Scintill's Minipack Released!

[SKG_Scintill]

(dl link in banner)



I decided to join the minipack-fad with some unreleased files (oops Game Genie).
Files range from 2 years old to 2 days old.
The difficulty ranges from 60 to 95 by FFR standards.
All files are pure Scintill.

Special thanks to cedolad for getting me back into stepping.

P.S: Skwid I hate your files lmfao

[cedolad]

horrible pack is horrible

[cedolad]

jk will play later tonight

[AutotelicBrown]

[ilikexd]

thanks cedload

[Wayward Vagabond]

Holla

[_Zenith_]

sic

SFS and Wishful Thinking are extremely fun

[Kraezymann]

Dang how did you get the songlist generator to work? Mine only seems to come up with gibberish or something that's too small to make out

[SKG_Scintill]

I downloaded it pretty much an hour before I posted the thread
It just worked
Soz

[cedolad]

Do you have edit charts? @Kraezy

[Buta-san]

wut ever your doing cedolad, keep doing it

[One Winged Angel]

wow is it christmas

[Kraezymann]

Originally Posted by cedolad

Do you have edit charts? @Kraezy

I do

[cedolad]

Originally Posted by Kraezymann

I do

Tis why, my friend. Edit breaks it.

[lofty rhino]

leave your canned files for the 19th century soldiers

ps this thread smells funny

[MooMoo_Cowfreak]

Below are my impressions. I have to compliment you on the sync throughout, some of these don’t seem easy to sync at all but you nailed em! I also enjoy your use of hands, it always feels tasteful and compliments the music. Overabundance of hands is something I’ve disliked in more recent files, so it’s great to see you use them so well

The first file in the pack was my least favorite, so it starts on kind of a sour note >.>

Anime Song Medley - Wow those rolls are fast, feels they are too fast to me to be appropriate for the music. It disappoints me whenever you just fall back on 16th jumpstream, there are moments where you use it where it’s definitely not happening in the music. It honestly felt like any parts that were hard to step you would just go to the jumpstream to make things easier for yourself. LOVE the use of the minijacks in the beginning, but once they come back after the slow interlude I don’t hear anything in the music that is appropriate for a jack. I totally see what you’re going for with the occasional bursts before jumps near the beginning there, but sometimes it feels like there are a few too many notes to really be tasteful. The ending feels chaotic and I don’t feel like I’m tapping to much semblance of the music at all…

Doraemon no Uta - Nice one. Whenever there are three repeated arrows in the beginning it doesn’t quite feel right. I hear what you’re stepping the in the bass, but I’m pretty sure it’s only two, not three. Tasteful use of hands throughout. Some of those bursts within the hands are absurd! I personally would sacrifice layering for playability, but it’s up to you of course. Great sync!

Dying to Survive - Great job. I love how the layering gradually got more and more intricate as the song went on. I especially dug the solo, you stepped just the right amount of stuff around the solo to keep it interesting while still highlighting the solo.

Fatal Attraction - Was really enjoying this file until the hot mess of 24ths. Certainly what’s going on in the music is in 24ths, but it’s not just a stream of 24ths, it’s actually quite a bit more rhythmically interesting and I feel like this file would be even better than it already is if the rhythms here were correct. This confused me about the Anime Song Medley too, it feels like you’re not going for a dump style of stepping and then you have these sections where you throw caution to the wind and just go ham. Would have been nice if you incorporated more of the lead melody in the guitar and piano prior to the 24ths, either with freezes or jumps, but the rhythms there were on point for sure!

Game Genie - Excellent! This is just a personal thing, but I feel like there were a few sections whereas opposed to only layering jumps in the drums (which works fantastically here and was absolutely well done), there were opportunities to layer jumps in the synths and other aspects of the melody. Loved how in the long jumpstream you took a few opportunities to stop and highlight something else in the music.

Monster Parade - Wow this song is fucking cool. By far my favorite file yet! Little artistic statements here and there that I appreciated, such as the brief stream of green notes where that clearly isn’t happening in the music yet you still made it work somehow! Great use of repetition in the chorus, and great repetitive use of the left note in the pared down version of the chorus. Loved the raucous ending!

Namaham - Wonderful use of jacks, feels just perfect. Similar to the Anime Music Medley there are a few moments where the bursts seem just a bit too extreme to me when they’re only lightly happening in the music. This file really does it for me because of just how much variety there is packed into a small package, good job!

Otona no Nebaneba Sweets - Fucking awesome. I feel like I recognize the melody this is based off, what is it from?

Solo for Voice 67 - You dog you, it takes some real cajones to step John Cage. I’m not sure if I’ll ever play this file again but you did a good job with the music at hand. I stepped a piece of his for Stepping Stones 3, check it out when it releases on Friday!

