Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

[moches]

Re: Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

yeah

I'd be willing to help

[Yesssss]

Re: Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

SUDDENLY A WALL OF TEXT! (Cost - 4 Artifact Creature - Wall 4T - Place a 0.5 second stop on target creature)
I felt like doing this for some reason.

SYNCING WITHOUT TOOLS
Lecture for tutors (and probably professors as well).
NOTE: If you use DDReam effectively, this doesn't really apply to you, but it's still probably a good thing to know how to do.
NOTE2: I'll be using SMG2 as reference material here about half way through.

So you've got a song that you think is constant bpm, you use MixMeister, put the bpm in and 30 measures in your file is way off sync. Depending on the kinds of songs you step, you'll either occasionally run into this problem, or not run into it at all. However, I'm sure you've seen a handfull of sims that have slight changes in their bpm, yet are (nearly) perfectly on sync. This lecture will cover those.

I actually have no idea how some songs manage to have this weird anomaly, but I have stepped quite a few of these if you look at a lot of sims I've made (Almost There was actually a mistake on my part earlier in my simfile "career". It's in fact a constant bpm). The SPC on the SNES seems to produce this anomaly the most commonly from my experience.

First off, let me recommend using 0.2x for syncing. It's more accurate than 0.3x, and most instruments can still be heard (unlike 0.1x). You can get it the same way you would get any speedmod. This isn't necessary, but I recommend it. Some instruments, most significantly the bass, cannot be heard under very low rates, and you will have to go up to higher rates (usually 0.5x) to hear them. For simply placing notes, 0.5x is usually the lowest you need to go.

Let's start with constant bpm songs for practice. You need to learn how to find the bpm without MixMeister, or any tool for that matter. You could count the beats using a timer, but that's not what I want you to do. I want you to guess it by ear. First just take a random CBPM (constant bpm) song, find the gap by using the first note on the first measure, and step the first measure. Unless you're an awesome guesser, or incredibly skilled at figuring out bpms just from listening, you're off sync. When you playtest it, if the arrows go above the "gray" arrows, that means your bpm is too high, and vice versa. Fudge with it until you get something you think is right. When you think you have it right, skip ahead of the song about... say... 70 measures and see if it's still on sync by laying down 4th notes. That's about how many measures it takes to detect a bpm that is off by 0.01. If your bpm rounds off to a whole number then you don't need to worry about skipping that many measures, although it's good to check just in case.

Now, what if the bpm doesn't round off nicely? This is the hard part, and it's also hard to detect, especially when it's a pseudo constant bpm (like the kinds of songs I described earlier). Now we will take a song that is fully constant bpm, but has a bpm that doesn't round off nicely. Here's a short list (probably not comprehensive): Ave De Rapina, Bumpy Genital, Butsutekkai, Ghosts, Rose*, Sunday*, Night Jam, Regulus, Listen to your heart, etc. Without looking at what the bpms are, make a blank sim from those songs and try to find it. You don't have to do all of them, just enough that you think you've practiced enough. Be careful when testing the sync to make sure it matches the start of the song as well as the end (it's an easy mistake to make).
*IIRC, Rose and/or Sunday actually has slightly incorrect bpms in the distrubuted pack. See if you can fix it!

Here are the answers:

Ave De Rapina: 125.05, Bumpy Genital: 220.06, Butsutekkai: 172.93, Ghosts: 184.20, Rose: 182.45, Sunday: 175.05, Night Jam: 120.08, Regulus: 127.97

We can now move onto the psuedo CBPM stuff. This is less common, and takes more time to sync since there are multiple bpms. BPM changes in these songs usually happen when a new instrument is introduced, or when they stop using an instrument. I can say that from experience. Files that have this in SMG2 include: Cruisin', Final Step, In the Light, Incarnation of Devil, L.s., ZETA, and maybe some others. Take one of those sims, remove the bpms, and see if you can resync them using the skills you used in the previous section. Check to see how well you did.

