Here's my notes for controlling the stage in GH2 customs. I have since made a video to demonstrate lighting effects in each venue, and I've updated these notes for accuracy accordingly.

Lighting and marker events

These go in the EVENTS track and control lighting events exclusively.

[verse], [chorus], and [solo] are marker events, and need to be placed for any further lighting cues to work. These mostly affect camera angles ([chorus] takes more wide shots, [verse] focuses closer in on the band, and [solo] focuses specifically on the guitarist), though [solo] will also cause more spotlights to appear on your guitarist.

[lighting ()] will return the venue's lighting to normal as per the marker events. [lighting (color1)] and [lighting (color2)] cause variances in the spotlight colors and are also affected by marker events.

[lighting (flare)] will cause the stage pyrotechnics and bulbs to flash. In about half the venues (mostly the smaller ones), they don't loop; in the ones that do, they flash on and off at a quarter note tempo. If you want to avoid this, switch to another lighting call about a quarter note afterwards at midtempo.

[lighting (sweep)] is a tricky one. You'll usually get a looping spotlight sweep, but in Battle of the Bands, the lights will simply fade to about half intensity until another effect occurs, and in the Harmonix Arena, the sweep will only happen a single time.

[lighting (blackout)] kills all the lights in the venue, point blank period.

I have since learned that, although Harmonix uses it frequently in their charts, there is no lighting call in the engine called [lighting (chase)]. It simply reverts to the normal "blank" lighting call. You can tell this by watching the lighting debug using the debug executable and calling [lighting (chase)], it simply goes back to the blank lighting call.

Lighting keyframes and venue effects

Notes C3, C#3, and D3 (so 48-50) in TRIGGERS control lighting keyframes, which are a more subtle effect that shifts the spotlights on stage. C3 will shift to the next keyframe, C#3 to the previous one, and D3 to the "first" (default) one. I previously thought that keyframes don't work during [solo]; they do in most venues (the Rat Cellar being the one that they don't work in).

Of note is that keyframes don't "loop", meaning if you're on the first, throwing a previous keyframe will do nothing. You'll have to invoke C3 to go to the next one first. I'd also recommend leaving at least an eighth note of space between your lighting keyframes (or a quarter for faster songs). Any faster and they either won't show up or they'll look like garbage.

E3 (or note 52) in TRIGGERS is for "venue effects", a non-looping world special effect that only works in the Warped Tour and Harmonix Arena venues. In both, flames rise up from parts of the stage.

Band and crowd

These go in the EVENTS track and control whole band and crowd events.

[music_start] will cause the crowd's idle noise to stop so the music can play. This is especially important for encores, as the intro SFX will loop until a [music_start] is present.

[band_jump] will cause all members on stage to jump in co-op and singleplayer. The timing is imprecise (it seems to be about one second of airtime regardless of the BPM), and they jump on the next quarter note. I can never time it correctly.

[crowd_lighters_slow] and [crowd_lighters_fast] both cause the crowd to get out lighters and wave them around, though at differing speeds. Free Bird is a good example of the former's usage, while the bridge in Shout at the Devil is a good example of the latter's usage.

[crowd_half_tempo], [crowd_double_tempo], and [crowd_normal_tempo] control how fast the crowd animates, either half, double, or at the BPM. You can similarly use [half_tempo], [normal_tempo], and [double_tempo] to control how fast each band member animates, good for perking them up on slower songs. (Careful applying these to the drummer, as these also control when his sticks fall. It'll still be on beats 2 and 4, or whatever pertains to his active event, but it'll be the 2 and 4 at that half/double speed, not the 2 and 4 of the actual chart, thus he'll be out of sync with the song.)

Guitar and co-op bassist

These get placed in the PART GUITAR, PART BASS, OR PART GUITAR COOP tracks in the MIDI.

[play] and [idle] will cause the guitarist to either get into position to play or get in position to cycle through idle animations. [play] is important, as without it, the guitarist will play at random, even while notes are going on. It's best to leave these for a few beats before or after the part to play, as they happen instantly, and sometimes the guitarist will stop playing before the notes stop with a too-early [idle].

[wail_on] and [wail_off] events cause the guitarist to either start or stop dancing and posing with their guitar. Best used for more intense sections.

[solo_on] and [solo_off] are distinct from the [solo] marker event in the EVENTS track as they control the guitarist's hands catching fire on the guitar when a 4x multiplier is achieved. Neither demo nor GH1 has this functionality.

[sync_wag] and [sync_head_bang] only affect co-op guitarists, not the backing band or the guitarist in singleplayer. The former will cause the guitarists to duck and wag their guitars back and fourth, while the latter causes them to stick their heads out and head band in unison on beats 2 and 4. Both last four measures unless set to half-speed, then they last eight.

