March/April Set 2

[psychoangel691]

Judge: VisD

Before Dawn (Skullbac)
Cycles (Ghost_Medley)
Dancing On Blades (Deamerai)
Dove (feat. Emma J.) (Ghost_Medley)
Faded [NCS] (LeKrispyKreme)
Fett's Vette v2 (Psychotik)
LeKrispyKreme's OP (LeKrispyKreme)
Ordine (Psychotik)
Petal (Deamerai)
Prisoner (Pizza69)
Second (Qrrbrbirbel)
Selfish Sweet (bmah)
TURBO (Heavy) (Qrrbrbirbel)
Twilight (Psychotik)
When The Sky Ends (Ghost_Medley)

[VisD]

Re: March/April Set 2

Mar/Apr 2020
Accepted
Before Dawn (Skullbac) [9.5/10]
Dancing On Blades (Deamerai) [8.5/10]
Fette's Vette v2 (Psychotik) [8/10]
Petal (Deamerai) [8.5/10]
Prisoner (Pizza69) [7.5/10]
Selfish Sweet (bmah) [8.5/10]
Twilight (Psychotik) [7.5/10]

Conditional
When The Sky Ends (Ghost_Medley) [7/10]
Turbo (Heavy) (Qrrbrbirbel) [7/10]

Rejected
Cycles (Ghost_Medley) [6/10]
Dove (feat. Emma J.) (Ghost_Medley) [5.5/10]
Faded (LeKrispyKreme) [3/10]
LeKrispyKreme's OP (LeKrispyKreme) [4.5/10]
Ordine (Psychotik) [6/10]
Second (Qrrbrbirbel) [6/10]

Before Dawn [9.5/10]
20.189: the 4th is actually the lower note compared to the grace
29.038: see if you can make this jump lower than the one at 26.767 as these are melodically v different
64.168: missing jump
108.394: missing jump (can just easily fill the 3 in)
115.958: ^
135.756, 136.983: missing jumps. I think you're trying to drop these slowly as the speedup happens, but my opinion is you might as well just drop them all at once on the 4th at m35 instead of this staggered method which only lasts for 2 accounted jumps and ends up playing more like an oversight
141.311: the transition out of the hardest part of the file here is kind of rough. Not only are the rolls preceding this comparatively difficult vs. the rest of the file (which is fine), but you create anchors on the 2 and 4 with the 24 leading out of them. Consider, for e.g, moving the 4 off to 3, e.g. ...234.
As a nice bonus, this means a 4 will now fall on 141.431, which is very noticeably the highest note in this part of the song.
148.019: consider a 3 here at most for pr

Beautiful chart to go with the song. PR was good and the later use of hands for extra accenting was just icing. Objective errors were very few, most of the things above bordered on nitpicks; it's worth going back and trying to improve the PR as much as possible even beyond the notes provided here because this is a 100% piano song.

An uncommon kind of file because it's not something people are likely going to want to whore for scoring or tournaments, but this felt to me like a real labor of love because of the attention to detail, especially in the syncing.

Cycles [6/10]
9.946: these 3 notes have reverse pr
In the intro, why do you step stuff like 9.946-10.212 but not 11.274,12.070 and other dropped notes? Same instrument and prominence imo
14.194-14.460, same but especially obvious here since these are the exact same 3 notes as 9.946
18.840: Consider some PR for percussion: The kick jump here should match the following 4th, and (more optionally, but still nice I think) the following 4th should optimally not have the same jump as the kick/clap at 18.177 which is brighter/punchier
18.442: if you are going to step the melody for these 3 notes, what about 18.973-19.106, 19.637 etc etc etc?
29.459: hmm, kick = jump?
m4-12 overall: take a closer look at your structure here, do you want to step the melody here or not, which percussion do you want to jump to - tightening it up to be more consistent will help clarify your file to newer players I think.
34.105: consider moving this jump off the same notes as the prior 3
I'm not personally a fan that you didn't start layering the melody in at m12, but only at m17, during the percussion break, but I can see why I think you did it (my guess is to reduce the repetitiveness, because the melody does go on for quite some time). I think a big reason for me is that in m15-m16.5, while in theory the arrows here could strictly be pertaining to the percussion (though not even, there are a couple of notes that are the melody of the synth), they end up filling basically all the notes and feel like you were trying to step the melody with some ghost notes. I'd consider unlayering some of the things in this section to make it very explicitly percussion only, or (preferred) just giving m12-m17 acknowledgement to the piano melody.

In my playthrough, I noted that the file suddenly becomes harder and more attuned to what the music is doing just when the music itself is quietening down, which was a bit weird to me.
Also, if you do decide to step the faint synth melody in m4-11, then you almost definitely should step the prominent keyboard melody in m12+ where it takes center stage.

46.848: an interesting choice of moment for bpm halving; not a bad one at all
54.813, etc: consider a jump here (and following) for this very pronounced cymbal hit, just to break the monotony a bit. After all, you do it when the file gets more layered at 67.556
77.379: what's with these jacks?

In the next section, the bursts are a bit inconsistently applied. For instance
- at 98.485 you step 48ths instead of 32nds for one of these instruments with the same burst, compared iwth 102.733 where you use 32nds - 101.140 has the same 48ths as 98.485 for two completely different instruments and melodies
If 91.184 is a minijack, 87.998 must be too

116.538: watch out, the melody is a little bit more elaborate here: there's a 16th here and als in lots of other places - it's not all triplets, and many of the places where you don't have 16ths that break up a would-be triplet actually sort of have the note too.
There's a litle bit of interpretation/wiggle room in this part, because some of these notes are definitely really faint, so I don't think this section really drags your file down or anything, but ideally go back and listen at a low rate and make sure you're
stepping everything you want to.
123.043: missing 8th

136.051 to end: you can pr these last few jumps better, they're the only notes around

Overall: This file has lots of potential and shined best during the more melodic sections. When the percussion was involved, the layering and structure was a little chaotic and inconsistent. Some rethinking about exactly what you want to represent in your chart, and how, would
take this file into a very memorable beginnerish file (well, beginnerish, if you level off some of the bursts to make the difficulty more consistent with the rest of the file - I'm not sure we really need all those 32nds/48ths when the rest of the file is slow 16th triplets at hardest, considering the song itself doesn't have a crazy range of activity level).

