2015 January/February Set 4 (Complete)

[psychoangel691]

The results for Set 4 can be found in the 2015 January/February Results Thread.

Azure - Coyote Kisses
Garakuta Doll Play - t+pazolite
Might Like You Better - Vaski
Someone Anyone - Anberlin
{The Traveller} - Cornandbeans

[HeZe]

8/10 - PASS

Technically great song, with not much to correct. Flowed very well and was pleasant to play and get a solid 2 - 0 - 0 - 0 score. One thing:
- M39-M46 and other places too. I didn't like this play with BPM. It seemed like out of place.

Diff 57-60

8.5/10

Nothing to complain. Flowed well, was pleasant to play. Didn't notice anything particular to nit pick about. The song kind of makes you waiting for something brutal to come but it doesn't come.

Diff 67-68

7/10 - CONDITIONAL PASS
I might like you better if you turned this jack at M33 into a trill or something. I wouldn't let this pass without that fix.The song is otherwise ok, just not any wow factors.

Diff 51 without fix, with fix probably like 32-40

{The Traveller}'s sync is bad. E: Gold Stinger is right, once I subtracted 6 from my global offset, it seemed to be just right!

[gold stinger]

{The Traveller}'s sync is -6 + offset to me. Felt like it's probably an unofficial engine error since I've seen other unofficial engines have this -6, +6 offset bug before.

[psychoangel691]

It's something with the file cause we tried adjusting it. but yeah for now just use an offset.

[rushyrulz]

Azure

Why lead off with a quad? The music doesn't really suggest that it should be one. The art file shit in the middle doesn't belong IMO. That's typically done when there are conflicting unique sounds such as different voices (See: Captain Murasa's Ass Anchor), and I can kinda see what you're going for with the guitar vs flute thing, but it ended up being messy and hard to read. Apart from that, everything else seemed technically fine.

Rating: 6/10 - REJ
Suggested Difficulty: 40

Garakuta Doll Play

I think I'm in love...

Rating: 10/10 - PASS
Suggested Difficulty: 47

Might like You Better

The majority of this file was missing appropriate layering. I find it very strange that the 12th synth note midsection wasn't stepped completely. It's like you started out without it at all, then switched into stepping it, then back out. Very weird.

Rating: 3/10 - REJ

Someone Anyone

Good layering here. Switched up the patterns a lot and didn't put out a giant copy paste which would have been the easy way out of stepping this file.

Rating: 9/10 - PASS
Suggested Difficulty: 46

{The Traveller}

I feel like the jumpglut section starting at m34 shouldn't be a jumpglut section. I was struggling to find what constituted all of those being jumps and I couldn't find it. I imagine the reason you stepped it like that is to provide some variety from the previous section that was the same kind of stuff, but I don't think it worked out. Same sentiment for the glut at the end.

Rating 7/10 - PASS
Suggested Difficulty: 55

[M0nkeyz]

Azure | 6/10

The file is enjoyable. It's not too long, not too short. The problem is that the color scheme(BPM) seems really unstable here. you have parts with all 4's and all 8's making it seem really chaotic. Also the usage of hands and jumps seems excessive.

Garakuta Doll Play | 6.5/10

I really liked the file, the problem is that there is a lack of variety in the patterns, The use of jumps also seems kind of random. You use jumps for the bass in some instances and singles in others. It also seemed like there were some ghost arrows in the middle and some parts felt really empty.

Might like you better | 4.5/10

The problem is that the file flowed decently the first 250 notes. After that the dubstep part was completely empty and out of sync. The song was good, but the steps were incomplete.

Someone Anyone | 6.5/10

I felt the song was more than just one giant anchor, the majority of the song was just anchor after anchor after anchor. There were definitely parts(especially in the middle) that should be anchored, but I feel the melody was strong enough to make better patterns out of it.