Lastly, there's songs that don't have any constant beat at all. These are just simply a mess. The only way to step these with complete accuracy is to sync every single note individually. This takes LOTS of time, and it's the reason you don't see many of them. Since these songs are such a mess to sync, you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want. Getting the 4th note on each downbeat is simply cosmetic with these.

Extra: Placing 192nd (as well as 96th and 128th) notes using the SM editor.
1. Find a spot you want to place your note at.
2. Save
3. Select a small space (usually 1/64) either before or after the note (not within)
4. Use the expand or contract function to the degree of your liking (about half-way down the enter menu)
5. Select a distance that includes the note
6. Copy
7. Reload from disk
8. Paste
9. Remove old note if it still exists
10. Test its accuracy. Try again if it's inaccurate.
I actually stepped cruisin' using this method, although I didn't do it to each individual note.

[who_cares973]

Re: Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

SUDDENLY A WALL OF TEXT! (Cost - 4 Artifact Creature - Wall 4T - Place a 0.5 second stop on target creature)

lol

NOTE: If you use DDReam effectively, this doesn't really apply to you,

i stopped reading there

but it's still probably a good thing to know how to do.

then saw that and continued reading.


awesome syncing tut. it'll help everyone thats afraid of ddream

[Patashu]

Re: Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

this is how I make 192nd notes:

1. look for a set of adjacent 48th/64th notes; any green note should have one next to it
2. make a selection starting from one of those notes that selects the note(s) you want to move
3. Cut
4. move to the other note of that pair
5. Paste

if you moved from the late note to the early note of the pair, you've shifted your note(s) early by a 192nd. vice versa if you moved from the early note to the late note of the pair

[who_cares973]

Re: Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

this is how i make 192nd notes:

1. use left or right until you get to the 192nd snap

[kommisar[os]]

Re: Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

nice read yessss



also smg2 was generally seen as an unfun technical dumpfest, but has some gems in it.

[ASTRODONGS]

Re: Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

I can be a professor on pad files for anyone who cares.

This goes for me as well, if there's any interest in it.

[dood gone krazee]

Re: Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

this is how i make 192nd notes:

1. use left or right until you get to the 192nd snap

So much easier

[Yesssss]

Re: Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

awesome syncing tut. it'll help everyone thats afraid of ddream

Keep in mind that DDReam can't do the work for you. You still need to be competent at syncing. The only person I've seen who can use it effectively is dondon151, although I haven't downloaded the xoon packs so there might be some people in there...

It's also a good idea to practice syncing anyway since DDReam can't always help you in every case. Especially so with solos, or otherwise odd notes in songs.

[who_cares973]

Re: Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

there hasnt been a case where ddream hasnt been able to help me especially with solos and odd note songs. but im probably one of the few that know how to use it ?_?


shuriken cut

[jimerax]

Re: Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

SM doesn't change at all but DDReam gets much better now compared to like, a year ago. and I find several people already fairly get used to it.

DDReam prpbably doesn't help THAT much in terms of syncing accuracy, but it helps you for syncing much faster compared to SM when you do BPM related rhings. As for stuff like color note things I don't find significant difference between them, except for SM has some issue with assist tick wav file, and sound variation when you slow down the music. still, I personally have things that I can do better on SM than DDReam though.

btw great notes about syncing yesssss, nonetheless.

[Ghakimx]

Re: Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

*Raises hand*
Question!

I have a song which has a constant BPM. In one part, it repeats the same medley every 4 measures. I notice within the next repeat, the medley plays slightly faster than before. What should I do? If I used a slightly faster BPM, it would be akward, since this is a CBPM song and it would feel weird for XMod players like me.

[Patashu]

Re: Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

...

use a slightly faster bpm

[jimerax]

Re: Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

Check the sync of the beginning of all measures and guess the BPM tendency.

If the gap is getting larger from a certain measure, that's the BPM turning point.

[Ghakimx]

Re: Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

Actually, when the medley repeats for the last time, it's actually the same BPM, which is 90.