The game defines various HandMap and StrumMap events that control the very fine details of what the guitarist and bassist are visually playing. By default, all single notes are a finger down, all single note sustains have vibrato, all chords (the game doesn't distinguish between two and three-note chords) are an E minor barre chord shape, and chord sustains have no vibrato. Here's how the different HandMap events affect the guitarist (none specifically for bass):

And StrumMap events:

Guitar Hero II Deluxe adds additional HandMap and StrumMap events, including one that lets the bassist use a pick. These were created by adding additional animation states in midi_parsers.dta.

Fretmapping

Notes E2 to B3 (notes 40-59) control fretmapping, with E2 moving the fretting hand closest to the nut and B3 moving it closest to the bridge. The speed at which the guitarist will move to this fret depends on the amount of space between the note_off of the last handmapping note and the note_on of the next one. Harmonix generally leaves a 16th note of space between handmapping notes for slides, though the speed depends on the song.

If you're using FeedBack and chart2mid_beta, you can use the Enhanced Guitar, Enhanced Lead, and Enhanced Bass tracks to control fretmapping. These are accessed with F4, F5, and F6, respectively. They're mapped rather oddly, but Green is closest to the nut and Orange is about halfway down the neck. I tend to use these and then tweak in a MIDI editor.

The "big note"

Note 110 (D8) on PART GUITAR is defined as the "big note". If the player misses this note, especially with a 4x multiplier or if they're in the Green on the Rock Meter, the crowd will wince and groan. These work like Star Power phrases and Face-Off sections; any notes that happen while this note is active will be marked as "big notes", while notes that end on the ending tick of this note and any later won't be counted.

It's a good idea to only have it pertain to a single note, like a big chord at the end of a song or the first notes of a guitar intro. If you try to make it apply to multiple notes one after another, the game will play multiple groans one after another--and that's just weird.

Bassist

These control the singleplayer bassist and goes in BAND BASS.

[idle] and [play] in BAND BASS control the bassist animating in singleplayer. Unknown if PART BASS [idle] and [play] events affect the singleplayer bassist whatsoever.

C2 (note 36) in BAND BASS controls the speaker cones of the bassist's cabinet. In the OPM demo and GH1, this is mapped to C#4 (61) of the TRIGGERS track.

Singer/Keyboardist

These control the singer or keyboard player and go in BAND SINGER. The same events work for both, and only one can appear on stage during a song, so I've grouped both.

C4 (note 60) in GH1 MIDIs control the singer's mouth, with a note_on event opening it and a note_off event closing it. In all demos and GH2, the singer uses a special .voc file containing phonemes. It is not compatible with the .voc format from Rock Band, though Onyxite has added a converter for Rock Band .vocs to his Music Game Toolkit, if you have one of those. No way to generate a GH2 .voc from dry vocals like you can for Rock Band just yet, unfortunately, so you'll have to find some way around Magma first if you want that.

[idle] and [play] control the singer animating with the mic stand or the keyboardist "playing".

Drummer

C2 (note 36) on BAND DRUMS controls the pumping of the kick drum, nothing with the drummer model himself. Similarly, C#2 (37) controls the crash cymbal, though the drummer doesn't actually move to reach it.

As for making him play:

• [idle] naturally makes the drummer sit still.
• [play] will make the snare hit on the second and fourth beats of every measure.
• [nobeat] means no snare will happen until another drummer event is placed. His hi-hat hand will still animate.
• [half_time] makes the drummer play only on beat 3 each measure.
• [double_time] makes the drummer play a backbeat, like [allbeat] with a snare hit between each hit. Best placed a quarter note prior to make sure he makes it in time.
• [allbeat] will make the drummer play both hands four beats per measure.

The drummer's hi-hat hand will always animate if not idle. The other events simply control how often, if ever, the snare stick falls. You only need to set it once until you need a different event, and a no event needs a [play] beforehand.

Practice mode drum machine (or click, as the game calls it)

The practice mode drum machine is controlled by notes on the TRIGGERS track. C1 (note 24) controls the synth kick, C#1 (25) controls the synth snare, and D1 (26) controls the synth hi-hat. This does not affect the drummer in normal play, only the drum machine in practice mode when the song is slowed down.

If you're using FeedBack and chart2mid_beta, you can control both BAND DRUMS and the practice mode drum machine using the Expert Drums track. Press F8 to access it. Green maps to the BAND DRUMS kick, Red maps to the practice mode snare, Yellow maps to the practice mode kick, Blue maps to the practice mode hi-hat, and Orange maps to the BAND DRUMS cymbal.