Hello Giant Bombers, 
 
Just thought I'd drop in from the studio to give you guys a little update on how the album is coming along. If you don't know, the full 8-track "Pac-Man Fever" album is coming to the Rock Band Network, and it's going to be awesome. 
 
First, let me clear up some things brought up from news articles, people messaging me, and even an episode of the Bombcast: 
 
1) The songs will be the 1999 re-recordings that Buckner & Garcia released that year. There's several reasons for this. For one thing, these recordings were done on much better equipment, making them easier for us to work with in the mixing process. Another big reason is the reason they even exist: Sony wouldn't give Jerry and Gary access to the original masters. So with full control of these masters, it made the process easy without going through Sony. 
 
2) All of the game sound effects are there. Jeff wondered this on the Bombcast a while back, and I can safely say they'll all be intact, from the Pac-Man death noise to the Donkey Kong climbing noise. I've been asked if any of these sounds will be assigned to the instruments, and they will not be due to it making no sense to jump from the real instrument part to the game sounds and back again. It'd break away from the authentic feel of the songs. 
 
However, a nice feature I've done exclusive to these versions of the songs is that the required count-ins for them in the game all were created using the sound effects. So when you start up the title track, you'll hear a count-in consisting of Pac-Man's wakka sound. 
 
3) The songs will be using RBN2, which includes all the new features from Rock Band 3. This means that the songs will not be playable in Rock Band 2, but this is a compromise we're willing to take as it gives us access to keyboard and vocal harmonies. If you've listened to the album, you'll know both of these are very prominent is each song and will be extremely fun to play. For example, on the title track during the chorus the lead singer sings "I've got Pac-Man Fever" while the harmonies echo "Pac-Man Fever!" In a party scene, we can imagine how fun that will be. 
 
Also, this will give us access to the Pro Modes for Rock Band 3. Now, some articles have been mentioning Pro Guitar support for these songs. RBN2 does not give us access to author that mode, so even if we wanted to it'd be impossible to implement. But the songs will have Pro Drums and Pro Keyboards, and they'll add an extra layer of difficulty to these songs that will challenge players. 
 
Now, second I'd like to let you guys know how the actual work is going on the tracks. Two of the songs have already went into playtesting, "Pac-Man Fever" and "Froggy's Lament". Jerry and Gary have sent me along the masters to all eight songs now, so we're chipping away at the charting and mixing for them now. Of course, we can't put in the keys and harmonies yet, but hopefully by next month Harmonix will release the new RBN tools to allow us. 
 
Jerry, Gary, and I are all very excited about this whole process and are so grateful for all the positive feedback we've received about the album's Rock Band release. We hope you're all ready to catch the Fever again later this year, and when new things develop I'll try to post another blog update for you guys. Leave me some comments below and I'll try to respond to what I can. Thanks! 
 
 
- Owen Douglass 
Owner, Ozone Entertainment

Hello Giant Bombers, 
 
Just thought I'd drop in from the studio to give you guys a little update on how the album is coming along. If you don't know, the full 8-track "Pac-Man Fever" album is coming to the Rock Band Network, and it's going to be awesome. 
 
First, let me clear up some things brought up from news articles, people messaging me, and even an episode of the Bombcast: 
 
1) The songs will be the 1999 re-recordings that Buckner & Garcia released that year. There's several reasons for this. For one thing, these recordings were done on much better equipment, making them easier for us to work with in the mixing process. Another big reason is the reason they even exist: Sony wouldn't give Jerry and Gary access to the original masters. So with full control of these masters, it made the process easy without going through Sony. 
 
2) All of the game sound effects are there. Jeff wondered this on the Bombcast a while back, and I can safely say they'll all be intact, from the Pac-Man death noise to the Donkey Kong climbing noise. I've been asked if any of these sounds will be assigned to the instruments, and they will not be due to it making no sense to jump from the real instrument part to the game sounds and back again. It'd break away from the authentic feel of the songs. 
 
However, a nice feature I've done exclusive to these versions of the songs is that the required count-ins for them in the game all were created using the sound effects. So when you start up the title track, you'll hear a count-in consisting of Pac-Man's wakka sound. 
 
3) The songs will be using RBN2, which includes all the new features from Rock Band 3. This means that the songs will not be playable in Rock Band 2, but this is a compromise we're willing to take as it gives us access to keyboard and vocal harmonies. If you've listened to the album, you'll know both of these are very prominent is each song and will be extremely fun to play. For example, on the title track during the chorus the lead singer sings "I've got Pac-Man Fever" while the harmonies echo "Pac-Man Fever!" In a party scene, we can imagine how fun that will be. 
 
Also, this will give us access to the Pro Modes for Rock Band 3. Now, some articles have been mentioning Pro Guitar support for these songs. RBN2 does not give us access to author that mode, so even if we wanted to it'd be impossible to implement. But the songs will have Pro Drums and Pro Keyboards, and they'll add an extra layer of difficulty to these songs that will challenge players. 
 
Now, second I'd like to let you guys know how the actual work is going on the tracks. Two of the songs have already went into playtesting, "Pac-Man Fever" and "Froggy's Lament". Jerry and Gary have sent me along the masters to all eight songs now, so we're chipping away at the charting and mixing for them now. Of course, we can't put in the keys and harmonies yet, but hopefully by next month Harmonix will release the new RBN tools to allow us. 
 
Jerry, Gary, and I are all very excited about this whole process and are so grateful for all the positive feedback we've received about the album's Rock Band release. We hope you're all ready to catch the Fever again later this year, and when new things develop I'll try to post another blog update for you guys. Leave me some comments below and I'll try to respond to what I can. Thanks! 
 
 
- Owen Douglass 
Owner, Ozone Entertainment

Something I've been wondering, Is the RBN2 upgrade mandatory/free? Or can existing authors choose to stick to original RBN?

" Something I've been wondering, Is the RBN2 upgrade mandatory/free? Or can existing authors choose to stick to original RBN? "

Thanks for the update and keep up the good work.

" a nice feature I've done exclusive to these versions of the songs is that the required count-ins for them in the game all were created using the sound effects. So when you start up the title track, you'll hear a count-in consisting of Pac-Man's wakka sound.   "