How to add any song to Guitar Hero 3

Posted at: Wednesday 1st October 2008 by Phil Hartup

Phil Hartup shows how you can expand the PC version of Guitar Hero 3 by adding your own MP3s to the game

Customising and modifying games is one of the unique advantages the PC has over games consoles, allowing you to do everything from installing custom user interfaces to user-made levels. Even a game such as Guitar Hero that’s been known as being extremely successful on the Playstation and Xbox is more flexible on the PC.

Every version of Guitar Hero gets critcised for its bundled songs, because everyone's music taste is different. With the PC version however, you can add songs from your own music collection to the game's library to play along with. So whether you’re a big Rick Astley fan or a follower of Iron Maiden you can finally get the perfect Guitar Hero game. It's a fairly complicated process, but we'll show you how it's done.

WHAT YOU NEED:

PC version of Guitar Hero 3
Guitar Hero 3 1.3 patch
Guitar Hero Three Control Panel

LEGAL BEAGLES

Before we explain how to add custom songs to Guitar Hero, we should mention copyright law. Remember, if you download an MP3 of a song you don't own, you're breaking the law and killing the music industry. This is why certain girl bands can barely afford enough clothes to cover themselves, and why once-rich rock stars are now forced to live in cardboard boxes and busk outside Morrisons. Downloading a song's note chart for use within Guitar Hero depends on the person who created the chart. If they make it freely available, you're ok to use it, otherwise it's their property.

SHE'S LOST CONTROL

The Guitar Hero 3 Control Panel (GHCP) may seem complicated at first glance, but adding a track is a straightforward process. Setting up the program requires installation of the LAME conversion library, but the Control Panel handles that - just follow the instructions and the program will download and install the required libraries.

Adding a song via the control panel begins with an MP3 of the track you wish to play along to. Naturally, your MP3 is one you have acquired legally. You also need the note chart for the song, which is the file that contains all the notes the game will ask you to play. A good source of these is Scorehero, a fantastic Guitar Hero community site.

In addition to containing around 8,000 custom tracks for you to use, Scorehero contains even more expansive tutorials for the applications described here, as well as a friendly forum where you can ask for further help as needed. As with most modding scenes, forums can be invaluable if you become stuck or something doesn't work. Often, others will have had the same problem.