Frequently Asked Questions

The Rock Pulse is a company that has the capability to develop your music and get it into the Rock Band Network. Ultimately, you will be able to download and play one of your own songs in Rock Band just like you would play any other song! You will also get $$$ for every download!

When you upload your music, registration creates a unique band folder where all of your music will go. You will also be able to log in and monitor the progress of your songs 24/7. We know how eager you are to play your songs in Rock Band so we want to keep you informed!

You first have to register on www.TheRockPulse.com.The second step is to submit a MP3 of the song(s) you want The Rock Pulse to consider. You will hear from us within 24 hours. The next step is to upload the stems of your song(s).

When uploading the “preview” song, we prefer an Mp3. When uploading the stems, we require either 256 kbps MP3s or 44.1 KHz 16 bit wave files. Be patient because this might take a while to upload. Don’t think your music is in the right format? No worries, we can convert it for you! We also accept music in a CD format as well. Contact Submissions@TheRockPulse.com for more info.

We have two premium packages; one for unsigned artists and one for signed artists. We also offer package deals, meaning, the more songs we author (on a single order), the less per song it will cost. For pricing information, please contact: BKopec@TheRockPulse.com

You get paid after your song has been accepted into the Rock Band Network Store and someone pays to download your song. The price of the song is set at $1, $2, or $3. Out of that, 70% goes to Microsoft, MTV, and Harmonix. Out of the 30% left over, The Rock Pulse recoups 10% (for signed artists) or 15% (for unsigned or independent artists) and the remaining gets distributed to the artist, record label, and / or publishing company.

The Rock Pulse will collect money from the downloaded sales and pay out quarterly to the artist, record label, and / or publishing company as agreed upon in a written agreement.

Unsigned acts are “catching a break” because we know how hard it is just starting out and not having any money. Signed acts will typically have a lot more promotion and exposure leading to more downloads, which directly translates to more money on the back end. For example, if the record label pays $799 for the first song, and we set the download price to $2 per download, after 1,997 downloads, the record label will see a profit.

We define signed acts as being signed to a Record Label with more than 10 artists or independently selling more than 10,000 albums worldwide. All other artists are defined as unsigned.

We do this because we have to maintain accurate records of download sales and pay out quarterly to all of our artists, record labels, and publishers.

YES. Without a doubt, the artist, record label, and /or publishing company will still retain all respective copyrights and ownership. We are simply providing a service to get your music into Rock Band Network.

The current turn around time is between 4 to 6 weeks depending on the complexity of the song. This includes time for us to turn your song into the Rock Band format and time for peer review and approval. Only after it has been approved and added to the Rock Band Network Store can you download and keep it.

The Rock Pulse is open to many genres of music. Submit your music to us and we’ll let you know!

A stem is a single wave file of a single instrument. For example, a solo recording of the guitar is the guitar stem. Soloing out the drums onto one track is the drum stem.

In game stems: All stems should have the same start point and when played together they sound as close to the original mix as possible. Here are the stems we need for Rock Band:

1. mono or stereo Kick Drum stem

2. mono or stereo Snare Drum stem

3. stereo Drum Submix stem – a submix of everything else in the kit besides Kick & Snare, including Hats, Cymbals, Toms, Overheads, Room, etc…

   Note about drums: It's fully understood that when recording a real kit there will be bleed between the Kick, Snare and Drum Submix stems. That’s acceptable. Try to isolate them as much as is practical, without harming the overall sound. Additionally, if the Drums were recorded as a single stereo file or as 2 files, a kick drum and overhead mics, that is also acceptable.

4. mono or stereo Bass Guitar stem

5. separate mono or stereo Guitar stem for each guitar part. The song author will comp together a ‘playable’ guitar track and remix the remaining stems back into the backing tracks.

6. mono or stereo Lead Vocal stem – a comp of the lead vocal track.

7. mono or stereo Background Vocals stem - a comp of any background vocals/harmonies, etc.

8. stereo Backing Tracks stem – a submix of anything else in the song, not already broken out above: keyboards, percussion, accordion, etc…

Other stems for reference only: these will NOT be played back in the game, but are for reference only.

1. mono Dry Vocal stem for lip-sync and phoneme detection. This should have no fx processing and whenever possible should be one single human voice at any one time (ie: try to avoid double-tracking or harmonies). We'll run this file through our analysis software and the cleaner/dryer it is, the better it works.

2. stereo CD reference mix -if you used one as a reference when re-creating your stem mix.

3. stereo Full Mix of the stems.

Without these stems, we cannot create a Rock Band song for you at this time. Most likely, the studio you recorded your music in will have the stems to your songs. We suggest you start there.

If all efforts have failed, it’s not the end of the word. We have a full production studio and offer bands the chance to re-record their music. After we do this, we will then have what it takes to get your music into the Rock Band Network! For more info, contact: BKopec@TheRockPulse.com