Custom Songs for Dummies

A how-to on downloading or converting songs.

Downloading Songs

*Make sure you have a program that can open zip files, I recommend 7-Zip [www.7-zip.org] or WinRAR [www.win-rar.com]*

1. If you just installed Paradiddle, launch it once then close it (if you've already opened the game before, you can skip this - it's just to generate some of the game's folders)
   
   
2. Go to the following site: https://paradb.kumo.dev/
   
   
3. Search/click on a song of your choice, then download
   
   
4. Extract the folder from the zip file to your "Songs" folder - the default location should be in your documents folder, so something like:
   
   (C:\Users\[Your Name]\Documents\Paradiddle\Songs)
   
   
5. The song(s) should appear in-game whenever you launch it

*To get rid of a song, just delete the song from inside your "Songs" folder; also, keep in-mind that some mappings may be broken or worse than others*

Converting Songs (from Rock Band or Clone Hero)

The easiest way to convert a song is to use the Paradiddle Song Creator with music from Rock Band or Clone Hero. Songs from Rock Band may be downloaded from this Google spreadsheet [goo.gl](specifically under the "Rock Band Games" section) or by going to this site [chorus.fightthe.pw]which has a search bar. If you use the Chorus site, make sure to only download songs that have drums included, indicated by two drumsticks.

Should look something like this...


Also, before downloading a song from Chorus, check to see if it includes a .midi file in its contents - you can see this on the preview screen that opens whenever you hit "Download [person's] chart." For example, this song doesn't have a .midi file included.

Now that you know where to find songs, let's go over how to convert them.

1. First, download the official Paradiddle Song Creator from Github [github.com]and extract the folder from the zip file to wherever you'd like.
   
   
2. Download some songs from the Rock Band setlist (found on the spreadsheet) or from Chorus. If you use Chorus, double check that the song includes drums, like shown in the picture above. Also check that the download has a .midi file. Once you download a song, extract the folder from the song's zip file to somewhere you'll remember.
   
   
3. Now that you have both a song and the Paradiddle Song Creator downloaded and extracted, launch "ParadiddleUtilities.exe" in the "Paradiddle Utilities" folder you extracted during Step #1.
   
   Looks like this...
   
   
   
4. The application will open on a tab titled "MIDI," click the three dots ("...") at the bottom-right besides "Midi - Drum Mapping:", then navigate to the ParadiddleUtilities folder that you launched the application from (it might automatically open there). From there, open the "midi_maps" folder, then select "rhythm_game_mapping.yaml"
   
   
5. Next, click ("...") at the top-right besides "Midi File:", then navigate to the song folder that you extracted during Step #2. Double click on the .midi file in the song's folder; afterwards, besides "Midi Track," make sure that the part for drums is selected in the drop-down menu.
   
   Example
   
   
   **NOTE: some songs from Chorus will only have a notes.chart instead of a .midi, this can be converted through another program called "Moonscraper Chart Editor" which I won't go over now, but might in a future edit**
   
   
6. Next, go to the "Audio Tracks" tab on the top, then under "Song Tracks", click ("...") next to "Song Track 1" and select any .ogg file except those that have "drum" in its name. Repeat this for "Song Track 2" for any remaining .ogg file besides drums. You might have one .ogg or up to 5. You can skip any "preview.ogg" or "crowd.ogg"
   
   
7. After you're done with "Song Tracks," go to "Drum Tracks" and select any/all .ogg files with "drums" somewhere in its name. Some might not have a drum .ogg and that's fine, just skip this step.
   
   After you finish this step, it might look like this...
   
   Again, don't worry if it doesn't have as many .ogg files, as long as there's one under "Song Tracks" it'll work.
   
   
8. Then go to the "Metadata" tab and enter whatever information you'd like (if you plan on sharing your conversion, please credit the original song mapper somewhere in the description). Besides "Cover Image:", click ("...") and in the song's folder, select the image that appears. If there isn't one, you can download an image off the web and use that instead, but it isn't required.
   
