As of this writing, these songs aren’t yet available in the in-game Store — Microsoft, Sony, and Harmonix are still fixing some issues with DLC in general, especially legacy entitlements. You may be able to play some or all of them right now if you actually got the appropriate pre-order bonus, but some of those are having issues too. I’m sure everything will be sorted out soon, so just be patient, and the rock goodness will eventually make its way to your console.
Steam – “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” (farottone, Ultimate_Mang0, Ruck Bogers 22, GanonMetroid, Colonel 32dll, and AddyMilldike)
A red X denotes Pro Guitar/Pro Bass charts, a blue M denotes full multitracks, a blue K denotes a “karaoke” multitrack (separated vocals), and a rusty 2x denotes that a 2x Bass Pedal version is also available. FtV denotes a song previously released by a C3 author outside of C3.
“Since the invention of the kissRock Band, there have been five RB community projects that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind. The end.”
“Grandpa C3, maybe you could come over and read it again to me tomorrow?”
“As you wish.”
Hello, everyone! It’s finally here — the very last C3 release. The end of all things. Armageddon. Ragnarok. The Rapt-…wait, no, we did that one at the beginning, for some reason. Uh…well, you get the idea. It’s the end! But, like any good ending, it’s also the start of something new. More on that in a second. First, let’s look at our carefully selected and prepared songs for this week.
We knew last week was going to be The Big One, and for our final week we wanted to do something symbolic. We couldn’t settle on one song, so we went with three: the original Rock Band pack size. Many of our longtime authors have been busy, and our newer authors have been stepping up lately, so: these songs are a crowdsourced effort, which fits C3 perfectly. The three songs we chose represent the fans, the authors, and the future:
The Fans: Focus – “Hocus Pocus (Live ’73)” That’s right, it’s that live version of “Hocus Pocus”. At this point, this song is as much of a meme as “moar Muse”, and we’re happy to finally deliver it here in the finale. The studio version of this song is much slower; Focus famously had to play the song for a TV show with a very short time window, so rather than cut down the song, they just played it crazy fast. This one’s for you guys.
The Authors: Steam – “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” Also known as just “na na na na / hey hey hey / goodbye”. This is definitely the coolest release this week. For this song, 13 authors recorded themselves singing along. This recording can be heard in-game as the crowd singalong track, and the end of the actual song audio is just us. How cool is that?! It sounds really good, and you should go listen to it in the preview video if you haven’t yet. The mixing and preparation for this are thanks to MFX, who worked really hard to make it sound awesome. Authors in the singalong include:
AddyMilldike
clintilona
Dash Riprock
espher
farottone
GanonMetroid
ghostbyob
Kemiroch
MFX
Nyxyxylyth
pksage
Sygenysis
thomeval
TrojanNemo
The Future: Bachman-Turner Overdrive – “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” Okay, so, first, it’s BTO. Somehow, we went this whole time without BTO! How is that possible? (We actually had a three-pack planned at one point, but it never panned out.) This song really takes care of business! But mostly, it’s a perfect way to kick off the next phase of C3.
Wait, what? “The next phase of C3”? It’s true — our weekly releases were great, but you ain’t seen nothing yet.
We’re excited to announce that the C3 website (i.e. the new forum) now hosts a proper community customs database. Anyone can upload their own custom songs, browse others’ customs, leave feedback, easily follow songs for updates and fixes, and generally be more engaged with the community. The database includes all C3 releases, (non-downloadable) entries for all Harmonix and RBN songs, and is available starting RIGHT NOW.
Holy moly! This has been a long time coming, and there’s still a lot of work to be done, but the community database is C3’s new beginning. Now we’re truly a Collective, a place where everyone can share their customs with the world. It’s really exciting, really useful, and really…rushed, so please be patient with us as we iron out the bugs. (We’ve been planning this for a long time, but our existing plans fell through on Sunday, and I — pksage — stood this whole thing up from scratch over the last 5 days.) For more info, see this forum announcement.
So there you have it, everyone. C3 weekly “DLC” is over, but C3 as a whole is just getting started. We’ll be continually improving the new database, especially over the next few weeks, and we might join forces with other music games (FoF, the Rocksmith guys at CustomsForge, etc.) to expand even further. Rock Band 4 comes out in 4 days, and customs are no replacement for official DLC! Please support Harmonix by playing Rock Band 4. Customs are an excellent way to fill time between new DLC, though, and we hope our forums will be a hot spot for RB4 fans. This is a great time to check out our new Rock Band 4 Discussion forum!
Fixes uploaded in the last week to previous C3 releases (and from now on, you can find updates in the new database):
alt-J – “Breezeblocks”: Keys and venue fixes
Jeff Buckley – “Hallelujah”: Fixed an audio channel bug
The Mars Volta – “Cassandra Gemini”: More venue fixes after last week and some lyrics fixes
Of Monsters and Men – “Little Talks”: New venue
Phoenix – “Entertainment”: Drums and keys fixes
Sum 41 – “Makes No Difference”: New venue, small vocals fixes
Tera Melos – “Sunburn”: Small vocals and drums fixes
Before we go, farottone and I wanted to say a few words. Unfortunately, as of this writing, I’m going to be up all night getting the database ready for release. I love you guys, and C3 has been a journey, but that journey’s not over! So, instead, I’m going to let farottone do all the talking for once.
farottone writes:
I’ve been going over what to say for days now and it all inevitably ended up being about the numbers, the changes we made to the world of customs, the releases… and it felt like a business document. And all of a sudden I realised this is not about that. This, C3 and the value in what we did, is about something else.
This is about the fans who made us feel like rock stars and lavished us with praises. This is about the guy who ended up playing Genesis with his dad. It’s about all those who had fun with their friends. Those who told us this is why they stuck around and are now buying Rock Band 4 and those who discovered a new band. It’s about the guy who lost his father but found Christmas again and about those who donated to charity because this is not about money.
