Music Studio, known as GHStudio in Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, is the menu screen featuring GHTunes contents including its service, Recording Studio/GHJam and GHMix/GHMix 2.0.
The Music Studio and GHTunes in general were revolutionary features in the Guitar Hero franchise ever since it was introduced in Guitar Hero World Tour.
The Music Studio is available in the Guitar Hero World Tour-styled games (including Guitar Hero: Metallica, Smash Hits, and Guitar Hero: Van Halen) on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii, as well as the PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X versions of Guitar Hero World Tour. While the Music Studio feature is available on the PlayStation 2 version of the Guitar Hero World Tour, the GHTunes online service was not available for PlayStation 2 so songs made in the PlayStation 2 versions can only be played locally and cannot be shared.
Tutorials are also included on how to use these Music Studio/GHStudio editing features.
Creating music[]
Editing tools[]
There are two editing tools of different editing styles to create and chart music in the Music Studio or GHStudio:
- Recording Studio, known as GHJam in Guitar Hero 5 and newer titles in GHStudio, where local players can create live recordings of their jams together. This is a quicker-but-usually-sloppier method of creating custom songs. GHJam in newer titles is an updated version of the Recording Studio.
- GHMix, known as GHMix 2.0 in Guitar Hero 5 and newer titles in GHStudio, is an advanced song editing tool for making custom songs. This is a slower-but-more-accurate method of creating GHTunes songs and is recommended to make high-quality custom songs. GHMix 2.0 include new features not presented in the original GHMix song editor.
| Game | Music Studio | GHStudio | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recording Studio | GHMix | GHJam | GHMix 2.0 | |
| Guitar Hero World Tour | ✓ | ✗ | ||
| Guitar Hero: Metallica | ✓[a] (excl. PS2)[b] | ✗ | ||
| Guitar Hero: Smash Hits | ✓[a] (excl. PS2)[b] | ✗ | ||
| Guitar Hero 5 | ✗ | ✓ (excl. PS2)[b] | ||
| Band Hero | ✗ | ✓ (excl. PS2)[b] | ||
| Guitar Hero: Van Halen | ✓[a] (excl. PS2)[b] | ✗ | ||
| Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock | ✗ | ✓ | ||
|
Features[]
Here is a list of editing and publishing features available in the Music Studio/GHStudio. Recording Studio/GHJam has a limited amount of features while GHMix (2.0) has a variety of features, thus, a majority of the following features will appear in GHMix (2.0).
Charting features[]
| Feature | About | Music Studio? | GHStudio? | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Lead Guitar,  Rhythm Guitar,  Bass,  Drums, and  Keyboard. Charted instruments can then be set to specific playable instruments. GHStudios' instruments can be set interchangeably per measure.
|
Yes | ||||||||||
Scrolling through the highway and placing notes at a certain distance apart in a 4/4 time signature measure:
|
GHMix (no triplet snapping in GHWT) | GHMix 2.0 (expanded) | |||||||||
| Live recording a chart is the prominent feature for Recording Studio and GHJam for all players in a band but a single user can also live record in GHMix and GHMix 2.0. With note snapping set to Precise (or No Snap in GHMix 2.0), the player can place off-set notes exactly where they are during live recording or after stopping a live recording. | Yes | ||||||||||
Within the soundbank provided by Line 6, the player can customize the tone of their instruments (more available through the "Extra Line 6 Tones!" cheat code G→R→Y→B→R→Y→B→G on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC games that have the Music Studio) make various instrumental and audio effects such as guitar slides (also see special chords below for chord-based slides), guitar bends, drum velocity, note pitches (a scale can be set to the fret buttons with open notes as the lowest and BO as the highest), volume, panning, tuning, and more. GHStudio's editing tools provides more instrumental tones and effects.Also, the player can apply palm mutes to notes they place by holding down the Star Power button ( Select/◂/-) before strumming (and palm mutes can be toggled manually afterward in GHMix 2.0).
