Holiday Special Batch Set 1

[psychoangel691]

Judge - gold stinger

I've been trying to get someone on these since they're all Halloween related but unfortunately, no one has been able to pick them up as of now. If I don't have anyone tomorrow I will look over them myself. Anything that ends up conditional would likely end up being for next year if okay by the simfile artist, or be put into regular queue due to the lack of time for making fixes. I apologize for this particular set being so rushed.

zZz - Ghost_Medley
Howlin Pumpkin - gold stinger
Lycanthrope - M0nkeyz
The Great Pumpkin Tapes - Psychotik
Wicked Laboratory - AutotelicBrown
Whos the Spook - ositzxz369
Cloak Steppin - ositzxz369
Once Upon a Time in Transylvania - bmah

[rayword45]

Re: Holiday Special Batch Set 1

zZz YESSSSSSSSS

should totally include the background video to the song I'm sure Chuck would be cool with it

[Ghost_Medley]

Re: Holiday Special Batch Set 1

zZz YESSSSSSSSS

should totally include the background video to the song I'm sure Chuck would be cool with it

Yeah, I took that song to chart because I know other people would head straight for the classic ZXZ as well as the Nightmare Version.

The bg definitely nails the effect of being chaotic, though how long has it been since a video was added to a ffr song?

[rayword45]

Re: Holiday Special Batch Set 1

just for the record, Nightmare Version is the original (and also pretty bad for keyboard stepping tbh)

still need to fix my !(Z)X(Z)! chart

[psychoangel691]

Re: Holiday Special Batch Set 1

gold stinger hopped on these for me (THANK YOU!) ZzZ he said is going to need more notes so it's not complete yet but I want to get up what I can since Halloween is tomorrow.

Cloak Steppin (ositzxz369) [8.5*/10]
> Sync is good (No changes necessary).
> No issues found within simfile properties. No issues found within simfile folder contents.
-[00:35.624] Could maybe use a jump here, what you have here works for the pattern though.
-[01:01.758] That is extremely spicy on the right hand.
(Please Fix)-[01:24.036 -> 01:25.522] vocal syllable stresses do not match up with the 192nd colorized notes here, especially in the later half, with the final white note being a whole 16th off, making it very awkward to both hit, and listen to.

*PERSONAL NOTES*
Love the breakcore rap genre. Reminds me of another certain rap song that got in recently, but a lot less ‘rude’. Colorization abound, only real issue is some vocal 192nds being set to 8th & 16ths in one section when vocals slow down during it, putting them off-sync. The file only really needs a fix there. Everything else is fine.

Lycanthrope (M0nkeyz) [7/10]
> Sync is good (No changes necessary).
> No issues found within simfile properties. May need to change property ‘artist’ (DanJohansen) to include a space. No issues found within simfile folder contents.
-[00:26.650] Ghost 4th. Same section as 00:23.007 -> 00:23.650, but not present.
-[01:27.721, 01:34.578] These 8ths here are the same as the immediately following 4ths in the song. Would suggest filling them in.
-[01:27.935] Missing 4th jump. Should be a [23].
-[01:30.292] The 8th later on with the same pattern is filled in at 01:37.150. Suggest either filling in this 8th as well, or removing the 8th at 01:37.150 for consistency.
-[01:44.221] Maybe something to reflect pitch relevance here going in the opposite direction?

*PERSONAL NOTES*
Another out of Dan Johansen’s album that flows really fine within 16th sections, and makes for some nice technical. A few issues across the board with missing/ghost notes, and consistency. Very solid.

Once Upon a Time in Transylvania (bmah) [8.5/10]
> Sync is good (No changes necessary).
> No issues found in simfile properties. ‘.dwi’ file found in simfile folder contents. Suggest removing.
-[00:33.517 -> 00:37.910] Those are uh, those are some trills.
-[01:34.798] Missing hard 12th, or 32nd if needed to streamline alongside other notes in this section. Same caliber as the other 12th in this section.
-[02:18.706] Missing 32nd, unsure why it wasn’t filled in. Pretty major yet fun pattern at this speed. There’s a few other 32nds here that have been omitted for what I would identify is the reason for doing so, but the 32nd at 02:18.484 is a powerful pattern starter.

*PERSONAL NOTES*
Ridiculously fun song to play. Guitar solo is ravenously fast. Nothing compromising in the charting, but the trills at the intro are definitely going to be leaving some people screaming for holy water. Looking forward to seeing this one.

