Taken from Giant Bomb...

Ars Technica's "mole"--a solid secret informer who has often slipped out good information ahead of proper announcements--has informed Ars that Rock Band 3 will support an instrument with keys, but it won't be a keyboard as the Rock Band 3 logo screen buried within the Rock Band: Green Day demo seemingly teased. Think keytar, the digital shredder of choice for any proper glam metal band.

The mole also pointed out that Mad Catz would be the sole company behind the manufacture of the instruments alongside the rest of the game's plastic necessities, as previous reports implied. In an interesting twist, though, the guitar might get some sort of realistic boost; the mole told Ars that Rock Band 3 will ship with a "pro" mode that somehow teaches users how to play the real thing, which seemingly indicates that the Mad Catz hardware might be more lifelike.

Take this with a grain of salt, regardless of the mole's reliability. MTV and Harmonix are remaining silent, and as of yesterday's report, are encouraging us to "stay tuned" for Rock Band 3 announcements at E3. I think I might just do that. You know, pay attention to E3. I heard that was a big thing.



Maybe some of you can live out your Boom Gaspar fantasies if this is supported for the Pearl Jam game.

Who's Boom Gaspar?

That's stupid. I mean, I understand the reasoning since most songs wouldn't use a regular keyboard, but still. Keytars are ghey. A more realistic drum kit is all I really want.

From IGN:

Guitars with strings, keyboards, and Bohemian Rhapsody

Don't go thinking Rock Band 3 is just another music game sequel with a batch of new songs and little innovation. Developer Harmonix is turning up the volume for the third game in a big way.

As reported by USA Today, the third title will introduce a 25-key MIDI keyboard controller, and two new, stringed guitar controllers; one of which is a full-sized, fully functional Fender Squier Stratocaster. The other guitar controller is a Fender Mustang Pro from peripheral maker Mad Catz.

"It can tell where your fingers are based on technology in the neck and the bridge of the guitar. No buttons," Harmonix said. "While you're playing it, it feels exactly like playing a real guitar."

Rock Band 3 will also include a new expert "Pro" mode that will allow players to learn and develop their skills by replacing the colored-coded tabs with real music notes.


A look at the prototype keyboard controller

Harmonix also teased a partial list of a planned 83-song set list that'll be on the game disc. The list includes:

2000s
Combat Baby -- Metric
Dead End Friends -- Them Crooked Vultures
Get Free -- The Vines
Lasso -- Phoenix
Me Enamora -- Juanes
Oh My God -- Ida Maria
Portions of Foxes -- Rilo Kiley
The Hardest Button to Button -- The White Stripes

1990s
Been Caught Stealing -- Jane's Addiction
In the Meantime -- Spacehog
Plush -- Stone Temple Pilots
Walkin' on the Sun -- Smash Mouth

1980s
Crazy Train -- Ozzy Osbourne
Here I Go Again -- Whitesnake
I Love Rock and Roll -- Joan Jett
Just Like Heaven -- The Cure
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
The Power of Love -- Huey Lewis and the News
Sister Christian -- Night Ranger

1960s-1970s
Bohemian Rhapsody -- Queen
Break On Through -- The Doors
Crosstown Traffic -- Jimi Hendrix

Rock Band 3 is currently set for release this fall on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Nintendo DS.

Head over to USA Today for more info, and be sure to check back with IGN Thursday night for our impressions of the game.

fuck yea, dead end friends

i wanna jam out to unthought known on the keyboard

Me too, but I'd think the new features would only work with the new disc songs and future DLC. I can't imagine they'd go back and update 1000+ songs. We can hope though.

The new stringed guitar and drumset with 3 cymbals, and the pro mode have me pumped. I'm crossing my fingers that they incorporate a 2nd drum pedal for the hi-hat.

looooooooooooooooooooool

From Giant Bomb...

Rock Band 3 Makes A Killer First Impression
Added by Jeff Gerstmann on June 10, 2010

I don't think anyone's really sure about the future of the music game genre. When sales started to slip last year, things started looking incredibly over-saturated. This year, some publishers feel like they're retreating to familiar territory and hoping it all works itself out. But that's not the vibe you get from Harmonix Music Systems after you get a look at its next major release, Rock Band 3. There's a sort of "all or nothing" vibe to the game, and I was left with the distinct impression that the next Rock Band will either reinvigorate the genre or completely obliterate it. But at least Harmonix will rip it all apart on its own terms with an ambitious new set of optional hardware that lets players who crave a more realistic experience go absolutely overboard in incredibly exciting new ways.


