2019 September/October Set 4

[psychoangel691]

Set 4
Judge - Gradiant

Automagic (AutotelicBrown)
Black Lair (Reshiram)
Boss of Nova (Pizza69)
Chronostasis (blanky)
Giselle (Ghost_Medley)
Happy Rainbow (Reshiram)
hARPIES15HP (Psychotik)
Hate You (boomerangbro10)
Hyperion-Blaster (M0nkeyz)
It's Showtime! (FirstMaple8)
Out With YOur Clique (Deamerai)
Passengers (devonin)
Power, Wisdom, Courage (FFR Pro 21)
Soda (Rapta)
Warm Hands In Cold Fog (TheToaphster)

[psychoangel691]

Re: 2019 September/October Set 4

Automagic (AutotelicBrown): [ 9 / 10 ]
43.733: Could use a note here since the sound on yellow just before has a pitch bend up to here
131.933: Missing note
Not too sure I’d agree with the majority of the layering going to the bass guitar seeing as how quiet it gets compared to other sounds except in the break section halfway through, but you were consistent about it at least so it’s fine. Pretty solid file with easier layering for players, just that one section at 130.853 that will definitely trip some people up on their first playthrough but it’s not too bad of a pattern to be in there.

Black Lair (Reshiram): [ 9.5 / 10 ]
SM Offset should be changed to -1.669
8.564: Not hearing difference in sound here or at 10.164 to require dropping the 16ths
52.769: Ghost note considering layering in earlier section
Overall extremely solid file, nice layering, the other coloring to guitar solo-y bits or the slap bass in midsection worked, and the hands/quads the the loud glass breaking sounds were warranted.

Boss of Nova (Pizza69): [ 7.5 / 10 ]
Careful with this patterning starting at 12.884 as it creates a bit of an anchor on 3 with the yellow notes
20.598: Patterning here is odd as these two measures here are the only ones creating a trill when there’s no difference in sound
42.027: Not sure about the layering change in this section as you’ve got jumps on yellows at 47.920 or 51.134, but not at 44.277 or 45.348
68.170: Wouldn’t use hand here as there’s no distinct cymbal here, it’s the same reverse cymbal sound continuing from 67.741
102.938: If using a 32nd for pitch bend up beforehand, use one here as well
109.795: Same
134.706: Missing note
139.634: Missing note
Comb through file again for the inconsistencies in 32nd usage for pitch bending and jump layering in the 16ths, otherwise it’s alright

Chronostasis (blanky):
File Passed to TC_Halogen for review
Please make sure you’re using proper metadata when submitting files, engine won’t be able to use those characters for the artist for example


Giselle (Ghost_Medley): [ 7 / 10 ]
1.006: Ghost note
1.071 - 1.630: Rest of the notes in this intro after the ghost note drag, sync here needs to be adjusted
22.010: This piano grace burst and the one just after should be adjusted so you don’t have repeated (3) happening both times. Shifting one of the notes in the flourish to (4) would play smoother
44.721: (suggestion) This could even be a 24th trill to be honest, to better match the flute, but if this is done I would 100% recommend changing that (14) jump to (12) so there’s no split jump in a trill that fast.
48.973: jumps you’ve got starting here should be even earlier starting at 45.409 (same sound prominence)
49.170: single, not a jump
76.107: One-hand minitrill at this speed and notesnap is too much, should change to something more along the lines of 123(14) or 432(14)
76.996: Hand here changed to jump to avoid forced one-hand minitrill
77.785: Same as above or change the burst just after the hand from 4 notes to 3 too also avoid the forced one-hand minitrill
83.903: Same as above
I’m not gonna keep repeating the same note about your bursts so just noting here you need to go through them again with regards to your forced mini-trills. I’m certain you did it for difficulty but going for it through purposefully awkward patterns (not even whole sections mind you, but just 3 notes) isn’t the way to go about it, especially with it being such a huge spike compared to the rest of the file
99.890 - 106.206: Not sure of the layering here, what are the jumps to?
118.098: single, not a jump
122.292 & 122.686: Unsure of what the jumps are to
126.979 - 127.078: Actually only 2 notes here instead of 3
128.574: Ghost note
This file is absolutely fantastic with an amazing song to go with it, it’s just the two ‘drop’ sections bringing it down due to the insane artificial difficulty spikes brought about by the couple forced minitrills into hands. With those ‘drop’ sections and the couple off notes in the freeform piano sections cleaned up this file’s good to go

