PS3 Converter: How To Use

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NOTE: PS3 customs are still a bit problematic - See the HELP section below for some relevant information
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Initial Setup:
Before you begin, get the songs.dta file found under the '/dev_hdd0/game/BLUS30463/USRDIR/HMX0756/songs/' folder on your PS3 and place it in the 'Merged Songs' folder. This can be found in the /ps3 folder in the program's directory. If there is no /ps3 folder, run PS3 Converter once, and the folder and subfolders will be created for you.

Converting Xbox 360 songs:
Place all the CON/LIVE files in one folder, and either navigate to the folder by clicking on 'Change Input Folder', or drag one of those files here. For your convenience there is a 'CONs' folder under /ps3, so you can put them there if you like, but YOU DON'T HAVE TO: any folder is fine. 
If you check the 'Merge Songs' option, your custom songs will be converted and merged with the other songs in the 'Merged Songs' folder, and will be ready to be installed to your PS3. This is the best method for end-users converting songs on their own. 
Otherwise the converted songs will be found in the 'All Songs' folder. This is the recommended method for people converting their songs to upload and share with others.

Check 'Change song ID to numeric value' to change the song ID to a unique numeric value that will allow you to save scores for custom songs.

Merging already converted songs:
This process combines songs already converted to PS3 format so that they are ready to be installed on your PS3. This is what you're doing after downloading the PS3 files from C3, for example.
Keep a copy in the All Songs folder, and copy/paste all the songs you want to merge into the 'Songs to Merge' folder. The program will then merge all of the songs.dta files with the one provided in the 'Merged Songs' folder, and have your customs ready for installation to your PS3.

Managing the pack DTA file:
Here you can remove songs from the songs.dta, as well as the 'Merged Songs' folder. While you can manually edit the songs.dta file and remove the song folders, it is recommended you use this tool for more accuracy, specially the more customs you have.
All of your songs will be listed in the order that they appear in the DTA. To delete a song, select it from the list and press 'Remove selected'. Once you are finished removing the songs, press 'Save'. You will then be given the option to send your song files from the 'Merged Songs' folder to the Recycle Bin.

Note: Your songs will no longer show up in Rock Band 3 if you remove the song from the DTA, but they will still be on your PS3's hard drive. If you need to clear up space on your hard drive, you can always remove the custom song's files by navigating to '/dev_hdd0/game/BLUS30463/USRDIR/HMX0756/songs/' and deleting the folder of the customs you removed from the DTA.

You can also edit an existing songs.dta file and change the song ID values with unique numeric values (see above). To do this, go to Tools -> 'Change all song IDs to numeric values' and select the songs.dta file to edit.

Installing to your PS3:
To install your songs, simply upload the folders and the songs.dta in the 'Merged Songs' folder to the '/dev_hdd0/game/BLUS30463/USRDIR/HMX0756/songs/' on your PS3. Accept any overwriting that may occur. Boot up Rock Band 3 and you will find your customs installed.

PAL USERS / ADVANCED USERS:
This process assumes you're using the 'Rock Band Free Pack 1' as a base. 
If you don't have that pack or you don't want to use that pack, you can still have customs on your PS3, but you'll need to change a few files. 
PS3 Converter was created to be flexible and allow you to change the files it uses so you can make this happen. But those instructions go beyond the scope of this Help Doc. 
Visit the 'Custom Song Troubleshooting & Support' section of the C3 Forums and refer to TDCMark's thread for instructions on how to go about it.

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HELP - PROBLEM SONGS
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There are four known issues: 1) 'Error loading song, skipping' on the song setlist, 2) PS3 freezing in the song setlist when hovering over a song, 3) song plays but audio gets corrupted and freezes in the middle of a song, and 4) song plays but loops right at the end before it can finish

Issue #1 is caused by a MIDI to EDAT encryption failure by the tool we rely on. To solve this, you can tell the Converter to use a different method (which relies on a different tool) to convert the MIDI file to EDAT as required by the PS3
To do this, go to Options -> MIDI to EDAT Encryption -> Type 2 and try converting again - this may or may not solve the problem with that song
If Type 2 gives you an error in the log, you can try changing the time from 2 seconds to 5 or 10 seconds - this is the time PS3 Converter allows TrueAncestor EDAT Rebuilder to create the EDAT file. It may make enough of a difference in an older computer
If Type 2 still doesn't work, try again with Type 3 - this relies on make_npdata and looks promising - thanks to Rudi Rastelli for bringing this tool to our attention and helping me understand it so I could add it to the PS3 Converter

Issues #2 and #3 seem to be caused by too many channels in the audio (mogg) file. This requires a bit of elbow grease on your part, as I can't automate what needs to be done to fix it, but we have a solution! Follow the steps in the following post to fix this issue:
www.pksage.com/ccc/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1678&start=320#p25631

Issue #4 can be solved by using one of the following two:
- click on Encryption Options -> Fix PS3 mogg that causes looping to select a PS3 mogg (after conversion) that loops and allow PS3 Converter to try and repair that mogg - if that doesn't work (i.e. it still loops), then try the following...
- click on Encryption Options -> Fix looping when converting to enable it, then try converting the Xbox version of the song again and it should hopefully fix the issue

If you've tried all the above and you still can't get a song to work, click on the Tutorial link and ask on that thread in our forums, and I'm sure one of our helpful users will help you figure out your particular issue

Huge thanks to TDCMark and AerialX for figuring out how to get customs working on PS3!

Enjoy