Okay, how do I begin to make custom songs?

**drunkgecco** · Joined: 07 Aug 2007 Posts: 24

I know, I know, I'm so newby at this, but I've been an avid fan of custom GH and these forums since RockBand came out. I see that the ice is about to crack on PS2 customs, so I want to get in on making my own shizzle.

Where do I find information about making customs? There are some good posts/guides on the GH forums here, but are they the same as for RockBand?

I don't need a big explanation, just a nudge in the right direction for the information. I'm not completely stupid, just uneducated on these matters. Thanks.

**quovadis13** · Joined: 01 Apr 2007 Posts: 152

At the moment, Rock Band customs are not possible. As far as I can tell, we are close to customs, but not quite there yet (with no guarantee that we will ever get there)
_________________

Goals
[X] Buy a real drumset
[X] Mod it to work with Rock Band
Thanks rkuo for your awesome guide!

Ever wonder to yourself "I wonder how well quovadis13 is doing in Rock Band"? No? Well, click here anyways

**shadowmansm** · Joined: 04 Jan 2008 Posts: 134

I guarantee it, it's just a matter of time.

**Reptiliack** · Joined: 12 Apr 2008 Posts: 146

**drunkgecco** · Joined: 07 Aug 2007 Posts: 24

**TheLonging** · Joined: 07 Apr 2008 Posts: 4191

Guitar and Drums are the same. Drums and vocals are a whole different story.

A short version of charting drums: Look at a tab, press F8 to go the drums section of dB, and begin charting.

Green is bass pedal, Red - Orange are pads Red - Green. Red is snare, yellow is hi-hat, blue is tom (I think), and green is crash cymbals.
_________________

I wanna thank you for letting me be myself.

NavyCherub wrote:

AshleyWilis wrote:

hi for me Its something different...
It seems like Full sound full combo...
I mean It show passion and determination for my guitar

Smoke weed erryday.

**pksage** · Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 890 Location: Midwest, USA

Here's the summation of my knowledge, gained from watching this forum since day 1 of SH-RB. This isn't a complete guide by any means, though I might go ahead and make one after I'm done with crazy schoolwork.

1) Select a song. It should have distinct guitar, bass, drums, and vocals parts.

2) Sync the song and chart its guitar and bass parts in FeedBack in the same way you would a Guitar Hero chart.

3) Chart the drums. This can also be done in dB, by selecting the "Drums" track (F8). As TheLonging points out, green is bass pedal, and RYBO correspond to the drums' RYBG. (See notes below for drum charting tips and how to set up OD activations - OD phrases are the same as guitar SP/OD.)

4) Chart the vocals using KR Maker. I believe you should be able to import the MIDI you've completed so far in dB (does dB save as MIDI yet? if not, export it from GHex) into KR Maker and preserve your sync work and other tracks. Otherwise, you'll need to do this step before any other charting - KR Maker apparently has some nice built-in syncing.

Vocals charting is easier than it seems. You can start with a .KAR file as laid out in this thread, or chart the whole thing by hand. The format produced by KR Maker is perfectly compatible with RB; i.e. it charts "+" etc. as laid out in the RB MIDI encyclopedia. You will still, however, need to add a "#" or "^" to any lyric you want as a talky part. See notes below for OD.

5) If you want to make the custom look nice when being played on the 360, add animations and stage events by hand with a MIDI editor. I have an incomplete list of events here.

6) Splice together things that need to be spliced with a MIDI editor, depending on how KR Maker saves stuff.

7) Your custom should be ready to go!

Notes
- Drum charting. Look critically at some RB drum charts before attempting your own. Bass drum is the easiest to chart, of course. Most songs use R almost exclusively as snare drum - the main exceptions are songs with lots of fast hi-hat, like Run to the Hills or Move Along, where R is snare. PADS CAN CHANGE MID-SONG! RttH is a great example of that, too - hi-hat starts on Y and moves to R. Y is almost always hi-hat (with R snare) or snare (with R hi-hat). B is the most adaptable pad, serving usually as a tom but sometimes as an open hi-hat hit (example: Tom Sawyer). In most songs, G is crash cymbal. All pads, even R, can be toms in a drum fill. Refer to SH's sticking tutorials or other drum-playing resources to get a feel for it. Short version: Watch legit charts. Learn the patterns.
- Drum OD activation points. This requires manual editing of the MIDI. Refer to the RB MIDI sticky - free-fill sections are sustains on all 5 of the notes 120-124.
- Vocal OD charting. This requires manual editing of the MIDI. Refer to the RB MIDI sticky - OD phrases are holds on note 116.

**kevnin** · Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 5:13 pm Post subject:

you really ought to chart the drums first... i mean the drums are kinda the band's metronome so if you get that there's pretty much no way the guitar and stuff will be off sync...

also, SP as defined in Feedback is not OD in rock band. SP on guitar track signifies the solo. I know that OD is on S3, but you can't change that in feedback.

**drunkgecco** · Joined: 07 Aug 2007 Posts: 24

Thank you pksage. That's exactly the kind of simple tutorial I needed. I checked out Feedback, and it seems pretty easy to use. Good looking out.