The effects strip on the neck is the keyboard version of the whammy bar.

The majority of the new hardware is being built by Mad Catz this time around. While I still remember the peripheral-focused company's shaky past, it's done all right by Street Fighter IV players for the past couple of years, and after gripping a prototype of the new keyboard controller for myself, it feels like a sturdy item. On top of that, it doubles as a keytar with a short neck--complete with effects strip--and pegs for attaching a strap. If you want to utilize the keyboard in non-Rock Band scenarios, it also has a MIDI out port. Sadly, the keyboard was duct-taped down to a stand when I saw it, dashing my keytar dreams before they were allowed to take flight.



By default, you'll use five keys on the keyboard, starting at middle C, to play the game. It's not unlike playing bass or guitar except there's nothing to strum. Adding keyboard parts to the songs opens up a wide new variety of music to the game, and some of the song selections for RB3 definitely have piano and synth parts in mind. For songs that don't have any keys to play, you can opt to play guitar or bass parts on the keyboard controller. Similarly, if you don't have the scratch to pick up a keyboard, you can play keyboard parts on guitar or bass. Of course, there are more than five keys on that keyboard. It covers a full two octaves. And if you turn on "pro mode," you'll have to play a lot more than just five keys.

The Mad Catz pro guitar has a ton of little buttons on it. Didn't get to try it in game, but I held one and it at least felt nice.

Pro mode is the term the developers are using to differentiate a new upper tier of gameplay in Rock Band 3. It's designed to be more realistic and, by design, it ends up being a lot harder than what you're probably used to. When you enable it on the keyboard, the display changes to show more keys, forcing you to essentially play accurate keyboard parts on its highest setting. The keyboard will be available on its own for $79.99, or in a bundle with the game for $129.99.

Vocals get optional three-part harmonies, like Beatles and Green Day had, and by default, the drums in Rock Band 3 are unchanged. But remember those cymbal attachments that were sold alongside previous Rock Band kits? In the drummer's take on pro mode, some gems go between their regular style and tiny cymbals. This tells you when you'll hit the pads down below and when you'll go up top to hit one of your three cymbals. Interestingly, the expanded drum parts are backwards compatible, so much of the existing Rock Band DLC and on-disc tracks from the previous games will automatically feature the proper pro drum data. The cymbals on the Ion Drum Rocker will also work for pro drums.

Bass parts seem to be getting short shrift at the moment, as the version I saw didn't have pro bass in it. The over-the-top nature of pro guitar went a long way, though. Pro guitar will require an entirely different controller, one that's more like a real guitar. Mad Catz is making a MIDI guitar that has six strings at the bottom and a series of buttons that go all the way up the neck of the guitar, six per fret. Like the keytar, the guitar also has a MIDI out port on it. The guitar will sell for $149.99 and should be available at launch. MTV has also announced a deal with Fender to produce a real, amp-ready guitar that also doubles as a pro mode guitar controller. The "Squier By Fender Stratocaster" is a full-sized guitar. Pricing and availability of the Fender "controller" isn't available at this time.


Here's pro mode keys, drums, and guitar.

So now we have two "real guitar" rhythm games coming out this year. Though I've only seen the PowerGig guitar, the biggest difference so far seems to be about the approach. While PowerGig's developers seem to shy away from being referred to as a teaching tool and sounds like it'll focus on power chords on its higher difficulty settings, Rock Band 3's expert-level pro guitar parts are said to be designed with authenticity in mind. In effect, if you're playing pro guitar on its highest setting, you're playing something that closely resembles that song's actual guitar part. To convey the information about how to actually play those parts, the note highways deliver shapes with numbers in them. The shapes will somehow tell you how and where to hold your hand on the neck of the guitar. Of course, you'll be able to play pro guitar on easy difficulty, giving you a whole new ramp to ascend. As a part of that process, you'll be able to enter the game's training mode, which allows you to take the songs down to 50 percent of normal speed and practice them until you get it down.