The traveller | 5.5/10 | 6.5/10 without the sync issues

you had a wrong offset and seemingly a wrong BPM, the entire song was Out of Sync, and it got progressively worse

the patterns were anchored too much creating some very awkward patterns in the jumpstream parts

I also think you could have gone with a different approach in jump usage, because it made it really hard to see what the jumps emphasized.

[gold stinger]

Quite a great song. It's stepped rather well taking into account instrument sound & pitch. Absolutely love the solo section. I think the quads might be a bit overexaggerated, some toning down might not hurt, but otherwise pretty alright file. Some things to point out:

Feels like you're missing a 16th recolored blue note right here after this 48bpm [12] blue note. Might be mishearing on that, but I feel like a 16th would really help there. (Isolation Start 603)


Feels like the 32nds that are located near the beginning of the file are longer than they actually are and start earlier than the notes that are placed there. However, I'm perfectly fine with how they are right now.

Overall
I say 7.5/10, as a pass. there's one 16th & 32nd section in the song that's quite harder than the rest of the song given its pacing, but it's stepped correctly and it's a short song, so I'll let it slide under that. Plus, the solo section deserves a ton of credit.

A lot of this song is very hand biased on the left hand. And while I understand the concept that it was being driven towards (the song is loud, and it's intended to add depth), it's like this for the entire song, and that turns me off imo.

by the way the 2nd [34] jump here isn't necessary. Nothing goes to it.


starting at m100, the layering becomes a bit more dense, but the issue is that only some of the notes pertain to the pitch relevance that is being followed. Feels like there is some sacrifice against pitch relevance here in favor of the hand bias mentioned earlier, and again, it just doesn't feel like that type of faoritism is worth it.

Overall
I would give it a 6/10, with reject. While some hand bias probably would work very well for this song given it's a hard beat, maintaining it to one hand for the duration of the file seems kind of unnecessary, and a lot more mixing up between said left note bias and freeform for solos & transitions would make it a lot better. Also, try to structure pitch relevance outside of the hand bias at crucial parts such as transitions between measures, and it will probably flow a lot better. This way, you can maintain the best of both worlds.

ok, there's a lot going on in this that I'd really not want to talk about, but to sum it up, there's a lot of missing jumps where there should be jumps, a lot of jumps where there shouldn't be jumps for the sake of maintaining the balance of what was done in other sections of the song, and the pitch relevance for notes is generally being followed, but not for parts where they're really required to make a file shine, such as the intro to the file.

I think there might also be some notes that are desynced in there as well (a 16th would suffice better, but a 12th is used instead). A couple of parts within the song, especially considering the 12th section switches between lyrics and bass unexpectedly, and then during the bass section, steps trills & stream, and the very next section steps jacks with the same audible sounds. Mixing up the skill measures apart for something that sounds similar is ok, but it needs to be justified, and there's no noticable drum or addition to instruments here that justifies jacks instead imo.

Overall
4/10, reject. Notes delivered for the file are really messy, and it would take a lot more than conditional to fix the file up. It goes in and out of skill sets that aren't justified to change when it's supposed to be getting the same stuff, and the focus of what is being stepped sometimes abruptly changes within these same areas.

Relatively boring. The song choice was good, but it was just anchor after anchor after anchor patterns, and offered no real mixing of the formula or changing it about except for some small 16th transitions between sections. Also, the anchor placement is almost seemingly random in my opinion. Same with the jump placement nearing the end of the file. It feels almost somewhat random what jump is going to come up next. The note placement is correct, but it feels like one giant ball of random.

Overall
5.5/10, reject. I feel like anchor patterns could definitely work for this song don't get me wrong on dissing the anchor patterns. But, I have very mixed feelings about the anchor switching locations every 1/4th of a measure in a large amount of locations. There's also a couple of areas where pitch relevance would have helped the placement of the jumps and create this into a solid chart, but with the amount of jumps that are seemingly random, along with the anchors also being seemingly random, it might as well be overhauled if it was going to be fixed.

Doesn't feel like there's any sort of pitch relevance to go with the chart where given the song, it would excel if it had it.