This is about friendship. This is about making things right, and the man who will soon understand what this means. It’s about not giving up. It’s about the man who told us “I can’t do this for a while, my wife needs me, I can’t set aside much time for customs, I’m sorry”, did what a man is supposed to do and then came back and said “I’m ready now, let’s do this.” It’s about the girl who gave up on seeing her customs released through C3 and then on the last days of releases she hits the spotlights. It’s about all the people who helped us because they saw what we were doing and about the people we helped deal with life with our humble offerings.
This is about the passion, about setting a goal almost 3 years ago and working hard every single day to make it a reality. It’s about that guy who wept playing Supper’s Ready and those who took the time to make us feel special. It’s about music but it’s about life. It’s tracking down a piece of footage just to understand what the drummer plays as much as it is re-recording preview videos on short notice without ever saying a word about it. It’s about giving 100% until Friday hits and then starting all over again because no one can go home without a smile on their face.
Finally, this is about you. You are the reason why this has existed. It’s about the players who took the stage to play their songs but only to find an audience who kept coming back for more. And it’s about us, about every single author who said “I understand what we’re trying to build here, how can I help and when do I start?” It’s about those who were here from the start and those who just got in. It’s about those who said, in April 2013, “Is this all we’re planning? Just one more big day of customs?” Yes, dear friends, it really did start as a single release. And then it became about something else entirely.
And, as our final encore, we want to tell a brief story:
This is a story of dreams and ultimate success. It can be told as “We got together as a bunch of guys and created songs people liked, and then we stopped”, or it can be told this way. We like this way better.
Today I stand at the top of the mountain and after years I look back and I see everything. I see the beginnings, far away, with the dreams of making it. I see the passion of those times and I see how foolish I was to think this could be done. And I see the path I took, never straight, always hard. I see all the times where I chose to do the difficult things and all the times I stumbled and fell. My body is bruised, every step is a battle but I see how I’ve picked myself up every time.
And I see the people who cheered for me. I see them in the distance, so few, so beautiful. I see them coming together from every road, because they believe, more and more as things get near. I see myself believing it can be done, I recognize the moment it happened, because I see those who came just to witness.
My eyes move to things closer and I am humbled by the people who stood at my side as days, weeks, months passed. I see those times where I thought I was alone and doubted myself. I see the corners where I sat and wondered “Do I turn around?” And then I see the people right around those corners. They are too many to count, too many to let down. And I see that I never looked back once. I see yesterday as I see years ago, they are alive on my skin, in the wounds I suffered, in the days I spent with people giving me shelter. I see the landmarks, I recognize each of them by the sacrifices they required, by the awesome power of the people that visited them.
And I see those who climbed with me. I see those I had to leave behind: I do not weep for them, I carry them with me, they are in my bones. I see those who chose the path I could not follow: I do not miss them, I carry them with me, they are in my bones. I see those who started with me and those who knew of me and joined me, I see them tired, angry, spent and battered: I do not feel for them, I carried them with me, they are my bones.
I see myself, far away, alone. I see my friends, one by one, helping me, pushing me, carrying me. I now see how my path becomes steady and I know this is what I was meant to be. I see I was not foolish to think this could be done. I see I was, even alone, everything I needed to be. Yet I see I was, alone, nothing.
No more looking back. I hug my friends, I am what they made me. My journey had a beginning and my journey has an end, I am whole. I am the impossible, never alone, always strong, my purpose is clear. I lived a life within a life: I hated and I loved, I cheered and I suffered, I failed and I triumphed. I have done for others what others have done for me. I gave and received, I cried and smiled, I fought and I helped.
I look at the sky: it’s not the same I was born under. I feel I am part of it, I feel I have touched it with my fingers and changed it. I feel presumptous and I feel right. I look at everyone who stand with me. I feel I touched them with my fingers and they changed me. I am better because of them. I feel like the sky: not the same, touched by those who wanted more.
A breeze pulls me back from my thoughts: it’s tomorrow, it’s already here. I am scared: will my friends still be with me? Will I be what they need me to be? My legs are uneasy but a realization sets in: the climb has not weakened me, it has made me stronger. My body is healed, my wounds are gone. My people has been there for best and worst, they are telling me it’s time. I have drawn on them, now I need to lead. This path is not for me to follow, every inch I walked on rough terrain is now a trail that leads everywhere. I am not scared, I am alive and I now know my place. This is where I’m supposed to rest, everywhere else is where my friends belong, ripe with possibilities.
Today I stand at the top of the mountain that is all that was done and all who experienced it. Today I know friendship, loyalty, courage, sacrifice, love and success. I was nothing, now I am. I am C3.
See you, space cowboys. Not next Friday, but in some ethereal “next Friday”, in a different place and time. Be excellent to each other.
(This was supposed to go out yesterday, but pksage has been swamped with stuff for our final release. Thanks for your patience!)
When you run a database, any kind of database, you are inevitably drawn to the siren song of statistics. We’ve got two and a half years of customs just begging to be analyzed! Isn’t that exciting??? No? Just us? Too bad! You get to sit through this post anyway.
All stats exclude 2x bass pedal versions, rhythm versions, and the GHtoRB3 back catalog unless otherwise specified.
Dates
C3’s first release (The Rapture) was on April 9, 2013, and our last release is tomorrow, October 2, 2015.
That’s over 129 weeks, or 2 years, 5 months, and 23 days.
If we were Harmonix, and The Rapture was the release of RB1, it would be May 11, 2010, and we’d be releasing Judas Priest’s British Steel live album.
Songs & Releases
C3 released custom Rock Band songs during every one of those 129 weeks, with no exceptions.
We released 1321 original songs in total; 1501 unique songs with the GHtoRB3 back catalog, and 1683 song packages including 2x bass and rhythm versions.
For an unfair comparison (since we don’t have to worry about trivial things like first-party certification), Harmonix had released 977 DLC songs by their 129th week.
We had 132 release dates over those weeks, averaging 10.06 unique songs per week.
