vVv Gaming's Forum : vVv Adrenaline takes on the Rock Band Network! Episode #7 (Special Instrumental Edition!): Scale the Summit, Andy Timmons, and Paul Henry Smith! - vVv Gaming's Forum

With the release of the Rock Band Network, there are hundreds of songs ready for you to download, but obviously not all our worthy of your hard-earned dollars. That's where we come in. vVv Adrenaline will release weekly reviews letting YOU know which songs are fun to play, which ones are great to listen to, and which ones you should avoid at all costs. Feel free to give us your opinions for the songs we've selected.

vVv Adrenaline is...

Guitar/Bass: vVv Brock
Drums: vVv HellAshes
Guitar/Bass: vVv GanonMetroid
Vocals: vVv Tobias911



The Great Plains - Scale the Summit






Guitar
Although the very beginning of this song isn't very interesting, the song quickly picks up. About 30 seconds in, a section of eighth note hammer-ons starts, setting the pace for the rest of the track. Almost all of this song is constant eighth notes at a fairly relaxed tempo, but that isn't to say it isn't fun to play. The patterns in this chart are almost always engaging. There are repeated sections throughout the song to hold it together, but the "verses," if you would like to call them that, all play differently. Overall, it's an almost perfect balance of relaxed difficulty and enjoyable gameplay. A must-have for guitarists of all difficulties. - vVv GanonMetroid

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Drums
Wow…this song is simply unbelievable. Every time a new progressive song comes out to Rock Band Network, it seems better than the last, and this is no exception. The Great Plains is a masterpiece musically, and is simply amazing to play on drums. The odd time signatures, unique patterns, and constant fills will keep you interested and will completely satisfy any need you want in a song for drums.

The song rarely repeats itself, and presents a new pattern for you to play, each one seeming better than the last, all the way until the end of the song. It’s not off the charts in terms of difficult as well. The bass drum never goes out of control, and the fills are straight forward for the most part. It may be a bit too hard for the inexperienced player, but it’s a must buy for nearly every drummer out there. You’d have to be an idiot to not pick this song up. Go buy it now people! - vVv HellAshes

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Bass
This is yet another amazing song that I now know thanks to the Rock Band Network. But unlike all the other RBN songs I've put on my iPod, this one is actually really fun to play too. The bass for The Great Plains has great variety, isn't too difficult or too easy, and is just overall really fun to play. The first minute or so and the last couple minutes are of the song are great, but there is some time in the middle of the song that has you just playing sustain after sustain, sometimes even nothing at all. But these few moments don't last long and certainly don't make the song less fun to play overall. This is definitely a song that players of all skill levels should pick up. - vVv Brock

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Redemption - Andy Timmons






Guitar
Not gonna lie, this chart sucks. Every now and then I come across a song with a god-awful chart and think "How the hell did this get through play testing?" And this song is at the top of that list. I remember at least five hammer-on notes that follow a note of the same color, which means that you can't actually hammer them on. A couple time the same section shows up, sounds exactly the same, yet are charted differently (0:39 and 1:19, for example). There are even places that are charted exactly the same, but it's incredibly obvious that it should be charted differently (3:05 for example, B-Y-R-G repeated four times, but all sound different). So yeah, I hope I got my point across about the charting.

So I basically just shit on the chart for this song, but if you look below, you see that it got a 4/5 for fun. This is because I said that it was poorly charted, I never said it wasn't fun. In fact, it's really fun. From beginning to end you're playing some something quick, but not impossibly fast, and it also has you play three solos, each of them tricky without being annoying. It's consistently difficult throughout, but there is one part that's far more difficult than the rest, which is the very awkwardly charted part at the beginning of the second solo. That part will definitely drive people crazy who are trying to FC it, but once you get the technique down, it's not so bad. Overall, although I despise the chart, it's still one of the more fun guitar songs I've come across on RBN. - vVv Brock

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Drums
Quick riddle for you. What do you get when you have an average song, and have average drums played on it? Why you get an average drum chart for Rock Band. I rated this song average for difficult, average for fun, and it’s just about average overall. O.K., I think I’m using the word average a bit too much. It is the truth, however, as the song generally doesn’t change much at all on the drums the entire song. It’s a simple punk beat, albeit at a very fast tempo, which increases the difficulty, but not the fun.

Now at one point the song does change a little, and some snare rolls are thrown in at you, which are pretty fun, but are few and far between. Your right arm will fall off with how fast you have to ride in this section of the song as well, and swing 8ths are a bitch to do for long periods of time. Overall, this song is something enjoyable to the moderate drummers out there, but it’s too hard for novice players, and not “out of the box” and challenging enough for the experts. - vVv HellAshes

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Bass
For the most part, I had a blast with this chart. However, it's far from the perfect song. A big thing that bugged me about this chart is that every so often, some incredibly awkward forced strums would be thrown in, making it tough to keep combo in an otherwise manageable section. When that doesn't happen, it really is one of the most fun songs to get stuck with bass on. This song is mostly comprised of swung eighth note strumming at a tempo that's pretty blistering. Every once in a while, the part will break into some swung hammer-ons which are thrown around the fretboard. These can be pretty tricky, and are sure to trip up most players who attempt to tackle this song. I would probably recommend this chart to advanced players, and maybe average players who are looking to push themselves a bit. - vVv GanonMetroid

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Flight of the Bumblebee - Paul Henry Smith and the Fauxharmonic Orchestra






Guitar
Alright, so the bass on this sucks and the drums aren't exactly great, so the guitar on this song better be pretty fucking amazing to make this song worth picking up. It's even better. It's easily the best and most fun guitar chart on RBN, and is also one of my favorite guitar charts in any rhythm game that's ever come out. The one thing I like about this chart more than anything else is that the guy who charted this song actually gets it. Whoever charted this didn't think "Oh, these strumming sections have notes that are close together and are changing frets, so I'm going to make the first note of each new color streak a hammer-on." This is exactly what Harmonix and almost every other charting company does, and this is exactly what pisses me off. These notes are meant to be strummed, so it was charted as strum notes. Seems like a simple concept, but most people can't seem to figure this out (hell, even Neversoft managed to do this with Guitar Hero).

Anyway, one big thing I noticed the first time I played this was that there were decent breaks in the song that I didn't expect. I thought that the guitar would continue playing basically throughout the entire song, which is how almost every custom chart ever made for this song has been. At first I was a little pissed off, but after I finished playing it, I remember how cramped and painful my hands were by playing the customs more than once. These short breaks in the guitar really help a lot and I can play this song multiple times in a row without stopping. The song is little over a minute long, but it's a crapload of fun all the way through. You'd be a fool not to pick this up. - vVv Brock

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Drums
Man, this song is probably the most well known song to ever hit Rock Band Network, but I’m willing to bet it’s not downloaded as much as you’d think. You’d also think that this song is made specifically for guitar…and you’d be right. This song is pretty disappointing on drums. The difficulty may be high, but that doesn’t mean fun. Many of the patterns in this song require your hands to jump all over the kit at high speeds, and force you to double stroke at those speeds as well. I’d rather have the annoyance of a real bumblebee buzzing around my face than play this song again. - vVv HellAshes

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Bass
Honestly, there is very little to this bass chart. A large majority of the time, you're not even playing. When you are playing, there's so little to it that it's not even worth describing. This song was clearly designed without bass in mind. - vVv GanonMetroid

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