Also, the overall feel for the song and the file together feels like a dimrain file pre-2007 meets vertex beta. It's lacking a lot of uniqueness in the file, and it's almost like instead of stepping the file as is, it was separated into sections that are bulky and contain certain patterns only within said sections (hence that dimrain meets vertex beta feel).

The slow jumptrill and just jumps in general section is rather boring. Considering the aforementioned pitch relevance absence, the jumps do not go to the music all that well, and the repetition of miniature jumptrills starts to become stale really fast.

Overall
Would rate the file a reject with 4/10, somewhere around there. While the file does not have any missing notes, it doesn't present them in the best fashion, and there is some excluded 16ths in the song that would definitely spice up the file instead of repeating jumpgluts and 8th jumpstream. Also, there is a desync issue throughout the entire file. Not sure if it's the engine's fault, or if it's the song's fault, but the current rating doesn't reflect that.

[rushyrulz]

damn the Garakuta Doll Play rejects are a little harsh IMO.. There's nothing wrong with hand bias, especially at a lower tier like this. I really like Radio Heads and Thunder Light which show extreme hand bias, and it's because they're not just another perfectly balanced vanilla file. When I step songs, my top priority is pitch relevance, and it if works, it works.
[/myopinion]

EDIT: I also thought a lot of the patterns were clever/interesting/refreshing which is why I commented what I commented (initially).

[MarioNintendo]

Azure: 7/10 accept
Slow down with those quads! Only the last to second quad seemed legit in my opinion. Most of the others were exaggerated. I found the step chart quite nice, it flowed well most of the time, but was slightly disappointed to notice that a lot of beats playing in the background were not layered, in favor of the vocals. It's an ok choice, but I think some other choices would have helped the spice up the chart. Nice color theory, I liked it!

Garakuta Doll Play: 7.5/10 Accept
Sweet! I noticed you mostly used left-arrow anchors in the jump-ish part... Why this bias towards the left hand? If it's for PR, fair enough. However, from a player point of view, it would be better to try to touch the whole "spectrum" of patterns. Mostly, doing an anchor on the up or right arrow at some point would help to reduce that bias. Otherwise, sweet file!

Might Like You Better: 5/10 light reject
The file flowed well. My main problem lies with the layering. Some parts feel really empty, or it feels like we're playing something way less fun than what the song intended. Also, putting some wub-wubs as hands really didn't work for me.

Someone Anyone: 7.5/10 Accept
I'm unsure about some jump placements during the anchors. Some jumps go for the drum's snare when the drummer hits with both hands, but as I listened carefully I noticed that these hits were not really simultaneous. They should therefore not really be perfect jumps (more like a 4th-32nd type thing). But really, the song was pretty enjoyable for what it was (a band song)!

{The Traveller}: 6.5/10 light accept
Is it me, or the file's offset is wrong by exactly one eighth? Strange... The first note is cut off. I found some parts to be a bit uninspired (the jumping sections, mostly). A passage in the jumpstream had way too many jumps. I don't know... The file almost works, but I think reworking on it would help greatly.

[DossarLX ODI]

gameboy42690 will be taking the primary judge task for January/February 2015 Set 4.

[DossarLX ODI]

gameboy42690 finished the primary judge task for January 2015 Set 4. The notes can be seen below; this thread is being moved over to Completed Sets and the results/notes will be updated in the January/February 2015 thread.