Our biggest week was Genesis Chronicles (80 songs) on November 14, 2014, and our smallest week was Tears for Fears C01 (3 songs) on April 17, 2015.
The artists with the most C3 customs are, in order:
Genesis (77 songs)
Queensrÿche (51 songs)
Dream Theater (33 songs)
Rush (31 songs)
Guns N’ Roses (17 songs)
The (admittedly user-defined and kind of shaky) genres with the most C3 customs are, in order:
Rock (268 songs)
Metal (224 songs)
Pop-Rock (158 songs)
Alternative (148 songs)
Prog (138 songs)
Each decade of rock music had this many C3 releases:
1950s (5 songs)
1960s (83 songs)
1970s (170 songs)
1980s (294 songs)
1990s (306 songs)
2000s (271 songs)
2010s (189 songs)
Multitrack audio stems were included for 291 songs, and partial stems were included in a further 58 songs. (All of GHtoRB3’s back catalog had multitracks, pushing us to 476 songs with full stems.)
Almost every release in our DB (including GHtoRB3), with single-digit exceptions for each platform, have been converted to Wii, PS3, and Phase Shift formats. This is entirely thanks to the hard work of StackOverflow0x, TDCMark, bluzer, and AkiraNomuraBCN, often with tools designed by TrojanNemo.
Downloads
C3 has served over 2 million custom song downloads from over 60,000 unique IPs.
The most-downloaded C3 releases, in order:
Guns N’ Roses – “Sweet Child O’ Mine” (farottone)
Britney Spears – “Toxic” (Nyxyxylyth)
Guns N’ Roses – “Paradise City” (farottone)
ABBA – “Mamma Mia” (drummerockband)
Guns N’ Roses – “November Rain” (farottone)
Led Zeppelin – “Kashmir” (farottone)
Led Zeppelin – “Immigrant Song” (farottone)
Michael Jackson – “Thriller” (farottone and RUSHEE)
Led Zeppelin – “Black Dog” (farottone)
Pink Floyd – “Time” (Nyxyxylyth)
Of C3 authors who released 10 or more songs, these authors had the highest average downloads, in order:
RyanHYK
drummerockband
farottone
BearzUnlimited
Lowlander
We had to specify “10 or more songs”, because otherwise Orange Harrison destroys everyone with The Beatles.
Pro Mode
C3 releases included:
1040 songs with harmony vocals (1188 with GHtoRB3)
162 songs with “(2x Bass Pedal)” Drums charts
859 songs with Pro Keys (919 with GHtoRB3)
89 songs with Pro Guitar or Pro Bass (93 with GHtoRB3)
A large number of our Pro G/B charts were authored by columbo777, who I have criminally under-credited since the beginning.
Packs
We grouped our releases into 166 packs, with an average of 6.15 songs per pack.
Within those packs, we had 19 full albums, plus at least two packs that finished partial albums from Harmonix releases.
Exactly 300 songs were released as singles.
There were lots of “C02” packs, and a few “C03” packs, but only Guns N’ Roses and Queensrÿche made it to 4 packs. (All of Queensrÿche’s were full albums!)
Authors
It’s hard to pin down exact author counts, but over 90 different people worked on official C3 releases.
The most prolific author is farottone, who personally authored or contributed to over 460 songs. This means farottone is at least partially responsible for 35% of all C3 songs.
After farottone is Nightmare Lyra, who authored or contributed to 130 songs. After the two of them, there’s a sharp drop before the rest of us mortal authors.
Excluding farottone, because he throws off all the numbers, each author contributed an average of ~16 songs.
Our author team is from all over the world — at least ten different countries are represented, including Italy, Norway, Canada, the US, and others.
Blog
Since it launched with The Rapture, this blog has received over 925,000 page views. That’s an average of more than 7,000 views per week.
We’ve made 163 posts, most of which are release posts.
About 155 of those posts were made by me, pksage.
With a very few exceptions, every release post has had at least one preview video. These 170+ videos were made by Lowlander and TrojanNemo, and represent ridiculous amounts of time spent capturing all the footage and editing it together.
Forums
The old forums had 4500 topics, 61,949 posts, and 2,072 members before they were migrated to the new platform.
Our most active poster is (unsurprisingly) farottone, who had 4,124 posts in the old forums.
Time
Using rough estimates for how long it takes to author a song (~12 hours per song, give or take), C3 authors worked for over 600 days to create our catalog. That means if one person had sat down and authored our entire catalog without sleep, it would have taken almost 2 years. And again, that estimate is very conservative.
pksage spent maybe an hour and change preparing every weekly release, between writing the blog copy, populating the database with all of the metadata, copying out the songs to the blog, forum, and bug tracker, and doing other miscellaneous tasks. Counting weekly releases, web development, and other C3 management, pksage has spent over 200 hours doing administrative work for C3, which does not include authoring or playtesting.
Speaking of playtesting, we have no actual metrics on this, but we required most of our authors to put their songs through a “sanity check”/playtesting process before release. Almost all of our authors helped out with this process, and total playtesting time is easily in the hundreds of hours.
If you were to play all of our customs back-to-back with no time between songs, it would take you 4 days, 1 hour, 51 minutes, and 1 second. (If you add the GHtoRB3 back catalog, it would take 16 more hours.)
If you were really bored, and you played every chart for every song on every instrument, it would take you 81 days. I sure hope there’s not an achievement for that.
Other Trivia
Ten songs from the C3 library had to be pulled because they were announced for RB4 or RB4 DLC.
Many of our songs were not given a maturity rating by their authors, but of the ones that were, a full 91 songs were rated Mature for explicit content.
The actual release process at 10 AM Eastern was almost all automated, but every week required at least one or two manual tasks right at 10. pksage has done 10 AM release stuff from highway rest stops, from friends’ apartments, as a passenger in a moving car, from two airports, while in a panic from his phone while walking his dog after forgetting about it, and in at least four different US states.
farottone and pksage are both married and somehow stayed that way throughout the 129 weeks of C3.