All of the pro mode stuff is a lot to take in, and it feels like the sort of thing that'll be best for actual musicians and the aspirational types that want to get their learn on. So it's a good thing that all of the old ways to play Rock Band are still intact. In fact, the entire software side of things has been redesigned with a focus on getting a group together and enjoying some songs a lot easier. This is done via something Harmonix is calling the "overshell," and it's basically a set of pop-out, per-player menus that you let you adjust your personal difficulty, pick your instrument, and turn on lefty flip while other players are still picking songs and moving about the rest of the game. It's designed to solve the drunken "wait, no, you hit the green button, now no one touch anything while I pick the song" moments that have turned many a Rock Band night into alcohol-fueled violence. Hmm. Maybe that's just me that gets violent.


This MIDI box lets you connect your existing MIDI drums or keyboards to your console. Crazy.

Things like the world tour mode have been integrated more firmly into the core of the game, so the backgrounds of menus show your band making their way from gig to gig, all while you're still selecting songs and such. There's a new challenge system at work with over 700 things to accomplish, as well as the ability to build your own custom playlists. These playlists can be saved for easy access to your favorite songs, and you can also use them to challenge your friends to leaderboard battles. This stuff will be tied into social networks, like Facebook and Twitter. Visually, the game appears to be a step up from its predecessor, with a lot of crazy, colorful effects. Don't forget, with the addition of the keyboard, there are also now up to five different parts sharing the screen at any given time, and a potential total of seven players playing at once.

Though the whole idea for Rock Band since its original release has been that it's more of a platform unto itself than a series of individual games, the additions in Rock Band 3 appear to be totally worthy of an all-new piece of software. It'll also be compatible with all of your existing exported or downloaded Rock Band tracks, though older tracks won't suddenly receive vocal harmonies, keyboards, or pro guitar parts. Also, it's worth noting that due to changes in the file formats Harmonix is using for downloadable content, song packs released after RB3's release won't work in Rock Band 2, effectively putting an end to continued support for the first two games in the series. That seems like a very small bump in the road when taken alongside the large-sized leap that Rock Band 3 appears to be taking. It's due out on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii this holiday season. A DS version is also in development, but... well... I bet that one won't support pro guitar. No details on the handheld version have been made available at this time.

[UPDATE 6/12/10]: Updated this story to note that pro bass will be in the final product, but wasn't in the version we were shown.

Various interviews...

from IGN...

E3 2010: Rock Band 3 Preview
Strap on your keytar and rock the world.
June 10, 2010

What takes the Rock Band 3 experience even deeper than Rock Band 2, however, is the fact that the game is actually capable of teaching you how to play these instruments (kind of) in a completely new mode, dubbed Pro mode. Pro modes apply to all instrument types and is compatible with new and existing drum controllers, the new keyboard controller, and a new Pro-compatible guitar peripheral to instruct players how to play songs note-for-note and beat-for-beat.

The new Fender Mustang-Pro guitar, which will be sold separately for $149.99, will require players to form real chords and pick notes spanning 6 strings and 17 frets; coming to a jaw-dropping total of 102 individual fret buttons. As if that wasn't enough, you won't just be tapping any old strumbar in Guitar Pro mode; instead, the Mustang-Pro has six individual nylon-coated steel strings, each with its own unique sensor, which must be picked or strummed in the correct fashion in order to get a full 100-percent on any given song.

While the drums have always been fairly true-to-life, Pro gameplay takes the concept a step further and players must hit the corresponding drum and cymbal pads in order to accurately play a song. The drum hardware remains largely the same as the Rock Band 2 set, though it will ship with built-in support for double-bass pedal and come bundled with new Pro-Cymbal attachments, which are based on Mad Catz's original add-on cymbals. These have been revised to feature better hit detection, a softer and subsequently quieter build material, and a more realistic 30-degree downward angle. The Rock Band 3 Wireless Drums and Cymbal Kit can be purchased as a bundle, or the Pro-Cymbals can be bought separately for $39.99.

On the new Wireless Keyboard Controller, instead of simply tapping the five color-coded buttons, users will have to make use of all the individual piano keys. But don't be confused, the keyboard controller isn't just a flimsy piece of plastic – it looks and feels like a real life musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) keyboard. In fact, it is a real life MIDI controller and can be integrated with actual recording programs to create your own synthesized music. Similarly, the Fender Mustang-Pro Guitar controller serves as a fully functional MIDI device as well. Musicians with their own MIDI-enabled drum kits and keyboard controllers can even buy an add-on adapter to allow them to work with the game, which will be sold separately for $39.99.

The Wireless Keyboard Controller can be purchased by itself for $79.99 or bundled with the game for $129.99.