[8/10] Azure {Coyote Kisses} (VisD)
10.133: As pointed out on the public thread by almost everyone, quads are quite exaggerated in this file. The music really only suggests a triple at most in any one part of the song. Here, the song is still rather soft so you may only want a jump for this first note.
22.945: The first syllable of "embrace" actually falls on a 32nd, not an 8th. I imagine you stepped an 8th instead because it made the file slightly easier, but seeing as you do use 32nds elsewhere in the file it doesn't really make sense to fudge the vocals like this.
- There may be a few other instances of notes not quite syncing up to the vocals perfectly, but in most cases what you stepped is close enough.
60.601, 70.601, etc.: Missing 16th going to the bass kick. Seems intentional but it feels a bit weird not being stepped.
80.132: The color note theory during the solo seems to have been a “love it or hate it” situation with the public. Personally I really like the idea behind it! But I'm having a really hard time figuring out where the cyan notes fit into all of this. Red is the flute, blue is the guitar, cyan is....? If it's to indicate the flute and the guitar playing at the same time, you already used red and blue at the same time at 86.062 and a few other points to indicate this. Including cyan just makes things confusing.
89.814: Missed a guitar note.
128.881: Should only be a jump, not a triple.
130.131: Going back to the point of excessive quads, this quad should definitely also be toned down.
This is charted really nicely overall! My main gripe really is the quads, but everything else feels really good.

[6/10] Garakuta Doll Play {t+pazolite} (Destroy2777)
3.056: PR during the intro could use some work. Half the time you got it right, the other half it's not really there. These first few steps, for example, could be "3 1 2 3" instead of "1 2 1 2".
7.041, 7.978, etc.: There's a drum being played here that could be stepped as well.
10.556: Again, there's a drum that could be stepped but isn't, which leads to this part of the song feeling a bit empty.
19.345: Missing note going to the vocal sample.
20.869: Vocal sample could be layered in as a jump.
22.920: Same here.
24.033: Missing jumps going to the bass.
26.845: Missing note going to the vocal sample.
29.541: Missing jump.
31.533: Missing jumps going to the bass.
- I see a lot of this sort of thing throughout the file. Underlayering a file is acceptable when the file is meant to be easy, but there's plenty of moments in this file that aren't easy at all. So in this case, underlayering this file makes the file underwhelming. I'm not going to name every instance of a missing note or a note that should have been a jump, because it's pretty much the entire file. I will say that, all things considered, there's a definite structure to the file and it's clear you gave it your best effort.
76.650: These 32nd gallops were a bit awkward to hit.
78.056: Now see, THIS is the kind of pitch relevancy I was expecting in the intro. Good job!
107.412: Not sure what these isolated 16ths/64ths are for. These should have been quarter notes. The last 16th/64th are a pair of ghost notes.
108.056: Going back to what HeZe said in his review on the public thread, this song makes the player expect something brutal to come at the end. The climax of the song should be where it gets brutal... and it doesn't happen. I mean, for what you've stepped it's stepped accurately, but once again it suffers from being very underlayered. It's more of an anti-climax than anything.
This is a very good start, but I don’t think it’s quite there yet. You’ve got an interesting structure but there’s some big holes that should be filled in.


[2/10] Might Like You Better {Vaski} (doggies4life04)
A few notes for when you submit your files to FFR:
Please remember to tag your simfiles correctly. The correct title is just “Might Like You Better (Vaski Remix)”. The correct artist is Amanda Blank; even though it’s Vaski’s remix, the original artist is still given credit. #SUBTITLE and #TITLETRANSLIT should be left blank.
.png's aren't used in FFR. You don’t need to include them in your submissions.
And finally, don't use Beginner when you chart your song. Your stepchart should be on either Light, Standard, Heavy or Challenge.