That was…educational! farottone and I might have one final blog post for you tonight, depending on how long our tasks for tomorrow’s release take. Either way, see you tomorrow for our sort-of-grand finale!
I’m not very talented at directing or editing videos, but for some reason I find myself time and again making and sharing videos, both in my personal life and in my involvement with C3. In preparation for our last release this Friday, I’ve put together a video that more or less retraces our steps through 30 months of releases, from when C3 was just an idea in an e-mail chain, to last week’s amazing release.
There’s just so much content that it was very challenging choosing what to highlight, but I tried my best to cover the important milestones. My goal was to show how through its releases, C3 integrated the many cultures of its members, celebrated several holidays with what we consider the C3 family, and shared songs from some of the most highly requested artists in Rock Band history.
The ending highlights not only why we are stopping our weekly releases, but also how the community will live on through the legacy left by C3. We have established an amazing community, we have released an amazing body of work comprised of nearly 1,700 songs, and we have provided you with the tools and tutorials to ensure the creation of custom content for this great game never ends.
I know not all of you have 20 minutes of your life to dedicate to a sappy video, so there’s a also a condensed version with just the beginning and the end of our journey. If all you have is 5 minutes, watch that version. But if you can, it would really mean a lot to me and to us if you checked out the full version.
And if the video makes you half emotional as it made us, you might want to prepare yourself with some excuses for why your eyes are so, well, watery…
The End of Days wouldn’t be a proper send-off to C3’s weekly releases without some wistful blog posts, right? Over the next few days, leading up to our final release, we’ll be posting some stuff about some things. If you’re not a terrible person with no soul, you should read them! We’re only judging you a little.
I’ve said it many times before, but C3 wouldn’t exist without our amazing community of authors. These ladies and gentlemen worked insanely hard, some of them almost every week, to author customs that met our standards, like including all instruments (including vocals and Pro Keys, often a pain to author) and difficulties. Anyone on the internet can author a custom song — we strongly encourage it, in fact! — but these people did it over and over, with all of those charts for every songs, and often having to incorporate feedback, which is a…rocky process, sometimes. And, best of all, they put up with us and each other long enough to make this amazing project happen.
Today the spotlight is on our most prolific authors, the names that appear most often in our 1500+ song database. We asked each of them about their favorite songs and if they wanted to say anything to you guys, the playerbase, and their answers are below. If you see any of these fine folk on our forums, remember to give them a shoutout and thank them for their hard work!
Tune in tomorrow for some boringawesome C3 statistics!
New!Grease C01 3-pack (Ultimate_MANG0, Dash Riprock, Ruck Bogers 22, GanonMetroid, and pksage ft. farottone)
John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John – “Greased Lightnin'”
John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John – “Summer Nights”
John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John – “You’re the One That I Want”
New! Michael Jackson C02 (Thriller) 3-pack (farottone)
Michael Jackson – “Baby Be Mine”
Michael Jackson – “Human Nature”
Michael Jackson – “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” M
New! Singles
1960s
The Animals – “House of the Rising Sun” M (Nyxyxylyth, bsbloom, cr1ckt, and Maxton)
1970s
Big Star – “O My Soul” (ws54 and CrazyCanuck)
Lou Reed – “Walk on the Wild Side” (Ollie)
1990s
Alice in Chains – “Nutshell” X (Drihscol)
Bon Jovi – “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” (DVDSmith)
Depeche Mode – “Enjoy the Silence” (Ollie)
Failure – “Saturday Saviour” X (Drihscol)
Fool’s Garden – “Lemon Tree” (Ollie)
George Andreas and Chris Sutherland – “DK Rap” (DVDSmith)
Jeff Buckley – “Hallelujah” (Ollie)
Megadeth – “Train of Consequences” M (clintilona)
Natalie Imbruglia – “Torn” (Ollie, Sygenysis ft. Nunchuck)
Neutral Milk Hotel – “The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. One”* (Ollie ft. MiltoniusPrime, missingn042128 and Sideshow)
Neutral Milk Hotel – “The King of Carrot Flowers Pts. Two & Three”* (Ollie ft. MiltoniusPrime, missingn042128 and Sideshow)
Radiohead – “Maquiladora” (Drihscol)
Robbie Williams – “Angels” M (DVDSmith)
Toadies – “Backslider” (Colonel 32dll)
Ween – “Push th’ Little Daisies” (Drihscol)
2000s
The Airborne Toxic Event – “Sometime Around Midnight” M (DVDSmith)
Jane’s Addiction – “Whores” M (Drihscol)
Sum 41 – “Makes No Difference” (Gigakoops and GreenPanda12 ft. pksage)
The Temper Trap – “Sweet Disposition” XM (GanonMetroid and unicyclone)
2010s
alt-J – “Breezeblocks” M (GanonMetroid)
Echosmith – “March Into the Sun” (ws54)
Glen Check – “60’s Cardin” (AddyMilldike)
Mac DeMarco – “The Way You’d Love Her” (Drihscol)
Nem – “Dream-Eating Monochrome Baku (ft. Kagamine Len)” K (AddyMilldike)
Of Monsters and Men – “Little Talks” (Gigakoops and GreenPanda12 ft. pksage)
Penrose – “Life of Mud” (Drihscol)
Phoenix – “Entertainment” M (GanonMetroid)
Rush – “Clockwork Angels” 2x (ejthedj and DoNotPassGo)
Steven Wilson – “Drive Home” K (Drihscol)
Thousand Leaves – “Reve of Mirrors” 2x (ghostbyob)
* All parts of “The King of Carrot Flowers” are also available as a single, uninterrupted track.
A red X denotes Pro Guitar/Pro Bass charts, a blue M denotes full multitracks, a blue K denotes a “karaoke” multitrack (separated vocals), and a rusty 2x denotes that a 2x Bass Pedal version is also available. FtV denotes a song previously released by a C3 author outside of C3.
