How to Add Custom Songs to Guitar Hero 3 (Wii) Part 1

Intro: How to Add Custom Songs to Guitar Hero 3 (Wii) Part 1

In this Instructable we will use a handy program called The Ghost to inject custom songs into Guitar Hero 3 (or Areosmith) on Wii. These games may then be burned to a CD or put on a flash drive to be played on a soft or hard modded Wii. The instructions for modding your Wii and running/copying Wii ISO files can be found here (soft-modding Wii) and here (making/running backups). This instructable works for Windows XP. Also, read the disclaimer.



NOTE: A.C.E. has been kind enough to make an instructable on this topic already. This instructable is meant to address problems and updates to the software. Also I did not write The Ghost, see The Ghost's official page here.

DISCLAIMER: AS WITH ALL WII HOMEBREW, BE CAREFUL WITH WHAT YOU DO TO YOUR WII. I AM NOT IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR WII. ALSO, COPYING WII GAMES IS ILLEGAL. NUFF SAID. PERIOD.

Well, now that that's out of the way, let's get started!

STEP 1: Before We Begin

Make sure to look at the pictures and the notes in the little yellow boxes. Although I make sure to explain everything in the text, look at the pictures for additional details. Also, if you click the little "i" in the upper right hand corner and look for the "Original File" link, you should be able to see a larger, more detailed image for most screenshots. Other than that, remember that software is still only a piece of software and not-fool proof. It may not work. Try to find a solution either in this instructable or by searching Google.

STEP 2: Parts List

These are the things you will need:

   + "TheGhost.rar"
   + 7-zip
   + A Guitar Hero 3 or Aerosmith .iso file
   + XP-codec pack
   + 2 to 4 GB (or more) of free disk space

For those who don't know, The Ghost comes as a .rar compressed file. I know that links die, so after a while you may need to just search Google for the .rar file. But for now, get it here or go to the Ghost's homepage as shown on the Intro page of this instructable.

You will need 7-zip (which is free) or another program that can decompress .rar files like WinZip to open "TheGhost.rar" Get 7-zip here. Go for the first or second .exe file, and then install it.

Ah, the .iso. Again, this must be obtained legally!!! You can get the actual .iso file from your very own Wii and not by torrents by following the wonderful guide by thundaboy here (also on the intro page). After reading his guide, you can extract the actual .iso from an external hard drive or flash drive with WFBS Manager. Ask him for help with this, not me.

The XP-Codec Pack is strictly for The Ghost, and is probably the easiest to get. A codec is a small file
stored in C:\WINDOWS that lets your computer play and make music and video files. In this case, we need to be able to handle .ogg .wav, and xbadpcm files. Get it here, and then install it.

Finally, you need a good amount of disk space to run The Ghost. It manipulates song packs, reads data partitions, deletes video cores, converts audio, etc. and needs a good deal of temporary space to do this.

Once you have installed the XP-Codec Pack and have the .iso file, you can move on.

STEP 3: Get Some Frets on Fire (Fof) Songs

Ok, now is where you get to decide what songs you want in your game. Personally, I think for now you should only get a few songs, say three, if this is your first time with The Ghost. If not, feel free to grab as many as you like!

Each song comes in the form of a folder, containing a song.ini, notes.midi, song.midi, and one or two other things. In reality, each song may not have everything or have the three things listed above in different forms, but don't worry, unless the song is corrupted or broken it will still probably work.

Make an account at Fof here, and grab songs from the Fof song wiki. (See image below)

NOTE: At the time of writing, it seems that the site is down. You can go to the wiki, but all the links are broken. Try this instead, or just google "frets on fire songs".

No matter how you do it, once you have a few songs, unzip them with 7-zip (or whatever you used before) and put them somewhere on your desktop, or wherever you like. The only thing that matters is that you know where they are. After that, you can get started with The Ghost.

STEP 4: Set Up and Verify the Ghost Files

Okay, at this point, you (should) have all the files that you need. To start, take your TheGhost.rar file and unzip it (with 7-zip or something) to your computer. I would recommend unzipping it to somewhere in your program files, for example: C:\Program Files\TheGhost\. After that, the Ghost will create several folders wherever you unzipped it:

   +Discs
   +Temp
   +Songs
   +Tool

And then in tool, three important files:

   +TheGHOSTWiiIsoTool.exe
   +TheGHOSTAudioTool.exe
   +TheGHOST.exe

If these files are not there, the .rar file you downloaded was corrupt or broken. Try to get it somewhere else by searching "Guitar Hero Custom The Ghost" in Google.