Happy Rainbow (Reshiram): [ 7 / 10 ]
26.903: Shift the notes here around a bit to break up this (4)(3) trill created by your jump patterns
42.061: Smooth this stream pattern out as well to avoid the anchor on (4)
53.467: Majority of the notes in these triplets being (2)(3) is a bit repetitive and should also be switched to other columns
109.144: This little bit and the section just after lead to a massive anchor on (1) that needs to be shifted to other columns. The (1) starting at 110.495 being moved elsewhere would fix this.
110.495: Starting from here with including more hands is an absolutely massive difficulty spike compared to the rest of the file which is mainly 8ths with jumps. Especially since there’s also a forced anchor in this section as well with the (2) on 11.546. I can get why there’s hands there but the spike it leads to is too much to really need them and jumps fit much better.
File should be combed through again shifting columns around to clean up some of the longer forced anchors and ending should be toned down a bit to better match the flow of the rest of the file.

hARPIES15HP (Psychotik): [ 5 / 10 ]
Just a note that since this file seems to repeat it’s patterning in each new section, I’m just going to point out a couple errors if I see any for each section rather than every single one I find
3.257: What’s the difference between the jumps here? There seems to be 3 different sounds happening here: High pitched synth, mid pitch string sound, and low pitch string sound but I have no idea what sound or combination of sounds the jumps go to so it seems at the moment that they’re randomly placed. The issue stops at 11.472 once that other sound kicks in and takes importance in the layering.
16.650: should be on (1) or (2)
18.257: Why the (2)(3) trill starting here? Pitches going on here don’t match that
22.364: same as 16.650
28.079: same
34.329: Section starting here has very inconsistent jump usage. Closest thing I could catch jumps could be placed to was kick drum but then there was missing ones like at 35.222 or 36.472. Here up to 57.186 should be gone through again looking for those instances
57.186: Section starting here, the sounds present don’t really require hands as there’s barely any impact or prominence compared to sounds surrounding them.
68.614: Section starting here has inconsistent jumps again, like jumps at 68.972 but not 69.686. Also no distinction at all in the song for me to tell why there’s alternating longer sections of 16ths and just 3-note sections of 16ths.
91.472: Still has that same issue with jump usage
101.472: jumps randomly disappear before new section?
You’ve got the backbone of the file there but much more attention needs to be given to your jump usage before this can get in.

Hate You (boomerangbro 10): [ 8 / 10 ]
19.148: Shift a bit of this over to the left side too, (1) column is empty for these two measures
25.002: Not much of a gap at all between these notes for there to be this much of a cluster on the left side. Moving couple notes to right side plays nicer, like 2 4 3 1
34.758: Another cluster of notes with anchor on (2) leaving an empty column
40.490: Jump here not warranted and rest of this burst is pretty messy. Changing jump to single and removing one of the other notes in this burst would make it play much smoother
112.157: Change this little (2)(4) trill to fit the rest of the stream going to the synth.

Hyperion-Blaster (M0nkeyz): [ 5 / 10 ]
First half plays very bland due to it pretty much being just jumptrills but I can understand why it’s layered like that. Pay attention to the patterning after the longer trills though as there’s huge anchors. 11.902 and 12.079 can be shifted to other columns to avoid that long anchor on (3) for example. Majority of your jumptrills in the first half have this issue and should be gone over again.
16.314: The minijacks at this bpm should be okay and it’s not much of a spike, but the columns can be shifted here as well so you don’t have everything happening on (2) or (3)
Not sure if this is the full song or a cut, but 40.266 is extremely jarring and sounds very much like a bad cut. If that’s the case, the cut points in the song should be looked at again to have it sound smoother
55.442: 16ths are a misrhythm going off of the guitar
62.383: Single note, not a jump
70.089: Sound here repeats at 70.354 and should be stepped there as well
73.795: Pitch can be followed here rather than just a (12)3 trill
79.530: Missing note
84.472: Missing note
85.089: Pitch relevancy again
84.736: Another long anchor on (2)
87.030: Jumptrill patterning can be altered so this part isn’t just only (13)(24) trills
91.089: Pitch relevancy to the note changes in the synth, sounds happening here aren’t just trills
Next section up until 144.736 has all the same issues as above, repetitive jumptrill patterning, unnecessarily long anchors, missing notes, etc.
144.736: The 16ths sound off of the guitar they’re supposed to be going to, while also not following the pitch very well. It’s overall very cluttered due because of the misrhythm and huge amount of jumps making split jumptrills which makes it feel like you’re not playing runningmen to the guitar. It’s especially awkward when the created trills are onehand trills like 146.060 or 148.619, just leads to a very messy difficulty spike.