Something told him that something was coming to an end. Not the world, exactly. Just the summer. There would be other summers, but there would never be one like this. Ever again.
– Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, “Good Omens”
Did you know I’ve been writing these blog posts for 128 weeks? Almost two and a half years. That’s a lot of writing! Luckily, this week we have so much music that a blog post couldn’t do it justice, so I don’t have to try! Don’t worry; you’ll get plenty of blog posts this week, leading up to our very last weekly release on October 2. For now, please go find a male and female player of every Rock Band instrument and prepare for 40 days and nights of nonstop rocking. This week has everything our authors could scrounge together before we shut the doors! (And no, we didn’t plan on there being so many songs from the ’90s. Happy coincidence!)
Authors’ comments for this week’s songs:
“Lifting Shadows Off a Dream” – farottone writes, “On guitar, this song was recorded with an amazing use of the delay technique, so while it may sound undercharted, the notes authored are actually what is played on guitar.”
“Electricity – Alexander” – This is an interesting case! Both the title and the lyrics of this song are up in the air, since the FF14:Heavensward OST hasn’t been released yet (and the lyrics are…well, you’ll see). This song, ripped directly from the game data, plays while you fight three of the four bosses in FF14’s newest raid, Alexander. It’s a departure from most of the FF14 OST, and is often described as being “vaguely Persona-y”. Enjoy the iconic keys part, super-singable vocals, and simple but satisfying instrumentation! And no, before you ask, my raid group hasn’t cleared A3 Savage yet.
“Those Who Fight Further” – It’s The Black Mages, it’s the FF7 boss theme, it’s got a 32-measure guitar solo, and it owns exactly as hard as you think it does.
“Sometime Around Midnight” – DVDSmith writes, “One of my favourite songs of all time, this haunting track tells the tale of a man at a bar who sees his ex, realizes he still loves her, then has to watch as she leaves with another, breaking his heart all over again. Starting off slow and quiet, it builds to a great crescendo with a full string section as the tale unfolds. With difficult low vocals, this song is for anyone who’s ever been in love with someone they couldn’t have.”
“O My Soul” – ws54 writes, “This song is crunchy 70’s power pop at its best with the late Alex Chilton belting out the vocals. Every instrument is fun, but Guitar and especially Drums are outstanding and should not be missed.”
“I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” – DVDSmith writes, “Another one of Bon Jovi’s hits from their 1992 album Keep the Faith, this song has been a live staple of every Bon Jovi gig since. Featuring a funky (and surprisingly challenging) piano part and a great clap-along drum riff – along with some relentless vocals that don’t give you much room to breathe!”
“March Into the Sun” – ws54 writes, “I don’t usually delve into Indie music much but this song is so catchy I had to do it. Reminds me of Rilo Kiley’s Portions for Foxes so if you like that one then I think you’ll like this one too.”
“DK Rap” – DVDSmith writes, “Here it is, the stuff of legends, the song called both the best and worst rap song ever made – the one and only DK Rap. Serving as the intro to Donkey Kong 64, this Run DMC-inspired song introduces the five characters of DK64 and is performed by two members of Rareware, the developers of the game, and written by famed musical composer Grant Kirkhope. Each verse gets its own solo spread across guitar, keys and drums, so plenty of variety for RB players. Grab yourself a piece of (in)famous Nintendo history today…and take it to the fridge!”
“60’s Cardin” – Addy writes, “When you think of Korean music, your minds may think about PSY or other K-pop. However, it turns out Korea has a pretty thriving indie scene. This band gets most of their influence from American 80’s New Wave bands and this is one of their big hits over there.”
“Little Talks” – This is an oh, THAT song kind of song. Also known as “though the truth may vary this / ship will carry our / bodies safe to shore”.
“Angels” – DVDSmith writes, “A modern pop classic, voted by the UK public at the 2005 BRIT Awards as the best British song of the past 25 years. With its soaring chorus and upbeat lyrics, it’s not hard to see why this song has dominated British karaoke bars and pub singalongs for nearly two decades. A must-have for your Rock Band collection.”
Fixes uploaded in the last week to previous C3 releases:
The Mars Volta – “Cassandra Gemini”: New venue, significant animations fixes, minor chart fixes
The Zombies – “Time of the Season”: Now fully multitracked, courtesy of Maxton
Note: Videos may contain authoring issues that have been fixed, and are for preview purposes only. Video recording courtesy of Lowlander.
C3 releases for September 18, 2015:
As a way to acknowledge their hard work, this list is sorted by how many songs each author contributed to C3.
New! C3 All-Stars 18-pack
Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes – “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” (farottone – 452 songs)
Boston – “Don’t Look Back” (Nyxyxylyth, 65 songs, and spindoctor6969)
The Mars Volta – “Cassandra Gemini” (BearzUnlimited – 60 songs)
Tenacious D – “Kickapoo” (pksage – 51 songs)
Judas Priest – “Victim of Changes” (ws54, 45 songs, and CrazyCanuck, 16 songs)
Morrissey – “We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful” (RyanHYK – 42 songs)
Eric Church – “Springsteen” M (DoNotPassGo – 29 songs)
David Bowie – “Golden Years” M (Ollie – 29 songs)
Rishloo – “Freaks and Animals” M (AddyMilldike – 28 songs / ThatAuthoringGroup and Nightmare Lyra)
Bon Jovi – “Never Say Goodbye” (DVDSmith – 28 songs)
Blind Guardian – “And the Story Ends” 2x (clintilona – 17 songs)
Neon Trees – “Love and Affection” (GreenPanda12 – 16 songs)
Black Sabbath – “Children of the Sea” (Colonel 32dll – 10 songs)
Tera Melos – “Sunburn” (GanonMetroid – 9 songs)
Link Wray & His Ray Men – “Rumble” (Nunchuck, 9 songs, and Sygenysis, 4 songs)
The Devils – “World Exclusive (MFX MIX)” M (MFX – 4 songs)
The James Rocket – “Shiny Dark Bar (RB3 version)” M (Markleford – 1 song)
Audio Adrenaline – “Move” (thomeval – 1 song)
A red X denotes Pro Guitar/Pro Bass charts, a blue M denotes full multitracks, a blue K denotes a “karaoke” multitrack (separated vocals), and a rusty 2x denotes that a 2x Bass Pedal version is also available. FtV denotes a song previously released by a C3 author outside of C3.
