Stepmania Drum Pack

[customstuff]

dore, you are our new judge!! No more judges now, 5 max. We do need graphics. Halogen, that's a good idea, include that if you want.

[dood gone krazee]

We should get Kommisar to add super amazing graphics.

Lol Dreamer's Overture has like no repetative-ness. Its like Dream Theater's beats. >.<

EDIT: Good, dore is a judge.

[customstuff]

My reviews are on the 3rd post.

[dood gone krazee]

I know I'm not a judge but I'm going to review anyways.

EnR's files seemed like a tiny bit of a keyboard file, here's the reason. On a drum kit your cymbals, hi hat, snare drum, bass drum etc are all in a set position. It seemed like you would take your charts and have, say, a 4/4 hi hat snare bass beat. Boom kah boom kah, simple? In this case of stepping the hi hat would be the inner left arrow, snare would be the outer left arrow and bass is the center. It would seem though that you would do that, but then later move it up one, making snare drum inner left, etc. If you were making it change to the ride, ride cymbal will always be far right in the regular kit, so ride cymbal should stay on the outer right arrow. Both files had this problem. If you were to fix up I think they would be better IMO. good job nonetheless.

dore seemed to have a better idea on the fixed kit thing. {I Don't Need You Anymore} was quite hard but it went with the beat. (Man that hi hat is crazy) Unexpected Relapses was pretty hard but quite fun. Double bass errg. Feel Good Hit of the Summer was, as you said, bland. But it was accurate. Good job.

customstuff... What were you thinking when you stepped Chillin with Villian? Its like a keyboard file, I know you were aiming for it to be hard but this is over the top. No drum beat is like this.

Sorry, I was just bored and felt like reviewing. 8)

[customstuff]

Sent another, dood, how'd you get the files?

[EnR]

I don't recall moving the snare beat to a diff note other then the far left ?_?

[EnR]

Every judge: Don't play Mirrors Truth and Instrum. Section. they don't have the kick pedal yet xD

[dood gone krazee]

Oh... that may have been the problem EnR. I played it on PIU. xD

I got the files by getting into the e-mail. Wait. Isn't the e-mail for judges only? o.O

[TC_Halogen]

Hmm, I started thinking about the overdrive sections that I said last night, and I'm starting to wonder how that would look with Dore's noteskins. And 3.9 version has the noteskins fixed for the defaults so that it doesn't look like two arrows when you have a freeze. Not sure how that will work, so I'm not going to do it...yet.

[dore]

Yeah, just don't worry about it for now, since it's just Stepmania we'll probably have to skip it.

also I suck at making Pump noteskins apparently; damn you SM

[EnR]

I'll see if Tera or Mac G can make us a good noteskin.

[EnR]

Did some more reviews.

Also, sending 4 files.

[TC_Halogen]

I think my file might have too many beats on one note--cause I'm making a drum chart for "The Light that Blinds". Since the song called for straight 16th kicks, I made it so that it plays as if it were toms--but it still IS straight 16th notes...can the drums handle that when playing on SM?

[thechild]

customstuff, I only have a single soft pedal, with duct tape, how can I judge files with double pedal or even just fast pedal.

[dore]

Originally Posted by TC_Halogen

I think my file might have too many beats on one note--cause I'm making a drum chart for "The Light that Blinds". Since the song called for straight 16th kicks, I made it so that it plays as if it were toms--but it still IS straight 16th notes...can the drums handle that when playing on SM?

Take out the left foot. Basically, make it 8th notes on the kick.

I think I'll write a guide on chart making soon, maybe today. Who knows how bored I'll get.

[TC_Halogen]

Originally Posted by dore

Take out the left foot. Basically, make it 8th notes on the kick.

I think I'll write a guide on chart making soon, maybe today. Who knows how bored I'll get.

Well, what I did was--the toms note (bottom left) is doubling as the kick in the chart while the kick is only doing quarter notes--so it'll be your hands doing the speedy part. All I want to know, is if the drum set can handle 16th notes over SM. It's at 182 BPM, but it'll be done on one of the pads rather than the kick.

[dore]

It can handle it but if you get off at all you start great/good-streaming, and it's hard to get back on track. But seriously, I know the song, step it as 8th notes with the bass pedal.

[dore]

also here's my guide tell me what you think

EDIT: I realize I need to add something about flams/ghosting/stuff like that, but I don't feel like it at the moment.

dore's Lovely Guide to Chart-Making

Alright, so you want to make drum charts. The easiest way to learn to make these charts is to study Harmonix's Rock Band drum charts. They invented this system of drumming and I think they have a solid grasp on how to chart for it

I'm assuming that if you're interested in charting drums that you know basic drum terminology and you will be able to follow this guide in actual drumming terms. I am also assuming that you know how to make a normal stepchart. But here are the basics for how to accurately chart a song for the Rock Band drums.

You're going to use Pump it Up to create the charts. Hit "select game" on the main menu and switch from "dance" to pump." Config your keys however you want and then go to edit/sync as usual.

Downleft - red
Upleft - yellow
Center - orange (pedal)
Upright - blue
Downright - green

These are all in order just like the Rock Band kit, except the center is the bass pedal.

BASIC CHARTING

Your typical kit will be arranged like this:
Red - snare drum
Yellow - hi-hat
Blue - ride cymbal, open hi-hat (for emphasis)
Green - crash cymbal

Most beats use some variant of the above kit. The drummer will ride either a hi-hat or a cymbal with his right hand and play the snare with his left.

When a drummer uses open and closed hi-hat, you can consider charting open hi-hat to blue and closed hi-hat to yellow. This should only be used when it is very obvious that the drummer is changing up; you can ignore subtle changes to the hi-hat pedal because it doesn't change enough to warrant using a different pad.