It’s Showtime! (FirstMaple8): [5 / 10]
Couple key issues of layering and pitch relevancy
For layering, I have no idea what the jumps are going to as there seems to be no distinction between what’s happening with both jumps at 0.147 compared to 1.323 or between what’s a jump or not like 7.911 and 8.147. This issue is consistent throughout the file.
For pitch relevancy, for a file this short there could be a lot more attention given to following pitch in your notes, like at 30.263 for example where there’s obvious pitch changes in the bass sounds. Ascending pitches could have the jump columns moving from left to right, descending pitches could have jump columns moving right to left, and repeated pitches should have jumps on the same columns. As is the jumps seem all over the place and completely random.
Also related to the layering issue are the hands at 28.381. Hands generally used for more impactful sounds in the song and the sounds have the same impression as any other note in the song with the inconsistent singles/jumps.
Overall, the rhythms are there but the layering choice and attention could pitch could use a lot more work

Out With Your Clique (Deamerai): [ 9.5 / 10 ]
21.936: Should be hand here, though the other instances where there could be a hand makes sense to be jumps due to surrounding 32nds forcing fast minijacks.
40.793: Triplet glitch sound could use some notes as it’d provide differentiation from the single 8ths just before
80.222: (suggestion) Layering I think would fit better if it was singles with jumps to when the bass sound occurs

Passengers (devonin): [ 8 / 10 ]
In terms of layering, it is what it is. With the low amount of notes though due to it being a very beginner file, a bit more attention could go towards changing pitch
3.279: Sound here is of higher pitch than 6.501 and could be on a more right-sided column
66.098 & 66.904: Could use notes here for those prominent piano notes to finish file the off, not far off from the original density seeing as these two notes would still be two beats apart, similar to what you’ve got going on at 12.944
Don’t really feel like I can give this a super high rating even with there not being much glaringly ‘wrong’ with the file due to just how low the nps is and the slight attention that could be given to pitch still , but it’s a pass from me. This is just about as long as I’d let a file like this be as well, any more than about a minute and I’m pretty sure even the players this is catered towards would think it’s starting to drag.

Power, Wisdom, Courage (FFR Pro 21): [ 6 / 10 ]
SM offset needs to -0.355, file is very noticeably offsync. These doesn’t fix the whole issue either though as the bpm in this song actually fluxuates so the whole thing would need to be gone through with strict attention to the waveform.
NOTE: The rest of the notes are now going to be going off above stated offset, since I really don’t want to go through a 6 minute file with it that off.
10.074: The notes in this trill don’t match the notes in the flute flutter in terms of rhythm
64.401: These first 3 jumps here could use a pattern change so it doesn’t muddle up with where the jump trill going to the snare starts at 64.645. This happens several more times in the first half of the file, to the same sounds where there’s jumptrill to snare.
81.541: Missing note
138.001: Missing note
159.304 & 159.787: Singles here, not jumps
162.400 & 162.884: Same as above
181.271: Every 8th in these 2 measures is a jump
187.755 & 187.949: Ghost notes
192.884: Section here could use more attention to PR, first four notes something similar to 1 3 2 3, to match the guitar. This also applies to when this guitar pattern repeats.
207.886: Ghost note
Really repetitive, but it is what it is being a long rock file. Mainly though, it suffers from a major sync issue. The first note I gave regarding the SM offset fixes it on a very general level, but there’s sections in the song that are not static bpm and would need to be gone over again. With the other notes just being a couple missing/ghost notes, something like a slight offset change would only put the score slightly lower, but this is a bit more of an issue than just a slight change so I have to go score a bit lower than that unfortunately.

