balanced the Megamix from 12 separate tracks into a single cohesive experience, including transition moments, rhythm changes, scoring the overdrive and drum fill sections, and balancing the overall audio mix.

The track then entered the Peer Review system and was fine tuned with the assistance of the community. Meanwhile, Mark recorded his voice over and adjusted it based on feedback from the peer review process. Thanks to the attention given to the project from all corners of the RBN community, the track was improved at every stage, and was soon ready for final approval.

Official Support

We were proud of what we had accomplished as a community, but our excitement hit the roof when we learned that Harmonix and Microsoft agreed with us about the value of the track, and decided not only to give the track away for free, but to publish it in the regular Rock Band store.

The constant and unwavering support that Harmonix has shown in the project proves their faith in the quality of the efforts of the Rock Band Network community. We think it's an unprecedented milestone in rhythm game history, and we hope you get as much enjoyment out of playing it as we had making it.