Some more stuff on PR from someone who uses it only loosely. Expounding a bit on Patashu's notes.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by patashu
one way is to make the jumps perfectly PR to the upper melody while the lower melody remains as PR as it can around it. the other is to make the lower melody PR first then add notes for the upper melody, only changing things around if it makes the PR of both better
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When intermediate steppers go into a stream melody with the intent of creating a jumpstream often the first temptation is to lay down the melody as pitch relevantly as they can, and then layer the jumps somewhat arbitrarily around it in such a way that they fit without creating jacks. One frequent problem this causes:
-large 8th jacks; I was once told by a jumpstream sensei that 8th jacks of more than 4 notes in length in the middle of a jumpstream are disproportionately difficult to the rest of the stream. I'd go one step further and say anything more than 3 notes in length tends to be a bit abrasive and detracts badly from the file's aesthetic value (long arbitrary columns of 8th notes are ugly and awkward to hit). And believe me these form often and are more or less unavoidable when shoe-horning jumps into a big stream; however, if the lead melody is forming the jumps and you choose to follow THAT pitch relevantly--rather than the lower melody--8th jacks that are caused as a result of following the pitch of that melody will feel more natural and accurate every time.
So basically, you will usually want to follow the pitch of the leading melody as those take the jumps and thus are accented while playing (generally attaining the most attention from the player). As Patashu said, there will be cases in which the pitch of a lower voice is just so darn interesting that you can't help but adhere completely to PR when stepping that. My advice to you in those times is to step that as a single note stream and leave out the jumps all together because they will only divert the player's attention from what you want them to notice/feel.
The progression of pitch in 2-note jumps is generally [12] [13]
[23] [14]* [24] [34]; for me the most appealing method is to use
full jumps to represent the pitch of whatever you are following,
even if what you are following only takes up one musical note of the jump according to your layering. That means, for example, that if your pitch interval in the lead is ascending (if it sounds like it should go 2-3, for instance), your jumps should be ascending according to the progression I listed above (ie. [12][34] fits better than [23][12] in this situation).
*I suppose technically the order of these two jumps is up for debate, but since right typically dominates left and [14] contains the highest possible note it feels higher for me than [23]
There's another 2 sections I want to get into with PR but don't have time at the moment. Also, Patashu, perhaps add links to the OP to these 'lessons' or somethin before they get lost in stepmania oblivion