Moving on to the review itself...
2.571: This file typically makes no effort to utilize pitch relevancy, which means stepping low notes to the left and high notes to the right. It kinda just does whatever. For the first eight notes for example, something like "1-3 1-4, 1-4 1-3" would work better than what you have now.
5.143: Layering is also really random in this file. These next few jumps don't go to anything. The music is playing the exact same thing as 2.571 (minus the vocals), so ideally the steps should reflect that. Suddenly adding in jumps is very confusing.
- A very simple but effective approach to layering this song would be to step jumps whenever you hear a drum being played, and single notes all other times. You may decide later there's other sounds you want to layer with jumps as well, but for now this would make for a good starting point.
9.000: Another recurring problem is that you never really settle on what sound it is that you're stepping. Here you suddenly shift to stepping the vocals and you ignore the background music. There's a lot of this bouncing back and forth between stepping one thing or another. It's very inconsistent and doesn't make for a fun experience.
23.571: Stepping 8th jacks going to the wub would have been really nice.
34.714: 16th minijack doesn't really fit the vocals here. There's a few times where a jack could work such as 42.429, but on the other hand it would lead to a spike in difficulty, so I wouldn't actually step a jack there...
56.143: ...Speaking of which. Actually, the jack should have started on the 4th note, not the 16th. But as I said before, jacks are a difficulty spike considering the relatively lower difficulty of the rest of the file, and I would avoid using them here.
57.857: I don't hear 12ths here.
59.857: This 12th is also a ghost note.
60.000: But now there's actually a stream of 12th wubs being played here, which are completely ignored. Very very strange.
73.714: And yet this stream of 12th wubs was stepped. See what I mean about inconsistent stepping? If you step a sound once, you should usually step it every time.

The rest of the file is more of the same kinds of problems. There's no clear structure to the file at all. Needs significant work before this can be considered for FFR.

[5/10] Someone Anyone {Anberlin} (HeZe)
5.549: 8th minijacks could be redone to fit the synth better. The synth does a sort of "duh, duh, duh-duh, duh, duh, duh-duh-duh-duh-duh" rhythm, so the start of each minijack should correspond to each note that's played in that rhythm (I can provide a screenshot of how this would look if that’s easier for you, just send me a PM). You actually follow that rhythm exactly once you start layering the jumps, so I'm confused why the intro doesn't follow it that well.
10.839 & 11.192: The guitar is playing the same note here as it was at 10.487, so both jumps should be the same.
11.368: The second jump is going to a higher note than the first, so the second jump should be changed to reflect that.
11.721, 12.074, 12.427: Also the same exact note as 10.487.
- The same rhythm repeats itself a few more times every two measures with little variance. While you shouldn't necessarily copy & paste the exact same thing, the positioning of the jumps should stay uniform.
14.366: An one-handed anchor like this is pretty rude. That’s not to say you should never step an anchor like this, but it did feel out of place in this particular file.
24.250, 27.073, etc.: Break up the 8th jack here to accent the guitar riff. This would also be good to not have so many 4-note 8th jacks in a row.
33.604: These 8th jumps seem like they're just thrown in because the music changed a bit, but it doesn't actually go to anything.
44.368: A jump on every 4th note instead of every 8th note (only accenting the snare with jumps) would work better here.
47.189: Jump usage during the chorus doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Sometimes it's very clearly going to the vocals (which is a little unusual considering you haven't been stepping the vocals at all up to this point, although I personally don't mind the switch), and then other times it kinda just does its own thing, whether it's spamming jumps or that jump-jump-single-single pattern you do a bit later.
69.778: Missing jump going to the snare.
71.190: Repeat of the intro. Same notes apply. There’s some extra jumps here that don’t go to anything.
83.013: Same issue as 33.604, although this time it bothers me even more since musically it's the same thing as 21.777, not 33.604.
93.778: Repeat of 33.604, so why the sudden switch up in layering? Instead of the jumps landing on the snare, they land on the bass kick.
104.808: Ghost 16th note.
106.484: PR is completely backwards. Similar to 44.368, there should only be jumps to accent the bass kick and the snare.
156.603: This quad doesn't fit at all.
164.721 & 166.132: Missing notes going to the vocals.
184.839: Things got strangely empty here. You should have continued stepping the guitar too instead of suddenly only stepping the vocals.
190.486: The ending could be more expressive if you only stepped jumps where the guitar and drum played at the same time, instead of making every guitar note a jump.
201.515: Missed some 16ths at the very end of the song. The last triple should only be a jump at most and might even work as a single.
At least two people on the public thread described this file as being "anchor after anchor after anchor". That's a pretty accurate description of this file. The repetitiveness of the file makes playing it a chore. It needs more variety in order to stand out. It may also help to cut the song to a more manageable length. Three and a half minutes is an awfully long time to be hitting nonstop anchors. Cutting the second verse out entirely would probably be the best way to cut the song; you really don't gain anything new from stepping it.