The Great Pumpkin Tapes (Psychotik) [6.5/10]
> Sync is good (No changes necessary).
> No issues found in simfile properties. No issues found in simfile folder contents.
-[00:13.522, 00:24.890, 00:41.943] Should be a 12th, instead of 16th. Reflects a lot of what the pattern is in the 2nd half of the song.
-[00:20.627 -> 00:20.943] Remove the 12th & 24th here, replace with 16th.
-[00:42.206] Early 12th. Should be a 24th here, at 00:42.311.
-[00:46.416] Missing 12th?
-[01:25.258] Missing 24th?
-[01:32.311] Possible missing 4th. Could let it slide based on quietness here.
-[01:43.258] Missing 12th.

*PERSONAL NOTES*
Beautiful to-listen-to piece. There’s also a few 16th positions within the file that could be filled in as well that were left out, 00:51.101 and 01:22.048 for example. Could be interesting to experiment with, but not all go with the pattern flow in this piece. Quite a few missing notes here, but nothing unmanageable.

Who's the Spook (ositzxz369) [9/10]
> Sync is good (No changes necessary).
> No issues found in simfile properties. No issues found within simfile folder contents.
-[01:04.281 -> 01:05.281] Might not be all that necessary for the singles in this section. The song is at 210bpm, so these are undoubtedly going to be hit as hands, and personally would make more sense as only jumps.

*PERSONAL NOTES*
Sounds quite similar to the other submission in this batch (Cloak Steppin). This one is definitely a lot more clean. Really hard to nitpick this. On opinion side, if both files do get in, the releases should be split for these.

Wicked Laboratory (AutotelicBrown) [9.5/10]
> Sync is good (No changes necessary).
> No issues found in simfile properties (Pretty generic mp3 name though). No issues found within simfile folder contents.
-[00:46.194 -> 00:47.319] Sounds like there’s supposed to be 16th streams for this bit as well, but stays rather quiet until after this part.
-[00:51.319] Missing 12th, not that bad as it’s a starting 12th.
-[01:46.194] I love it.

*PERSONAL NOTES*
If there was such a thing as a ‘traditional Halloween song’, then this would be it. Guaranteed to give you your daily dose of ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ vibes. Also a plentiful mixture of 16ths and 12ths to keep people on their toes, with that ‘indescribable Halloween chaos’ jitter to it. This is a Halloween song.

[Psychotik]

Re: Holiday Special Batch Set 1

-[00:13.522, 00:24.890, 00:41.943] Should be a 12th, instead of 16th. Reflects a lot of what the pattern is in the 2nd half of the song.

I changed everything except this. I still think the 16th should be there since it follows the prominent guitar, I am not hearing the 12th for that at all, but I understand the need for the 12th for the background rhythm so I added those in while keeping the 16th, hope it works out for you.

I also went back and fixed some jumps and hands to make it more consistent. Uploaded the update.

[psychoangel691]

Re: Holiday Special Batch Set 1

I changed everything except this. I still think the 16th should be there since it follows the prominent guitar, I am not hearing the 12th for that at all, but I understand the need for the 12th for the background rhythm so I added those in while keeping the 16th, hope it works out for you.

I also went back and fixed some jumps and hands to make it more consistent. Uploaded the update.

Thanks! Will check it over.

[M0nkeyz]

Re: Holiday Special Batch Set 1

Uploaded my fixes as well.

[bmah]

Re: Holiday Special Batch Set 1

Uploaded some fixes and added some more myself. Total arrows should now be 2314.

[psychoangel691]

Re: Holiday Special Batch Set 1

Uploaded my fixes as well.

I changed everything except this. I still think the 16th should be there since it follows the prominent guitar, I am not hearing the 12th for that at all, but I understand the need for the 12th for the background rhythm so I added those in while keeping the 16th, hope it works out for you.

I also went back and fixed some jumps and hands to make it more consistent. Uploaded the update.

Looked these over and they seem to meet the fixes suggested. Moving to accepted.

Uploaded some fixes and added some more myself. Total arrows should now be 2314.

Got it, thanks!

[psychoangel691]

