How to Customize Songs in Guitar Hero 3 on a PC

Rock out to your favorite songs with Guitar Hero III.

The Guitar Hero games have taken the world by storm, allowing millions of players worldwide to rock out to their favorite songs in a deep interactive medium. The PC version of the third game in the series, "Guitar Hero III," offers the same downloadable content as other versions of the game--providing dozens of online songs for players to buy and play. But clever PC users have gone further, using a little know-how to customize their own songs for play within the game.

Things You'll Need

• Internet-enabled PC running "Guitar Hero III"
• Music file in MP3 or OGG format

Instructions

Install Song List Editor

1. Download Song List Editor from the site in the Resources section. This music-management program can be used to edit the song list for "Guitar Hero III."

2. Create a directory called "Custom Songs" and unzip Song List Editor to a subfolder of this directory.

3. Double-click the file "Songlist_editor.EXE."

4. Open Song List Editor's "File" menu and select "Open." Song List Editor automatically locates your "Guitar Hero III" folder.

5. Click "OK."

Download from Score Hero

1. Register for Score Hero by following the link in the Resources section. Score Hero provides chart files necessary to produce the notation for "Guitar Hero III" tracks.

2. Input your chosen user name and password to log into the site.

3. Click "Custom Songs," then choose "Browse Database."

4. Search for the song you wish to convert for "Guitar Hero III."

5. Click the "Download" button next to the song you wish to download and save the file to your computer's "Custom Songs" folder.

Converting with Chart2Mid2Chart

1. Download Chart2Mid2Chart from the site in the Resources section. This software converts your chart file to the MIDI format recognized by "Guitar Hero III."

2. Unzip Chart2Mid2Chart to a subfolder of your "Custom Songs" folder.

3. Double-click the file "Chart2Mid2Chart.JAR" to launch the program.

4. Click "Browse" and navigate to the file downloaded from Score Hero.

5. Check the box in Chart2Mid2Jar marked "Guitar Hero" and click "Convert."

Adding Songs in Song List Editor

1. Return to Song List Editor and click "Insert New Song" from the project's main menu.

2. Enter the name of your song in the "Song Name" field, using all lowercase.

3. Click the "Browse" button next to the "Guitar Track" field. Navigate to the MP3 or OGG file you wish to add and click "OK." Repeat this process to add the same track to the "Rhythm Track" and "Song Track" fields.

4. Click the "Browse" button next to the "MIDI file" field. Navigate to the directory containing your Score Hero file and add the MIDI file created by Chart2Mid2Chart.

5. Fill in the "Song Title," "Artist," and "Year" fields using the information you wish to appear in "Guitar Hero III." Click "OK" and wait for the program to display the message "Done creating FSB."

Adding to Guitar Hero III

1. Click Song List Editor's "Edit Setlists" button.

2. Click the "Set Lists" drop-down menu and choose "Bonus Songs."

3. Increase the number in the "Songs per Tier" field by one.

4. Open the drop-down menu for "Song Number" and choose the last song on the list, which is always the most recently added file. Open the "Song" drop-down menu and choose the name of your added song.

5. Click "OK," then open the "File" menu and choose "Save." Click "OK" one last time to add your song to the "Guitar Hero III Bonus Songs" section.

Tips & Warnings

• You can choose your newly-added song for play within "Guitar Hero III" by scrolling down to the "Bonus Songs" section within any song-selection screen.

References

• Mundayweb: Adding Custom Songs to Guitar Hero III (PC)

Resources

• Download Song List Editor
• Download Chart2Mid2Chart
• Score Hero: Register