Stellar Notes - Total blast to play! Excellent use of freezes to convey the guitar. This is afile I can see myself revisting many times.

Stress Free Style - This feels like it’s being hard for the sake of being hard. Maybe it’s just me, but those pairs of jump 12ths are just really unfun for me and take away from the awesome music that’s happening. Loved the way you stepped the ending!

Taiyou Iwaku Moeyo Chaos - Definitely my favorite of the files by this artist. The way you handled the bursts in this and Stellar Notes is exactly what I had in mind when I said I felt like some of the earlier ones had too many notes, these ones feel perfect!

Tumbling Dice - Fun file! Innovative patterning on those drum rolls, love it.

Wishful Thinking - This file feels the most artistic, in that a lot of the way you stepped the guitar is very interpretive, and I like it! Similarly to Game Genie, there were a few moments where it felt like you could have layered jumps in more than just the drums, but maybe it’s just your style, it works either way The little breakdown section where you focused on the drums was excellent and definitely welcomed, but as new ideas were introduced in the music in this section it would have been nice to see them incorporated in some way without the file getting too hard here.

I had a lot of fun with this, good stuff man!

[Skwid1]

Originally Posted by SKG_Scintill

P.S: Skwid I hate your files lmfao

):

i'll check this thing out!!

[Skwid1]

oh hey i was playing this and for some reason i had the motivation to actually write a vague, brief pack review! probably because it's a relatively small pack.

before i get into specific song stuff, i'd like to point out that it's really cool to see hard-to-sync stuff like this get stepped and that, for the most part, any problems i had were almost entirely due to song choice or playability not taking priority over technical accuracy. also, the overall song choice in this pack is really cool, even though in general i don't really care for piano arranges of anime OPs or guitar-focused instrumental tracks. i really enjoyed playing through this pack and it has a pretty great ratio of things i'd be willing to play regularly vs. stuff i don't care for.

as a more general criticism (or i guess a personal preference in regards to layering, honestly), i noticed a theme of sometimes ignoring more interesting rhythms going on in a song or heavily restricting layering in favor of stepping a PRed melody (mostly guitar stuff). a lot of the time it works out (most guitar solos feel pretty natural when layered like this), but sometimes it's kind of jarring.

for any specific times i mention in a file, keep in mind i'm using the 3.95 editor so the time may be slightly off if you're comparing in ddream.


Anime Song Medley - honestly this file is just too spiky for me to enjoy or come back to. any time i'd think about playing this in the future, i'd probably remember the rolls and decide against it, but i am also super biased against patterns that force manipulation.

Doraemon no Uta - the progression in this file is pretty cool and there's nice jack placement throughout. however, this is another file that i can almost guarantee i'd never go back to simply because of a couple of silly bursts (70.351s and 122.206s). when stuff like that is in a file, all i can think about the whole time i'm playing is "oh man i hope i can BS this burst 2 minutes into the file or else i'm going to be mad!"

Dying to Survive - outside of there being a couple of missing drum sounds at 15.487s and 196.058s (might have been a couple of others), i really enjoyed this. the section starting around 56.058 with the bass on 1 was neat. good patterning overall and a fun guitar solo, and i'm pretty sure this scales well on rates too.

Fatal Attraction - cool file. i enjoyed how, in the beginning, you avoided unnecessary layering by just restricting the bass drum to a specific column, which is something i would have probably just made into jumps personally. it's always fun to see someone step something in a significantly different way from how i would have done it but not in a way that makes me think "this is wrong."

Game Genie - long song, but it stays interesting throughout and i think this is another one that will be a fun challenge on higher rates. there's nothing else i really noticed as being weird or iffy other than the fact that it felt like it was slightly offsync. like the notes came too early. it could just be the fact that i was using headphones (normally play with speakers), but something felt off to me here compared to everything else.

Monster Parade - god-tier file and cool song. gr8 jax and bursts and whatnot. not much else to say.

Namaham - another banger. song choice made heavy jack-usage an obvious choice i'm sure, and it worked out really well here. the bursts are also well-patterned and help keep the file interesting throughout the whole duration.

Otono no Nebaneba Sweets - there's nothing that i think is outright wrong with this file, but it just didn't stand out to me personally. i think it's because the song forces the file to feel rly slow in the midsection.

Solo for Voice 67 - not much to say here. i feel like this is the kind of file that gets played once for a giggle and then never again. nothing wrong with a cute jokey file though. OSkomodo LEL KEK XD OSkomodo

Stellar Notes - god-tier. tied with Monster Parade for both favorite song choice and favorite chart. the song is just really well-represented here and the variety in pattern types make it super fucking fun to play. will have to play this on rates later.