Re: Holiday Special Batch Set 1

Halogen looked at this file

Howlin' Pumpkin {brz1128} (gold stinger)
Rating: 5.5/10 [+?]
- offset is fine
- 5.658: listen to the melody again - proper PR would be something like 1-12-23 (you do something like this later in the song)
- 9.301/etc: this note being connected to the jump makes it look like there might be some melodic relevance for the decision here, but there's not. This is opposed to 16.587/20.015, where the connections make much more sense.
- 15.515 to 29.229: with respect to the three 4th note jumps that appear intermittently throughout this section, the first jumps are incorrect as the melody plays four 8th notes starting on the up-beat of beat 2 (-xxxx...-xxxx). The exception to this is the last sequence of each phrase where there are blips of 24th note swing (21.515, 28.372)
- 30.015/(etc): either these need to be removed for not being a more direct follower of primary musical elements, or you need to add the missing ones that exist if you're trying to use far in the background sounds to maintain a pace (in this case, add at 31.729, 35.158, 38.587, etc)
- 42.087: see 2:18.087 for an acceptable implementation of a pattern that avoids the pitch relevant mini-jacks that is similar to this one; mirror if you have to or whatnot - the best motion here is likely a variant of this galloping pattern that you've used later on
- 46.158/etc: move to L (pitch relevance correction)
- 53.229: this is cute, I like it
- 57.944: why do you accommodate for melody + kicks at 1:02.658, but not here?
- 1:13.587: similar to 46.158
- 1:24.087: the next 8 measures are a direct copy/paste from an earlier section, and the next section of 8 is while not quite copy-paste, still has many similar patterns with minimal changes
- 1:51.515: this section is almost mostly copy-paste
- 2:05.229: also quite copy-pasty, though not quite as much
- all errors found in earlier sections apply to their copy/pasted sections
- can't consciously accept this personally, it seems a bit on the lazier side with regards to presentation and has some noticeable things that can be fixed

[gold stinger]

Re: Holiday Special Batch Set 1

Fixed like 80% of the issues with my file, should be able to get the other 20% (aka copy-pasted sections) fixed by the next Halloween.

[gold stinger]

Re: Holiday Special Batch Set 1

To give a short update on the current situation with this set, I'm still working on zZz, but a few things irl has taken up a lot of my free time. I have explained the situation as to why personally to the simfile author, and should be able to push out notes for zZz this upcoming Friday/Saturday.

[gold stinger]

Re: Holiday Special Batch Set 1

Pushing notes for zZz to close out the set.

zZz (Ghost_Medley) [6.5/10]
> Sync is good (No changes necessary).
> No issues found in simfile properties. No issues found within simfile folder contents.
*-[00:14.086 -> 00:15.886] The approach to stepping the 2 different sections here are radically different, albeit sounding very much similar to one another. Plus, not really hearing the purpose of the 32nd trill. Would be a lot better if it mimic’d the first portion of this section that I didn’t include as the timestamp, with just singles. If instead you wanted to ramp the difficulty, then the jumptrills are fine, and need to be reflected in the easier section.
*-[00:44.986 -> 00:46.186] Feels unstepped, except for the 3 jumps. We’ve got 200bpm 16th dense JS in this file. Don’t hold back. 32nds going into dense JS starting at 00:45.736 would be acceptable for the difficulty.
*-[00:59.686 -> 01:00.886] Missing quite a few transitional notes here, namely 32nds between the jump pairings. Doesn’t feel right to hold back until the new measure here since it’s a repeating major tone.
-[02:16.336 & 02:16.411] Not necessary, but imo. [34][12] jumps here would be better.

*PERSONAL NOTES*
I love the bursty nature of this file, and with such a primary focus on trills rather than density, makes for a unique catch-22 of a file in terms of difficulty. Biggest thing holding it back, is what feels to me, is a lack of density in certain sections to make room for major melody emphasis. While I appreciate the variation, it cuts out a lot of the frill in transitions. The Starred notes are the big ones pointed out that need fixing for acceptance, but Stepauthor should make a general double-check on section transitions.

[Ghost_Medley]

Re: Holiday Special Batch Set 1

*-[00:14.086 -> 00:15.886] The approach to stepping the 2 different sections here are radically different, albeit sounding very much similar to one another. Plus, not really hearing the purpose of the 32nd trill. Would be a lot better if it mimic’d the first portion of this section that I didn’t include as the timestamp, with just singles. If instead you wanted to ramp the difficulty, then the jumptrills are fine, and need to be reflected in the easier section.

Improved the layering to be more consistent while still keeping the buildup, plus replacing that 32nd roll for a jumptrill.

*-[00:44.986 -> 00:46.186] Feels unstepped, except for the 3 jumps. We’ve got 200bpm 16th dense JS in this file. Don’t hold back. 32nds going into dense JS starting at 00:45.736 would be acceptable for the difficulty.

Added a tiny bit to fix this issue, I wasn't sure to layer some of the percussion in or not.

*-[00:59.686 -> 01:00.886] Missing quite a few transitional notes here, namely 32nds between the jump pairings. Doesn’t feel right to hold back until the new measure here since it’s a repeating major tone.

This one I felt weird about because I didn't layer in the hi-hat, I was focusing more on the backbeat of the drums. I did add some notes in though, focusing on more prominent sounds.

-[02:16.336 & 02:16.411] Not necessary, but imo. [34][12] jumps here would be better.

Decided to do that, the intensity shouldn't be much higher with those changed to jumps.

I made some other changes just to clean the file up a bit, plus properly syncing the intermission at 50.386 to do the old ZX3 files justice.