While the new keyboard and Mustang-Pro peripherals promise to bridge the gap between virtual rock stardom and real life musicianship, Mad Catz, Fender, and the developers of Rock Band 3 will also be offering a new electric guitar/guitar controller hybrid – the Rock Band 3 Squier Stratocaster. Combining real electric guitar components and advanced touch-enabled sensors, the Squier Stratocaster serves as both a fully functional guitar and Rock Band 3 controller, which can even be plugged into and played on a real guitar amp. Pricing and release information about the Rock Band 3 Squier Stratocaster will be released in the coming months.

As we first learned earlier this year, Mad Catz has taken over production of all officially-branded peripherals in the Rock Band series, including the new Fender Mustang-Pro controller, Wireless Keyboard Controller, and MIDI Pro-Adapter.

From Gamespot...

Rock Band 3 Hands-On
By Brian Ekberg

New peripherals, features, and a goal to disrupt the music games business: Harmonix is nothing if not ambitious with its upcoming rhythm game.

Let's face it: Rhythm games don't really hold the allure that they did a couple of years ago. Both The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 failed to live up to expectations from a sales standpoint, leading many to wonder if the bloom is permanently off the fake band video game rose. Nonetheless, developer Harmonix is still firmly committed to the genre as well as its Rock Band franchise--so much so that at a presentation introducing the game to the press last month in Los Angeles, Harmonix producers claimed this game will be a "disruptive title" in the music category. The jury is still out on that claim, but from the looks of things, it's clear that Harmonix has put a lot of thought into the features for Rock Band 3.

Perhaps the most noticeable addition to the game is the keyboard peripheral, which is, obviously, used for songs that include piano or keyboard parts. While the keyboard peripheral isn't specifically required for the game--you'll be able to play the keyboard parts in a song with a guitar, if you like--playing an actual keyboard on songs like Night Ranger's "Sister Christian" or Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again" (two of the 20 or so songs featured during the Rock Band 3 demo) was a kick. While the keyboard is limited in size--two octaves, to be precise--it should be noted that the peripheral itself is a proper instrument (complete with an MIDI output), which has some larger implications for the game that we'll address a bit later.

As with the rest of the Rock Band instruments, playing keyboards is easy on the lower difficulty settings, provided you've got the right-hand position. After placing your right thumb on the equivalent of "middle C" on the keyboard, the note highway gems are tied to the five subsequent white keys, and as with the guitar parts, you'll sometimes be pressing two or three notes together to form chords. Our limited facility with the keyboards kept us from trying any parts above medium difficulty with any sort of success, but it's clear that some parts will be tricky from the get-go.

To demonstrate the keyboards in action, as well as the harmony vocals that have been brought into the game from The Beatles: Rock Band, a group of Harmonix producers took the stage to play Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." Judging by its inclusion in the next Guitar Hero game, as well as in Power Gig: Rise of the SixString, this makes it the must-have song for 2010's crop of music games. The on-stage group members gave it their best with Freddie Mercury's multilayered vocals and complex arrangements, and the result was a strong, if not necessarily note-perfect, effort. Vocal harmonies will be all over Rock Band 3, and several of the songs that were playable in the demo version featured those harmonies, including "Sister Christian," "Here I Go Again," "Power of Love" by Huey Lewis & The News, and "Walkin' on the Sun" by Smash Mouth, among others.

Those new songs will be a handful of the more than 80 tunes that will be included on the Rock Band 3 disc, and those 80 songs will add to Rock Band's increasingly huge content library, which is well over 1,000 songs strong now (and quite a bit more if you count the work coming out of the Rock Band Network). That much content can make for an organizational nightmare (we've all scrolled and scrolled when searching through our RB catalogs, looking for the next song to play), which is a fact that Harmonix developers are taking into consideration with improved filters and set list tools that should make those songs easier to find. For example, you'll be able use filters to show only new songs or only songs that are of a certain length (to prevent that annoying guy at your Rock Band party from selecting the epic "Green Grass and High Tides," only to fail once the guitar solos begin). You'll also be able to rate songs so that they appear more or less often when playing random set lists, as well as save and share set lists with your friends. Taking that idea one step further, you'll be able to create custom battles in Rock Band 3 and share them with your friends.