Soda (rapta): [ 8.5 / 10 ]
Have already seen this file before so this is just going to be looking at changes since then:
Not too sure what the jumps are going to in the intro. There's some going to just the claps like at 4.461, clap + vocal like 13.032, or synth + vocal like 9.937. That's fine I think if you're doing jumps when there's simply more than one sound going on here, even just the claps since they stand out more, but then there should also be jumps at places like 9.699 or 11.762 when there's also synth + vocal.
4.461: The (12) you have for every clap sound like this in the intro could use some varying in columns up to 17.794
7: This note should actually be shifted up to be a 24th at 6.921
36.842 - 37.318: (suggestion) This measure right here has a neat sound going on that could use some filler if you wanted. Could get away with 24ths even if not 'technically accurate' so it keeps a consistent difficulty.
44.461: (suggestion) If you wanted to do above addition, could also happen here.
52.080: (suggestion) Same as above
59.699: (suggestion) Same as above
Nice changes since the last version

Warm Hands in Cold Fog (TheToaphster): [ 9 / 10 ]
Damn this is fantastic haha. Really nice song choice and a lot of care taken into selecting out certain sounds which makes leads to a still bursty file that isn’t super cluttered.
( * ) SM Offset should be changed to -0.073, which might slightly change some of the coloring you’ve got going on so that would have to be gone through again and adjusted
82.561: This 3-note jack might be a bit much, especially with it being on (3) right after that 4th on (4) just beforehand
( * ) Would shift patterning slightly to remove the anchor on (2) here.
The further anchors are better fit as they go along with that hi-hat rather than just pure drum fill
( * ) Missing notes in spots like 111.902,116.435, 122.451,126.984. Would be fine as is except you have the tiny burst stepped at 125.501 so there’s inconsistency. Either remove this one you’ve got and replace with the white notes like the others, or add notes to the other sections instead

[Gradiant]

Re: 2019 September/October Set 4

Rapta's file a bit mixed in with the one above it so:

Soda (rapta): [ 8.5 / 10 ]
Have already seen this file before so this is just going to be looking at changes since then:
Not too sure what the jumps are going to in the intro. There's some going to just the claps like at 4.461, clap + vocal like 13.032, or synth + vocal like 9.937. That's fine I think if you're doing jumps when there's simply more than one sound going on here, even just the claps since they stand out more, but then there should also be jumps at places like 9.699 or 11.762 when there's also synth + vocal.
4.461: The (12) you have for every clap sound like this in the intro could use some varying in columns up to 17.794
7: This note should actually be shifted up to be a 24th at 6.921
36.842 - 37.318: (suggestion) This measure right here has a neat sound going on that could use some filler if you wanted. Could get away with 24ths even if not 'technically accurate' so it keeps a consistent difficulty.
44.461: (suggestion) If you wanted to do above addition, could also happen here.
52.080: (suggestion) Same as above
59.699: (suggestion) Same as above
Nice changes since the last version

[Rapta]

Re: 2019 September/October Set 4

Rapta's file a bit mixed in with the one above it so:

Soda (rapta): [ 8.5 / 10 ]
Have already seen this file before so this is just going to be looking at changes since then:
Not too sure what the jumps are going to in the intro. There's some going to just the claps like at 4.461, clap + vocal like 13.032, or synth + vocal like 9.937. That's fine I think if you're doing jumps when there's simply more than one sound going on here, even just the claps since they stand out more, but then there should also be jumps at places like 9.699 or 11.762 when there's also synth + vocal.
4.461: The (12) you have for every clap sound like this in the intro could use some varying in columns up to 17.794
7: This note should actually be shifted up to be a 24th at 6.921
36.842 - 37.318: (suggestion) This measure right here has a neat sound going on that could use some filler if you wanted. Could get away with 24ths even if not 'technically accurate' so it keeps a consistent difficulty.
44.461: (suggestion) If you wanted to do above addition, could also happen here.
52.080: (suggestion) Same as above
59.699: (suggestion) Same as above
Nice changes since the last version

thanks

i'll work on those at some point tomorrow

[Pizza69]

Re: 2019 September/October Set 4

Updates to Boss of Nova:
- all timestamped fixes made, plus an extra missing note at 133.956 fixed
- jump layering in the section starting at 42.027 made much more consistent
- 32nds to pitch bending near the ending now consistently applied
Thanks for the notes!