Dancing on Blades [8.5/10]
16.690 etc : consider moving this to not share the same jump as the next 4th
52.690, 58.024, 63.357, etc.: jump? you do it at e.g. 55.357 and I think it fits quite well in that and these other places - they help to dfiferentiate from the preceding 4th, which should indeed share a column with the 8ths here
m28, m30, m32: symptomatic of a somewhat larger trend throughout this file where recurring music has exactly the same notes. I like the design of it, although I don’t think it needs to be all that rigid (i.e. 100% matching) - switching up an arrow here and there, especially on the jacks, might go a long way towards keeping a newer player on their toes.

Nice and clean. Pointers above tend towards suggestions as the choices you've made in the file are all perfectly defensible and logical. Pretty neat

Dove ft Emma J [5.5/10]
I'm all for interpretive minijacking to vocals, and there's a lot of room to play with them, but...this level of jacking in the intro feels a bit over the top for me. I’m not able to tell why you have stuff like 111 and 2211 when you also have 21234 with no discernible difference in vocal intensity, phonetic/rhyming similarity in the music that underlies each of those patterns
11.230, 18.730: ghost notes - listen carefully, they are different from 16.855 where there is genuinely another syllable being sung (which is phonetically similarish to the preceding 8th and would be a prime spot for a minijack)
Frankly for how soft and gentle the singing is I'd prefer just doing away with all/most jacks.
22.246: this 32nd burst does not end here
24.003: good catch on the vocal not being a straight 16th
24.824: does not feel like it should be a minijack right alongside the very prominent double kick on 24.355.
26.933: if you are stepping the little shaker sound now, 24.121 is missing a note
28.105: why is this kick a jump when the one at 24.355 a single
If the 192nds in m9 are supposed to go the pff pff sound, they are very very offsync
More minijack inconsistencies in m9, the double kicks need a minijack here as you've done so in all the previous times
Structurally some questions are starting to pile up. Should kicks be jacks? Should kicks be jumps? When are vocals minijacks? Do you want to step the 8ths? How difficult do you want this file to be, and is it well-balanced with the rest of the file?

46.152: very nice catch on the vocal pitch bending here
48.261: is this sort of burst really necessary in a file that is like 90% difficulty 25-30? This and the burst at m5 are difficulty 50ish kind of bursts and feel out of place in a very slow, very gentle song that has a mostly commensurate chart
59.589: somewhat awkward to start this burst here to connect with the next one + same issue as the above note
Some of the structural inconsistencies in the previous vocal section repeat in this one too.

The rest of the file is kind of the same, and it drags on quite a while. Opportunities to exploit what differences there are, such as the extremely foregrounded and prominent guitar that starts at m30 onwards, are inconsistently layered (compare 134.745, 127.948, accounted for; 137.089, 141.777, 138.964, and m30 itself, not accounted for, despite the fact that the rhythms in all of these are really interesting and would liven up the chart). When the guitar is accounted for, there’s also misrhythms from imprecision: e.g. random 32nd at 130.409 and 131.347 that don’t really go to much). It wouldn't be so bad if you didn't acknowledge the guitar at all (although the file would suffer structurally for it), but this half-acknowledged-half-not thing played a little strange to me.

It’s a pretty song, fix these up and I think it’s a shoo-in if you choose to resubmit.

Faded [3/10]
Pointing out a couple of technical issues at a more granular level first (since they recur throughout the file, please keep in mind that this is just a sample, not exhaustive):
1.36.124, 1.36.790 and all similar: when the kick is gone, making this a jump is pretty out of place. The jump inconsistency recurs
PR is frequently off on the synth notes owing to the copy-paste, for e.g. compare [1.41.624-1.41.790] with [1.42.290-1.42.457].
The second pair of synth notes are clearly lower, yet you step [14]32 for both sets. PR is not normally a dealbreaker, but because
there is so little else going on in this song other than the synth, and it's the only thing you're stepping at this point, and because
this sort of PR error repeats almost everywhere, it becomes very very prominent.

But there is a larger general issue with the file, it's too repetitive. In general, for easier songs targeted towards newer players, repetition is fine and even welcomed to some extnet.
However, this is excessive - look at m62-m84, which is a part of what is a 4-min chart that basically repeats over 196 measures about 4 times. Now, the issue is that while you can rectify repetition at the micro-level by varying up the patterns
and incorporating better PR, at the macro-level (i.e. overall file structure), the music is just too repetitive and plain
to provide everything else. I think this is a classic example of a good song to listen to that just can't make for a good chart,
and if you really want this in the game I can almost guarantee you're going to need to cut the music and chart by at least half
(while still keeping patterns fresh and PRed properly even within those 2min, because the song will still wear thin as a base for a chart even then).

