Aludog

My Motown Christmas pack is now released, in case anyone hasn't seen it yet. http://customsforge.com/topic/14183-rbsoul-project/

I hope it does. It's certainly my goal to constantly improve and deliver even greater stuff than before. Let's see what the new year brings. :D

The Christmas pack is now released. I wanted to post it a bit later but I'll be so busy in the coming days that I don't have time and I'll be at my parents place for Christmas, so I won't have access to my files. Anyway, merry Christmas to you all and may you enjoy those gifts I brought you.

Great idea. I respect your dedication to working on only a handful of songs at a time and to really focus on learning from RS. A lot of people, me included, use RS mostly as a means to play some songs we like and enjoy ourselves while doing a little practice but not really try to master the songs and the techniques included. I may use this approach to improve on some of my weakpoints, so thanks for sharing.

Pack #3 is out now and the links are in the OP. Enjoy.

I agree with Plum. Everything with single notes works fine but the moment you have to deal with chords it all goes bad quickly. Still, MIDI files can be a valuable resource if you know how to handle them.

This weeks 3-pack will be released on Friday, is called "Troubled Relations" and contains songs from The Temptations, The Isley Brothers and Aretha Franklin. Clues to the songs are in the OP.

I'll do a Motown Christmas 5-pack which will probably be released on the 25th. I won't spoil the songs but it contains the classics. :)

Pack #2 is now available. Pack #3 will be released around this time next week and after that there will be a special Christmas release. Enjoy.

This weeks 3-pack will be the first single artist pack and it's titled "Rising Starr". It will contain 3 easier songs again but I already had them transcribed, so I'm releasing them. Next week it will get a little more challenging, I promise. :)

Songs are released now and links are in the OP. Hints for pack #2 will be published some time next week.

Yeah. It's a great one and a lot more fun to play than I thought.

Hey guys, I'm starting a new project (again). This one's all about the good ol' 60's and 70's R&B/Soul from Studios like Motown, Hot Wax, Invictus and Co. Because I'm trying to get more things done in less time, I'll be focusing exclusively on bass and won't bother with any guitar arrangements for the most part. All bass parts are personally transcribed by myself however, so as to ensure they are as correct as possible. I'll also release songs in 3-packs from now on, so you'll get more songs at once but you'll also need to wait a little longer for the next release. I won't put up a list with the tracks, so it's going to be a surprise when it comes out, but I'll always give the pack a title beforehand and provide some clues to the content. Enjoy, guys! Release #1: "Withered But Supreme Temptations" Song #1: Bill Withers - Lean On Me Song #2: The Supremes - Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart Song #3: The Temptations - Ball Of Confusion (That's What The World Is Today) Release #2: "Rising Starr" Song #1: Edwin Starr - Adios Senorita Song #2: Edwin Starr - All Around The World Song #3: Edwin Starr - At Last (I Found A Love) Release #3: "Troubled Relations" Song #1: The Temptations - No More Water In The Well Song #2: The Isley Brothers - Take Inventory Song #3: Aretha Franklin - A Change Release #4: "Merry Christmas From Motown" Song #1: Jackson 5 - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town Song #2: Stevie Wonder - What Christmas Means To Me Song #3: The Temptations - Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Song #4: Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen Song #5: Marvin Gaye - Christmas In The City Release #5: "Weary Day Is Over" Song #1: Hugh Masekela - You Told Your Mama Not To Worry Song #2: Hugh Masekela & Hedzoleh Soundz - Kaa Ye Oya Song #3: Hugh Masekela & The Union Of South Africa - Dyambo Release #6: "Lady, Gentleman, Zombie dey Opposite People" Song #1: Fela Kuti - Lady Song #2: Fela Kuti - Gentleman Song #3: Fela Kuti - Zombie Song #4: Fela Kuti - Opposite People Release #7: "Pieces Of A Man" Song #1: Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised Song #2: Gil Scott-Heron - Save The Children Song #3: Gil Scott-Heron - Home Is Where The Hatred Is Release #8: "Funky Lovin'" Song #1: Wilson Pickett - Funky Broadway Song #2: Wilson Pickett - That Kind Of Love Song #3: Wilson Pickett - Hello Sunshine Release #9: "Slap That Funky Soul!" Song #1: Sly & The Family Stone - Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)Song #2: The Bar-Kays - Soul FingerSong #3: Rufus Thomas - Do The Funky Chicken Release #10: "Faithful Man" Song #1: Lee Fields & The Expressions - Ladies Song #2: Lee Fields & The Expressions - Faithful Man Song #3: Lee Fields & The Expressions - Talk To Somebody Release #11: "Sock It!" (+ Bonus) Song #1: The Isley Brothers - Was It Good To You?Song #2: The Isley Brothers - I Know Who You Been Socking It ToSong #3: The Isley Brothers - It's Your ThingBonus: The Isley Brothers - Ohio/Machine Gun (Neil Young/Jimi Hendrix Cover) Release #12: "Mavis Takes Action, Tomorrow" Song #1: Mavis Staples - Take Us BackSong #2: Mavis Staples - ActionSong #3: Mavis Staples - Tomorrow Release #13: "Approaching The Exhale" Song #1: Whysowhite - Kickin' It Off/The Approach Song #2: Whysowhite - Get Busy Song #3: Whysowhite - Exhale

No, it's something totally different. Sry :(

Thanks again for doing this and for promising to keep it up to date.

