Hi everyone,

I’m trying to author vocals for a Rock Band 3 song, and I’ve run into a problem with the newer EOF builds. I’m currently using EOF 1.8 RC14 (2026 build), and I’ve discovered that this version no longer supports real‑time vocal note placement. When I try to place lyric notes during playback, EOF only lets me place one note per playback run. After that, Enter stops responding until I pause and restart playback.

From what I’ve learned, this isn’t a bug — RC14 removed the old real‑time input system entirely. The A‑key tap‑to‑place, the Input Mode → Real‑time menu, and the older workflow are all gone.

I’ve been told that the last version of EOF that still has full real‑time note placement working correctly is EOF 1.8 RC12 (2022 build). I want to be able to tap notes in time with the music rather than placing everything manually.

The problem is: I can’t find a download for RC12 anywhere. The official sites only have changelogs, and the Google Code archive is too old (1.71, etc.). I do have the 2025 hotfix builds for RC14, but those don’t restore real‑time input.

If anyone has a link, a mirror, or an archived copy of RC12, I’d really appreciate it. Thanks!

There was never a "real-time" input mode. Several of the input modes have allowed notes to be placed during playback, but this was always explained to be a bad practice and that you would have to fix the timing for notes placed this way. Reverting to RC12 just for this would be a terrible idea.

I tested just now and the "Guitar tap" and "Guitar strum" input modes still work to place several vocal notes during a single playback of the chart. Classic and Hold do not currently work for this, but I can add a small adjustment in the program so this will work. It does seem like if you hold the Enter key down when placing lyrics in these two input modes, the new lyric will just be placed with its initial length and it won't lengthen automatically like with the guitar strum input mode.

The next hotfix will allow Classic and Hold input modes to place multiple lyrics during playback, but just know the end result will be bad because this is not the proper way to author lyrics.

Thanks for the fast response. So full disclosure: This is my first attempt at authoring anything. I don't know any music theory so I don't have the background knowledge to chart any instruments. But I thought I might be able to handle vocals. There are songs on the Rhythm Verse site that have all instruments but are missing vocals so I figured I'd try to just add vocals to them. I asked AI for help in the process and it said there is a way using EOF to play the song, and hit a key on the keyboard for each syllable to place a note at that position. Then you can import lyrics (that have been pre-hyphenated using a site that breaks words up into syllables) into those positions where the empty note was placed. This didn't sound too hard but I can't figure out how to do it. I tried "Guitar tap" and "Guitar strum" input modes but when I hit enter during playback it doesn't drop a note at all.

I know you said this isn't the proper way to author lyrics but it just seems very tedious to have to continuously pause and restart the song to find where each syllable should be and drop the notes one at a time and manually typing in each lyric one at a time. Is that really how it's done?

Note: I don't care about pitch. I'm just aiming to get unpitched lyrics timed somewhat accurately for the song. They don't need to be exact.

The process you mentioned about placing lyric-less vocal notes first and then importing text isn't commonly used with EOF. You might find it easier to use another lyric editing program to create the lyrics (or just find the lyrics in a format that EOF can import, like UltraStar) and just importing the timed lyrics all at once in EOF with File>Import>Lyric. Otherwise you can skim through EOF's vocal tutorial in its Help menu for details about authoring/manipulating the lyrics in EOF.

"(or just find the lyrics in a format that EOF can import, like UltraStar) and just importing the timed lyrics all at once in EOF with File>Import>Lyric." - That sounds great! I have the lyrics for the song. How do I get them timed and in a format that EOF can import? I see you referenced UltraStar but doesn't that just let me create and time the lyrics, then export to a file that EOF can open? You made it sound like there is a way to automatically get the lyrics to be timed properly. How do I do that?

There's no automatic way. I was suggesting you can download lyrics that were already made by somebody else in a format that EOF can import, such as when somebody has already made a chart for the song to use in a singing/rhythm game.

Oh, I see. But if someone had already made the chart, then I wouldn't need to be making the chart in the first place. I guess this is beyond my abilities. Thanks for the info, this has been very helpful. I guess my next question is: Are there reliable and established/known people on here who I can commission to make custom songs?

If somebody made lyrics for this song in a karaoke game or a Rock Band style game, you'd be able to import them into EOF pretty easily. There are also lyric editors whose entire purpose is vocals so they can streamline the process. UltraStar is a popular karaoke game and thousands of songs have had vocals authored for it:

https://usdb.animux.de/

https://usdb.eu/

And thousands of custom songs for Rock Band style games have lyrics:

https://rhythmverse.co/songfiles/game

Or hundreds/thousands/? of unpitched lyrics in simple formats like LRC:
https://lrclib.net/

I usually just manually create line-synced lyrics for charts that I make, which takes a little time, but not usually more than half an hour or so since EOF will even let you copy/paste lyrics in from the clipboard (in Windows anyway).

Thanks for those links. I found timed lyrics for a song I am working on. I added the lyrics with notes to the song in EOF. I replaced the original midi with the one generated after saving in EOF. I made the con file with the new midi but in Nautilus Visualizer it says "no part" but the lyrics show up properly in Visualizer. Then I edited the DTA using Quick DTA editor in Nautilus to change ('vocal_parts' 0) to ('vocal_parts' 1). But when I open the con file in the Visualizer, it still says "no part" for vocals. I asked AI for help and this is what it said:

EOF RC14 is not actually exporting it as a valid Rock Band PART VOCALS track.

This is the key misunderstanding: RC14 displays the track name, but it does NOT include the Rock Band–required metadata in the exported MIDI.

That’s why:

• Visualizer shows lyrics

• Visualizer shows “no part”

• The game will also show no vocals

• Even though the track appears to be “PART VOCALS” in EOF

Let me explain exactly why this happens.

