What does a Character need, in Order to be a top-musician?
What does a Singer need?
What does you need for Instruments?


Skills, Attributes, Cyberware and Magic are welcome.

I had an idea for this a while back. Let me see if I can recall what I had set up for the band itself...

Magecore - a Wizpunk/Sinthcore fusion band.

Lead Singer: Elven Social Adept; key stats - maxed Charisma, Commanding Voice power.
Lead Guitarist: heavily cybered Ork, gunslinger or street sam; key stats - Maxed Agility, good Charisma, Wired Reflexes L3 (to shred so hard that the guitar smokes)
Drummer: Troll Physical Adept; key stats - maxed Strength and Agility, couple points of Charisma. Killing Hands, Elemental Strike (Sound) and Improved Reflexes 3. Hammers the drums with his bare hands and uses the Elemental Strike to produce and/or magnify the sound.
Keyboardist/Synthesist: Human mundane hacker; key stats - high Logic and Intuition, maxed out Commlink, programs focused on defensive programs and math processing to produce sublime mathematical constructs of sound and protect them.
Bassist: Dwarf Magician; key stats - good Willpower and Charisma, Charisma-focused Tradition, Sustaining Focus 3, good Assensing. Helps with the songwriting to produce the proper emotional effects. Sustains F3 Improve Reflexes during performances to help him keep up with the guitarist.

It's a rough outline (mainly because the idea got shot down), but I hope it helps.

Instruments will need to be houseruled. AFAIK, most instruments are controlled via synthlink, which interprets neural commands into sound. I like to think of it like a rigger adaptation for instruments. For live performances, you'll need Artisan skill. A(n unaturally) good singer will need: Voice Control Adept Power, Extended Volume Bioware, Vocal Range Enhancement Bioware, or if you're cheap a voice modulator cyberware. Any instrument played manually would benefit from the Nimble Fingers Adept Power.

Picking up a copy of the old SR game book Shadowbeat might serve as useful inspiration.

It's out of print but if you can find a copy it's worth a look.




-k

AFAIK the skill you need is artisan, and the governing stat is intuition (which all of my musician friends agree with: charisma is about being noticed, intuition is about understanding and reaction to your audience).

Quality:
fame national / musician
inspired (adds 2 to artisan and gives it that genuine arty feel) <---------- this is the most important thing for a musician I feel
mystic adept
aptitude: artisan


spells:
Increased intuition
Mass Entertainment
Makeover
FashionDetox

Equipment:
Geneware
Hyper-glucagon: singing and dancing is seriously fatiguing and you want to keep on going
Qualia: +1 on all intuition skills.]
Genetic optimisation (intuition)
Sustaining focus 3 on intution

Stats:
Intuition 7

Skills:
Artisan 7 spec singing 2
Spell casting 4 spec healing
Influence

Adept powers:
Increased artisan skill +3
Enthralling performance
Linguistics
Voice control


So that gives you:
intuition (10) + skill (7) + improved skill(3) + spec(2) + gene(1) + inspired = 25 die on singing.

I don't think there will be many singers that good. 6 successes if you just trade 4 die for 1 success

Edit: for equipment I would have thought some sort of Sim Module would be good, or just a comm link which can record you.

One of the best books ever produced for the Shadowrun line, in my opinion... Totally Awesome...

This list is weaksauce.

Trid phantasm.
Control emotions.
Task spirits (artisan is a technical skill. Artisan covers instruments)
Mist. (seriously. Magical smoke machine?)
Gymnastics(dancing+2)
Shape Material(Sound). For acoustics. ....
Fix (drumsticks, easy, since its made of wood and snap all the time.)
Even Sound Barrier could be useful(around, perhaps, the sound booth)

None of the adepts have Entralling Performance, either. Eidetic Sense memory would arguably be amazing for rehearsals.
At least one person just plan needs a maxed out Edge. Magic is great, but no substitute for exploding dice-enabled solos.

There's a -huge- amount of application for 'stage magic' in shadowrun's theatrical department.
....


Goddamnit. Now I want to stat up a magical Tradition around the 'path of the roadie'.

Ah, but what are they going to use for the "Wow" factor?

The Punch/Performance rules from Shadowbeat are not really compatible with 4th edition rules. (Oh noes, variable TN'S!)

But seriously, but Shadowbeat - it's thick with stuff you'd never think of using, but eventually do. Like Publicity, cameras, contacts, evidence rules (as in faking it:)) and I love the Trid guide page.

Note: some band ideas have already been floated and used.

Josie & the Pussycats (non-surged.)
Pornomancer 5 (Before there WERE pornomancers, damn, talking about setting a trend!) (For more horror, search the Tiralee & Porno thread)
3-Non Cons
4 Where it's Thickest (Trog Rock Band)
Not from these parts (Elf poser band, playing trog and orcploitation rap)

-Tir

Oh, and it's cannon that after a band used magic to influence their audience, Magic use was very NOT welcome in bands (apart from a few performers who were part of an existing band, Shieldwall for instance)

Chances are rules have relaxed a bit, but the main ruling was that performance successes x charisma = overall level of gig. Keep it high enough and you'd go from a mall-busker to a Bar opener, and so forth:) High 80's were preferred.

Dammit, need to read shadowbeat again.

-Tir.

I had a musician adept char a little while ago

main points:
elf - high int, chr, agi
artisan skill
disguise(theatrical)
orgy - get the crowd in the mood
entertainment - for light shows
mindnet - let all the band members communicate
fashion - nuff said
trid phantasm - for really good light shows
sound barrier - could be useful for the show
mist - of course
detox - for after the show
enthralling performance
multi-tasking

What does a Shadowrunner Band need?

The ultimate in Shadowrunner Roadies: EDDIE RIGGS!

(Now if only they were able to make the sequels. ).