Fette's Vette [8/10]
2.780: these next few notes oscillate faster than 16ths (all the way up to deloREAN --- listen to a low rate)
7.998 this 192nd jump here either shouldn't be a jump as it doesn't have the heavy bass behind it, or moved off [34] so it doesn't line with the previous jumps
So the next part isn't dicksynced anymore, which is a fine choice when it gets to be this dense
25.867 consider moving this 16th to disconnect from the previous 3 16ths, because it's a little odd that right now it is completely disconnected from the rest of the sentence for this vocal, but is instead connected to the previous sentence, and creates a short
OHT that will be noticeably challenging to newer players
31.737 jump
32.519 not a jump, and should be connected to the next 8th on preferably the right arrow, given how high the vocal is
39.041 still shouldn’t be a jump according to the revised layering scheme

37.389 this is just a regular 16th
42.302 ghost, no vocal here, unless you are stepping the percussion, in which case you are missign some of these before and after this note
58.998 missing a note in this area for "I know"
82.345 good patterning here --- pointing this out specifically now bc it stood out to me on playthrough, but in general the file has many instances of pretty nice patterning.
93.041 to the 4th: look at this part again, at least one of the 24ths is a ghost and "imperial" is not synced correctly
95.911 would be nice if this had the same jump as the clap previous
112.606 jump?
131.650 why is this a jump? Seems like you're continuing the previous pattern of jumps to bg melody chords (not a bad choice, I like it), but then you're missing the one at the start of m60, m61, m62, m64, etc. (You can forego the one at m65 since there's a 32nd burst)
146.519 could be nice to have the repeating sample on the 8th here repeat on the same note, since you do lots of the same thing elsewhere
159.302 jump?
164.389 not sure about this minijack
Kind of an abrupt ending.

Overall a pretty good easy rap file with clear attention paid to patterning, and generous accenting of recurring stuff like the wakawaka clips with 192nds. Just minor clarifications needed here and there.

LeKrispyKreme's OP [4.5/10]
Because the file repeats quite often, I think what will be more helpful is an in-depth examination of a representative
portion of the file. For instance, here are some detailed notes for the area starting after m100.
Missing vocals at instances like 2.22.138 and 2.22.292 and 2.31.223 and 2.32.454 and etc
Missing jump at 2.22.446 and 2.31.069 and 2.33.532 and 2.34.764
Minijack usage is somewhat unclear, and this is a critical chart element for a rap song imo.
For rap, it's expected that the minijacks will be somewhat more
expressive/subjective in nature depending on how one thinks about the rapper's diction, but e.g. 2.25.218:
"ev-ry-where" as a set of 3 minijacks doesn't parse phonetically, but that's okay, if the idea was "jack on words with >1 syllable".
But then immediately after this at 2.22.373 you have the lyrics
"nine-ties-ev-ry-where" (missing a jump on the first note btw) stepped as 11123, which doesn't gel with the previous; either you want something like 11222, or at the very least I don't understand why "ev" should share a column with "ties" when there's no compelling phonetic or linguistic reason.
There is a series of 10(!) unbroken 4th notes on the 4 column starting at 2.38.767. There is no musical justification for this, and also the jump usage in this area is somewhat inconsistent

The file is also pretty repetitive even just in this section alone because it's all 4ths and 8ths with a predictable rhythm; more attention
to detail might allow you to step interesting things like the "mi" in "fa-mi-ly" between 2.21.215 and 2.21.369.

The file's meta structure also repeats large portions, and many of the notes are copy-pasted across portions, which exacerbates all the issues above, especially the one about repetition.

The file could work with a detailed cleanup paying attention to the little things going throughout the song, and varying patterns up. It's always good to have files from less common genres in the game, and this would be a good candidate for an easier rap file, with some elbow grease.

Ordine [6/10]
4.174 and recurring: these two notes recur and are consistently stepped with reverse pr in m2, m3, m4? m5 is ok
5.933 missing 16ths for piano; in addition 6.303 should have a note too, no? The higher melody has some other missing notes elsewhere too, e.g. 7.600, 9.266
11.951 not sure about this anchor
14.544 Why is this one not a minijack like the others? It’s four piano notes in a row (I don’t suggest making a jack of 4 arrows though)
m10+ the minijumpjacks in this section feel very out of place for this particular chart. Don't forget at this speed these are all potential 2-framers, it’s a difficulty spike I’m not sure is necessary considering the relative difficulty of the rest of the file.

This kind of has an “overklock” feel to it where one single element ends up dominating the chart in terms of difficulty - and it’s the same kind of difficulty, jacks, over and over again. None of this is necessarily a bad thing ofc, but it personally diminishes the replay value of the file somewhat.

16.118, 16.859, 19.266- This is tricky, because sometimes (e.g. 19.914) it feels like you’re stepping the synth in the background, sometimes you’re not. If you intended to, then these should be filled in too, otherwise many of the notes in the longer 16th runs should probably be removed, I think. Anyway, at the end of this section, you step it wholesale, so probably the best course of action is to just go back and include these (and others that haven’t been picked up).

24.914 You’re ending your layering too early here - m17 is where the proper transition should begin, the previous beat still has a minijack to offer

39.914 for pr reasons, consider moving this to not share a column with preceding 4th (not the only instance - it repeats quite frequently that you have a 4th with a jump and a single on the 8th with one column shared, even though there’s nothing alike between the two notes. This is a very minor thing, ofc, but something to consider for PR)
41.951 misrhythm on the burst here
44.266, 46.766 hmm, not accommodating this sound? its the same thing as what you have been placing short right hand trills to, just shorter
44.729 this anchor is ok...was a little unpleasant on my playthrough but I get it.
47.692 you don't have to make all these RHTs, and also this is a misrhythm anyway since these are not 16ths
51.488 I’ll stop mentioning this but still not a fan of these jacks I agreed with the piano jacks a lot more; the piano is the dominant melodic element. These new jacks you have going to the kicks feel a little over-the-top IMHO
58.062 misrhythm
58.803 missing burst
59.544 missing burst
60.470 misrhythm
66.396 reverse pr + this feels really heavy
69.174 according to your structure, this should be a jack
72.693 hello baby death piano
83.803 a little oof here - see what the left hand has to do in this sequence. Also that minijack on 1 doesn’t go to the double kick you’ve been putting minijacks to (it’s the same sound as 83.618-83.711, which you didn’t jack)
88.433 reverse pr
90.007 missing 16th to melody
97.877 it does feel slightly strange that kicks are back to = 1 full jump by themselves at this point, when the melody kicks back in in a way that forces the percussion into less prominence than the preceding sections, where kick is only a jump when a melody note attached
105.192 missing 16ths
110.840 misrhythm

