Points for Confidence
I’m tone deaf and the first to admit it. There are hints that with some practice, I could reach a point where I might be able to hold a tune and an audience, too. (By audience, I mean the casual friend within earshot.)
Over the weekend I persistently put in a request with my Rock Band for Maps by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs - to no avail. While I was sure I could rock out the guitar chords, no one was confident to do the same on the mic. Finally I got my request in, right around the time the mic was passed to me, and the guitar taken away. Actually, it happened all at once and probably only to shut me up.
I did not get booed off the stage, but came close despite the Easy difficulty setting. My only saving grace appears to have come from increasing the decibels that rolled out of my belly like a Harley on a train track. (This in response to a spell like chant “Louder, louder” audible from the guitarists and drummer.)
While I was sure that mumbling would reduce the noise pollution area - one akin to an oil slick in the aquamarine Caribbean paradise - the game did not appreciate my method. Not until I got louder did the pulsing red suck-o-meter turn a friendlier shade of yellow.
I doubt that my singing was any better loud than it was quiet, and am instead convinced that the game is designed to give extra credit for confidence as calculated by the decibel levels of the vocals. If that’s true, this just might be the most realistic game factor of Rock Band. Not that something has to be realistic for it to be enjoyable…
August 7th, 2008 at 14:57
Don’t you know, the secret to every great rock’n'roll band is to simply belt out the vocals as loudly as possible, without paying the slightest attention to melodic detail? (At least this is what I tell myself when I hear some of the questionable “music” on offer these days!)
Points for confidence… or, “an ‘A’ for effort” :)
August 7th, 2008 at 17:09
If you sing loud enough, the game ads that to its soundtrack and plays it back with the music. The singer’s voice can then be heard live, and from the speakers. I am not a hundred percent certain, but I had the impression that at the same time it tones down the original vocals, and if the player is loud enough, it removes the the original completely…
Anyway, Maps is a great song, but probably a bad choice for a male with his first go at the game. :)