STEP 5: Check Codecs

This is the last set up step before actually running The Ghost. Go to the "tool" folder where The Ghost is saved, and double click on WiiAudioTool.exe and wait for a second. When it comes up, click both of the buttons at the top, install WavDest Filter, and Install XBADPCM codec. This is really just a precaution, in case XP-Codec Pack did not work. Next, turn up your volume a bit and press "Begin Tests!" If you hear a noise like a short guitar solo, answer yes, and continue. If the computer asks you if you want to use ffdshow, say yes, always.

One of three things will happen:

1. You hear the sound, answer yes, hear more sounds, and four green check marks appear. In this situation, you're great! Head right on to Part 2.

2. You hear the sound, answer yes, but hear nothing else. There is one green check mark, but three red X's. This most likely means that XP-Codec pack is not working. In that case, go to the next step.

3. You hear nothing and four red X's show up. Oddly enough, this is better than option two. Most likely, it is actually TheGhostAudioTool.exe that's wrong, so your best bet is just to keep going to Part 2. On the other hand, if you can't play mp3 files, then you've got a problem. Go to the next step.

NOTE: If there are any other possibilities (besides the three above) please send me a message.

STEP 6: Debug

If you had the first check go green, it's probably just a matter of getting another Codec pack or getting a single file. Try K-Lite or Media Pack. Install them like you did before, and try the Audio Tool again.

If the first check mark did not go green and you can't play mp3 files on your computer, we need to fix that. Go here and hit download, right in the middle of the page.

Comments

[Pantelis97]

I know that the most links don't exist anymore so please if you can send a new link where I can download the Ghost, or if you can send the rar file to my email or dropbox! thank you!

[JaysonL5]

http://www.4shared.com/postDownload/oMLgqaEP/TheGH...

i found it on Ghost Main Page. Hopefully you'll see this, enjoy!

[Abbylicious]

Ok is it possible to do this put for ps3????

[sullstecclub]

Not really, unless you can dump ps3 files from a cd.

[mikenaly]

First off, I apologize for not thinking to include that initially. I am running Windows XP Professional v. 2002 on a system using an Intel Celeron M processor running at 1.6 GHz. The system has 1.37GB of memory. I don't have an exact number available right now on free drive space, but also don't know if you need it. Since I don't know what else you might need, I'll let you ask rather that potentially give you a bunch of useless info to have to sort through. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can give.

[sullstecclub]

Allright, thanks for the specs. Your system is a bit underpowered, but should still work, just a bit slowly. Did you get the xp codec pack from here http://www.xpcodecpack.com/? If so you might want to try to get these codec packs, to see if they work: http://download.cnet.com/Media-Player-Codec-Pack/3000-13632_4-10749065.html or http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

If you suspect that the problem is the ghost itself, then you may actually be ok to go ahead and continue with the instructable.

[mikenaly]

Yes, I downloaded the xp codec pack. Tried the cnet download, and I get the first three items (MP3, OGG and Wave Dest Filter) checked, then it seems to lock up on the XBADPCM Codec. Is this one necessary to use The Ghost, or can I ignore it for now? Thanks very much for the help.

[sullstecclub]

I would say just go ahead and give it a shot, the XBADPCM codec is not used primarily in the Ghost

[mikenaly]

I need some help. I am trying to follow this instructable. I have no problems when I click on the buttons labelled: "install WavDest Filter", and "Install XBADPCM codec". When I click on "Begin Tests!", I get a white box that says ". . . Testing Audio . . ." and I hear the "guitar solo" then nothing happens. The box does not clear and I get no green checks or red x's, I do not get a prompt to tell it if I heard the audio, and if I check it in task manager it tells me that the audio tool is not responding. I really want to try my hand at creating my own guitar hero custom and would greatly appreciate any help anyone can give me with this. Thanks

[sullstecclub]

Truth be told, I have not used any of this stuff in ages, but I'll see what I can do. First off, what version of Windows are you running?

[mikenaly]

Sorry, missed the reply button on the first response. That's what I get for trying to do this on my cell.

[Triworm]

perfect instructable. easy to understand

[DeadBarney]

Dude, you're awesome. Thank you for this really good instructable.

[sullstecclub]

Thanks, that's awesome to hear.