What We Need!
In order for us to turn your song(s) into playable tracks on Rock Band, we will need the audio stems for each song.
All stems should be 16 bit, 44.1k .wav files. All stems should have any needed volume rides, panning and fx processing baked in. This means that the stems should contain all the audio from the final album mix, and should sound exactly like the album mix when all played together. For mastering purposes, feel free to do any EQ, spatialization, and compression needed and bake that into the stems, but please avoid the heavy-duty limiting that you might do on a final 2-trk master.
For the game, we prefer proper endings instead of fade-outs, so for songs where the original mix faded out at the end, please don’t fade out the stems, let them play out ‘til the end and use what’s on the tracks to create a proper ending if one doesn’t exist. Along with your stems, it’s important to write out a Lyric Sheet and save it in plain text (.txt) format. This will help with vocal authoring down the line.
It is vital that stems are mixed AS SPECIFIED, without any missing elements from the album mix, as these stems will be the basis for how your song sounds in Rock Band.
These are the stems NEEDED for us to make your song playable:
Additional items for reference:
All stems should be 16 bit, 44.1k .wav files. All stems should have any needed volume rides, panning and fx processing baked in. This means that the stems should contain all the audio from the final album mix, and should sound exactly like the album mix when all played together. For mastering purposes, feel free to do any EQ, spatialization, and compression needed and bake that into the stems, but please avoid the heavy-duty limiting that you might do on a final 2-trk master.
For the game, we prefer proper endings instead of fade-outs, so for songs where the original mix faded out at the end, please don’t fade out the stems, let them play out ‘til the end and use what’s on the tracks to create a proper ending if one doesn’t exist. Along with your stems, it’s important to write out a Lyric Sheet and save it in plain text (.txt) format. This will help with vocal authoring down the line.
It is vital that stems are mixed AS SPECIFIED, without any missing elements from the album mix, as these stems will be the basis for how your song sounds in Rock Band.
These are the stems NEEDED for us to make your song playable:
- Kick Drum: Mono stem.
- Snare Drum: Stereo stem.
- Drum Submix: Stereo stem. (A submix of everything else in the kit besides Kick & Snare, including Hats, Cymbals, Toms, Overheads, Room, etc… It's fully understood that when recording a real kit there will be bleed between the Kick, Snare and Drum Submix stems. That’s acceptable. Try to isolate them as much as is practical, without harming the overall sound. Additionally, if the Drums were recorded as a single stereo file or as 2 files, a kick drum and overhead mics, that is also acceptable.)
- Bass Guitar: Mono stem.
- Guitar: Stereo stem FOR EACH GUITAR PART!
- Lead Vocals: Stereo stem. (A comp of the lead vocal track.)
- Background Vocals: Stereo stem. (A comp of any background vocals/harmonies, etc.)
- Backing Tracks: Stereo stem. (A submix of anything else in the song, not already broken out above: keyboards, percussion, accordian, etc…)
- Lyric Sheet. This will help with vocal authoring down the line.
Additional items for reference:
- Guitar Tabs. We can use these to accurately chart the guitar parts for an even more perfect playing experience.
- Bass Tabs. We can use these to accurately chart the bass parts for an even more perfect playing experience.
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