Death sat down and explained. Famine listened. “I see,” he said at last. “Thank you, but I think I shall sit this one out.” SIT IT OUT? YOU’RE A HORSEMAN! “Yes, of course. But what is my role here?” I BEG YOUR PARDON? “No famine appears to be involved, does it? A shortage of food per se? As such?” WELL, NO. NOT AS SUCH, OBVIOUSLY, BUT- “So I would, as it were, be turning up just to wave. No, thank you.” YOU USED TO RIDE OUT EVERY TIME, said Death accusingly. “We had proper apocalypses in those days,” said Famine. “You could sink your teeth into them.” NEVERTHELESS, THIS IS THE END OF THE WORLD. “There are other worlds,” Famine said. “You’re too sentimental, Death. I’ve always said so.”
Pick your favorite apocalypse, because the End of Days progresses apace! Luckily for you, “apocalypse” is a bit of a misnomer, because our customs aren’t going anywhere. All C3 customs will still be available after the end of our weekly releases, aside from any that are released for RB4. And you don’t have to choose a game! You get to play official songs in RB4 and customs in RB3! Truly, this is an age of wonders.
More than 70 authors have contributed to C3 over the years. Some have moved on, and some were busy, but we wrangled eighteen of them to submit songs for this week. Some of us decided to go with a “farewell” theme, as you can see by the song choices, and some of us just went with great songs. There’s HUGE variety this week, even more so than a normal singles week, so set aside two hours or so and play all eighteen of them! Come on, you can do it. It’s not like you have 60+ RB4 songs to marathon a few weeks from now, or anything.
For real, though, check out how many different styles are included in this week’s release:
Classic metal
’90s metal
Classic rock
’80s ballad
Oldies rock ‘n’ roll
Poppy modern rock
New Wave
Several flavors of indie
Epic prog
Regular prog
Christian rock
Country
Butt-rock / hard rock
David Bowie (???)
We have just two weeks left! Next week is sort of our “real” final release, in the sense that…well, you’ll see. Don’t worry, you’re still getting songs on October 2! But next week, September 25, is the main attraction. Our final release is going to be great, but it’s more of an encore. Please look forward to both weeks, and manage your expectations accordingly!
Authors’ comments for this week’s songs:
“Move” – thomeval writes, “With the End of Days fast approaching, what better way to face it than a song of encouragement? A great song in general and a real treat for vocalists.”
“Never Say Goodbye” – DVDSmith writes, “Hey guys, DVDSmith here, your resident Bon Jovi fan, here to supply you with one more track from my favourite band to bring the total in RB3 to 20. This custom uses the DualDisc version of the song and features an extended intro. I chose this one partly because C3 itself is saying goodbye, and because it’s the one Bon Jovi song that gets more requests than any other in our Song Request forum. I hope all you requesters like it – this one’s for you! :)”
“Victim of Changes” – ws54 writes, “My tastes range from Oldies through Modern Rock and most all mainstream rock in between, but classic Judas Priest and especially this song represents the kind of music that I love the most. Make sure you warm up your vocal cords before singing it. Thanks to CrazyCanuck for handling the drums, not only on this one but on many of my songs from the past.”
“Kickapoo” – Finally! This has been on my to-do list since day 1, but it was a little intimidating, and it took me two and a half years to finally do it. This song is hard enough to be interesting on Guitar, Bass, and Drums, but without being an actual challenge. For the optimal experience, grab two friends to be Meat Loaf and Dio.
“World Exclusive” – MFX writes, “The Devils was a project centered around reviving old demo ideas by founding Duran Duran members Nick Rhodes and Stephen Duffy. This ‘world exclusive’ (hah!) multitrack mix for C3 uses sonic trickery to combine pseudostems and all-new material for your rocking enjoyment!”
“Shiny Dark Bar (RB3 version)” – Markleford writes, “For the first time anywhere, this is the official ‘RB3 version’ of the RBN track, matching the previous C3 release by The James Rocket, ‘Paper Valentines’. It features new harmonies, pro drums, and the finalized multitrack mix from the debut album, ‘Launch’. (Buy it here if you like it!) Thanks again to C3 for helping indie bands get their music out to new listeners!”
“Cassandra Gemini” – Bearz writes, “This big slice of prog rock has very fun and technical parts on every instrument. Drums are constantly varied with lots of fills and interesting rhythms. Guitar is basically almost a non-stop solo. Keys have some very challenging organ and sax solos. Bass is quite varied and even has the elusive bass solo. The vocal part is also quite involved and active for most of the song. I don’t think this will ever be FCed (at least on guitar, drums, or keys) but I’d love to see someone prove me wrong.”
Note: Videos may contain authoring issues that have been fixed, and are for preview purposes only. Video recording courtesy of Lowlander.