Road challenges are a new feature in Rock Band 3--described by Harmonix's Dan Teasdale as "Band World Tour" crossed with "Mario Party." The core experience is still the same as Band World Tour--heading on tour with your bandmates to play shows and earn as many fans as possible. The twist here is that different gigs will have different circumstances and requirements to succeed. For example, at one gig, the audience might have been "treated" to a terrible opening act, and it will up to your group to win the audience back by using lots of overdrive during your songs. At another show, the audience might be filled with pencil-necked rock critics, and you'll need to play more accurately than you might have otherwise to please that tough crowd.

In addition to the challenges, the game will feature lots of goals surrounding a player's skill on the instruments. That's part of the approach in Rock Band 3's Career mode--the goals measure your skill on each of the instruments in the game, and you'll have an awareness of your relative skill on all the instruments as you go. Every goal you complete in the game will earn you fans, and those fans will earn you new items for your band…things like your van, which will further expand your touring capability.

Harmonix developers have something special in mind for the truly hardcore Rock Band fans this time around. If expert difficulty has become passe for you, you'll have an entirely new level of skill to choose from--known as Pro mode--which will be tied to the guitar, drum, and keyboard parts in the game. When playing Pro mode, you'll have relative levels of skill as well, but the ultimate goal is to better translate the gameplay conceits of note highways and gems into real musical terms. The easiest explanation for Pro mode comes with the drums; if you have a Rock Band set that includes cymbals, you'll see different-shaped gems coming down the highway that will indicate cymbal crashes.

On keyboards, playing in Pro mode shows a very different note highway, one that indicates every key on the keyboard peripheral. Though the parts start easier on the basic Pro level, by the time you ramp it up to the highest difficulty level, you're playing the actual keyboard parts as they are played in the song. The limited range of the keyboard means you probably won't get many two-handed parts going, but that doesn't take away from the technical difficulty of the notes you do have. Because there are so many keys to be represented and the note highway can only display so many notes, you'll see arrows onscreen that will indicate the screen needs to shift left or right to show notes that are higher or lower than your current position. It makes for a sometimes inelegant display, but those who dive into Pro keyboard mode will probably acclimate to it.

As with the keyboard, playing Pro mode on guitar will be much closer to playing a real guitar, and Mad Catz is releasing a specialized controller you'll need to play this mode. With 17 frets, six string controllers, and 102 buttons on the neck, it's tailor-made for Pro mode guitar and will let you play full chords across the neck, as well as the insane solos note-for-note just like a real guitarist. Once again, the note highway changes significantly for this mode, showing different gem shapes to indicate chords. At expert level on Pro mode, you're playing the exact same notes that Randy Rhodes belted out during his face-melting solo in "Crazy Train." As a result, this mode won't be for everyone. However, for those looking to find a bridge between fake guitar in Rock Band and picking up an axe and hacking out some tunes, Pro mode just might serve that purpose.

Whether Pro mode is as disruptive to the music game business as Harmonix claims remains to be seen, but it's nice to see the company looking to encourage more in the way of real musicianship with Rock Band 3. There's more to learn about the game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo--including a hands-on with that Mad Catz guitar and Pro mode gameplay--and we'll be following the game throughout the rest of the year leading up to its release this fall.

Pretty cool!

i cant be the only one that wants a keytar!

Anyone pick this up? Loving it so far

Yeah. I'm not crazy about the setlist, but the gameplay is really cool. Love some of the new features, and the pro-mode drums are so much fun (and harder).

I didn't get the keyboard yet, and the pro-mode guitar isn't out yet but that looks like it'll be a ton of fun.

Not sure if you were aware, but they're giving away 3 free Doors songs with pro guitar/bass add ons. Today is the last day though. Tomorrow they become part of a 12 pack of songs for purchase (the other 9 are available for purchase now too for $15 but no pro guitar).

Bought this today on Amazon with the keyboard. Should be arriving around the weekend. Can't wait to rock out the keys on the "Power of Love".

Have fun. I didn't get the keyboard because I wasn't sure I'd play it much, but after playing most of the songs on other instruments, I just need to have it. Lots of piano/keyboard-heavy stuff on here. A lot more to come, too. There's already 12 songs from The Doors available for download, and upcoming are 12 Billy Joel songs, and John Lennon's Imagine album.

I'm pretty sure I will buy the entire Billy Joel pack when it releases. Both my girlfriend and I are fans.

this song is ranked one dot and its hard as fuck

it's so fucking bad