FILLS WITH TOMS
Red - snare (or really high tom if 4+ toms are used)
Yellow - higher tom
Blue - lower tom
Green - floor tom

When toms are used, you can use many combinations of pads to chart accurately. You can be very flexible, just work to stay consistent with the rest of the song and fit with the main beats while retaining pitch relevancy.

BEATS WHERE YOU RIDE THE GREEN PAD
These beats are more complex to chart. This is when the drummer is riding a crash cymbal or a floor tom. Roles change a bit, in that the ride note is green and the emphasizing cymbal notes will be blue. So it will be:
Red - snare
Yellow - tom, hi-hat, or a third cymbal
Blue - crash cymbal (emphasis)
Green - crash cymbal/floor tom (ride)

This style also applies when toms and hi-hats are used in the same beat. The hi-hat can move over to green and toms will be used on yellow and blue (see ...And Justice For All for a good example).
Red - snare
Yellow - tom
Blue - tom/crash cymbal
Green - hi-hat

BEATS WHERE BOTH HANDS ARE USED FOR A HI-HAT
Sometimes, hi-hat rolls are played with two hands rather than one. In this case, the snare drum is usually played with the right hand rather than the left. To make this pattern playable on a Rock Band drum kit, switch the yellow and red pad (but only if the pattern is used for an extended period of time, don't just change it for a couple beats and then switch back. Make sure the pattern is at least a measure long.):
Red - hi-hat
Yellow - snare
Blue - open hi-hat or (rarely) a tom
Green - crash cymbal
(see Run to the Hills for an example)

SNARE CHARTING
A difficult thing in converting reeldrums to RB drums is snare techniques. There's a lot of things you can do with a snare drum that you simply can't chart for when your snare drum is just a pad. So here are some guidelines for snare drum charting.
-FLAMS (this also goes for toms too) - A flam is when the drummer uses both hands to hit the drum at nearly but not quite the same time. Flams are usually charted in Rock Band as two pads at the same time. So if the drummer plays a snare flam, you should probably chart it as red/yellow. Tom flams should probably be yellow/blue.
-ACCENTS - If a passage is being played with just the snare drum and there are accents all through the passage, you should probably chart the accents as red/yellow, as long as that does not detract from the flow of the section. It is perfectly acceptable to just not chart accents at all, but it can be more fun with them charted.
-RIMSHOTS - chart them as reds
-GHOSTING - If the ghosting is REALLY prevalent and obvious at full speed, then chart it. But you should probably not chart every hit, just the initial attack. It is perfectly acceptable to ignore ghosting anyway, since you can't even come close to accurately charting it with the RB drums.


All of these are just guidelines; the beauty of the Rock Band drum kit is that it's flexible and you can use pretty much any combinations of drums and have it make sense. These are some accepted standards but many variations can be made.

BASS PEDAL
For the bass pedal, just chart what's there, unless the drummer is using double bass. Here are the guidelines for stepping double bass:

-8th notes are OK
-Two quick hits are OK
-Three or more quick hits are NOT OK

So how do you take out notes to make them acceptable on a single pedal?

-For long runs, take out every other note to simulate only playing the right foot.
-If there are three quick hits in a row, take out one. If you are using your hands during these quick hits, take out the bass pedal hit that goes with the most emphasized pad hit. That way, the player gets the feel of all three hits while only having to hit two. You should generally try to avoid stepping straight 8th notes unless that is the only option.
-If there is a really quick burst right before a note, you should probably condense it down to one or two hits, whichever feels better.
-If there is a stupidly fast long burst, try to step the emphasized beats as best as you can and don't worry about strictly taking out every other note. Or just don't step that song because it'd probably be dumb anyways.

When it comes to double bass, just be smart and only do what makes sense and is doable on one pad. Don't be dumb.

And that's about it for charting. Just remember that drum charting is about accuracy and not interpretation; work within the music to make your chart and let the music dictate difficulty, not you. The best chart is the one that makes the player think about drumming, and not chart-reading.

also SYNC YOUR SONGS. This isn't arrowsmash where you have to be within a millisecond on every note, but everything should at least be close.

[EnR]

gonna use that in my next file

[dore]

made another file lol

I'll send it in after I test it some more.

EDIT: I'll use this post as my review post.

dore's reviews
Chillin' With the Villian - customstuff - lol no, if you're going to do electronic stuff it has to be REALLY accurate. Which this is not even close, sorry.
-Razor-Blade- - customstuff - measure 62, extra bass drum on beat 4; measure 41/42, where there's the break it should be an 8th note not a 12th note; fast triplet things at 18ish should have breaks on the ride cymbal; fix please then you're good, also step live drums
Feel Good Hit of the Summer - dore - my file
The Epidemic of Unexpected Relapses - dore - that dore dude is awesome
{I Don't Need You Anymore} - dore - my file
I Would Walk 500 Miles - EnR - You actually stepped this song? lol also take out the hold
Still Afraid of Darkness - EnR - ow
Confined - EnR - Accepted, just add those minor changes pl0x
Champagne Bath - EnR - I'm going to put it out there right now that I hate that bass pedal beat. But it's right, so take out that hold you nub holds are for rolls not sustains
We The People - dore - my file
Yellowknife - customstuff - Accepted provided this is the only song like that in the pack. generic techno beats are generic
Acid Rain - dood gone krazee -last beat of 43 there's an extra ride cymbal, and then the next beat needs one more but I fixed it if you just want me to send it in
500 - customstuff
Down With the Sickness - customstuff - the last note before 91 should be blue+green as well, same with the last notes of 92; measure 141 and that whole section, you're still missing a few notes, some of the gaps should have notes in them; almost there