Overall, the file was ok and had a structure was clear and easy to understand, but weirdly at war with itself: it was very zealous with creating minijacks and jumpjacks, which is fine, but then there were numerous bursts that were faster than charted, and so were either misidentified or curiously ignored. As a result I personally wasn’t able to really enjoy the file just yet. I think all in all this file could do with some more polish, but all the right ingredients are basically here.

Petal [8.5/10]
9.016, 35.683: its a little strange that this 3-note 16th seq is higher than the previous one, PR wise. Something like 432 32[14] could be a good alternative.
14.641: if 15.058 is a jump this could be one too. Could even just do the grace since you do similar graces later on
39.016: PR should be higher than preceding 4th
43.599: this sequence, especially with the jack at the end of it, is noticeably harder than the rest of the file, considering that you ignore some things for what I assumed
to be keeping the file simple (e.g the grace notes immediately preceding 30.474 and 31.308). At minimum I wonder if the jack should be just changed to a 3
54.081: jump? The jumps after go to less prominent sounds

Textbook great beginner’s file.

Prisoner [7.5/10]
Opening: these are not exactly 20ths, for e.g. the last couple in each set of notes before the 4th are a quicker slide than 20ths. But I can appreciate the approximation, these play well enough, so no penalty or anything here. Just wanted to give a heads-up in case you did want something more precise.
13.630: jump? pretty prominent crash. happens later on too, like in m23, even though some crashes like that are stepped as jumps
76.990: you could start the 2x2 minijacks as early as here tbh, they're definitely there
81.790: nice break away.
118.270: missing note
128.750: not sure what this 24th is for
145.270: why arent these double jacks like at 129.790?
155.710: lmao
184.510: the percussion should really be stepped at this point given the emphasis you have on it throughout this chart. you can still incorporate the vocals. Also,
the set of jumps starting 197.470 is a pretty bland representation to end this segment; there's so much fun percussion there that's missed, or you could layer hands,
or just switch things up so it's not literally [14]^6

So...this is an interesting file for me. The internal structure of this file is consistent and well adhered to, outside of the one section beginning 184.510, which really should have the percussion included imo.

I just personally disagree with it. I feel like so much of this song revolves around the vocals, and sticking to just the percussion and guitar is kind of a boring way to showcase this song. Like half the flavor from this song comes from its vocals, and you only ever acknowledge it in the one quiet part in the middle, as well as weirdly enough the segment at 184.510 which makes that whole segment actually less interesting than its counterparts because so much is going understepped. *When I listen to the "guitar solo" you stepped as trills starting m77...this isn't really guitar's time to shine, I think, the voice is taking centerstage here. Even if you want to keep the trills, which is fine, that voice is literally screaming out for some kind of acknowledgement in the form of heavier layering (hands even)

Because this file is well-stepped and well-reasoned within its own internal structure, and is interesting, I'm all for putting it in-game. But I believe it could do more in terms of overall chart interest and as a representation of the underlying music, although it will require a somewhat involved relook.
At the very least, though, do take a look at that section at 184.510 again.


Second [6/10]
0.134: is this really necessary lol, starting on the 4th would be just fine
1.856 this is inaudible. at least the one at 3.189 can sort of be heard
13.412 missing
19.578 these 4 8ths leading up to m16 are...I know what they are going to, I can barely hear them, I don't know if you necessarily need to step them. Also you then layer the 4ths here as jumps because of this very quiet melody, which feels like overkill
20.912 etc. etc. consider moving 8ths like these to line up with one of the preceding 4ths as they both fedature the exact same kick
23.273 i dont hear the grace note here, but also ithought you were just not stepping these anymore because of the one at 21.912 being more obvious and skipped. You might as well just drop them since you completley ignore them later on anyways
24.245 24.578 definitely shouldnt be jumps given your layering scheme prior to this and also if they were to be, 24.078 is missing the jump
next section has kinda cped patterns that could be better PRed for the jumps that go to the melody e.g. 43.245-43.745
48.828 there is absolutely 3/16 reverb pattern here
52.662 etc etc missing note

Starting at 60.745, this section (and the one later on that's just like it) is the dealbreaker for me. This file might have been CQ or accept level, except that these two sections have/are:
1) lacking as representations of the music. jumpjacks when the melody is blaring loud, grace notes aplenty, the percussion comes in and out, things are happening all over the place --- and the representation for that cannot be sets of like, 8 jumpjacks
2) lots of missed percussion notes
3) 180bpm jump jacks are a difficulty spike that...the usage of minijacks in the prior sections I was already slightly iffy about, looking at how much of a difficulty spike they were compared to the stuff around them; they felt like big spikes in a song and chart that really did not mix with them around. But now you're throwing in 16th jumpjacks for two consecutive kicks, something which you did single minijacks to earlier, and the kicks are the least prominent element of all the
elements that you have stepped prior to this point (and they are all playing loudly here)
4) the usage of hands for really prominent melody with percussion playing along them is interesting, but then the same stuff happens in the just-as-intense sections right before and after it, and in those places you completely drop it, so idk. I get that you're trying to reserve
them in those sections for capital-C Chords (not just single-note melody) like at 93.412, but the difference is jarring

idk- that section really killed the file for me.
The remainder of the file basically repeats the earlier sections anyway, so not much new to add afterwards.