Stress Free Style - holy shit that little drum solo and the outro are so well-patterned and most of this file plays to my strengths (le minijacks), so i'll be coming back to this one for sure. those one-hand trills in the beginning made me raise an eyebrow, but in the context of the rest of the file, they're not super retarded. i still don't really like them because realistically it forces pattern manipulation and i'm gay and hate that, but they're obviously musically justified.

Taiyou Iwaku Moeyo Chaos Haiyore! - man i have such a hardon for those 32nd bursts in the chorus. me coming back to this file depends on how much the 2 really hard bursts scale on rates, but they didn't look too bad and they're well-patterned. fun overall though.

Tumbling Dice - cool stuff. this is pretty nitpicky, but it kind of bothered me that only one of the 48th bursts had anchors in it and they're essentially the meat of the file. it doesn't even come close to making this unplayable or not worth coming back to, obviously, but it's just something i found strange.

Wishful Thinking - lots of neat pattern and speed variation in this one. the guitar solo starting around 157.742s is one of the highlights of the pack for me. that said, the section starting at around 100.911s with just the bass drum and snare charted was really disappointing and jarring imo. the whole time i was playing that section, it felt like the layering was super restricted because the upcoming section was going to build upon it by adding more layering later, but then it just kind of ends and transitions into an entirely new section, which retroactively made the previous section feel like it was just straight-up unfinished.


For a more condensed overview of my opinions (tl;dr):

PogChamp Files that I will play a lot and make me come back to this pack on their own:
Monster Parade
Namaham
Stellar Notes
Stress Free Style

SeemsGood Files that I will probably play intermittently or when I'm in this pack for something else (or I just need to try on rates):
Dying to Survive
Fatal Attraction
Game Genie
Taiyou Iwaku Moeyo Chaos Haiyore!
Tumbling Dice
Wishful Thinking

DansGame Files that I likely won't play again:
Anime Song Medley
Doraemon no Uta
Otono no Nebaneba Sweets
Solo for Voice 67

[SKG_Scintill]

Anime Song Medley - This was an attempt at a D8-esque file. To me it's hilarious and it catches the hecticness of 3 pianos. Oh well. Subjectivemanias

Originally Posted by MooMoo_Cowfreak

Fatal Attraction - Was really enjoying this file until the hot mess of 24ths. Certainly what’s going on in the music is in 24ths, but it’s not just a stream of 24ths, it’s actually quite a bit more rhythmically interesting

Ha! nice that you caught this. I'm aware, but it was really freaking awkward with syncopation. After playtesting I decided to make it straight 24ths to make it (for me) more playable.

Originally Posted by MooMoo_Cowfreak

Otona no Nebaneba Sweets - Fucking awesome. I feel like I recognize the melody this is based off, what is it from?

Not a clue, sorry.

Wishful Thinking - Let me just say that I found this sub-par and decided not to send it to FFR. In a way I'm glad you two share my concerns.

===

The rest of the 2 reviews I feel are justified, and I appreciate both the compliments and the criticism.

Originally Posted by Skwid1

any problems i had were almost entirely due to song choice or playability not taking priority over technical accuracy.

Technicality over playability is simply my style. I feel technicality is getting rarer nowadays in stepping.

I went overboard at times due to the AA-mentality of SM rather than the AAA-mentality of FFR.
At first I thought the reviews on Anime Song Medley were biased because it's "too hard", but the reviews on Monster Parade invalidates that. I'll see what I can that from these two when making high difficulty files in the future.

Thanks for the quick reviews!

[Skwid1]

Originally Posted by SKG_Scintill

At first I thought the reviews on Anime Song Medley were biased because it's "too hard", but the reviews on Monster Parade invalidates that. I'll see what I can that from these two when making high difficulty files in the future.

Thanks for the quick reviews!

it's mostly that scoring on that file revolves entirely around jumptrilling those 48th rolls and the split jumptrills later on. it'd be one thing if they were all over the place and that was the focus of the file, but they're not too common so it feels kind of gay and unwarranted, especially since the hardest one is the last one.

the difficulty curve of a file doesn't necessarily have to be completely 100% flat or anything, but the spike in difficulty from the 16th minijacks to those things is pretty huge. as for hard files in general, this kind of holds true for anything, but you just have to maintain a somewhat consistent difficulty curve and you're fine. Monster Parade has a shitton of cool pattern variation and speeds while being hard but there's no single part of it (iirc) that just slammed you in a way that forces you to go "well shit i guess that's the only part of the file that matters."

it could also just be me being awful at rolls (because i am), but that's just how i see it.

edit: actually the best way i can think of putting it is that if you're looking at a hard pattern or something that might be questionable, ask yourself "if someone can actually hit this pattern, would the rest of the file be trivial for them?"