C3 releases for September 11, 2015:
New! I Can’t Believe It’s Not Guitar Hero C02 13-pack
Aerosmith – “Livin’ on the Edge” M (Neversoft and Nunchuck ft. farottone) Converted from GH5 DLC
Corinne Bailey Rae – “Put Your Records On” M (Neversoft and TrojanNemo ft. farottone) Converted from Band Hero
The Cure – “Fascination Street” M (Neversoft and BearzUnlimited) Converted from GH:WoR
Dire Straits – “Sultans of Swing” M (Neversoft and Nunchuck ft. farottone) Converted from GH5
Duffy – “Warwick Avenue” M (Neversoft and farottone) Converted from Band Hero
In Flames – “Take This Life” M** 2x (Neversoft and AddyMilldike) Converted from GH3
Lenny Kravitz – “Rock and Roll Is Dead” M (Neversoft and farottone) Converted from GH:Van Halen
Marvin Gaye – “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” M (Neversoft and farottone) Converted from Band Hero
Nelly Furtado – “Turn Off the Light” M (Neversoft and farottone) Converted from Band Hero
Queens of the Stone Age – “Mexicola” M (Neversoft and BearzUnlimited) Converted from GH5 DLC
Sonic Youth – “Incinerate” M (Neversoft and BearzUnlimited) Converted from GH5; rhythm guitar version also available
Them Crooked Vultures – “Scumbag Blues” M (Neversoft and pksage) Converted from GH:WoR
Tony Solis – “Guilty Pleasures” M 2x (Neversoft and DVDSmith) Converted from GH5 DLC
** This song only has separate stems for Guitar and Bass.
A red X denotes Pro Guitar/Pro Bass charts, a blue M denotes full multitracks, a blue K denotes a “karaoke” multitrack (separated vocals), and a rusty 2x denotes that a 2x Bass Pedal version is also available. FtV denotes a song previously released by a C3 author outside of C3.
It’s true. The End of Days is upon us. Gather up your jackets, move it to the exits — it’s closing time. But we have one last call for alcohol! Four last calls, in fact. Assuming you drink 120-proof Rock Band songs. And, honestly, who doesn’t?
This week, much like our anniversary celebrations, we’re highlighting one of C3’s cornerstone elements. The Guitar Hero series is a prime source of multitrack audio and note charts, and even after years of GHtoRB3 and C3 releases, there’s tons of songs yet to convert. Let’s clean them out! These 13 songs bring us that much closer to the full GH library, and many will have you wondering why we didn’t do them sooner. From Duffy to Sonic Youth, from R&B to hard rock, there’s something for everyone here. As usual, our GH ports include keys and harmonies where applicable and often include chart fixes and adjustments.
Authors’ comments for this week’s songs:
“Fascination Street” – Bearz writes, “This single from The Cure’s acclaimed Disintegration has a cool disco beat and a unique, spacey guitar part, as well as a nice (albeit repetitive) bass line.”
“Mexicola” – Bearz writes, “This hard rock tune from early QotSA has some great guitar and bass riffage, as well as lots of fills and tom usage on drums.”
“Incinerate” – Bearz writes, “This upbeat but mellow song from Sonic Youth’s more recent output has some tricky fills and rhythms on drums, and a varied and fun guitar part, complete with a Rhythm version so you can play both Thurston and Lee’s parts.”
“Scumbag Blues” – Finally, more TCV! It’s a shame that RB3 only got “Dead End Friends” and “New Fang”, neither of which I would consider highlights of the album. In lieu of “Mind Eraser”, “Bandoliers”, or “Gunman”, here’s a pretty good replacement from GH6. Lengthy guitar solos, REALLY good and varied basslines, and some decent kick action on drums.
“Guilty Pleasures” – DVDSmith writes, “This awesome track, originally released for GH5 as part of the ‘Neversoft Thanks the Fans’ pack, is a blisteringly fun instrumental piece by guitarist Tony Solis, and features the ridiculous drumming skills of Andy Gentile (of An Endless Sporadic fame). Players of Pro Drums will get a serious kick out of this, the chart takes you all over the kit and uses all three cymbals and both bass pedals to the full effect. The guitar and bass parts aren’t too shabby either, with a great riff in the first half and some TTFAF-style HOPO-heavy sections in the second half. If you’re an Expert player and want a great challenge on all the core 5-lane instruments, this is the song for you.”
Fixes uploaded in the last week to previously released C3 customs:
Radiohead – “Paranoid Android”: New custom venue and small fixes to guitar, bass, and drums
Note: Videos may contain authoring issues that have been fixed, and are for preview purposes only. Video recording courtesy of Lowlander.
C3 releases for September 4, 2015:
New! Radiohead – OK Computer (BearzUnlimited)
“Airbag”
“Subterranean Homesick Alien” (+sageamagoo)
“Exit Music (For a Film)” (+sageamagoo)
“Let Down” (+sageamagoo)
“Karma Police” (+sageamagoo)
“Fitter Happier”
“Electioneering”
“Climbing Up the Walls”
“No Surprises” (+sageamagoo)
“Lucky”
“The Tourist”
Track 2, “Paranoid Android”, is already available in the C3 database.
New! The Rolling Stones C01 6-pack (farottone and Kemiroch)
The Rolling Stones – “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
The Rolling Stones – “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”
The Rolling Stones – “Let’s Spend the Night Together”
The Rolling Stones – “Ruby Tuesday”
The Rolling Stones – “Time is On My Side”
The Rolling Stones – “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”
A red X denotes Pro Guitar/Pro Bass charts, a blue M denotes full multitracks, a blue K denotes a “karaoke” multitrack (separated vocals), and a rusty 2x denotes that a 2x Bass Pedal version is also available. FtV denotes a song previously released by a C3 author outside of C3.
I told you that our last weeks before End of Days were good ones, right? Our authors have been pulling out all the stops to deliver the big hits, and this week packs a serious punch. Other than “Paranoid Android” and two songs from In Rainbows, this is our first big injection of post-Bends Radiohead. If you’re gonna pick a famous album for Rock Band, you can’t do much better than OK Computer! And the Stones need no introduction, except our regret that more of these songs weren’t released sooner. It’s a proper British invasion week!
