Now you can play the Fauxharmonic Orchestra’s versions of classical favorites in Rock Band 2.
All classical “songs” currently available for Rockband
Currently available on the Rock Band Network:
- Night on Bald Mountain (PREVIEW – MP3)
- Flight of the Bumblebee (PREVIEW – MP3)
- Brahms – Hungarian Dance No. 5
- Beethoven – Symphony No. 9 – Scherzo
In development:
- Beethoven – Symphony No. 5
- Wagner – Ride of the Valkyries
- Verdi – Anvil Chorus
- Handel’s Largo
- Arias from Carmen
- Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture
How it works
We start with the orchestral/choral music rendered faithfully and lovingly with our digital orchestra. Then we create playable parts for the Rock Band controllers (instruments) that currently include guitar, bass and drum set. Naturally, we use the controllers to play various orchestral parts, like first violin, oboe, cellos, timpani, etc.
If there is a voice part, you simply sing into the microphone, just like any other Rock Band song … except you might be singing a challenging aria by Verdi or Bizet.
How do you get it?
NOTE: This is currently only available for the XBox version of Rock Band 2. (Harmonix/MTV promise to make these songs available to Wii and PS3 users soon.)
- Sign in to XBox Live
- Start Rock Band 2
- Go to Music Store
- Choose “Rock Band Network”
- Browse by category “Other” which is where they put “classical.”
- You can download a demo version that you can play on your XBox. If you like it, you can purchase it with Microsoft points. Most of our songs will be 60 points.
Composers: Get your music on Rock Band Network
Of course, since we have been producing recordings for composers since 2003, we can create Rock-Band-ready versions of composers’ scores for download in the Rock Band Network store. If you’re a composer and you’re interested in getting your music into Rock Band, send mail to rockband@fauxharmonic.com.
The Fauxharmonic will take care of the authoring process (a laborious and tedious task) to produce an arrangement appropriate for Rock Band game play, and will shepherd the music through the Rock Band testing and review process.
When people buy your music you will get a 15% royalty. The Fauxharmonic Orchestra will also get 15%. The rest is kept by Microsoft and Harmonix/MTV.
Cost
We may author and upload your music to the Rock Band Network free of charge if we think it will do well in the game (i.e., will be fun to play, and is not too difficult or too long). To find out if your music qualifies, just send us a copy of the score (PDF, Sibelius or Finale), or an mp3. We don’t promise to choose your work to produce for Rock Band.
If you would like to pay The Fauxharmonic Orchestra to produce your music and get it into the Rock Band Network, contact us for a price quote.
‘Classical favorites’ looks very interesting, nice to finally grow Rockband’s genre’s and get to play something a bit different.
What i’d really love to see though would be some sets such as
70’s & 80’s TV themes (Starsky & Hutch, A-team, Airwolf, etc)
Though one track I’d love to have for drums would be ‘Heavy Action’ composed by Johnny Pearson originally for the UK TV series ‘Superstars’, but re-recorded for the US ‘Monday Night Football’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIxeOvClzR4)
This is definitely the greatest thing to come to Rock Band. The pieces sound fantastic, the charting is great, and as a band geek I feel so great seeing these on a game I love.
There are two pieces I think would be fantastic in the game, one of which being Verdi’s Dies Irae and Tuba Mirum (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ruUhFgltH8), which would certainly be fun for vocalists, and then Gustav Holst’s Jupiter: Bringer of Jollity (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz0b4STz1lo)
If you get the opportunity to actually do them, it would certainly be amazing, and I think it would be rewarding to the players as well
Keep up the good work, I’ll be sure to buy anything you guys submit the moment it becomes available!