   
9. Lastly, at the bottom, click "Set Output Folder" and find/select the game's "Songs" folder. This is different from the song folder you downloaded from the web. Again, the default location should be in your documents folder, so something like:
   
   (C:\Users\[Your Name]\Documents\Paradiddle\Songs)
   
   
10. You can finally hit "Convert to .rlrr!" to convert the song. IMPORTANT: to have more than one difficulty level for a song, go back to the "MIDI" tab in the application, and besides "Difficulty:", change it to whatever other difficulties you'd like to include and hit "Convert to .rlrr!". You don't need to mess with any other settings. You can repeat this step for any other difficulty level you'd like to include.
    
    
11. After launching the game, you should be able to find your song. If you included several difficulty levels, some may or may not work based off the song's original charting. Regardless, at least one of the difficulties should work if this happens.

*For any confusion and a great resource, check out this video tutorial and feel free to share your conversions at https://paradb.kumo.dev/*

Finding More Songs

If you can't find a certain song in Chorus, you can also use this site [rhythmverse.co] to search for them. Make sure that under "Instruments" there is a drum component included, indicated by a drum symbol! Songs you download will likely be in an Xbox Rock Band format and not as a folder or zip file. To convert them, go to this Google spreadsheet [goo.gl] and under "C3 Forums," go to the download link besides "C3 Con Tools." The most recent version as of writing this can be found here [drive.google.com]

Once you downloaded the zip, extract the folder to somewhere easily accessible and open the "C3CONTools.exe" application inside. You can ignore any notification/update popups that appear. Then select "Phase Shift Converter" on the bottom of the fourth column that's coloured blue. In the screen that opens, drag and drop the Xbox Rock Band song you downloaded from the RhythmVerse site, and under "Audio (mogg) options:", select "Downmix to stereo." Click "Begin" and the program will convert the file.

Example of what it might look like...


To find the file, go to your "Downloads" folder and open the "Music" folder that the program generates. If you don't see it there, go back to the application and look at the top to find the directory that the program placed the folder into.

Afterwards, you can go about converting the song like normal using the "ParadiddleUtilities.exe" application (tutorial provided in the previous section of this guide).

For any confusion, check out this video tutorial (The C3 site featured in the video now goes by RhythmVerse)

Resources

• You can find Rock Band songs here (under the "Rock Band Games" section):
  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13B823ukxdVMocowo1s5XnT3tzciOfruhUVePENKc01o/edit#gid=0
  
  
• A video tutorial on converting them:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOy9xRir6lQ&t=46s
  
  
• A library of custom songs (Chorus):
  https://chorus.fightthe.pw/
  
  
• A more extensive library of custom songs that typically require an extra step to convert them (RhythmVerse - explanation provided in the previous section):
  https://rhythmverse.co/songfiles/game
  
  
• A video tutorial on how to convert songs from RhythmVerse (formerly known as C3):
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-r2s-etFQQ

[𝗱̶𝘂̶𝘀̶𝘁̶𝗼̶]

ive gotten all the way up to having the custom songs in my songs folder, but when i launch the game all of them seem corrupt or something. could you possibly help?

[Juku]

Could you tell me how to export the .chart files to .mid files correctly, because when I try my PDUtilities crashes?

[sebchib]

Ok I will try, hope works

[helvete]

guide is a bit old and i haven't tested yet but try using an opus to ogg converter like this https://convertio.co/opus-ogg/ and see if that works

[sebchib]

I have a problem, all the songs I download from chorus and has the notes,mid they don't have a .ogg track instead is an .opus so i don't have any tracks to put in. Heeeeelp

[helvete]

if ur song doesn't have a drum.ogg that's fine, just include the song.ogg as one of the song tracks (checkout step 6 and 7 for more help)

[jowsok]

where'd you get the drum.ogg's from? when i downloaded from chorus it just gave me the album cover, the notes.mid, song.ini, and song.ogg.

[Kasye]

really cool guide

[p_murphy44]

Just a note about converting con files to phase shift, you can separate to stems if the file isn't encrypted but will take longer, not sure if there is any difference in quality though.

[p_murphy44]

I've got this game on the quest 3 and was looking how to convert rb3con songs and this guide is just the thing I need. Thank you for doing this.