[4/10] {The Traveller} {Cornandbeans} (HeZe)
OFFSET CHANGED To -3.075
3.076: Pitch relevancy is pretty much absent during the intro... and pretty much everywhere else in the file, too.
13.917: Starting here, the synth is playing 16ths that you could have stepped to add some much needed variety into this file.
24.758-46.441: On a technical level, there's not necessarily anything wrong with what you stepped. The 16ths in the background could have been included, the loud handclap could have been stepped as triples, but technically what you did isn't wrong. Unfortunately, it's downright boring. It's just an 8th jumpstream that goes on for what feels like an eternity.
47.796-69.478: Same sort of issue here; these alternating jumps get old VERY fast, and it goes on for over 20 seconds. Again, it feels like an eternity.
69.478: Missing jump.
91.160: Lack of layering during the slowdown feels pretty weird after coming out of a 16th jumpstream.
98.872 & 102.020: Missing 16th.
139.004: Random mini-jack doesn't really make sense.
165.691: Missing jump.
177.757: Oh dear, it's those neverending jumpgluts again.
Ultimately I think the biggest problem here is the song itself. It's just way too repetitive and doesn't offer much for unique steps. No disrespect meant to cornandbeans, it's just not a very steppable song and you’re going to have a very difficult time coming up with something fun and engaging.

[doggies4life04]

Thank you for the feedback.
I apologize for wasting your time. It was not my intent!!
Apparently even for a first file I really sucked but I see why!

I trashed the old steps and am completely redoing the whole thing taking into consideration the feedback provided.

Would someone be willing to look at the new steps once completed to see if it's acceptable to be judged? Please PM me. Thanks!

[DarkZtar]

Originally Posted by doggies4life04

I apologize for wasting your time.

Time spent learning/teaching is not wasted, so long as you apply what you learn.

[M0nkeyz]

Originally Posted by doggies4life04

Thank you for the feedback.
I apologize for wasting your time. It was not my intent!!
Apparently even for a first file I really sucked but I see why!

I trashed the old steps and am completely redoing the whole thing taking into consideration the feedback provided.

Would someone be willing to look at the new steps once completed to see if it's acceptable to be judged? Please PM me. Thanks!

Keep on trying mate, as long as you're having fun. I know having your file rejected can be demotivating, but you get used to it and you get better over time.

[gameboy42690]

Originally Posted by DarkZtar

Time spent learning/teaching is not wasted, so long as you apply what you learn.

^ Quote for truth

There's absolutely no need to apologize for trying. Everyone starts somewhere! Making simfiles has a learning curve just like everything else and it takes practice to get good at it. I'm happy to see that you're not giving up and you're taking the notes into consideration.

[VisD]

Originally Posted by DossarLX ODI

[8/10] Azure {Coyote Kisses} (VisD)

80.132: The color note theory during the solo seems to have been a “love it or hate it” situation with the public. Personally I really like the idea behind it! But I'm having a really hard time figuring out where the cyan notes fit into all of this. Red is the flute, blue is the guitar, cyan is....? If it's to indicate the flute and the guitar playing at the same time, you already used red and blue at the same time at 86.062 and a few other points to indicate this. Including cyan just makes things confusing.
This is charted really nicely overall! My main gripe really is the quads, but everything else feels really good.

Thanks for the positive feedback. The cyan (closest thing to "azure", lol) is supposed to be when both instruments play in harmony during the "combined instrument" phase; when the "red and blue at the same time" thing happens, it's not so much that the two instruments are "harmonious" because one of them is on its way out while the other is just coming in. This is kind of absurd I know, and it probably makes things too complicated while not adding much, but I just thought I should explain

[gameboy42690]

That actually makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the explanation. :P