Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

Preface: I've been working on this project for quite some time now, spending many hours researching, thinking, writing, and revising. This was initially supposed to be a library database for KBO, but it will be a while before it is released there, so I modified it a bit for general usage to the public.

Hopefully, this guide will help people better understand rhythm simulation as a genre, but the core focus is notecharting. Optimally, the bulk of this will be a notecharting guide that will help explain all of the modern techniques and help artists understand and learn them faster.

This is an ongoing work in progress. Any sort of input, suggestions, contributions, etc. are greatly appreciated.

http://www.cosmovibe.com/ncguide/

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

Looks great :) good job, Bufang

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

All heil the king.

Really good stuff here, read about 30% and already learned new stuff. Sticky, anyone? (at least when it's finished)

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

I only majorly disagree with one thing I read

Limiting your pattern choices by avoiding jacks severely limits your work, especially for 4-key, where you don't have a lot of room to begin with. By incorporating jacks into your patterns, you not only have more options, but these jacks will add a lot of expression into your work.

There's a lot that can be done while avoiding misc jacks and such.

Still a great guide either way.

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

Huge respect for adding a section on chart connotation -- it's something that more stepartists need to learn.

I personally would revise this to 8 measure phrases, as a theme changing every four measures in a 4/4 song might sound a bit strange. I know you mention case-by-case, but it's still worth mentioning.

This is correct, but it needs to be refined a bit. For one, jacks use should be limited in proportion to the BPM of the song -- you don't want to incorporate properly represented jacks for a bass drum in a 250 BPM speedcore song when a synth riff decides to come in (obviously, this is an extenuating and quite stupid circumstance). In addition to this, simfile artists might be trying to avoid a level of rigidity. While obviously a joke, you made a chart for Amber Shores (if I remember correctly) that illustrates a great counter-example to this theory, despite being rather unrealistic. Also, a simfile artist might be working on a file that is intended to be mid-level in difficulty, with intentions to represent the song with a high number of notes with a high amount of pattern fluency (therefore, an easier file, despite the increased density).

I'm not noting that the jack theory is incorrect, but it should be used stringently.

Thank you for adding the bolded area.

Fantastic section.

Also a fantastic section with great examples.

This has something I would like to address:

You mention:
and:
When you mention wherever particular instrument tracks stop, could we possibly incorporate staccatos? Staccatos are excellent ways to utilize mines because a player literally has to do a motion that is cut off/intended to be fast. While they don't provide the best visual stimuli, one can argue that a staccato using mines is the most appropriate way to do it; a mini-hold would imply that the note should be sustained for an extremely short period, which well... isn't possible. If you're hitting a staccato, you have no intentions on sustaining the note at all.

That's all I have. This is a really good guide, Bufang.

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

Updated the sentence about not using jacks limiting pattern choices. Hopefully this is an improvement.

As for the phrase length, here's an analogy:
"TC_Halogen's definition of a phrase was slightly off, so I clarified what I meant."
Each clause is a phrase, which is usually 4 measures. The whole sentence is usually the 8 measures you're talking about.

Musical example: here you can see that the melody doesn't really reach "completion" until the authentic cadence at the end, a total of 12 measures. However, this isn't a single phrase, it's more like a sentence. This excerpt is actually 3 four-measure phrases.

And one last note:
This is an ongoing project that will keep updating as more techniques and tricks are discovered, and there's always room for improvement through revising or expanding existing articles. So it'll never be "finished". It's sorta like the Wikipedia of notecharting.

Updated the added comment about staccato notes with mine usage.

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

Fair enough. Thanks for the clarification, haha.

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

Added an article.

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

have you heard of jack theory

reading through this now, this is awesome.

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

Very much like this rephrase better because it feels 100% more accurate.

I've done a good deal of reading. Just because I'm not "well versed" or making frequent use of it doesn't mean that much given it's a theory (Which aside from sync most everything else chart-wise is just a theory.) I usually just try to emulate the music in an ideal I came up with by listening to it several dozen times.

I'm very much going to read the rest of this completely. It's got a lot of things answered I've been curious about from a very strong point of view.

A few other things I might add:

Maybe add a section discussing the types of rhythm games?

Sections could include:

KBO
SM (4K and 6K)
FFR
Osu! (Taiko and Standard would make great mentions)

Tips and tricks could have some subsections:

AntiSplitting Techniques if there aren't any
Cheating patterns such as rolls
Key Setups?

For charting a section on appealing to a specific difficulty would be outright amazing.

But what's here so far, outright sexy. Thanks for the guide.

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

Eventually going to add this section, yes. Still a lot of work to do though. This section is much harder because I actually have to do a lot of research and get my facts straight and be neutral about discussing them in addition to figuring what exactly to talk about them. The guide doesn't need a history lesson; sites like Wikipedia have already got that covered.

I suppose this could be split into more sections, but I haven't found enough topics to warrant that. I'm not sure if anything there is worth mentioning. The key setup thing is relevant, but that's more related to keyboard tech than rhythm gaming, so I don't think it's appropriate for this. I'll look into more topics here and see what I can come up with.

This seems strangely specific for a guide that's supposed to be general. I suppose I could add it in if I can find an appropriate place to stick it, but for now that will left out, as there should be plenty of basic information to indirectly address this issue at the moment.

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

bufang

hows college

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

he dropped out of college to become a professional writer of guides on stepping, a fleeting musician and a pro LoL player

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

great guide, tons of stuff for newbies to read and learn about.

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

we do not talk about this

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

Something maybe worth mentioning regarding pitch-relevancy: there are multiple ways of conveying an ascending or descending melody line. This can be achieved through symmetry.

The basic example is 1234 or 4321, but what if the melody line ascends/descends for more than four notes? Use symmetrical patterns that give a generally ascending/descending impression. Some examples:

5 notes: 13243, 42312, 21324, 34231
6 notes: 121324, 213243, 131424, 123234, 234123, etc.
7 notes: 1213243, 2132434, etc.
8 notes: 12132434, 43423121, 21314243, 34241312

This would most likely fit within your Advanced Pitch Relevance/Counterpoint section.

Dunno if you mentioned this but certain patterns may provide different "textures" to the file. e.g. smooth, streamlined stuff may be 1234321, while a "bumpy" texture may be 1324132. I call them textures because the patterns affect the way your fingers move from one arrow to the next.

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

aihgt man we cool

good guide son, glad to see youre still on that stepmania grind, u should like teach stepmania or some hsit

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

Seems really specific. I think this is implicitly covered in multiple places.

While this is implicitly implied through connotation and advanced PR, I suppose it could be worth mentioning. Only issue is that it's not enough to warrant a whole entry but it doesn't belong anywhere as of yet. If I can find somewhere to stick it eventually I'll add it.

*teach notecharting

and yes i should

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

how cool would that be

formulating a syllabus of historically important stepfiles

maybe have a few screenings

Re: Rhythm Simulation Guide - 4k/6k Notecharting
 

Creating a course out of it wouldn't be very difficult. In fact, most of the guide I just made can easily be adapted and translated into a course with some work.