[Rapta]

Re: 2019 September/October Set 4

"4.461: The (12) you have for every clap sound like this in the intro could use some varying in columns up to 17.794"
I want the first of the two sections in the song to be easier than the ending section, and I accomplish this by repetition, I would like to keep it the way it is. Also, it kind of feels like you're snapping your fingers with your left hand each time so that's cool

At 9.699 the vocal occurs right before the synth, so this one is correct, but I changed the other ones to be consistent.

Stepped the sections you suggested with 24th streams

Shifted the note up at 7

Got rid of an inconsistent minijack

Updated a few inconsistent parts in general

Added more variety to ending jumps

[boomerangbro10]

Re: 2019 September/October Set 4

Hate You (boomerangbro 10): [ 8 / 10 ]
19.148: Shift a bit of this over to the left side too, (1) column is empty for these two measures
25.002: Not much of a gap at all between these notes for there to be this much of a cluster on the left side. Moving couple notes to right side plays nicer, like 2 4 3 1
34.758: Another cluster of notes with anchor on (2) leaving an empty column
40.490: Jump here not warranted and rest of this burst is pretty messy. Changing jump to single and removing one of the other notes in this burst would make it play much smoother
112.157: Change this little (2)(4) trill to fit the rest of the stream going to the synth.

All changes made, plus moved jumps at 33.294 so the [34] didn't repeat.

[TheToaphster]

Re: 2019 September/October Set 4

Warm Hands in Cold Fog (TheToaphster): [ 9 / 10 ]
Damn this is fantastic haha. Really nice song choice and a lot of care taken into selecting out certain sounds which makes leads to a still bursty file that isn’t super cluttered.
( * ) SM Offset should be changed to -0.073, which might slightly change some of the coloring you’ve got going on so that would have to be gone through again and adjusted
82.561: This 3-note jack might be a bit much, especially with it being on (3) right after that 4th on (4) just beforehand
( * ) Would shift patterning slightly to remove the anchor on (2) here.
The further anchors are better fit as they go along with that hi-hat rather than just pure drum fill
( * ) Missing notes in spots like 111.902,116.435, 122.451,126.984. Would be fine as is except you have the tiny burst stepped at 125.501 so there’s inconsistency. Either remove this one you’ve got and replace with the white notes like the others, or add notes to the other sections instead

I fixed the 3-note jack, and I removed the burst at the end because I'm just not gonna deal with the snaps and pattern balance for the missing ones.

With respect to SM Offset, I'm not sure if that referring to the normal offset that is used (and also why changing it would affect the colored arrows). If it is just referring to the normal offset I'm also not sure why the offset would have to be changed so drastically given my current file is at 0.598 offset. Let me know what to do here if I'm missing the point lmao

( * ) Would shift patterning slightly to remove the anchor on (2) here.
The further anchors are better fit as they go along with that hi-hat rather than just pure drum fill

Is this supposed to have a time attached to it?

[Gradiant]

Re: 2019 September/October Set 4

I fixed the 3-note jack, and I removed the burst at the end because I'm just not gonna deal with the snaps and pattern balance for the missing ones.

With respect to SM Offset, I'm not sure if that referring to the normal offset that is used (and also why changing it would affect the colored arrows). If it is just referring to the normal offset I'm also not sure why the offset would have to be changed so drastically given my current file is at 0.598 offset. Let me know what to do here if I'm missing the point lmao



Is this supposed to have a time attached to it?

For the offset, I'm calling it that due to it's naming when using ddream.


The offset change to -0.073 from -0.061 makes notes much more accurate to the waveform spikes. A change like that might seem to small to care about, but for a file that's technical like this, having notes matching the waveform as good as you can is worth the shift.


For the last note, yeah damn my bad. That is referring to 97.314, though looking at it again fresh and not after going through like 4-5 other files it doesn't seem as bad as I had thought it did. I'll remove that as a major changing point for it to get accepted and leave it to your discretion if you want to adjust that, though it's still something I'd suggest to do.

