You've gotta love the easy competition...

**RedTsunami**

Let's face it: Drums and guitar are getting WAY more attention then vocals. Probably because people are afraid to sing, or because they think the don't have any talent or something...

I'll admit, I'm pretty competitive. I played karaoke revolution on-and-off for a while, then rock band came out. Messed around with the vocals...had a good time.

I have discovered that if I really apply myself to a song, I can get in the top 10, and sometimes if I squeeze it, I can get a 1st, like for my score on "Main Offender". Here's how it works:

1st time (never heard song): 4 star
2nd time (understand pitch): 5 star, 500th
a couple times (to find correct OD path): 1-10th place
a bunch of times (correct path and squeezing): Almost guarenteed 1st.

It only seems like there's about 30 or so people who are being hardcore on the leaderboards. As a contrast, lets look at my drum score. After beating "Dead on Arrival" For the 1st time, I ranked around 8000. I don't have a single drum score I've seen that's over 5000 (could improve, but I'm lazy in that area)

Think this'll ever pick up?
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dsk (on me) wrote:

Dude.

You're sick.

1. [] 5* TtFatF (only 4* so far)
2. [X] Beat expert drums before kick pedal breaks.
3. [X] Beat expert 5* guitar (Nov 3rd, 2007)
4. X[] Get sigged (WOOT! [damn, I missed])
SIG COUNT: 3 times! <o_0<

**Kataris** · Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Posts: 335 Location: Vegas

Top 30 here or XBL leaderboards?
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Nickisimo wrote:

Yeah, that's my thoughts exactly. Then it'll be, "Well, maybe I can press the pedal with my forehead..." I'd be in a full-body cast at that rate. I can just see myself all wrapped up on a hospital bed in the dark. "I'm...a...high...way...star..." *sniffle*

**Nickisimo** · Joined: 21 Sep 2007 Posts: 774 Location: Charleston, SC

Actually, the Vocal leaderboards were basically barren when I started working on my scores. I spent about 3 days doing nothing but Solo Vocal Tour trying to get to 10 million. Once I got there, I just kept working on it, going for 10.5. I got as high as 3rd I think, and then all of a sudden a ton of people showed up(basically violinhero and Ajay) and once I saw that, I stopped trying. In my opinion, Expert Vocals are already removed enough from actual singing without adding complicated squeeze patterns to it, but I don't mean to take anything away from those better than me. They are better and they deserve to be on top.

So now I just do band stuff, drums(still suck at that), ES challenges, etc.
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Of Mics and Men(new blog name, same blog taste)

**AJayN85** · Joined: 25 Dec 2007 Posts: 149

I think Vocals will pick up, eventually. It's only natural that guitarists and drummers will eventually start learning the melodies and lyrics to the songs they're accompanying and give it a go on the mic. I've seen Wulfe post on the vocal boards a few times, DraktyrExodus is up there on a few songs, along with ParadigmShift, so it's only a matter of time. Besides, when people realize how soft many of the song leaderboards are after a sight-read FC and a top 100 placing, they'll start popping up here and there like they have been in the past month.

Naturally, the market is saturated with guitarists thanks to GH, and everyone wants to try drums because it's new and more similar to the real instrument than the guitar, so those two instruments get all the initial attention. With KR: American Idol Encore coming soon for the next-gen systems, cross-over fans of the KR games will hopefully start paying attention to Rock Band's offerings.

It's been a lot of fun (and frustration when OD doesn't activate before a squeeze...) climbing the charts, day by day -- I've honestly never been so motivated to get better at a game, despite my incremental progress over the past week. I've been hinting at one of the secrets to my quick success with Rock Band's Vocals in my Gamer Bio and Rock Band in-game profile... but to be more direct, try Google searching "A-Jay Nicolas" and see what results pop up on the front page. I think I can safely say I've played more Karaoke Revolution and understand this Vocals engine better than anyone out there that hasn't worked for Harmonix. ;)

Nickisimo: I hate figuring out squeeze patterns as much as you do, if not more. I spent today squeaking out another 10k on songs that just needed OD tinkering. If anything, I wish we had a PRACTICE MODE that was as robust as the other instruments, IMPROVED TALKY PARTS (especially Sabotage and Timmy), and AN OVERDRIVE BUTTON ON THE CONTROLLER (OMG!!!). Don't give up -- the most rewarding parts of the climb have all been past the 10 mil mark for me. You might surprise yourself with the kind of progress you can make in an hour on a song or two. Friendly competition is always welcome; that's what Leaderboards are for. =)

**rabies** · Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 4:37 pm Post subject:

**AJayN85** · Joined: 25 Dec 2007 Posts: 149

If I feel like singing - like, for entertainment and not for scoring - with friends who aren't Expert level players and who are also just looking to have a good time, then I move down to Hard and Medium and enjoy myself. Expert is much more like playing a game where your voice is the controller rather than singing well. For vocalists, it seems like our version of "learn to play a real instrument" comments on YouTube is "you suck at singing but nice score," which is a shame since people don't understand why playing Vocals on Expert isn't really singing.

As for insider information, all the QA to Developer conversation is protected by NDA, so you won't get to hear any of that, unless it becomes public knowledge through another outlet. I do have a few tips for the Vocals engine that I might compile into a mini-FAQ as they come to mind.

**Nickisimo** · Joined: 21 Sep 2007 Posts: 774 Location: Charleston, SC

**rabies** · Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 8:46 pm Post subject:

[quote="Nickisimo"]

**Nickisimo** · Joined: 21 Sep 2007 Posts: 774 Location: Charleston, SC

**pmswedge** · Joined: 27 Jun 2007 Posts: 427 Location: San Francisco, CA

Hmm....

Depending on the song, I oftentimes will just flat out sing. Foreplay/Longtime comes to mind... that's probably why I love playing that song so much - because I can actually just flat out sing it and it works out.

I have been thinking of making videos; what kind of criticism are you getting? Stuff like "you suck at singing"? Because that kind of stuff I can handle fine, I know I'm not a spectacular singer.

A-Jay you might be one of the few people who has played more KR than me! Though I'm still not sure about that, haha! I definitely have played some ridiculous amounts of that series - I even had a friend who worked on it; he introduced me to the Wavegroup guys since I was such a fan of the games. Heck, I listened to country music for a while just so I could do KR Country. ;)

I do think that vocals will pick up eventually, especially since there are alot of people out there that love to sing; they just tend not to run with the videogame crowd. I competed in a KR: AI competition here in SF a while back and while I got like 99% on the song (thanks to so much practice with the series), someone randomly came along and FC'ed it first try despite never having played the game before.
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**AJayN85** · Joined: 25 Dec 2007 Posts: 149

**hiddenzombie013** · Joined: 10 Aug 2007 Posts: 1766 Location: Tampa, FL

**Jackalamo** · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 1:41 am Post subject:

**AJayN85** · Joined: 25 Dec 2007 Posts: 149

**pmswedge** · Joined: 27 Jun 2007 Posts: 427 Location: San Francisco, CA