Views From Scotland: What RBN 2.0 Means for Scots Music

If you’ve ever heard me talk about videogames on a podcast or happen to follow me on a certain popular microblogging social network, the chances are you’re pretty familiar with the fact that I am a man who enjoys his Rock Band. My song library is dangerously high into the triple figures, I’ve just taken delivery of some cymbals for my kit, and now news is starting to crop up regarding the release of RBN 2.0, the latest set of authoring tools for budding indie artists. Which is very good news indeed.

Last year Boston-based Rock Band developers Harmonix publicly launched the Rock Band Network (RBN) after extensive beta testing. The platform, featured initially on Rock Band 2 after a title update on Xbox 360, allowed the public (or, to be more particular, musicians) who were signed up to Microsoft’s XNA indie dev scheme to “author” their own custom Rock Band songs and, following a peer approval from other RBN users, sell the finished tracks on the RBN’s online store. The service saw an explosion of both indie rock acts and bigger acts such as Jonathan Coulton, Attack Attack! and Five Finger Death Punch and following feedback, the bestselling songs started making their way to the PS3 and Wii each week.

While the RBN gave artists room to flex, there were a few shortcuts taken in authoring to make songs interesting to play – some songs featured epic keyboard solos on guitars, or just ignored the instrument entirely. This will change completely with the release of RBN 2.0 on February 14th.

To bring the network in line with Rock Band 3‘s new keyboard instrument, RBN 2.0 will feature support for three-part harmonies as well as both guitar-style Normal Keys and to-the-note Pro Keys, allowing players to play keyboard tracks as if they were playing the real thing.

This is an obvious triumph for Scottish music, awash as it is with epic grandeur keyboard solos. Or not, as the case may be. That said, there’s nothing stopping me from twisting this to work in my hilarious favour.

As is already practised in some of Rock Band 3‘s on-disc songs, the keyboard can simply be used to play the parts of ANY song that aren’t provided by a guitar, bass, drumkit or vocalist. This means that bagpipes are so in.

Ever wanted to play Mull of Kintyre but be the person on the pipes? Done. Or how about emulating your favourite Glasgow football supporters (or “hooligans”, as they’re locally known) by taking part in a three-part harmonized chant of Flower of Scotland? Sorted.

If you wanted to be more ambitious, you could translate the accordion of Donald Where’s Yer Troosers? onto Pro Keys; kilt is optional. And, of course, there’s the harmonies-friendly (for when things get epic) Auld Lang Syne – valid for one day of the year, but undeniably iconic.

The chances are, you had to Google at least one of those songs and look them up on YouFace to see how they sounded. Perhaps now you understand why the RBN, with its new keyboard support, will benefit Scots music so much: you’ve never heard of most of it.

While some are excited about lesser things — such as Anamanaguchi — the real Rock Band experts (me) know where the future is in the Rock Band Network: it lies in keyboard bagpipes.