Guitar hero 3 custom songs for PS2 Tutorial

**blitz103** · Joined: 12 Jul 2008 Posts: 53

Ok, I've decided to make a tutorial about how to put guitar hero 3 custom songs onto your ps2 (as you may have surmised from the title). I realize there is already a tutorial for this, but when I was using it, I found it confusing at times, and at times it didn't tell you how to do certain things, or where to find them (no offense to the author). It won't have all the features of the other guide (how to edit the loading screen, etc.), but it will be a functioning, easy-to-follow guide about how to put custom songs onto your ps2.

First, you will need:

Build GH3: http://buildgh3.dnsalias.org/buildgh3-current-exe.zip
Note: Save the buildgh3 folder somewhere on your main drive, usually the C or J drive (the one you have windows installed on).

Foobar2000 (optional): http://www.foobar2000.org/?page=Download
A DVD reader and burner on your computer
A PC, not a mac (I don't know how it works for mac)
A blank, non-rewritable DVD
Swap Magic*: http://www.modchip.ca/store/product.php?productid=16227&cat=269&page=1

You are basically going to be putting a DVD into your ps2 that you burned yourself. However, the ps2 does not read any DVDs except for official ps2 games and movies. Therefore, you need to hack your ps2. This isn't as bad or difficult as it sounds. Swap Magic is easy to use, works with all versions of ps2 (yes, even the slim one), but the only problem is that you will need to buy it with paypal or a credit card. Note that if you have some other device that allows you to play these games (or play Japanese games) on your ps2, that should work as well. Swap magic costs about $25 before shipping.

If you can't get swap magic or another method of playing unofficial games on your ps2, then sorry, but it's impossible to get custom songs. I will now assume you are able to use swap magic.

Step 1: Getting your songs and charts
One thing I should mention is that you need to have the songs separately, they do not download with the charts. Meaning you'll need the album for each music file, or you'll need to download the songs separately. Note that you can only use ogg, mp3, and flac formats. Any other formats (such as wav) will not work You need to be logged in to Scorehero in order to download the notecharts (if you don't have an account, just register already, it's free and takes 2 minutes). Go to http://www.scorehero.com/custom_songs.php when you're logged in to download the charts.

You will also need to synchronize your charts and songs (so that the guitar note in the song sounds at the same time you play the guitar note). I'd make a tutorial about it, but mstrong has already made an excellent tutorial about synchronizing charts and song files, which can be found here: http://www.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=51900

Step 2: Naming your songs and charts

Now, go to wherever you saved the gh3build folder. When you open the folder, it should have another folder inside of it, called input. Open it and move all your charts and song files there. Now you need to name your songs and charts. The way you name it is important. For example:
m_02_Crazy Train

The first letter is what kind of song it is. “M” means its a main song (setlist, like one and slow ride), “b” means it's a bonus (like the way it ends or TTFAF), “s” means it's a single encore (like bulls on parade), and “c” means it's a coop encore (like monsters). Then there's an underscore, and a number. The number means which place it is in the song selection page. For example, slow ride, being at the top, would be 01. One, being at the bottom (and the 32nd setlist song), would be 32. Then another underscore, and the name of the song. So, in my example, Crazy Train is the second song of the main setlist. Make sure you give your chart and music file the same name.

When you're finished, you should have one .chart file and one .mp3, .flac, or .ogg file for every song.

Step 3: Volume tagging (optional) and optional custom modifications

Basically, this makes all of your sound files the same volume. I never had the need or inclination to do this, as my files are already more or less the same volume, and it probably won't be much of an issue for you either. You can also edit parts of the game (i.e. the text in loading screens). Seeing as I myself haven't done either of these things, I probably shouldn't be writing a guide about it, so I'll shamelessly quote the original guide:

**xtremecarbon** · Joined: 29 Mar 2008 Posts: 3998 Location: Columbia, SC

If someone didn't already do this in a different thread, then this is great

If only I could find my PS2 copy

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**imcominforyo** · Joined: 14 Jan 2009 Posts: 55 Location: Katy, Texas

**gogetready** · Joined: 08 Jan 2009 Posts: 4

You might want to take the swap magic link off the guide. I think the moderators will frown on it. Other than that, good guide. Very resourceful.

**xtremecarbon** · Joined: 29 Mar 2008 Posts: 3998 Location: Columbia, SC

**blitz103** · Joined: 12 Jul 2008 Posts: 53

**zct92** · Joined: 22 Sep 2008 Posts: 2

Wait, for part 4, do you need to put in where you have the .ISO file? Or do you need to have a guitar hero 3 disk or something?

**riku950** · Joined: 13 Sep 2008 Posts: 1

Do you need a specific program to burn the GH3 disc? or do you just burn the files to the disc?

**iwasaperson** · Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 3:29 am Post subject:

**creamy69** · Joined: 05 Sep 2009 Posts: 1

Something isn't working quite right, I have no troubles with the steps, and I know what to do, i'm not doing things wrong, but at step 4, I enter minibuildgh3 ect..... and then instead of running anything it just moves the the cursor down a line, and sits there doing nothing. i've redownloaded buildgh3, and i'm not sure what to do. At before i'd used foobar on my mp3's, i had gotten an error message saying mp3's where 0 chanel.
I am, however, not an administrator on my computer, so possibly this has something to do with it?
if anyone has any suggestions, it would be much appreciated.

**guitarheroroxas** · Joined: 03 Oct 2009 Posts: 1

something isn't working.
when i open the cmd at step 4 i enter minibuildgh3 f:/ input/ output/ temp/

the cmd says step 0/8.
when it's finished the cmd says step 1/8: An error occured: Error in QBgen for file m_01_crazy train.mid : error in parsing chart file, got MThd, but expected a section.

what's that?

**Ilarulez** · Joined: 27 Aug 2009 Posts: 6 Location: Finland

Does this works without Swap Magic? I mean can I use the "swap meathod"? It's when you swap the real game to your copy.

**olle92** · Joined: 13 Jun 2008 Posts: 656 Location: Stockholm

Would this guide work on a Mac with Windows XP running?
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RROD... again.

**TSorbera** · Joined: 19 Apr 2008 Posts: 2152

**kamikazexero** · Joined: 01 Jan 2009 Posts: 2

So, I've looked through a bunch of tutorials and took 2 full days building my own Guitar Hero 3 Custom Song List and got everything up and running...but, as soon as I start the game, all of the songs sound sort of distorted and crackle as I'm playing through them. Is there any way to remedy this? I'm very new at this, I converted all my .mp3 songs to .ogg...is that the reason for the degraded sound quality? should I adjust the tracks' volumes? I'm kind of stumped here....any help is definitely appreciated!