Could be a really good file, and the song is very pretty, but please fix up the key climax sections to make it more musically relevant and interesting chart-wise. Consider trying to level off the difficulty curve as well (optional but recommended)..

Selfish Sweet [8.5/10]
OFFSET 0.0169 works better, rest of review uses this offset. (+0.009)
8.576 Intentionally omitted 48th within this burst? but given the difficulty of the chart later on, may want to just include it
15.641 another possible note between this 64th and the 4th after
16.169 prefer moving this off [12] for [14] instead: the sound that went to 2 previously in this bit is not as prominent here, and this percussion hit is noticeably a very different element from the 4th after. They both share a 1 column, which is enough to represent the melody
19.613 missing
20.613 PR here could be better; suggest something like 34341[vocal only, no melody, visual break]32, or similar.
25.502 jump?
33.507 hand feels a bit too much here
39.196 why is this a jump?
42.752 you haven't done minijacks like this before. It doesn't feel bad, actually, but out of place in the current setup?
Oh, I see, it's a new section thing. In that case, feels like it would make a bit more sense to start it with the start of the new musical section at m21 (i.e. make 39.196 a single, and a minijack too)
m30 is kind of mean, but it all checks out lol
m33 this section was a lot of fun to play on my playthroughs.
67.946 [134] - same as previous - exact same note and mora (Japanese syllable)
86.974 move this and the following 64th jump to not share with 86.835 - the percussion hit you're layering the 2nd arrow to here does not feature on the 4th
93.041 same as 8.576
111.280, 111.502: for extra fun, consider filling the record scratch that happens right after these
111.502: [14] pr?

Fun file, utilizing substantial structural changes that make sense to catch lots of the nuances of this surprisingly deep (in terms of stepping potential) song. Pretty unique for its difficulty range too.

TURBO (Heavy) [**7/10]
5.888 consider move this off a minijack situation, no reason for that
6.122 lmfao okay --- this is silly as hell, but in a good way, i like it
7.763 I'm not really a fan of this section, not because it's wrong, but because it feels like a difficulty spike that ends up one of the hardest parts of this file, even though the melody is in the background and is pretty faint, and the music is overall much less intense here than everywhere later on
21.854 this grace note (and the one after) are misrhythms as 64ths. they're more like 16ths, slow down the song and listen again
23.231 ...this one, though, is fine. Most of the ones after are fine, too. Just make sure to recheck this section for correct grace note placement
31.200, 33.075, 34.950 etc etc: These minijacks don't really fit the music; I can see what you were going for, but listening at 100% rate, the synth does not repeat in these places like it does immediately prior to them (eg 32.723) whre the minijacks are warranted
32.026, 35.770 missing (For vocal)
45.731 I'm guessing you made all these patterns descending to avoid a repetitive feel with the same section later on, but the overall thrust of the song is dominantly upwards and intensifying at this point --- it felt a bit weird to me,
but nothing major. I'd personally do something like 132/143/243/and similar "mixed" patterns for the first half, but you do you
60.023 consider moving this to [234] to avoid the visual jack on 1, no repeating element
In the next section, it's a very good innovation to use minijacks so that this doesn't feel like a straight up repeat of the previous part, although it feels like you're only stepping half the minijacks (e.g. I don't know why
68.348 is not a minijack when 68.817 is, not hearing a difference)
I think the previous section could use some consistency in that aspect.
73.622 reverse pr
74.442 ghost
80.302 no minijack here
85.341 minijack here is attached to the wrong thing?
86.395 no minijack here , and this one shouldn't even be a minijack with the 4th imo
87.216 ^
92.020 nah...no need for a minijack here - what is the repeated element for accenting?
95.770 ^
99.720 ^ gonna stop pointing these out but these just kinda feel like very exaggerated difficulty for the sake of it
104.794 can at least have a jump here
105.263-108.075 not sure what all the 16ths in this bit go to
115.575+ watch the grace notes in this section again
122.372+ double synth sound effect has ended, all these jumps going to the melody should end now
next section has the same issues with the minijacks as its counterpart in the 30s bit
139.481+ as weird as this pattern is i actually quite like it; although 32nds instead of 48ths fit a lot better, filling out the full length of the sound effect each time instead of ending early. Also, has the same problem of being descending patterns in an intensifying and rising sectione
Rest of the file is more or less just repeats of earlier

Overall, this is actually a decent file and I liked it, although it did feel a little long on my playthrough, because so many of the sections kinda repeat, but you made clear effort to liven and change things up as appropriate, which was cool to see.
I did think the minijack usage was kind of exaggerated for some sections and forced the file to be more difficult than it really wanted to be.

CONDITIONAL:
1) the first thing is a simpler thing, just have to fix some things up according to the notes above and we're good to go; the main thing is that the minijack usage should be a little more consistent, imo.
--------------------------------------------------------
The point below has been resolved - this file is significantly harder than the other TURBO, so it's ok:
2) this one is trickier...a TURBO just got accepted in the OT batch. There isn't an Aggressor situation here, since that was submitted on 2/2, so I'm wondering if this file is actually different enough (especially after fixes) to justify a v2 or [Another]. Given the fact that you've gone ahead and labeled this file with [Heavy], I'm guessing youy've already seen that OT file and it's significantly easier? In any case, this file will need to be checked for enough difference (stylistic or difficulty-wise) to justify a second version going in-game so quickly after the first one will be.

