Which stepchart, to you, is as close to perfect as it gets?

[L.B.D.D]

ok

[Wayward Vagabond]

Originally Posted by stargroup100

You are right, notecharting is not that, nor did I say it was. You don't have to be artistic to enjoy da Vinci's work, nor do all artistic people like da Vinci's work, but that doesn't change the fact that he's universally recognized as a great artist. That also doesn't mean he's the best artist in every respect. Mozart would probably not be a good rap artist, Snoop would not be a good jazz musician.

Similarly, Kil would not be as good a metal notecharter as GLoVE in my opinion, but the depth of his musical knowledge and insight in general surpasses that of GLoVE's I believe. And that is generally the basis I use for determining who I think is a great artist, which is not necessarily the same as the criteria I use to judge what I enjoy aesthetically.

The fact of the matter is I can come up with plenty of methods to demonstrably show my understanding of the medium. For example, based solely on someone's notechart, I can generally tell you about how much musical training or knowledge someone has, which is why I'm confident in my ability to judge artists by that aspect. And that's just one example.

You shouldn't care whether or not we judge artists this way, just as how one could listen to electronica and not care how highly people regard Bach. It doesn't change how good or important Bach is, and it doesn't force you to like him or his work.

I'm curious as to how much musical knowledge you think I have based on my files

[Charu]

I still say Ultraviolent Junglist that Valor made a chart for ODI3 is perfect.

Also, I'm reading your posts, stargroup, and I get this image of Dr. Breen from Half-Life 2. I have NO idea why, just thought you should know.

[DigitalS3r4ph]

Originally Posted by Wayward Vagabond

I'm curious as to how much musical knowledge you think I have based on my files

I've got musical knowledge of jumps and mini-jacks to Eurobeatz.

[choof]

stargroup you should talk to ilikexd about stepmania because we've argued before about rhythm gaming being art

[choof]

on a serious note though i'd like details as to why you loved robotomy so much

[Gradiant]

Originally Posted by stargroup100

musical knowledge

What are you referring to by this?

[DigitalS3r4ph]

I'm guessing he is referring to their overall aptitude or propensity for understanding music theory. Or also the likelihood that they play instrument (s).

In the case of Kil, it's true to an extent, since I'm pretty sure he has composed some nice songs too.

[Gundam-Dude]

I have 0 knowledge of music theory and composition oh no I'm no longer certified to make simfiles !!

[DigitalS3r4ph]

You can be untrained but still be an excellent painter.

[leonid]

I felt like it went the other way for me
Stepping songs helped me understand the musical structure of them better

[Gradiant]

I'm not sure how you see a correlation between musical knowledge then and stepcharting Stargroup

[hi19hi19]

Originally Posted by leonid

I felt like it went the other way for me
Stepping songs helped me understand the musical structure of them better

This so much.


Yeah I've had college-level music theory courses and I've been playing piano for 18 years, but I honestly think Stepmania has contributed equally to my knowledge of musical structures and composition. For someone who processes things very visually, being able to see 12ths and 16ths color-coded in the Stepmania editor and being able to visually see the interval between them helped immensely in my understanding of time signatures and note values. On the composition side, breaking down songs into their layers gives a better understanding of how they are composed and what function each layer of sound and each instrument serves.

While having knowledge of music theory can't hurt stepping, I don't see it being a requirement in any way, really.

[choof]

[choof]

[hi19hi19]

ok second post, u got me

[ilikexd]

Originally Posted by leonid

I felt like it went the other way for me
Stepping songs helped me understand the musical structure of them better

the only thing i noticed is that new sections tend to start with crash cymbal and that sounds kinda good (cause i'll be putting hands to crash cymbal and notice it)

[ilikexd]

Originally Posted by choof

stargroup you should talk to ilikexd about stepmania because we've argued before about rhythm gaming being art

Oh yes, please do, stargroup. I'll go out right here and say that I don't think simfiles can be considered an art form.

[hi19hi19]

Originally Posted by ilikexd

the only thing i noticed is that new sections tend to start with crash cymbal and that sounds kinda good (cause i'll be putting hands to crash cymbal and notice it)

Check out the difference between passages with snare on the downbeat and snare on offbeat, how it changes the energy of that section of the song.

Totally different feeling, really interesting stuff for someone like me who has never taken drum lessons and knows very little about drumming.

[stargroup100]

Originally Posted by hi19hi19

While having knowledge of music theory can't hurt stepping, I don't see it being a requirement in any way, really.

it's not a requirement, you're right

Originally Posted by Gradiant

I'm not sure how you see a correlation between musical knowledge then and stepcharting Stargroup

the more you know understand about music, the more patterns you can identify. the patterns you identify in the music tend to be reflected in your notecharting

seems pretty intuitive to me

Originally Posted by choof

on a serious note though i'd like details as to why you loved robotomy so much

robotomy, like I said in my review, challenged a lot of my previous conceptions of notecharting. the chart is highly chaotic, with very little discernible structure, and yet, it is in fact structured in a sense and done very well. the chaos also leads to crazier pattern choices, some of which I thought were very difficult to justify even putting in a chart, and yet in this chart they can be found everywhere. I played with chaos before (drove through ghosts to get here) but only on certain levels, and this chart takes it a few steps further. it's also the first time I've played a chart of this difficulty level that was done that well. it is so fast that the roll techniques most people use that I generally condemn can actually be effective here, as it starts to blend with other patterns. this is just what makes the chart unique. even through what seems like a mess of a song, you were able to pick out a lot of important sounds and details with high accuracy, showing strong technical abilities. the song itself, once you discern what's going on, is actually quite a fun marathon ride. all of these things contribute to this chart being one of a kind and fresh, as well as epic.

I get the feeling that there's a good chance this was a stroke of accidental genius for you (or maybe it isn't), but after playing this I learned much more about what makes scoring charts (or in general, high difficulty) fun, and how your style and ideas are relevant and contributes to what we could use. it is a very definitive (and probably one of the first) example of how artistry and extreme difficulties can in fact blend, and that the limits are far higher than what I initially predicted