|
Yes (additional tones in 7th gen versions via cheat code) | Yes (expanded) | |||||||||
Guitar/Bass
|
Yes | ||||||||||
| In GHMix and GHMix 2.0, you can add section names and change the stageshow lighting where you are located on the highway. | GHMix | GHMix 2.0 | |||||||||
You will always be charting the Expert difficulty of your songs. Charts for Beginner, Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulties will auto-generate based on your Expert chart with difficulty rules in mind. Most forms of chords on lower difficulties start on the base note (most left base note, or most right base note in Lefty Flip).Guitar/Bass on lower difficulties
|
Yes | ||||||||||
| This is also a key feature in the Recording Studio/GHJam but is also in GHMix and GHMix 2.0. Auto-generate a chart for Drums, Bass, Rhythm Guitar, etc. to play in the background based on genre/preset style. |
Yes | Yes (expanded) | |||||||||
| Toggle on and off notes (and make chords) after placing notes without changing the note audio on any track. | No | GHMix 2.0 | |||||||||
| Custom songs in Guitar Hero World Tour did not have Star Power support but as of Guitar Hero: Metallica, Star Power Phrases are automatically generated for a measure after every so often if the song is long enough. In GHMix 2.0 of the GHStudio for newer titles, Star Power Phrases are customizable and can be applied to each 4/4 time signature-based measure. | Auto-generated in GH:M, GH:SH, and GH:VH | GHMix 2.0 | |||||||||
| Switches the highways into "pattern mode" where you can copy, paste, save, load, and use a song chart pattern (notes and sound) per measure in GHMix 2.0. There are a variety of premade patterns for each genre/style and section type in GHMix 2.0 that can be set to each fret to quickly add a pattern of notes. | No | GHMix 2.0 | |||||||||
Publishing features[]
Other features the player can do for their custom song outside of charting and before publishing to GHTunes/GHTracks by checking their "Song Details".
| Feature | About | Music Studio? | GHStudio? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Giving your song a name. Up to 17 characters (spaces included) can fit in a song name. | Yes | ||
| You can set your song's genre to "Alternative", "Pop", "Experimental", "Hip Hop", "Rock", "Metal", "Electronic", or "Other". | Yes (excluding PS2) | ||
| In the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC versions, you can also set a custom album art for your song in Song Detail. This is not available in the PlayStation 2 or Wii version. | Yes (excluding PS2/Wii) | ||
In the Music Studio, you can set which charted instrument will be used for the Guitar or Bass track. You cannot use Keyboard either Guitar or Bass but not both.
In GHStudio's GHMix 2.0, you can change instruments between each 4/4 time signature-based measure except Keyboard cannot be set Guitar. |
Yes | GHMix 2.0 | |
Features with limitations[]
There are some limits players can do in the Music Studio and GHStudio editors.
| Feature | About | Music Studio? | GHStudio? |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Yes | Yes (expanded) | |
Only the initial tempo can be set and additional tempo markers cannot be set.
|
Yes | Yes (expanded) | |
|
Yes | Yes (expanded) | |
| While not normally supported (especially in the Music Studio editors), there is a copy/paste trick in GHMix 2.0 to allow and play extended sustains by copying a long note and pasting behind behind other notes (see GHMix § Tips & Tricks). However, audio will not ring past other notes. | No | Yes with limitations | |
Most chords can only be placed in Rhythm Guitar with some exceptions.
|
Only BO on Lead & Bass |
Yes via toggle notes but not audibly |
Unsupported features[]
Even though Guitar Hero World Tour and newer titles featured these gameplay elements in their regular tracks, the editing tools and GHTunes/GHTracks songs do not feature these gameplay elements in the original Music Studio and the updated GHStudio.
| Feature | About |
|---|---|
| Song charting will always be at a 4/4 time signature per measure. | |
The following special note types and gameplay features are not available in the Music Studio or GHStudio.
| |
 Expert+ difficulty |
Expert difficulty on Drums will use all bass kick notes regardless on how closely distant they are apart.
|
| Cannot set an intensity level for each instrument. |
GHStudio preset styles[]
Upon picking either GHJam or GHMix 2.0 in Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, or Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, you can set a premade style to start your new song on, which sets their instrumental effects, tempo, etc., but they can still be adjusted manually during editing.
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Gallery[]
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Music Studio menu screen in Guitar Hero World Tour.
Music Studio menu screen in Guitar Hero: Metallica.
Music Studio menu screen in Guitar Hero: Smash Hits.
GHStudio menu screen in Guitar Hero 5.
Music Studio menu screen in Guitar Hero: Van Halen.
GHStudio menu screen in Band Hero.
GHStudio menu screen in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.
External links[]
- Official GHStudio Reference Guide (v1.7B) (with guitar controllers for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) in PDF format (web archived)
- Forum topic (web archived)