Twilight [7.5/10]
8.428: 3 4 here should be 1 3 (compare the 16th at 8.097 to the 8th at 8.648)
12.619 pr again - please relook at this section again with a lower rate to catch these, with this few arrows and light layering, no reason not to get really good pr
16.810 i'm having a litle troubule understanding what all these notes are going to. if it's to the high melody playing a trill, then this patterning is disconnected as a melodic representation; something like 42424242 if you want to avoid an extended OHT would be better.
But if so, you probably should also step 18.033, 18.244, 19.126?
And if it isn't to that trilling melody, then 17.362, 17.582 are ghosts and the PR here still needs a 2nd take
18.575 missing
30.707 move off 1 for pr
31.148 missing
31.810 missing
35.340 pr on the last part here was good, nice
35.891 Completely optional on this. But listen closely to this area and similar: there's an extra 16th that is playing from the new synth that has just come in. You've just had
4 measures from m16-m19 that is layered exactly the same as this part; I think you can incorporate the new melody. The new 16th at that point is technically a jack but is quite faint,
and at this speed and for this difficulty I wouldn't jack it either, but an extra 16th in all these places might be interesting to play with. Up to you, but I strongly encourage it (this would mean that
this section would be more or less 16th stream outside of breaks such as 41.957-42.398).
47.693 not catching the cymbal flourishes for the jumps correctly here. the 16th at 47.803 has no flourish and shouldn't be a jump. This would allow you to mvoe the following 8th
off [34], as the flourish there is actually very faint and idt should be exactly the same as the 4th at 47.693. In fact, consider removing the jump there altogther. There
There is, however, a flourish at 48.023, and it's a little dicey to step this as a jump, but you can do it if you want. Or just a single is fine.

There is then no jump needed at 48.134, no cymbal here.

55.413, 55.965, 56.296 kind of a similar issue as ^ here. listen to this part carefully again: 55.634 has a bass kick, but you haven't been stepping these as jumps when the music was more intense
previously, and it's a little fierce to step these as jumps now here (even though the kicks are relatively more pronounced here, it's because there is less going on in the music at this point).

You can step the flourishes here as jumps if you want 55.413 is the only one that has room for debate based upon your decision ^ if you want to step only flourish -> jump.

67.104 pr on the ~10 notes here - the 4ths are ascending for the next 5 notes starting on this timestamp
71.075 -> 3 for pr
71.296, 71.737 if only kick -> jump now, then 72.068 should be a jump?

77.803 - consider moving these 2 notes from 2 3 to 1 2 so that you avoid extending the trill that goes to the kicks from before the crash
105.156 - ghost
Lol at the jack at the end, probably gonna be a bit obnoxious to newer players, but it's funny and cute

Overall this file has actually a somewhat nostalgic, old-timey kinda ffr feel to it. I think newer players will really enjoy this, the whole thing makes lots of sense overall, just gotta recheck some of the PR and make sure you're catching everyone you want to.

When The Sky Ends [**7/10]
** Why are there like 8.5 seconds of silence lol. I know there's a fade-in on the first note here but it's 8.5s of sitting there doing nothing and barely being able to hear anything, please cut. Even the stuff after that feels super draggy...you can really just fade in
around the 30 second mark and the file will still be more or less the same.
81.121, 89.848 not a jump
81.667: strongly feel that the lyrics here should be stepped. They're slow, infrequent and provide some variety to what is getting to be repetitive by now. I observe you tried to give them some acknowledgement by jumping
non-chords at places like 89.848, 98.576, but...see my comments at the end.
98.576 WDYT about moving this off the 3 column so it doesn't create a musically unwarranted jack?
104.030: this should share at least one column with the preceding 8th for PR (as you do @ 67.848)
^: later repeated instances of these do the same, so I'm guessing you just want to avoid jump "jacks", which is fine
110.576 same as 98.576 but this time on the 2 column...[13] works really well here?
111.757 your scheme to acknowledge vocals by jumping only the note that they start with shows one of its problems here, when the vocal doesn't start on the 8th
124.757 this should def be a jump
147.666 same as 110.576
154.212 again with the kinda unnecessary silence, highly recommend make the last note at 149.848 for a punchier, more impactful ending when the note actually ends

Overall: This is a decent beginner's level file. The main question I have with it is this: if you stripped the vocals from this song and made it purely instrumental, you could still step almost the same exact file and it would be right. And I think that's an issue when the vocals give this song much of its character and identity, and musically distinguishes the first half of the song from the second. Without layering or acknowledging the vocals somehow, the file gets pretty repetitive over 2 minutes, even for a newer player I’d expect.

You don't have to accommodate the vocals; this is kind of a stepper's decision thing and you clearly decided to go the Power route which I can respect. But the added difficulty from accommodating the voice here is really like...going to bring this file from difficulty 3 to 5...whoa. (it's like the occasional added 16th at 27.5 bpm lol)

As an added bonus you can remove those jumps on the 8ths which kind of fell out of the layering scheme a lil

This is a great song, nice to give the very newest players something new to play.

CONDITIONAL: Please cut at minimum 8.5 seconds of basically silence at the beginning, and ideally even up to 20s-30s...new players may be entertained chart=wise by 1 note/2 seconds, sure, but probably not song-wise by what is essentially 1 long reversed note that goes on for like 45s

[Psychotik]

Re: March/April Set 2

2) this one is trickier...a TURBO just got accepted in the OT batch. There isn't an Aggressor situation here, since that was submitted on 2/2, so I'm wondering if this file is actually different enough (especially after fixes) to justify a v2 or [Another]. Given the fact that you've gone ahead and labeled this file with [Heavy], I'm guessing you've already seen that OT file and it's significantly easier? In any case, this file will need to be checked for enough difference (stylistic or difficulty-wise) to justify a second version going in-game so quickly after the first one will be.

