2016 July/August Set 4 (Complete)

[psychoangel691]

A Shadow in Tokyo
Acrophobia
Azul
GO BACK 2 RAVE
Perihelion - Aphelion

[hi19hi19]

Perihelion - Aphelion was so good and then the [34][12][34]123[14] 32nd roll at the very end of the file was so bad
I strongly suggest something like [34][12]4321[34] or [34][12][34]1234 and just accept that your layering might have to take a tiny hit in the interest of not giving players ebola. At the very least do [34][12][34]214[23] because the transition into [23] tends to be easier for most people, I've noticed.

[Ghost_Medley]

i like the GO BACK 2 RAVE file a lot, the layering is pretty spot on for the song, the jacks are really fun to play, and the file has a really tasteful use of jump-hand gluts. i'd personally have to give the file a 9.5/10.

difficulty rating: mid-70's


for Acrophobia, it's a very nice and relaxing song choice for such a complicated file. some of the bursts could use cleanup in their patterning so it's not so awkward to play but the file is enjoyable and i'd definitely play to aaa it. all in all, i give about an 8.5/10.

difficulty rating: high-60's

[DossarLX ODI]

bmah finished the primary judge task for July/August 2016 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 July/August 2016 thread.

As a side note, the Pending Fix deadline for Conditionally queue'd files from this batch is March 3rd, 11:59 PM EST (8 weeks from today).

[5.5/10] A Shadow in Tokyo {DanJohansen} (M0nkeyz)
- 2.21s,2.83s,4.21s,etc.: I see why you decided to separate one melody from another by distiguishing the bass melody as jacks, thereby having two semi-concurrent melodies without ever layering. However, it's quite hard to ignore the fact that the bass melody is also pitch-relevant and not repeated notes. I recommend either layering the two melodies (which intersect only at certain instances) and make it all PR, or leave the layering as is with the only changes being the bass melody becoming PR. These jacks occur throughout the entire song.
- 3.46s,5.96s,: PR is also sketchy in areas besides the aforementioned jacks.
- 18.50-10.08s,etc.: As I've noted throughout past reviews, it seems that steppers either step according to sound or according to # of instruments (or a combination of the two). Here is an example of where stepping according to the instrument's loudness is subjectively sketchy. Why are all of the steps in this section jumps except for one arrow? According to your scheme, this single arrow should also be a jump as it is hardly any softer than, say, the jump at 9.96s. I recommend singling out the loudest sounds and reserve the jumps for those (e.g. 9.58s). Or if a myriad of instruments play simultaneously, you might want to consider layering via # of instruments. Long story short, use better judgement when it comes to deciding when jumps should and should not be used. This also occurs throughout the song. Only a few areas, such as 23.46-24.08s, actually have correct layering to the drums.
- 26.08s: somewhat reverse PR (namely starting with the up arrow)
- 28.83-29.08s,32.83-33.08s,etc.: the melody suggests a minijack should be placed here instead
- 30.83s,34.83s,etc.: the [12][12] do not appear PR in contrast to the pair at 30.33s. Perhaps you wanted to single out the [34] jump to distinguish it from the others, but then I would recommend the second pair of jumpjacks to be different than either [12] or [34] type jumps. The same PR issue occurs in similar areas throughout the song.
- 50.58s: an example of where layering by sound type can homogenize parts of the chart. In this instance, a new melody occurs in addition to the usual bass melody, but because you chose to reserve jumps only for drums, the layering of this section appears literally no different than earlier, with the exception that no minijacks appear. This risks making the chart duller and more repetitive when there could've been opportunities on layering variation.
- 69.96s,73.96s,77.96s: bad PR on 16th (following jump may need to change to accomodate for PR)
- 80.33-80.83s: bad PR
- 83.58s,85.33s,87.58s,etc.: suggestion - how about stepping some trills to the pitch-bending of the melody here? The song and chart has been pretty repetitive thus far.
- 99.21s: ok, it might just be my ineptitude on playing fast streams, but I don't find the patterns here to be overly ergonomic. They seem...deliberately twisted and hard to hit, particularly the left-handed patterns with 32123 and those with a lot of anchors. I recommend changing some of the patterns, but then again you may not need to since this may be an opinion of skill level.
- 113.08-114.08s: again, I recommend toning the jumps down to just the loudest one at 113.58s.
- 121.46s: thank you for the PR! (looking at you 3.46s)
- Summary: Playing the actual chart was relatively fun, though the song felt repetitive after a while. But the technical aspects, especially the PR, are pretty sloppy. Considering that the affected areas cover nearly the entire chart, it'll need some reworking.

