Rock Band Details Emerge

This month's Game Informer comes with some hard details about Rock Band, the multiplatform music game made by the fine fellows who brought you Guitar Hero! Some highlights:

• The disc contains four complete single player campaigns, one each for guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. There's also a Full Band co-op mode that utilizes all four instruments. Hope you have friends.
• The 360 and PS3 will have online play you can use in any combination with live players (ie You and me at my place playing guitar and drums and some kid in Iowa playing bass along with a singer in Tokyo.)
  
• A much-requested feature from Ana, the guitar will now have five additional frets at the base of the neck for extra meedly-meedly-meeeee guitar solos.
• Unlike other karaoke games that judge you on pitch alone, Rock Band will be able to tell if you're singing the words correctly. If you are doing so consistently, you will get the chance to sing "free-form," and if you do well at that you will activate the singer's equivalent of Star Power (a temporary power boost that doubles your points, for all you n00bs). Not sure I totally get how the free-form singing will be scored...
• On the topic of singing, the microphone will double as a digital tambourine for long stretches where there are no vocals.
  
• THE DRUMS! This is what everyone's been waiting to hear about. Apparently it'll be a pretty elaborate peripheral, with four rubber pads on a stand (think electronic drum kit) and a kick pedal. You'll use real drumsticks with the thing, and you'll have the ability to do fill-ins and such to earn Star Power. Apparently on the expert level you will actually be playing the drums and could step over to a real drum kit and play the song through.
• If every band member reaches the end of a song you are rewarded with a jam session.

There are more details about licensed songs, online play, and game settings over at NeoGAF.