We discussed this on discord together. It's different enough to warrant another chart (big difficulty increase). Assuming he fixes the issues, it's up to the game manager whether this gets released as a regular [Heavy] version or maybe a v2 skill token.

[VisD]

Re: March/April Set 2

Cool, I'll remove that CQ pointer then.

[bmah]

Re: March/April Set 2

Thanks for reviewing my file! Fixes have been sent.

Some responses:

OFFSET 0.0169 works better, rest of review uses this offset. (+0.009)

So more recently, goldstinger and I were investigating the differences in syncing between the ArrowVortex editor and SM 3.9 editor. I was learning how to use AV, and so I decided to see how syncing to the waveforms compare to me syncing by my trusty ears on 0.3x-0.5x music speed and assist tick on SM 3.9. Multiple times I've found out that syncing on AV to the waveform does NOT coordinate to SM 3.9 for some strange reason. I would assume syncing should be the same, but it doesn't feel that way to me. I placed your suggested offset in SM 3.9 and it now feels noticeably late, so according to that editor, I'd have to strongly disagree on that suggested sync. Meanwhile, AV lines up with that. I have no idea what offset to believe, but it's likely why judges have consistently suggested nudges to my offset for years. Wish both editing programs could agree more often with the sync as it should be.

8.576 Intentionally omitted 48th within this burst? but given the difficulty of the chart later on, may want to just include it
15.641 another possible note between this 64th and the 4th after

I just forgot it, thanks for pointing it out.

16.169 prefer moving this off [12] for [14] instead: the sound that went to 2 previously in this bit is not as prominent here, and this percussion hit is noticeably a very different element from the 4th after. They both share a 1 column, which is enough to represent the melody

This is super specific but I can agree on it - thanks.

19.613 missing

Not all 64th swings in this song are accounted for, namely the quiet hi-hats. I believe most of the 64ths go to drums/kicks.

20.613 PR here could be better; suggest something like 34341[vocal only, no melody, visual break]32, or similar.

Changed this to a different pattern.

25.502 jump?

Yep, thank you.

33.507 hand feels a bit too much here

Not at all; this goes to the backup singing ("oooooh") which does a great job at adding some further nuance to the song.

39.196 why is this a jump?

Drum kick + piano ornament. Actually there should be another arrow in between these two jumps to fully acknowledge the piano, but that's too tight, so this section will be changed to a quick 48th burst.

42.752 you haven't done minijacks like this before. It doesn't feel bad, actually, but out of place in the current setup?
Oh, I see, it's a new section thing. In that case, feels like it would make a bit more sense to start it with the start of the new musical section at m21 (i.e. make 39.196 a single, and a minijack too)

It's not a new section thing. It's just a "Whatever I feel like" thing lol. Just mixing up some patterns here, don't mind me. I'm not going to be a stickler on this.

m30 is kind of mean, but it all checks out lol
m33 this section was a lot of fun to play on my playthroughs.

Just fyi, it's better to rely on actual time, as measures aren't always the same from one editing program to another. For me, I believe the m30 you're talking about is in m31 on my end, and so on. Glad you like this section.

67.946 [134] - same as previous - exact same note and mora (Japanese syllable)

idk, it sounds more like the vocals are descending here.

86.974 move this and the following 64th jump to not share with 86.835 - the percussion hit you're layering the 2nd arrow to here does not feature on the 4th

I'm stepping these based on the emphasized kicks here (much like 51.27s).

93.041 same as 8.576

Don't think this is the same case. However! You did end up bringing to attention some horns near this area that I missed.

111.280, 111.502: for extra fun, consider filling the record scratch that happens right after these

Oh good point.

111.502: [14] pr?

It's just a cymbal crash.

[VisD]

Re: March/April Set 2

Cool, I get where you're coming from with those. Interesting note about syncing vs AV vs. SM 3.9. Will keep in mind the tidbit about using exact timestamps.

Don't think this is the same case. However! You did end up bringing to attention some horns near this area that I missed.

Ugh - I messed up on the timestamp for this. Meant 93.641, my bad.

[Pizza69]

Re: March/April Set 2

Sent fixes for Prisoner.

I agreed with and changed most of your notes--in particular, I added layering for the percussion beginning at 184.510, and accounted for vocals in the trills at 155.710. However,
76.990: Left out these minijacks. The sounds are there, but at that point they're still very much in the background, and I find that the transition plays much smoother leaving them excluded.
128.750: This 24th goes to the guitar, just as in 51.911.

Thanks for the notes!

[Psychotik]

Re: March/April Set 2

[Fette's Vette [8/10]

I fixed mostly everything you mentioned with some notes of my own.

42.302 ghost, no vocal here, unless you are stepping the percussion, in which case you are missign some of these before and after this note

It does go to the percussion. It's unclear to me what other notes are missing, even on a slower rate I'm not hearing anything obvious.

131.650 why is this a jump?

Oops, my bad.

Kind of an abrupt ending

Yeah I found the ending really boring and didn't want to step it so I just stopped it there lol.

[Twilight [7.5/10]

Fixed most things as well, and I have more notes.

16.810 i'm having a litle troubule understanding what all these notes are going to. if it's to the high melody playing a trill

It is, I fixed that section up and added the following missing notes as well.

35.891 Completely optional on this. But listen closely to this area and similar: there's an extra 16th that is playing from the new synth that has just come in

I tried out your suggestion and I didn't like the outcome, felt like it was just too overlayered for what the chart was supposed to be; something simple.

105.156 - ghost

Not a ghost but in fact I had missing notes going to the synths around it. Added those.

Lol at the jack at the end, probably gonna be a bit obnoxious to newer players, but it's funny and cute

hehehe

Uploaded fixes for both charts. Will take a look at Ordine another day when I have the time.