I guess we'll see some christmas songs soon. I plan to do at least one, but it will be a little unconventional and bass only. ;)

I'd say, just upload it into a folder on Dropbox or somewhere else and post a link to it in the Workshop section. I certainly appreciate your effort because it's been a while since someone did this and I could need some of the tones from more recent DLC. So, thanks. :)

I updated the initial post and the release list again.

Oh, damn. You're right. I forgot about Cobham. He's on my list as well. ;)

Look for Miles Davis' "So What" if you want a challenge or Jay Leonharts "Chantecler" if you want something easier to start out. There's certainly more but that's just of the top of my head. I actually want to bring more Jazz/Fusion (Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return To Forever, Flim & The BB's) into the game, so in time you have more options.

An automatic offset would be nice though. If rayne can fit it into his schedule, I would certainly appreciate it. ;) If you need any help with testing, let me know.

I never implied that making testing mandatory is a good idea, I just wanted to imply the importance of testing from my personal experience and philosophy. :) I think I made my point and it was received, so there you go.

I test every change I make, so that's certainly not the issue here and of course everyone has their own approach to doing things and that's ok. I'm not saying you should go beyond your abilities or capacities when making customs, just that it can never be as good as it could be if you don't approach it with the necessary mind set. I'm also not saying that you can't make good customs if you don't care about the songs because with the right approach and enough experience the technical aspects should guarantee a usable result. If you can live with the fact that at least a part of your custom will never reach the level it could have if cared for and tested thouroughly on all levels then that's ok as well. Also, I can understand if you don't test 5-string bass arangements if you don't own a 5-string bass; I can also understand if you don't test an arrangement that you can't manage because of it's difficulty, but imo it's not the ideal thing to leave it untested just because of that. If nothing else, then you should maybe find a reliable tester for those circumstances, so you can make at least sure it's on a level that's playable. It won't make up for testing it yourself but it's a compromise. I personally don't work above my level anymore, so I can always make sure that every arrangement is playable and feels intuitive to play because if it's not than what good is it? What would my custom be teaching those that rely on RS as a learning tool? As a custom creator I'm in a unique position to define a persons aproach to a certain piece of music that they may have heard a hundred times before but never actually seen from a players perspective. My approach therefore is the one that defines their new found way of seeing the music and if that one is distorted by my own inability to see through the musical concept that lies behind the track than I'm the one to blame for misleading all those that want to actually get into the music and learn from it. That sounds very philosophical but that's how I see it, sorry. You don't have to agree with me but I hope you can at least understand my point of view and therefore the reason I was saying what I was saying in my first post.

Not testing a custom means not finishing it. It's as easy as that. It doesn't matter how much time you invest in the custom creation process, if you don't test it afterwards you'll never know if everything works as expected. For me personally, most of the time, the real work starts after I've created the first test file in the toolkit and start up RS. Correcting all the chart issues that are still present (even after a thorough work process in GP and EoF) and working out correct volume levels and tone setups can take me up to 5 hours. I can understand of course why some charters tend to skip the process but the result is usually the same. It just doesn't work in one way or another. Releasing a custom in that state can only be called a WIP release and is therefore not a finished creation that can satisfy any player serious about using RS for it's intended purpose. This topic leads me to a much bigger question, btw: Why in the world would you make a custom that you don't even intend to play? Because the first thing I would want to do, is play the damn thing myself. Then I could check all the remaining issues as well. That's why I'm creating them in the first place and that's why I bother at all. And if it's not fun for me, how can I expect it to be fun for anyone else? So my advice would be, to start caring about your customs. Only create stuff that interests you and that you intend to play for yourself, because that's the only reliable method for creating something that's even worth the effort, no matter if it's you or someone else. Don't waste your energy on something that you have no further use of if instead you could use it on something that gives back the effort you invested a hundredfold. I've learned so much more from making customs than from playing them that I never regret a single minute I spend on improving every aspect of my creation. Don't get me wrong, it's still tiresome as hell and extremely time consuming but never boring or routine. Every custom needs an individual approach because every one is fundamentally different. That's something you'll only come to understand if you care enough, so caring is the key to a successful custom and that's why I care.

This is certainly one of my biggest issues with RS. Not being able to more accurately define the rhythmic patterns without making the tab look messy (especially in fast songs when the notes show up in big clusters and close together) is really annoying. By now, I tend to put accents on staccato notes for example, so I can more easily see which notes not to sustain under any circumstance so as to get the right feel. I also try to give chords only as long a sustain as they have on the record by using the "crazy" status on them. I wish however there were more options for rhythmic notation, but thats probably something for the next RS installment.