Outside [Rock Band 2] 100% Expert Vocals (tricky overdrive tutorial)

This is a dual purpose video. First, like all my Rock Band vocals videos, it's an example of how to score 100% on the song. The second thing I'm showing in this video is how to hit very small and tricky overdrive windows with your voice.

100% Gold Star Expert Vocals performance on Outside by Tribe, as it appears in Rock Band 2.

As is customary with my videos, the original vocal track by Janet LaValley are minimized so you can hear exactly what I'm singing.

This song (like a number of others) has a very, very annoying overdrive activation - which you need to hit if you want to score the highest possible points. A lot of people use a pause or guide button trick to hit these - basically pausing the game for a moment to sing at an elevated volume to hit the overdrive window.

I finally found a way to semi-consistently hit these teeny tiny overdrive windows with just my voice, and it goes something like this:

Step 1: Moderate to high sensitivity on your microphone

Setting this too low will make triggering the overdrive all but impossible unless you shout, so don't do that.

Step 2: Sing the previous phrase as softly as you can and still fill the pie.

It's very important that you go into the overdrive activation singing as softly as possible.

Step 3: Increase volume to active overdrive

Hold your note and elevate the VOLUME (NOT PITCH) of your voice steadily but quickly (don't "jump" to a higher volume, increase it on a gradient) as the scoring line is about to cross the overdrive window. The exact timing of this does not need to be completely perfect, but you may need to experiment a bit to see how much lag your microphone is adding to the process (which will affect exactly when you need to be elevating volume).

The trick here is that Rock Band triggers overdrive by detecting an increase in volume; pitch does not matter. By sliding upwards in volume, you increase the time in which you are increasing your volume, and thus increase your chance of triggering the overdrive.

If you listen carefully near the beginning of the song, on the phrase "twist a little", I fade almost to a whisper volume and then bring up the volume of my singing right as the golden window is about to hit the scoring line.

You'll notice I lost 12 points on the next phrase - it's because the next singing part comes up so quickly that the game hasn't even had time to register that I'm in overdrive before I'm already spinning the pie. To avoid losing points this way, sing OFF KEY during the overdrive activation for a moment, then pick up the rest of the pie after a moment so that you get full credit for the phrase. I chose not to do so here for aesthetics (and because it sounds ridiculous), but it's not difficult to do, and I trust all of you to be intelligent enough to figure that part out for yourselves. :)

If you just want to hear the trick I'm using, skip to 1:00 to examine what I'm doing with my voice.

If anyone has questions, please feel free to post a comment or send me a message and I'll do my best to answer them.

P.S. Before I forget to mention it, this song rocks. Definitely one of my favorites off the Rock Band 1 disc.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• rockband
• rock
• band
• ps3
• expert
• vocals
• fc
• tricky
• overdrive
• tutorial
• outside
• tribe

[adrian14752]

are you afraid of the copyrights and how they might take down your vids soon

[IcemageJT]

Afraid? No. "Concerned" would be a better turn of phrase.

I provide videos to help other people, and if YouTube wants to take that away, it's certainly their right to do so. That would be disappointing, however.

To date, they have not really bothered me, as my audio tracks always feature my voice and not the original vocals, and I don't capture the source audio in any case.

[CaffeineEqualsEnergy]

i think you made a typo in the band's name. i think it's tribe. i'm not really sure anymore but please check it. and nice video. very helpful. :)

[IcemageJT]

Woops, you are right. I should watch what I type at 5AM... lol. Fixed! :)

[RoganSarine]

What microphone ARE you using anyway?

[IcemageJT]

I use a PS2 Logitech Vantage.

[derand57]

Your videos rock it, dude. I love these tricks so much. I can now consistently get near perfect score on this song. I could always FC it, but I'd lose major points on those tiny overdrives.

So, you're a big, big help. And we appreciate it.

And you're right - one of the best songs available. Well worth the 5 bucks to import original rock band into RB2

[daniel55645]

doesnt work for me. i still cant get magnetic baby and desperate times every time. and i still have no idea how to do the guide button trick

[daniel55645]

i have my mic sens all the way up all the time

[adrian14752]

true. you'll be a survivor of this depression.

[RBoobitydoo]

I'm pretty sure this kind of video falls under fair use anyways, but YouTube is notorious for taking down videos they really shouldn't...

[BassManiac07]

Just a comment here, but you can dispute fair use on your videos if they ever get taken down.

Because you are teaching people.

[themoose234]

Oh, and thanks for the OD window strategy. A sort of hybrid between the guide button trick and this worked for me sometimes on Tangled Up In Blue. I hit the guide button, then gradually increased the volume of the next pitch, and then I pressed the button again. It's all in the timing, as this strategy is.

[themoose234]

Damn, I love this song. But I'm gonna bitch against about your vocalist credits. Janet LaValley is Tribe's lead singer, but bassist Greg LoPiccolo sings in the chorus, on the "And now I feel" responses. It could be guitarist Eric Brosius (VP of Harmonix, btw), but since Greg wrote the song, I would imagine that he sings it. Keyboardist Terri Brosius (Barous back when this was recorded) may be on backing vocals as well, just not necessarily in this recording.