[Skullbac]

Re: March/April Set 2

Corrected the few mistakes you found on Before Dawn, except for the jumps at 108 and 115, where I only hear a single note.

[qrrbrbirbel]

Re: March/April Set 2

TURBO (Heavy) [**7/10]
5.888 consider move this off a minijack situation, no reason for that
6.122 lmfao okay --- this is silly as hell, but in a good way, i like it
7.763 I'm not really a fan of this section, not because it's wrong, but because it feels like a difficulty spike that ends up one of the hardest parts of this file, even though the melody is in the background and is pretty faint, and the music is overall much less intense here than everywhere later on
21.854 this grace note (and the one after) are misrhythms as 64ths. they're more like 16ths, slow down the song and listen again
23.231 ...this one, though, is fine. Most of the ones after are fine, too. Just make sure to recheck this section for correct grace note placement
31.200, 33.075, 34.950 etc etc: These minijacks don't really fit the music; I can see what you were going for, but listening at 100% rate, the synth does not repeat in these places like it does immediately prior to them (eg 32.723) whre the minijacks are warranted
32.026, 35.770 missing (For vocal)
45.731 I'm guessing you made all these patterns descending to avoid a repetitive feel with the same section later on, but the overall thrust of the song is dominantly upwards and intensifying at this point --- it felt a bit weird to me,
but nothing major. I'd personally do something like 132/143/243/and similar "mixed" patterns for the first half, but you do you
60.023 consider moving this to [234] to avoid the visual jack on 1, no repeating element
In the next section, it's a very good innovation to use minijacks so that this doesn't feel like a straight up repeat of the previous part, although it feels like you're only stepping half the minijacks (e.g. I don't know why
68.348 is not a minijack when 68.817 is, not hearing a difference)
I think the previous section could use some consistency in that aspect.
73.622 reverse pr
74.442 ghost
80.302 no minijack here
85.341 minijack here is attached to the wrong thing?
86.395 no minijack here , and this one shouldn't even be a minijack with the 4th imo
87.216 ^
92.020 nah...no need for a minijack here - what is the repeated element for accenting?
95.770 ^
99.720 ^ gonna stop pointing these out but these just kinda feel like very exaggerated difficulty for the sake of it
104.794 can at least have a jump here
105.263-108.075 not sure what all the 16ths in this bit go to
115.575+ watch the grace notes in this section again
122.372+ double synth sound effect has ended, all these jumps going to the melody should end now
next section has the same issues with the minijacks as its counterpart in the 30s bit
139.481+ as weird as this pattern is i actually quite like it; although 32nds instead of 48ths fit a lot better, filling out the full length of the sound effect each time instead of ending early. Also, has the same problem of being descending patterns in an intensifying and rising sectione
Rest of the file is more or less just repeats of earlier

Overall, this is actually a decent file and I liked it, although it did feel a little long on my playthrough, because so many of the sections kinda repeat, but you made clear effort to liven and change things up as appropriate, which was cool to see.
I did think the minijack usage was kind of exaggerated for some sections and forced the file to be more difficult than it really wanted to be.

Noteworthy changes:
solidified the mini jack use by only using them during 'hiccup' parts and changed anchor to show beat skip

pr has been gone over to give all ascending patterns where its due to accent the rising nature of the song (including the 48ths that are now 32nds and the ending scratch)

grace notes that were like 16ths i just removed altogether to favor repeating pr and bring more focus to the already correct 64ths

first big jumpstream got reduced to single repeating streams

second big jumpstream got a pr touch up

the 2 difficulty poly spikes you were talking about have been nerfed as well


File has been updated as well

[TC_Halogen]

Re: March/April Set 2

These were very solid notes for your first full set, VisD. Kudos.

[Psychotik]

Re: March/April Set 2

Ordine
5.933 missing 16ths for piano; in addition 6.303 should have a note too, no? The higher melody has some other missing notes elsewhere too, e.g. 7.600, 9.266
I agree with 7.600 but I really don't hear the other ones you mentioned.
14.544 Why is this one not a minijack like the others?
Because I'm a big dumb dumb
m10+ the minijumpjacks in this section feel very out of place for this particular chart.
Agreed. Looking back, I was too overzealous about creating a technically difficult chart while the song doesn't always call for it. I combed through the entire chart and redid many sections that had minijacks and toned them down substantially.
24.914 You’re ending your layering too early here - m17 is where the proper transition should begin, the previous beat still has a minijack to offer
Not entirely sure what you mean by this.
51.488 I’ll stop mentioning this but still not a fan of these jacks
As mentioned before, these are toned down.
69.174 according to your structure, this should be a jack
Not anymore after the restructure.
72.693 hello baby death piano
People are going to hate me for this hehehe
97.877 it does feel slightly strange that kicks are back to = 1 full jump by themselves at this point,
Yep, I changed things around so the layering should be better.

Updated everything else you mentioned. Thanks for pointing out the misrhythms, hard to believe I overlooked them. Will resubmit to next open batch. If you wanna give a look see, I'd be happy to send it over discord.

[qrrbrbirbel]

Re: March/April Set 2

Do you have any timeframe for when you're gonna check out the CQ changes?

Just wondering <3

[VisD]

Re: March/April Set 2

(assuming you're referring to me) CQ fixes usually go to Kayla instead of the original judge, though she might reassign from there. So I may not end up looking at it. Or I may! I don't know.

[qrrbrbirbel]

Re: March/April Set 2

Oof that's good to know. I'll try to address the notes more tailored to a new set of eyes than talking to whomever reviewed it initially.

One of mine is just
"fixed, addressed, removed, found, added" lol