[6/10] Acrophobia {about:blank} (M0nkeyz)
- syncing is decent for the organically-played guitar strums, but try to at least sync the more easily-identifiable sounds to 4th/8th/16th notes, etc. For example, 8th note at 11.60s or around 32.87s. The BPM in the first half of the song is constantly modified, so try modifying them to fit sounds that can snap easily to 4ths or 8ths.
- a few of the guitar strums are stepped a tad too lavish IMO, such as the excessively lengthy burst at 19.47s. I know there is quite a bit of subjectivity when it comes to interpreting the amount of arrows for pitch bends and guitar slides, but let's not get too fancy here.
- 14.54-57.18s: the lack of layering when the second guitar melody arrives bothers me. There is equally no acknowledgement of the bass starting at 25.21s or the piano starting at 46.56s. The layering would still be light enough that adding them would not make the chart feel too heavy for this section of the song.
- 58.34s,61.01s,etc.: disregard the echo - stepping it distracts from the main melody, at least until the echo becomes a lot more noticeable starting at around 67.84s
- 89.34s,89.84s,90.51s,91.17s,etc.: once again, the interpretation for guitar slides is becoming too lavish and excessive, but this time it's becoming so prominent that the mechanism is creating an artificial sense of increased difficulty. You can still acknowledge the guitar slides a bit, but just reduce the amount of arrows for each instance (e.g. make 89.84s a two-arrow slide and remove the 32nd arrow). I should also mention that these bursts going to guitar slides are also colliding with legit bursts going to more concrete sounds, such as 96.51s.
- 132.51-142.34s: the hi-hats (mainly on 16ths) are particularly extra quiet here, so I wouldn't bother stepping them at all
- 148.51s: was this really meant to be a very quick gallop? Would a jump have sufficed?
- 161.05-161.55s,163.72-164.22s,etc.: should be all jacks according to piano PR
- 180.22s,187.05s: bad PR to piano
- nice speedup, synced decently well
- Summary: Great work on the sync, but I would tone down the heaviness of the bursts that represent guitar slides. Also a very noticeable layering issue towards the first half and rather poor PR towards the end with the piano. Keep working on this; this will definitely be a fun one to play after some tweaking.

[5.5/10] Azul (Original Mix) {mezCIA} (rparty89)
- 1.42s: 8th jump in layering to piano melodies
- 4.19s,6.04s: 24ths, not 16ths
- 7.42s: jump, not hand - no chord here. If anything, there should be hands to chords at 9.12s,9.27s,10.19s.
- 22.96s-23.27s: missing jumps on the 4ths/8ths according to the drum and layering
- 28.35-30.81s,68.04-70.19s,etc.: I don't know how the PR is represented here, but in any case, the 16th streams result in mostly trills that don't seem to be fitting according to the PR of the melody. I'd play around with the 16th patterns here (not to mention, constant trilling at this BPM can become annoying if overly excessive).
- 31.42s,70.81s: recommend at least one arrow being the same as the previous jump to acknowledge the piano melody
- 36.66s,36.96s: IMO the need to make these colored arrows in replacement of making them jumps is unnecessary. You're fine just having these as jumps.
- 51.58s,54.04s: no jump here
- 52.96-62.19s: absolutely not a whole 16th jumpstream - please check the 16th melody again. The 16ths have breaks from 52.96-56.19s, are continuous from 56.19-57.89s, and become very scant from 57.89-62.19s.
- 73.89-77.89s,78.81-80.04s: beware of the extremely long 8th arrow anchors! Please reconsider with different patterns.
- 80.04-81.78s: why not make these 12th jumpjacks the same, just like playing the piano? They don't need to be unnecessarily difficult with different jumps on each occasion. Especially makes the transition at 81.78s awkward.
- 81.27s: the quad is really harsh for transitioning from one set of 12th jumps to another. Just make this a hand.
- 82.50-87.42s,88.42s,89.66s: once again, this is not a whole 16th jumpstream; listen again to the 16th melody. Also, I don't understand the placement of the 16th jumps at 87.04s - might want to re-evaluate that too. And finally, the jumpstream is plagued with a lot of residual trills and anchors.
- 102.96-103.42s: missing jumps to layering with melody
- 106.04s: probably better as a right arrow instead of a repeating up arrow
- 131.42s: hand instead of jump
- 131.73s: quad is way overdone for this last 4th. Just a hand will do.
- Summary: Dense, somewhat awkward jumpstream is what I'd describe this chart right now. But the biggest concerns are the areas that do not properly acknowledge the 16th melody - they're likely areas that were assumed to be entire fields of 16ths when this is in fact untrue. Never assume! File is otherwise technically competent.

