It's release day and I've been playing guitar and bass on it for a couple hours. It's fuuuunnn, not too hard, but harder than you think Beatles songs would be. I wholeheartedly reccomend it.

Thanks. My bro's xbox as the E74 code or something like that.... what can we do ??

Brb. Dirt 2.

Heh my brother got all his stuff setup for some Rock Band later...and, well, it's impressive.

Why is his 360 strapped down?

Because the case folds up and rolls around like a suitcase...you strap it in so it stays during transport.

Can you tell me why you need three mic stands a tamborine and a cow bell, much less 3 redundant drum pads for rockband?

How much did that all cost? Because if it was more than setting up iRacing, that's inexcusable.

Call me retarded but I figured most of those stands came with the Rock Band Music Kit package?

Three mic stands is for the vocal harmonies in Rock Band Beatles (there are now three vocal parts). Three redundant cymbals are to more accurately play the drums. Tambourine and cowbell are...fun?

No idea about the cost, but it's taken at least 2 years to work up to all this. It's been a never-ending work in progress, something fun to design and make work. The drum pedal is of his own design, for instance, using a real kick drum pedal with magnets in the head to activate a switch, and he modifies the internals of the stratocasters so they strum the way he likes to strum them. Also one of the strats is done up to look like Jeff Beck's guitar. Just little projects and things to twiddle with, overall. He was a physics major but in my estimation should've been an electrical or mechanical engineer, he just loves stuff like this.

^ is this frederf or whoever?

That's his brother.

I know, I was asking if Frederf was the one who set it all up. I couldn't quite remember if Frederf was his brother or if it was someone else, but you answered my question .

The Beatles game is basically a single-band-themed copy of Rock Band 2 with a trimmer interface, expanded vocals, and very good art direction.

Being able to pack up all of the equipment into 3-5 bags or cases and do the minimum amount of work to set it up on the other end of the line is a non-trivial benefit. Spending 30 minutes instead of 15 minutes setting up is the difference between people playing and people wandering off bored before it's ready, especially the girls/non-tech types. The game is somewhat loud and being able to choose where to play it on any given day is well worth the cost of bags and cases and such.

@Mustang: The mic stands are there so people can sing the up-to-3 vocal parts while playing another instrument. The instrument parts are relatively easy for Beatles songs and the additional vocal parts is by far the most fun feature of the new game. I hauled out the tambourine since I thought that the vocal parts were going to have the tambourine hits during the breaks just like RB1 and RB2 songs... turns out there aren't any. The cowbell is out for the same reason but it's actually acting as a counterweight to the mic and controller clamped to the stand in the picture. Neither were used with the Beatles game.

The cymbal attachments are 1: included (2 of 3 anyway) with the nicer drum kit 2: allow one to play more authentically and 3: actually produce different sounds in-game. The last part isn't true for the Beatles game as the game doesn't allow free-form drum fills like RB2 does.

None of the stands come with the Beatles bundle, which I did not buy. My guitars are old RB1 varieties with a GH3 Les Paul leftover from GH3. In fact apart from the 2 new mic stands and the 2 new mics... it's all the same kit as what I play Rock Band 2 with.

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What's funny is the items in the kit that look the most expensive or impressive are often terribly cheap. And just the opposite the stuff you never see or is very subtle is what costs the most. Mic stands are cheap like $20 for the whole stand and boom. The guitar case that (modded) holds 2 guitar controllers was had for like 85% off. The ION drum controller cost a bit but it's been really worth it. Without all my savings and sales and clever buying the same level of gear could have easily been 2x or 3x as much money total.

At the end of the day getting 4 people together to engage in some great music play in a cooperative fashion always seems worth it.

The wife is a beatles freak, and now wants the game for our 360.

Anyone have an estimate what this is gonna cost me?

It depends on how you wanna equip yourself instrumentally. The software itself is $60 like you'd expect. It's controllers (and probably DLC) where the money is. If you (/wife) just wants to sing then a Logitech Vantage USB mic or equivalent is like $22 online. The Lips game bundle has 2x Microsoft Wireless Microphones that I found locally for $32 or something when normally the mics are $49.95 each. Honestly the $250 bundle ain't worth it unless you absolutely want to get Paul McCartney's Hofner bass or the very-minor visually themed drums which aren't available elsewhere. Rock Band 2 or even Rock Band 1 instruments are a lot cheaper and just as good functionally. The additional Beatles-themed controllers are $99 whereas the RB2 guitars are much less.

Totally stereotyping here but game + 1 mic = happy wife for about $90.