[Psychotik]

Re: 2019 September/October Set 4

3.257: What’s the difference between the jumps here? There seems to be 3 different sounds happening here: High pitched synth, mid pitch string sound, and low pitch string sound but I have no idea what sound or combination of sounds the jumps go to so it seems at the moment that they’re randomly placed.

That section was definitely jump heavy and not super consistent. I've decided to only have jumps on notes where there are both a high and low pitched sound. Hopefully it feels a bit better.

16.650: should be on (1) or (2)

Agreed, fixed, along with every other instance of this.

18.257: Why the (2)(3) trill starting here? Pitches going on here don’t match that

Agreed, changed it to a more descending pattern.

34.329: Section starting here has very inconsistent jump usage. Closest thing I could catch jumps could be placed to was kick drum but then there was missing ones like at 35.222 or 36.472. Here up to 57.186 should be gone through again looking for those instances

Okay, so that section I was trying to be cute by having one column following the synth, one column on the kick drum, and the other two on the hit-hat triplet things. I agree it makes the jumps inconsistent and awkward. Fixed.

57.186: Section starting here, the sounds present don’t really require hands as there’s barely any impact or prominence compared to sounds surrounding them.

I was also borderline on the hands. Removed.

68.614: Section starting here has inconsistent jumps again, like jumps at 68.972 but not 69.686. Also no distinction at all in the song for me to tell why there’s alternating longer sections of 16ths and just 3-note sections of 16ths.

Made the jumps more consistent like the last section. The 16ths was just me completely mishearing what the pattern is. It's much clearer on half-speed so I used that as a guide for the next sections.

91.472: Still has that same issue with jump usage.

Fixed as well. The 16ths here are both following the hit-hat and the synth.

101.472: jumps randomly disappear before new section?

The kick drum stopped so I kinda stopped all the jumps to slow down with the section, but I do hear a snare every other beat, so I added jumps to that.

Hopefully this new revised chart is better. Gradiant, can I send you my revised chart and let me know if it's something worth resubmitting in the November batch?

[Gradiant]

Re: 2019 September/October Set 4

Hopefully this new revised chart is better. Gradiant, can I send you my revised chart and let me know if it's something worth resubmitting in the November batch?

Yeah, you can go ahead and dm me on discord and I'll take a look when I can

[TheToaphster]

Re: 2019 September/October Set 4

For the offset, I'm calling it that due to it's naming when using ddream.

Ok so this might be a really stupid question. If I am using AV how do I change this. Like I said the normal offset in AV is 0.598, significantly different from the number you have in ddream. So it's either this number is not what you are referring to or something is off between av/ddream.

[TC_Halogen]

Re: 2019 September/October Set 4

Ok so this might be a really stupid question. If I am using AV how do I change this. Like I said the normal offset in AV is 0.598, significantly different from the number you have in ddream. So it's either this number is not what you are referring to or something is off between av/ddream.

The discrepancy that exists is a result of one of DDreamStudio's worst quirks: the inability to support positive offsets.

[TheToaphster]

Re: 2019 September/October Set 4

The discrepancy that exists is a result of one of DDreamStudio's worst quirks: the inability to support positive offsets.

Ok so if I just change the offset in AV -0.012 from where I have it now it will have the same effect as if I were to change the offset in ddream to what gradiant has, if im understanding this correctly?

Edit: either way I have updated the chart with new offset + slightly edited pattern to remove the anchor on 2. If the offset thing needs to be changed again I will send another update in

[Reshiram]

Re: 2019 September/October Set 4

Black Lair (Reshiram): [ 9.5 / 10 ]
SM Offset should be changed to -1.669
8.564: Not hearing difference in sound here or at 10.164 to require dropping the 16ths
52.769: Ghost note considering layering in earlier section
Overall extremely solid file, nice layering, the other coloring to guitar solo-y bits or the slap bass in midsection worked, and the hands/quads the the loud glass breaking sounds were warranted.

Changed to reflect these batch notes. I was petrified the color jumps would lose frames with the changed offset but I guess they're just stable enough at this bpm that the white notes don't desync by a frame... blessed that they stayed together lmao