What makes a good song for FFR?

[rushyrulz]

Re: What makes a good song for FFR?

Reminders.

Great song. A bit on the repetitive side but I really don't mind that when it's a good song being repeated.

[TC_Halogen]

Re: What makes a good song for FFR?

I absolutely hate comments that are against longer songs. I wish judges would stop being so harsh on song cutting, because not every song needs to be cut down to < 2:30. The song that I just put a preview video for is a 5:00+ drumstep song, but it actually offers differences in and out of every 8/16 measures. I've only finished 2 minutes of it, but it plays incredibly fast for two minutes.

@ Plan: haha, you're totally going to hate the chart that I put as a preview in the DB; totally has 32nd rolling and lots of vocal samples that are glitched out, and is drumstep

[kommisar]

Re: What makes a good song for FFR?

dynamic rhythms and complex chord progressions, room for accentuation and a build up to a climax to finish



that's it.

[Wayward Vagabond]

Re: What makes a good song for FFR?

im ok with long songs that are 89bpm 8ths to terrible rock music

[DossarLX ODI]

Re: What makes a good song for FFR?

I'd like to mention that the vocals completely destroyed that song for me.

Good song for FFR is at least 165 BPM, good melody with catchy riffs and a noticeable progression and NO CRAP-ASS VOCALS (but sampling is okay). Good example of music that's perfect for FFR: Gravity Blast. Example of a slower song that's good for FFR: Sensorium

I actually hate the vocals in Gotta Catch Em All too haha, ruined the song -- but I meant that other things could be in there that could make for some interesting layering, vocals are not the only method. But Plan B also has a good idea on what the file should be like... no more DnB burst crap please.

[Wayward Vagabond]

Re: What makes a good song for FFR?

i had the option of stepping gotta catch em all with or without lyrics. i chose with because tgotta catch em all isnt the same without lyrics

[rushyrulz]

Re: What makes a good song for FFR?

should have stepped gotta catch em all w/o vocals and slashmaid with vocals :/

[LongGone]

Re: What makes a good song for FFR?

I'd like a song with variety and reducing exact repetition as much as possible. Stuffing in as many interesting aspects as you can within 2 minutes for instance can make the song feel a lot longer, even though it isn't. That means you have to be more creative with structuring your songs within a shorter time frame.

That'd be something I'd rather play over a longer, 3+ minute song.

Isn't it the contrary? You'd want varied, interesting and non-repetitive patterns in a file to make sure the song/file doesn't drag on instead

[mrpreggers]

Re: What makes a good song for FFR?

slashmaid with vocals :/

too awkward to play D:

[bmah]

Re: What makes a good song for FFR?

Isn't it the contrary? You'd want varied, interesting and non-repetitive patterns in a file to make sure the song/file doesn't drag on instead

A varied song can do both actually. I was thinking along the lines of giving the apparent perception of having a fuller song by increasing variation - making it as complete as possible within a restriction of a shorter length of time. You're thinking of it from the other end. Entirely psychological, but it seems that most people can agree that we want a varied song.

[TC_Halogen]

Re: What makes a good song for FFR?

Isn't it the contrary? You'd want varied, interesting and non-repetitive patterns in a file to make sure the song/file doesn't drag on instead

It's both and neither. If a song has multiple components that are vastly different, you have to absorb each and every element, one phrase at a time. However, if the components are relatively similar, a sense of familiarity sets in.

You could have a background melody that's accompanied by one instrument, and then have that same background melody accompanied by a different instrument and it will feel like you've gone through that section before. You are familiar with it, but a new element passing by makes the song easier to pay attention and listen to, therefore not slowing the feel down.

EDIT: ninja'd by bmah somewhat

[igotrhythm]

Re: What makes a good song for FFR?

That's because Slashmaid's vocals are...distracting, shall we say?

I'm getting really sick of the main difficulty of a file originating from difficulty spikes. There's something to be said for climax theory, but there's a right and a wrong way to go about it. On the one hand, it's the most intense part of the song, but if it's at the end, people wring their hands because they have to play the whole thing over again if they screw up. Legendary Etude and For FFR are good examples of this sort of thing.

3020 is climax theory done right. The patterns are nothing the player hasn't seen before, but it's all coming together just like it is in the music, plus it's not at the VERY end of the song so there's no gnashing of teeth over a last note miss.

As for the song itself, I think the Single Song Pack was the epitome of how different people will step the same thing different ways, so it's really up to the stepartist. I agree with what AJ said before, though: It's really gratifying to be hitting perfects during a fast stream, the definition of "fast" being up to the player. Streaming is both fun to do and fun to watch, so the song should probably have a prominent instrumental to provide such a stream. Guitar and piano seem to be popular choices, but in either case I'd go with a synthesized version to avoid extra arrows in the form of grace notes. Shining Sword would have an okay 16th stream section, but there's the occasional 32nd slipped in there.

A fun file can definitely make up for any hang-ups about song length. Flying High and The Brain of the Moon both have fun streams, and they're also both over 4 minutes long. They achieve this by having well-chosen patterns that keep coming, variety in the song structure, and clearly defined instrument sounds. In the defense of steppers everywhere, long songs represent a more significant investment of time and effort on their part, and a lot of active players are in college or have other obligations and they don't have the time to play long songs.

[{Zero}]

Re: What makes a good song for FFR?

I feel like 'MASCARADA' is a great example of a good song. I played this and I felt the energy through-out the whole song, although, I was pissed I got past the crazy sextuplet stream and then got 2 goods, the ONLY 2 goods D:<

[Patashu]

Re: What makes a good song for FFR?

hahaha so is the op going to try and consolidate and convey all of this or just link to the thread and say 'you figure this out'

[psychoangel691]

Re: What makes a good song for FFR?

I'm not going to just link it lol. I'm going to try to make sense of everything. Maybe take key points and put up a poll for people to vote on to try to get a general idea. Obviously we're not all going to love the same things, but maybe we can at least get a generalized idea of what would be liked more over other stuff.