Vocal Review Process

Reviewing vocals is unique in that just about every issue that appears will appear on all difficulties. Since the authoring for vocals is only done once, there is much less variation in what happens on lower difficulties. However, there is also quite a bit to check.

When multiple instruments are being reviewed, it is recommend to leave the vocal review for last. Unless one is very familiar with the song, it is a good idea to play the song a few times on other instruments first to allow the reviewer to listen to the vocal performance before attempting to play and review it.

Checklist

The quick list of things to look for!

• Are all note tubes the same pitch as what the vocalist is singing?
• Do note tubes last the correct length?
• Is each note tube tied to a single syllable?
• If there are slides, does the timing of each slide match what the vocalist is singing?
• Is each note tube clipped to avoid including too much of long consonant sounds (c, f, s, z, etc?)
• Are all non-pitched lyrics authored as talkies? Is it possible to hit them and get an "awesome" rating?
• Are all lyrics spelled correctly?
• Do all of the lyrics match up to what the singer is singing?
• Are there any hyphens appearing in places they shouldn't?
• Does each phrase begin with a capital letter?
• Are all of the phrases a reasonable length? Do all of the lyrics of each phrase fit on the screen in the static HUD?
• Are all overdrive phrases in the song usable?
• Is the vocalist animating properly?
• If applicable, do the percussive sections of the song make sense in the context of the song? Are the phrases an acceptable length?

Authoring

Of course, one of the most important things about vocals in Rock Band are that the note tubes match the pitch of what the singer is actually singing. This can be difficult to test in audition, and there's no surefire method to make this process painless. The two main ways you can attempt to do this are to completely match what pitch the singer is making, and see if it lines up with the tubes, or do the reverse of that, and sing so that you're always centered in the tubes and listen to whether or not it matches what the singer is singing. Ideally, what you sing should match the pitches and inflections of the actual singer, and doing this will grant you an "awesome" rating on every phrase.

On top of that, it's important that note tubes begin and end in the "right" spot. They should generally begin and end with the first "hard" sound of the word. Usually, this means that the note tube will begin with the first vowel sound of the lyric. For example, when singing the word "cool" the tube should not occur at the start of the initial "c" sound, but at the "-ool" that follows. This may not be completely obvious at first, but it becomes easier to notice after playing a few songs while actively looking for this.

Similarly, each note tube should only represent a single syllable of a word. For instance, when the vocalist sings the word "something" (assuming it is sung in a somewhat normal way), this should be represented by two note tubes labeled as "some" and "thing." If the syllables don't look quite right, you can check them against the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/) or use dictionary.com (http://www.dictionary.com/) as an additional reference.

If words do not have a clear pitch, they are authored as talkies. If it seems like a certain note tube should be a talky, or the other way around, it's important to discuss it in the song's thread. Occasionally a word will have a pitch but is too difficult to parse; these words also become talkies. (For an example from official HMX DLC, the word "explosive" during the end of the bridge in Jonathan Coulton's "Skullcrusher Mountain" is authored as a talky, though he is singing a pitch).

There is one caveat to the issue of pitched/talky: if there is a word with multiple syllables, it needs to be authored with nothing but talkies, or all pitched tubes. There is no mixing and matching. In addition, for any talkies in the song, it's important to check that you can get an "awesome" rating on all of them. If any phrase contains talkies (or is an all-talky phrase), make sure that you can get an "awesome" rating on the phrase. If it is impossible to be scored completely, there are a few methods that the author has of making this possible.

For more in-depth information about vocal authoring standards, check out the Vocal Authoring page.

Lyrics and Phrasing

Reviewing lyrics brings up two specific issues. First and foremost, make sure everything is spelled right! This is pretty easy for the most part. You can view the lyrics for songs that are already uploaded to RBN here on the website, although checking them in-game is important, too. (Also, if you’re reviewing your own song before uploading it, this is a much easier way to do it rather than looking at a million text events in the mid).

It is recommend to review lyrics using the static HUD. Any issue in the scrolling HUD will also appear in the static HUD, and static makes it easier to check the entire phrase at once. Lyrical tasks may still be accomplished in the scrolling HUD, but will most likely be more time-consuming. Additionally, phrase lengths may be too long to fit on the TV using the static HUD, and this problem cannot be properly found when the HUD is set to scroll. Not only will the lyrics run off the screen, but the bar that runs across the tubes will appear sluggish, to the point of almost staying still. For an extreme example, having an issue where the entire chorus is one phrase would play extremely poorly for various reasons.

You’ll notice if you try to read all of the lyrics while the song is moving at its actual speed, it’ll be really tough to parse everything at once. Fortunately, you can slow the track down! You can slow the track just a bit if you think you can handle it, or slow it down to a crawl where the song barely feels like it’s moving. You don’t need to be able to hear the song in order to check for typos, so this is an acceptable way of making sure everything looks right. After that, all you need to do is look at the lyrics and point out what’s wrong.

There are some specific punctuation rules for Rock Band. It is acceptable to use a single question mark if the lyrics are actually a question. Periods are only used for abbreviations (such as in "Back In the U.S.S.R."). A single exclamation point can be used when the singer is putting added emphasis on a phrase, but it's important that the author does not go overboard adding these in.

One other specific issue that will come up is hyphenation. In the static HUD, hyphens shouldn’t be appearing unless the spelling of the word calls for it ("Jack-in-the-box," for example). These are easy to catch for the most part, so just keep your eyes peeled and they’ll stick right out!

You’ll also need to make sure that all of the lyrics match what the singer is singing. This involves playing the song at full speed for the most part, and may involving restarting a few times to make sure you heard what you think you did. For most songs a wrong lyric will stick out after a few listens, but if the vocals are really distorted or too quiet in the mix, this can be a difficult task. There’s no real trick to getting this one down during a review, but do your best and you’ll catch the issues!

Just as phrases can be too long, they can be too short, as well. A lot of this is subjective, but if the phrases don’t cut off in places that “make sense,” this can be a problem. For the most part, phrases should last for what the singer sings in a single breath. There are certainly exceptions to this, but it’s important to make sure that phrases are flowing smoothly at all times. You can easily catch these issues in both the scrolling and static HUD (although it might be slightly easier in the static HUD), so feel free to use what works best for you.

One final issue with phrases has to do with overdrive. Overdrive can only be activated at vocals at the beginning of phrases where there is enough space between that phrase and the previous one. Because of this, it's important to make sure that every overdrive phrase can be used. If there's an overdrive phrase shortly after the final activation, that is acceptable, but there shouldn't be an overdrive so late in the song that you'll never get a chance to use it until after all of the singing is over. Similarly, if a song has very few activation points there should be no more than four overdrive phrases before the first activation point.

Animations and Percussion sections

For the most part, vocal animations are easy. Is the vocalist rocking the mic while vocals are happening? Is the vocalist just grooving when there are no vocals for a period of time? If the answer to both is yes, that is good. If the answer is no…well, you get the idea.

One other thing to check is the percussion sections of the song. Phrasing follows the same rules as phrasing for sung vocals (not too long, not too short), but on top of that, the chosen percussion noise should be in line with the song’s style.

There are three settings to choose from: hand clap, tambourine, and cowbell. Certain songs will fit in one of these themes. If a cowbell feels out of place in a song, you can recommend changing it to a hand clap or tambourine. Of course, if none of these fit the song’s theme, it’s acceptable to not have any percussion sections at all.

Additionally, if a percussion section is detracting from the other instruments, it’s acceptable to leave these sections blank, as well. If the guitarist is playing a particularly shredding guitar solo, it might be better to leave this section open for the vocalist so they can activate overdrive in a multiplayer session.