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Pathing Basics - Rock Band - Guitar

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Before you can attempt to create Overdrive paths, you must understand the basic mechanics involved. In the Rock Band series, Overdrive is based solely on beats (unlike the GH series, which bases Star Power on measures). There are two different kinds of beats- "red line beats", which are marked above each line of ajanata's charts, and beats within the note chart.

Energy Acquisition

Energy acquisition from sustained notes is based solely on beats within the note chart. Every Overdrive phrase will fill the Energy Meter ¼ of the way, but Energy can also be gained by whammying sustained notes within Overdrive phrases. Energy is gained this way at a rate of slightly more than 1 beat of Energy gained to 1 beat of sustain. Additional energy can be gained by early whammy, which requires strumming sustained notes as early as the timing window will allow and whammying immediately. Because of these two factors, it is usually possible to gain an additional .25 beat of whammy beyond what is listed on note charts for every sustained note (provided the timing window will allow you to strum early enough).

When a sustain is shown on the note chart to last .75 beats, 1 beat of Energy can generally be gained from whammying that sustain. In the following example (taken from 29 Fingers), the phrase will yield 10 beats of Energy- 8 beats from the phrase itself and 2 beats from the two .75 beat sustains:



This gets a little more complicated when phrases have multiple sustains that are of variable lengths. The following example (taken fron Black Hole Sun) shows a phrase with variable sustain lengths that is shown to be worth 2 beats of energy:



It appears that the four individual sustain lengths are, in order, .66, .33, .66, and .33 beats. The first and third sustained notes appear in such a way that early whammy should work as expected, but the second and fourth sustained notes are part of ho/po sequences, making early whammy harder because there is not as much room before the note to abuse the timing window. It's safe to assume that you can get the extra .25 beat of Energy from the first and third sustained notes, improving the Energy gained from the phrase to 2.5 beats, but if you can get, say, half the usual early whammy from the second and fourth sustained notes, then this phrase could potentially be worth 2.75 beats of Energy. This possible extra .25 beats of Energy can only really be confirmed through testing.

Because Energy is gained from sustained notes at a rate of slightly more than 1 beat of Energy to 1 beat of sustain, it is possible to fill the Energy meter halfway (and therefore be able to go into Overdrive) with a single Overdrive phrase that contains less than 8 beats of charted sustains. When there are multiple sustains and early whammy is considered, such phrases might contain less than 7 beats of charted sustains. In the following example (taken from Orange Crush), it is possible (barely) to gain enough Energy from the four sustains to fill the Energy Meter exactly halfway:

Energy Depletion

Energy depletion is based solely on red line beats. A full Energy Meter lasts exactly 32 red line beats and a half-full Energy Meter lasts exactly 16 red line beats. Red line beats usually match up with the songs beats within the chart (four per measure is the norm), but some songs have more (usually 8) or fewer (usually 2) red line beats per measure, generally caused by either a very high or very low BPM.

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Category: CategoryTechniques