The Plastic Rockers are back with knowledge for the dumb masses. This time, it's every link you could ever want to enhance your plastic rocking experience.
As you might imagine we get asked tons of questions here at Plastic Rockers. Our wealth of knowledge and passion for all things plastic and rocking can overwhelm our inboxes. We're constantly being written to, called and stopped on the streets to find out where to get the best drum silencer or how to track one's scores. All right, all right... I may be overstating that just a bit, but we really do get asked these questions from time to time and we figured we'd do an article that lists the best sites we've found to help get your pretend band performing at top form and with the best gear.
Now, we're not going to waste your time by mentioning sites like RockBand.com or GuitarHero.com. I mean that would just be obvious and unnecessary. You've come here looking for those cool sites that you'd hoped existed but never knew where to find. Linking to forums on Guitar Hero's site or Harmonix is one of those things that would just make you go duh! and probably cause you to click away. Well, our advertisers hate when people click away from us, so we promise we won't mention obvious sites like RockBand.com or GuitarHero.com in this article.
2old2play.com: If you'd like to have your question answered by a semi-mature, half-intelligent beings similar to yourself, 2old2play.com is a pretty good place to start. Other forum sites can be an adventure in flame wars and name calling but the guys and gals on the Guitar Hero / Rock Band forum at 2old2play are very helpful and usually aren't even douches about it. A quick search through this board will generally yield an answer for whatever perplexes you, but if not, ask away. Someone's always checking the boards and the accumulated knowledge of some of the site's hardest core rock gamers can be tapped. There, we've plugged his site, now maybe Doodi will love us or at the very least grant SCC access.
Drum Mods & Drum Gear Forum's Guide & FAQ: This page on the Rock Band Modifications and Gear Tuning site has been indispensable to me. There is a wealth of information there -- everything from finding out what aftermarket drum heads will work with your Ion Drum Rocker to building your own E drum kit. The site is great for modding out any equipment you can get for a rhythm based game but we've used the drum guide often and have it bookmarked for quick reference.
RockBandKickBox.com: While we're on the topic of drums, check out this site if you have an Ion Drum Rocker kit. This site sells the KickBox device you'll need in order to run a double bass pedal with your Ion Kit and a standard Kick Trigger drum pad. They also have cool devices that allow you to turn your existing Ion drum into a real E drum kit. If you are so cool that you already have a nice E drum, you can get a conversion box to use it with your Xbox and play along with the Rock Band game on your existing kit.
RockBandParts.com: This site has an amazing selection of parts to upgrade anything you can play with Rock Band or Guitar Hero. They are a one-stop shop for everything from drum silencers and aftermarket pedals to parts for your strum bar and adapters that will let you convert a standard mic into a USB mic. We haven't purchased anything directly from these guys so we won't vouch for them in that regard. But, we have read good things about them on third party sites and if nothing else they have a great place to see some of the customization options available to you.
Rock Band 2: The Complete Song Book: Ryan McKanna and Jennifer Putzier have put together a nicely formatted book of every song available in Rock Band. They use a Karaoke style presentation and the look is clean and easy to read. It's available as a .pdf file so you can use it online or print it off to take with you to your next RB party. I can tell you first hand this is really handy to have. They update the list fairly frequently though you may not see it changed every week. The only draw back is that they list EVERYTHING, so narrowing down your particular songs can be a pain. Which is were this guy comes in...
Rock Band Book by SheepStampede: An ambitious fellow over on the forums at RockBand.com has built upon the idea of the songbook Ryan and Jennifer created and "open sourced" it. In other words, he's created a similar-styled book and uploaded the Excel and Access files needed so that you can customize your own songbook any way you'd like it. Of course for dumbasses like me who can't use Access, it's only marginally cool, but for the rest of you this is really awesome.
MyRockBandSongs.com: This is one of our personal favorites. At myrockbandsongs.com you can create a list of every song you have for Rock Band and print out booklets based on what you own and sorted how you'd like. Not only that, but you can become "friends" with others on the site and compare your songs to theirs and find new friends by doing a search for others with similar song lists. Rob also just added a more robust print option for members who donate to the site and a new Facebook Connect option so you can further expand your Rock Band connections.
Keldon.net: With the release of the latest Rock Band patch, this site may seem less necessary. However, we find the reporting data to be much more robust than just the star tracking available in Rock Band. This site will tell you how many stars you've earned on any song you've played, if you've improved on a song since you last played it, and where you are ranked for every song you play. It also works if you're playing on a 360, PS3 and/or Wii system. You can compare your scores with other Gamertags and find other players based on your DLC matches. There's even a list of the current most popular DLC available. All the lists are highly sortable and being able to see your scores and your best songs in one easy to use site is awesome.
Compatibility Chart: This is probably the most important link of any listed so far. Take this link, memorize it and ink it into your chest like a prison tat. Without a doubt, this link provides the answer to the most often asked and most annoying question we get. It's not that it's an invalid question or anything, it's just one of those basic things that any 3-year-old with access to Google could find out in less than a minute. Yet the question comes up over and over. So, the next time someone asks you if their GHIII guitar will work with the new Beatles: Rock Band, write down the web address, laminate it, and then take a four-penny nail and pin it to their forehead.
That's it for now. As more games are released and new plastic instruments come to marketplace I'm sure we'll see more creative people tweaking our "instruments" and finding new ways for rock gamers to get together. As they do, be sure we'll do our best to keep you up to date. If you have a special spot on the web that has been useful for you and we missed it, post up! We love checking out new plastic rock sites. Particularly if it involves naked midgets playing Guitar Hero drums. NoGame can't get enough of those sites.
