[DossarLX ODI]

bmah finished the primary judge task for March/April 2015 Set 1. The notes can be seen below; this thread is being moved over to Completed Sets and the results/notes will be updated in the March/April 2015 thread.

[7/10] Agartha {Xi} (DarkZtar)
- 6.91-9.04s: intro piano glissandos are 48ths and begin on a 16th note. As such, I'd recommend a jump instead of a hand at 9.04s.
- optional: I recommend layering the syncopated drums on the 8ths to get a better feel of the song's general rhythm; e.g. 9.86s,10.52s,11.18s. It just feels like something is missing when the only percussion layered in are the occasional snares on 4ths.
- 27.30-28.12s: found the color theory here to be slightly excessive and minor
- 28.88s: burst, not jumps
- 30.03s: piano plays 24ths, not 32nds
- 33.63-40.85s: the synths upon which the trills follow don't seem to be as consistent as you might think, at least in regards to when they fade in and out. For instance, no 16th on 33.72s, but the following two trills do start on 16ths as you've stepped. No 16th on 36.34s as well as 40.27s. Interestingly enough, you did pay attention to this the second time around (e.g. you correctly omitted a 16th at 44.21s).
- 50.77s,51.75s,52.57s: missing 16th (first two to synths, the third to piano)
- 54.29s,55.60s,61.01s,61.34s,etc.: jump to kick. It seems that you omitted this for the most part, which threw me off slightly since the previous section had the percussions layered.
- 60.03s: also jump to kick, but a 16th jump follows, so that may be optional. But soon after, you choose to omit the 16th jump to the melody at 61.75s and opted for the 8th beat kick instead. So be consistent and either choose one thing to layer or layer both.
- 63.06s: missing 16th jump to melody (would make a small jumptrill).
- 64.13-64.29s: still 24ths here
- 68.31s: missing 16th to piano
- 72.98-73.42s: the melody goes to 12ths, not 16ths. So reconsider the overall pattern to accomodate for the polyrhythm
- 78.55s: jump to accented kick
- 82.57s,103.55s: ghost 16th?
- 86.20s,93.74s,etc.: missing 12ths to these mini bursts
- 91.07s,110.74s,112.05s: left out a 24th
- 97.73-97.90s,118.72-118.88s: sounds like the 24ths continue here
- 101.45s: another small 48th mini burst missing
- Summary: Plays quite well and is enjoyable enough, but seems to have a fair bit of technical holes upon inspection. I would recommend fixing stuff like missing sounds and incorrect rhythms, and then I'll leave more subjective matters such as layering to you.

[8*/10] Creamy Sky {BTB} (DarkZtar)
- 13.46s,13.70s,13.93s,14.25s,etc.: considering the difficulty of this file, I don't think it'd hurt to step the synths a bit more accurately to this first jumpstream section here. Optional of course, and will depend on the difficulty you desire, but I hear the melody pretty clearly. Generalization of the melody fits better with the subsequent jumpstreams (like at 45.51s).
- 40.46-42.91s: oh yuck! I understand you want to acknowledge the drumroll, but at this BPM, these patterns are hard to pull off. Either change the individual arrows going to the melody so that the resulting jumps aren't split upon two hands (i.e.[13] and [24]), or redo this section without long trills. Some other pattern can likely accomplish this while still acknowledging the drum roll.
- 43.46s,86.41s: no reason not to start the 16th drum roll here. Missing 16th as well on 45.43s and 32nd on 88.38s.
- 65.72-67.62s: where are the steps to the melody??
- Summary: For the most part a fine jumpstream file. Fix up the drumrolls, the missing melody at 65.72s, and especially the patterning on the drum roll at 40.46s - I give this file a conditional rating as a result. Everything else plays quite smoothly.