Authors’ comments for this week’s songs:
OK Computer – Bearz writes, “OK Computer – one of the cornerstones of alternative rock music and a definitive album of the 90’s. This album saw Radiohead progressing further from the more grungy, guitar-based sound of their first two records and adopting a more experimental, somewhat progressive approach. All of these songs are fun to sing and many of them have great guitar parts and fun drum rhythms. I’m really excited to have this album in the game – it’s my second favorite of all time (I’ve already done my #1) and I’m sure many others will enjoy it as well. If you haven’t heard it, I strongly recommend you give it a listen. Also, make sure that you check out ‘Paranoid Android’, the 2nd song from this album which I already charted and released a year and a half ago – if you’ve already got it, it’s recently been updated with a new venue and some chart fixes.”
“Airbag”: The album opens up with this distorted rock track with a fun, upbeat drum part, a unique and sporadic bassline, and interesting, noisy guitars.
“Subterranean Homesick Alien”: This relaxed, psychedelic-sounding song has a great, challenging keyboard part, a cool bassline, and great drums with lots of fills.
“Exit Music (For a Film)”: This slow, suspenseful song starts mellow but builds into a huge, dramatic climax with soaring vocals.
“Let Down”: This fan-favorite features some great vocal harmonies, and an interesting polyrhythm on guitar and keys.
“Karma Police”: The biggest ‘pop’ single of the album, this iconic Radiohead song is known for its central piano part and its unconventional ‘anti-chorus.’
“Fitter Happier”: This eerie interlude track features off-kilter piano playing and a computer voice. Probably didn’t expect to be playing this one in Rock Band, huh?
“Electioneering”: Kind of an ‘oddball’ on the album, this is a swinging hard rocker with raw guitar riffs and soloing, urgent vocals, a cool bassline, and fun triplet drum fills.
“Climbing Up the Walls”: This slow, creeping song has a very haunting atmosphere, a great vocal part and a huge, climactic ending.
“No Surprises”: This single sounds nice and mellow with it’s lullaby-like guitars and bells but actually has really sad lyrics. The instrumental parts are fun to play even though they’re not really challenging.
“Lucky”: This spaced-out alt-rocker has a fun and varied guitar part and some interesting bass licks.
“The Tourist”: The album is closed out by this slow, mellow song with a moving chorus, a great guitar lead, and a fun, sort-of-jazzy drum part.
Fixes uploaded in the last week to previously released C3 customs:
Sonic Adventure 2 – “Escape from the City”: Now features full multitracks by Maxton
Crush 40 – “Open Your Heart”: Now features full multitracks by Maxton
Rush C02 (all 17 songs): Updated song ID
Rush – “By-Tor and the Snow Dog”: Added missing guitar animation marker
Note: Videos may contain authoring issues that have been fixed, and are for preview purposes only. Video recording courtesy of Lowlander.
C3 releases for August 28, 2015:
New! Muse C01 11-pack
Muse – “Apocalypse Please” (GreenPanda12)
Muse – “Butterflies and Hurricanes” M (BearzUnlimited, Nyxyxylyth, GanonMetroid, and Unicyclone)
Muse – “Endlessly” (GreenPanda12)
Muse – “Exo-Politics” M (Neversoft and GreenPanda12) Converted from Guitar Hero 3 DLC
Muse – “Map of the Problematique” (AddyMilldike)
Muse – “Sing for Absolution” (GreenPanda12)
Muse – “Space Dementia” (GanonMetroid ft. AddyMilldike)
Muse – “Stockholm Syndrome” (AddyMilldike)
Muse – “Time is Running Out” (GreenPanda12)
Muse – “Undisclosed Desires” K (Kueller, The_Rock_Band_King, and Psiven ft. GreenPanda12)
Muse – “Uprising” M (Neversoft, GHtoRB3, and AddyMilldike) Converted from Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
New! Creed C01 3-pack (ws54)
Creed – “One”
Creed – “One Last Breath”
Creed – “What’s This Life For”
A red X denotes Pro Guitar/Pro Bass charts, a blue M denotes full multitracks, a blue K denotes a “karaoke” multitrack (separated vocals), and a rusty 2x denotes that a 2x Bass Pedal version is also available. FtV denotes a song previously released by a C3 author outside of C3.
…Muse…
What’s that? Do you hear that faint call, whispered on the late August winds? Wait, there it is again!
…moar Muse…
It…it can’t be! This day was spoken of in myth and legend, but I never thought it would come to pass!
…MOAR MUSE…
We are not worthy! Oh, mighty gods, please spare our puny lives! We should have listened! We should have…auughhh!
MOAR MUSE!
And then there was no noise but the soft murmur of the winds. Oh, and “Hysteria”. Being played over and over.
That’s right, it’s here! GHtoRB3 brought you “Plug in Baby”, “Knights of Cydonia”, and “Assassin”, and later we trickled in “Starlight” and “New Born”, but that was hardly enough after five years of just “Hysteria”. Muse fans have spoken, and our authors have answered! In C3’s eleventh hour, you can enjoy these eleven tracks from four Muse albums and finally be sated. Finally. And, if Muse isn’t your style, we also have three tracks from early-2000s post-grunge rockers Creed!
Authors’ comments for this week’s songs:
“Butterflies and Hurricanes” – Bearz writes, “This song’s main draw is a challenging keys part with a huge, classical piano solo. It’s also got a fun drums part and some great harmonies. In addition, this is the music video version of the song which has a guitar part that’s not present in the album version. If you’d prefer to have the ‘original’ song, there’s an alternate version without guitar available in the Other Customs section of the forums.”
“One” – ws54 writes, “This was my introduction to Creed a long time ago. When I started charting customs I knew I would be doing this song someday. It is challenging on all instruments.”
“One Last Breath” – ws54 writes, “Nice variety on instruments for a Creed song. Especially fun on Guitar. A low guitar is charted to Bass for the first minute of the song until the real bass comes in. Drummers can grab a snack during this time.”
“What’s This Life For” – ws54 writes, “What a fun song to play in Rock Band no matter what instrument you play, but I am quite partial to Guitar.”
Fixes uploaded in the last week to previously released C3 customs:
Steppenwolf – “Born to Be Wild”: Now features multitrack audio created by maxton
Customs Creators Collective 