[8/10] GO BACK 2 RAVE (NINETYSIXTH BREAK REMIX) {DOT96} (gameboy42690)
- I'll start off by saying I'm not a fan of how heavy the file is on arrow density, but it is incredibly consistent and accurate, so most of my commentary will solely be suggestions from my own perspective
- 2.41s,etc.: the main synths here I feel are too quiet to be entire jumps on their own. However, the difficulty of the file is consistent, so you managed to reasonably justify these sort of patterns.
- 3.57s,6.92s,etc.: on every other section of the synth melody are minijacks that shouldn't exist, whereas other areas are musically justified (e.g. 2.62s,8.60s). I recommend changing the minijacks that are not melodically inclined.
- 8.86s,etc.: I find the 32nds that anchor due to rolling in opposite directions not a very smooth pattern IMO.
- 9.12-9.54s,10.80-11.22s: I don't understand your layering here in regards to the jumps. Are you still trying to acknowledge the main synth or the 4th note drums? If the former, then it's incomplete. If the latter, then it's also incomplete.
- 13.95s,etc.: IMO the 32nd trills are a bit jarring. Maybe change the patterns or reduce the usage of them. However, they are not inconsistent with the overall difficulty. I think they're the most disturbing around 65.98s,67.66s,69.33s,106.26s,etc. since they occur around heavy hand jacks (69.33s being a left-handed 32nd trill is yuck especially).
- 16.26-17.10s,etc.: I find these three-arrow minijacks fun when not overused, but later on in the song, they become too frequent and jarring IMO (e.g. 91.47s)
- 58.22s,61.05s,62.73s,64.40s: missing a few arrows to scratches. Same thing occurs in a similar section later on in the song.
- 96.40s: don't see a need for a jump here (I actually find a lot of steppers tend to begin fast bursts, jumpstreams, and the like with an unnecessary jump for some strange reason, even if there are no cymbal crashes or any sort of emphasis for it...)
- 109.82-110.56s: not the most fun jacking pattern due to the two-handed requirement, but again you can get away with it for the file's overall difficulty.
- 124.93s: ghost arrow (no sound on the 4th as the song ends)
- Summary: Technically consistent and well-stepped, despite the unusually high density for this kind of song. Read the suggestions and investigate areas that can smoothen the gameplay. The file is otherwise quite solid.

[7/10] Perihelion / Aphelion {Kurorak} (gameboy42690)
- Be aware that there are instances where it'd be advantageous to focus on the melody when it seems like the layering on the drum is drowning out all other acknowledgement. Will detail this below.
- when there's not much going on, a focus on the drums won't serve to obstruct anything. For instance, a strict layering would put the 16th at 24.07s as a single arrow, but a jump would work perfectly well too.
- at 33.07-44.04s, you now have three elements going on: the main melody, the drums, and this lesser, syncopated synth that plays repeated 8th notes. It seems like you are trying to acknowledge the drums as jumps as well as the minor synths, but the main melody gets lost and only serves as a filler. The minor synth seems necessary to differentiate this section from the previous one, but the fact that every drum MUST be a jump and not a single arrow leaves less room for variation and more opportunities to lose the main melody. Technically what you've stepped is completely all right, but I see a LOT of steppers put high preference to percussion and often lose sight of the main melody, which I find is a wretched trend. Please note that sound vs. layering quantity is currently seen as a stepping style preference, but frankly it's best to take everything into consideration: jumps on emphasized sounds when doable, but some emphasis on the melody when it's in danger of becoming lost amongst other layering.
- 33.07s: hand perhaps
- 44.72s,etc.: you can try having the string of jacks be the left arrow after the 32nd trill, or perhaps you can place the 32nd trill in a different spot, to aid in PR
**- 57.87s,68.84s,etc.: these are 16th minijacks, not 12ths. Occurs again later in the song.
- 60.15s,71.12s,etc.: jump to piano chord
- 64.95s,75.92s,etc.: single arrow as opposed to a jump
**- 76.91s,80.17s,142.72s: missing 32nd to bursts
**- 80.55s,91.52s,143.07s,153.13s: ghost 4th
- 85.61s,86.12s,etc.: very faint 16ths, I recommend omitting these
- 89.60s,91.14s,151.36s,152.77s: missing 32nd to synth burst, but there is also a concurrent three-arrow burst to the drums. I'll leave it up to you to decide if you want to add this or not.
**- 108.58s: the two single arrows here are off beat
- 118.02s: why is this not a jump?
**- 131.61-132.16s: PR is reversed. You may need to change the 32nd burst prior to this for the proper setup.
**- 135.54s: 12th jump, not 8th
- 159.88-177.32s: see my first few comments of the song - WHERE is the melody?? This section stands out even more than the previous one in a lack of melody acknowledgement. It's actually more or less a percussion-fest as it currently stands.
- 169.15s: jump if you intend to focus on the drums
- Summary: Well-stepped file, but please note a couple of technical errors. I'm also irked at the typical trend of percussion-only emphasis and ignoring the melody, but since this is not an actual error, I'll leave that up to you. The chart plays very well, though.
**Please address the items marked with ** for file acceptance.