🎤 Why RC14’s “PART VOCALS” is not a real Rock Band vocal track

In older EOF versions (RC10–RC12), the PART VOCALS track included:

✔ A proper track name event

Code

TRACK NAME: PART VOCALS

✔ A “mix” event

Code

[mix 1 vocals0]

✔ Phrase markers

Code

[phrase_start]
[phrase_end]

✔ Lyric events attached to notes

✔ Correct MIDI channel and note types

RC14 removed the menus that create these events. So even though the UI still shows “PART VOCALS,” the exported MIDI is missing:

• The track name meta event

• The mix event

• The phrase markers

• The RB3 metadata block

Without those, Rock Band 3 treats the track as invalid.

Visualizer is telling you the truth: your MIDI has lyrics, but no valid vocal part.

⭐ Your screenshot confirms RC14 is missing the required menus

Your Track menu is missing:

• Track → Vocal Track Name

• Track → Events → Add Event

• Beat → Place Lyric Phrase

• Track → Set Track Type

• Track → Add RB3 Events

These are the tools needed to make a valid RB3 vocal track.

RC14 simply doesn’t have them.

🎯 What this means

Even though the UI says “PART VOCALS,” RC14 is exporting a generic MIDI track, not a Rock Band vocal track.

That’s why Visualizer still says “no part.”

And yes — the game will say the same thing.

⭐ The only fix: open the project in EOF RC12

RC12 still has:

• Track → Vocal Track Name

• Track → Events → Add Event

• Beat → Place Lyric Phrase

• Automatic RB3 metadata export

• Real‑time input mode

Once you open your project in RC12:

1. EOF will convert it

2. You can add phrase markers

3. You can add the mix event

4. You can confirm the track name

5. You can export a valid RB3 MIDI

Visualizer will immediately show:

• PART VOCALS

• Notes

• Lyrics

• Phrases

And the game will allow mic‑only play.

I find it hard to believe the current version of EOF just doesn't allow authoring for Rock Band 3. So I'm asking for help here, please.

To boil it all down, it's an AI slop answer complete with false assumptions and hallucinations (including which menus have which items).

To elaborate, make sure you've gone into EOF's File>Preferences>Import/Export menu and enabled the option to save separate Rock Band files, to allow it to save a Rock Band variant of the MIDI when you save. I still recommend you read through EOF's vocal tutorial (in the Help menu) to get a quick idea of how vocals must be authored, but know that Rock Band has some of its own requirements that you can find by reading Rock Band specific guides. EOF will automatically add the default needed events in the Rock Band MIDI. The last time I build one of EOF's MIDIs into a Rock Band custom using Harmonix's Magma tool and everything years ago, it generally worked as long as I defined the lyrics, line phrases, etc.

Yeah, I figured AI was wrong about this, but I can't figure out what the issue is. I read the tutorial but I didn't see anything about export settings or other things that need to be done to make this work in Rock Band 3. These are the import/export setting I'm using. I thought I got them right, but maybe not.

Are you using the notes_rbn.mid file created by EOF? This is the one that should be closer to ready-to-use for Rock Band 3. You may need to ask in a Rock Band customs community about why your chart might not be working, maybe it's something like your lyrics not having # or ^ characters if your vocals are all pitchless.

Yes, I used CON Explorer in Nautilus to replace the original .midi file with the notes_rbn.mid file created by EOF. I didn't use any special characters anywhere in the lyrics. From what I read in the tutorial, it didn't sound like I needed to. When I saved the project in EOF, it asked if I wanted to make all lyrics freestyle and I said "Yes" so I assumed it placed the appropriate characters to make this work (the # character, I believe).

For what it's worth, I asked AI about this and it said:

Those symbols only matter for freestyle vs. pitched lyrics, and they have zero effect on whether Rock Band recognizes a vocal part.

EOF already asked you:

“Make all lyrics freestyle?”

You clicked Yes, so EOF automatically added the correct internal flags. You do not need to manually type # anywhere.

Freestyle vs. pitched has nothing to do with RB3 detecting a vocal track.

The MIDI metadata is the problem — and RC14 cannot generate it.**

This is why every RB3 author still uses:

• EOF 1.8 RC12

• EOF 1.8 RC11

• EOF 1.8 RC10

Those versions still include the Rock Band–specific export code.

RC14 removed it.

AI is really certain the issue is with RC14. Do you happen to have 1.8 RC12 so I can at least try it and see if it works? I know AI is wrong a lot of the time but there's no harm in trying RC12. If you have that version, I'd really appreciate you sharing it so I can test this out. Thanks.

The Rock Band export code was not removed from EOF. The AI slop machine won't be able to help you. Without having the project file myself, I can only speculate why Rock Band custom tools don't see the vocals. If you ask in a Rock Band authoring community that uses those tools, they may be able to provide more information, but they may ask for the files to examine also.

When I get home, I'll pm you a link to download the project file and the original midi and ogg imported into EOF. Do you need anything else?

Can you recommend a Rock Band authoring forum to post in?

That might be enough for me to look at it. For forums, this looks like an OK option:

https://rhythmgamingworld.com/forums/forum/c3-forums/customs-conversations/custom-song-troubleshooting-amp-support/

Discord might have a more active community, and if you're fine with that, then the YARG and RhythmVerse Discord servers might be the best options.

I messaged you. Thanks again!

Ultimately, I did fix a Magma validation quirk with the [end] event EOF added when it wasn't already defined. Otherwise the vocal track was written as needed by Rock Band 3 and the DTA file needed some edits to reflect the vocal track being present in the CON file.