[4/10] Maybe {Aqua Nintendo} (kacper_w)
- the sync is way too early. Change from +0.030sec --> -0.025sec.
- 13.52s: for a better sense of progression, I'd start stepping the synth around here, instead of at 22.71s.
- 22.90s,23.18s,etc.: missing many 16ths to the synth. The stepping of the emphasized parts of the melody is something I would consider with pad stepping or a file of an easier difficulty, but not so much with kb stepping.
- 27.02s: props to the good PR
- there is a lot of layering missing throughout the song, and while this may be argued as a stylistic choice or a choice in regards to controlling the difficulty, this works against you in terms of keeping things interesting. This is a trance song, and like many of the genre, is repetitive.
- for example, you could step the bass drum starting at 27.02s. An ongoing 16th synth can continue the 16ths at 43.15s. A drum roll makes things interesting such as short bursts of 32nds at 49.43-51.03s.
- 52.53s: this kind of stepping reminds me of the older FFR files where a somewhat ambiguous 16th synth emanates in the background and is stepped, while the main melody goes entirely unacknowledged. Frequently this would be for the sake of a 16th stream index file, but the patterns aren't entirely index-friendly in this case. I would advise against stepping just plain 16ths, as I don't think it gives much thought to the song itself. In some cases, such as at 73.53-76.53s, even the ambiguous 16th synths disappear. To put it succinctly, don't go on autopilot by stepping just 16ths. Acknowledge the music.
- 63.03-64.53s: why the constant 8th jumps here? What do they follow? Make sure that your steps have meaning to the song and are not merely filler arrows.
- 64.53s: it's nice to see some layering finally occurring
- 73.48s: missing 32nd to the drum roll could make this more interesting.
- 88.53s: jump to cymbal crash
- Summary: If this file was reviewed in the mid 2000s, it may have passed. These days however, there is more emphasis on focusing the steps towards the music, so you typically cannot step a string of 16ths on a trance song and call it a day. This file is also not truly index, so I would not be able to accept an argument on that. I recommend thinking about the instruments that comprise this song, and layer strategically to provide more variety to the steps.

[7.5/10] Time Bomb {Feint & Boyinaband feat. Veela} (DarkZtar)
- 24.79-25.30s: questionable PR as well as repetition on the up arrow
- 33.01s: maybe vary up the patterns a bit...you've been doing this up-down pattern for a while already
- 35.93s,88.04s,90.61s: missing 8th to lyrics
- 51.70-52.04s,62.67-63.01s: questionable PR
- 84.10s: missing arrow to kick
- 90.27-91.30s: lyrics become somewhat muddled due to interpreting the 16ths with only 8ths. If you can afford a couple 16ths (and I think that would be acceptable), that would make things easier to follow, but if you strictly want to stick with 8ths, that's fine too.
- 98.16s: random 4th?
- Summary: Consistent easy file, but still feels somewhat uninspired. A couple areas missing arrows to lyrics. Not much else of note.

[7/10] WonderWing {Sakuzyo} (DarkZtar)
- is the file not 149 BPM as opposed to 148.98?
- 5.74s: if I understand you're layering correctly, shouldn't this be a 16th jump (melody and drum)?
- 9.96-10.37s,etc.: I recommend reversing one set of the 16th jumps. The first set starts with the piano, then the kick, and the second set starts with the kick, then the piano. Actually, the piano on the first set is a single note and not even a chord.
- 11.88-12.28s,etc.: I don't get why there are two jumps here, while the drums at 12.18s and and 12.28s (or similar areas) are omitted. Consistency please.
- 14.70s,29.19s,etc.: more areas of inconsistency, missing jumps to drums and layering
- 15.20s: is it just me or are the drums doing something funny here with more than just 16ths?
- 32.92s: why 16th jump here? Again, I'm not quite sure if you're being somewhat selective of the melody, the drums/percussions, or both. It seems wishy-washy at times.
- 34.53s,47.42s: ghost 16th
- 39.57s: missing 16th
- 49.53-49.94s: here is just another example of what I'm trying to highlight. You have 16th going to hi-hat percussions, and I assume they also double up for the 16th melody (I'm guessing you're trying to avoid a jack if you layer the melody?). You continue to not acknowledge the melody from 50.14-50.94s, with jumps only going on emphasized percussion. But then the main melody briefly comes into the forefront at around 51.75-52.15s, with the percussion taking over again shortly after. What I'm saying is that your layering is such that the melody and percussion layering weaves back and forth, with jumps emphasizing the percussion usually more than the melody. This leaves a nebulous result with the acknowledgement of the melody only surfacing here and there.
- 61.21s: hi-hats start here, not later
- 65.14s: don't understand this 16th
- 65.24s,68.36s,etc.: hi-hats continue; they don't pause
- 72.09s: jump to piano + violin
- 84.57s,84.87s: missing arrows to violin
- 125.55s: missing 16th to bass melody
- 182.94-183.75s: missing 16ths to bass melody
- Summary: Very playable file with good PR when the melody is acknowledged. However, I can't help but feel that some areas seem rather ambiguous as a result of layering choices of the percussion and the melody - I tried to elaborate as best as I could above. Overall, put more emphasis on the melody when the layering threatens to dissolve the clarity of the stepping. I hope that makes sense!