2015 January/February Set 1 (Complete)

Alright, Ant IDM is a nice streamy, flowy file during the first half.

However, when the file introduces jump stream around... here



...I feel your roll-type patterns start to muddy up and you instead have all these one handed trills in this section which leads to a lot of awkward transitions. I'm not really a big fan of the sudden jump in difficulty either, but I suppose it's not the worst thing in the world.

Really, all I would have to suggest for something like this is probably redo that JS section so you can incorporate more roll patterns instead of the one handed trills. Everything else about this file is pretty fun!

Got some animes going on in this bitch!!!!

It's one of those "Easy at first but then throws hard shit at the end" files. A tamer Pandora, if you will.

First of all...



This part I think should've just been either those [1][4] jumps or [2][3] jumps all the way through and not change.



Speaking of it being one of those spikey files. I feel the types of patterns used for the bursts are very... erm... unforgiving given the overall difficulty of the chart. I heavily suggest to maybe make those bursts patterns jump-trillable and have the illusion of it being a scary pandora-like file! I think it would make people think more fondly of it than be one of those files where people go

"Wow, what an asshole file this is. Fuck this file, bro."

Is it the vocal one...?

IT IS, YEEEEESSS!!!

Sadly...

I don't think this file is up to snuff, unfortunately. It's an easier version of Slashmaid on FFR, but that's not why it's not up to snuff.

Ya see, the stepper in question...



...Has these lone 16ths in between some of the segments. Now I can't cry foul about it not following the song, but my goodness do these 16ths feel out of place! I suggest to take these out.



Now this here is what I call simplifying a bit too much. Those 12ths don't exist, and I know what you were going for too. It's not gonna be easy, but I suggest first fully stepping that roll-y drum sound at that spot, and then simplify that!



This section with guitar rifts and rafts like going crazy... I hope you know that these are not 12ths either, right? Those are all 16ths! Isolating at 1000 notes at .4 rate makes me sure this is the case (and because Dossar's version already on FFR, heheh)

Be may it not sync right here. It's surprisingly flowy, which is nice. I think you should redo this section with 16ths though! SORRY!



Eeeeee, I don't hear those 32nds!



Also... this an asshole way of ending the file, dohoho. I suggest changing that 32nd jump!

Overall, I can dig this soley because it's Slashmaid. But it's got some work to iron out, especially that 12th section!

Oooo baby some break beats!

There are MANY...

...And I do mean many...

...instances in the file where I see you stepped the 32nd drums, but then ignored it like a measure afterwards. I think for something like this, you'll need to step all those drums, no matter what! I think it would make a nice, bursty file if you stepped all the instances of those 32nd drums.

Oh! One more thing...



PLEASE GET RID OF THOSE CAMEL JACKS!!! And this is not the only instance of them either... thank you

...

And maybe one more thing actually.

So I'm not gonna gif it because it's at least 20 seconds long. At the end of the file, you have a lot of notes going to [3] and I think you could've added variety right here. I think you should make those long jacks different arrows for every measure I think.

If you don't want that, I'd suggest fading the song right there then, dohoho.

I think you got something here to be honest. You just need to fill in all the instances of those 32nds I think (and get rid of those nasty camel jacks)

Hey kid, want some dildos?

...Surprisingly flowy, despite it looking like it would play awful, hahaha.

However... if I may be picky-wicky



Many of these trilly patterns you got going on have [12] and [34] jumps with those fast gluts. I'm a firm believer that those are usually, 100%, ALWAYS awkward to hit no matter how you pattern the gluts. If they were going slower, I'd be cool, but eeeeeeh, not when it's this fast.

This happens a lot in the file too.



PLEEEEEEEEEEEEASE, EEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWW...

Change this place, I beg of you!

7/10

I was gonna use the stepchart image to indicate measures but it seems to cutoff at m22 for me... oh well.

-flows okay,
-the opening melody line looks like it could be rearranged to suit the music better.
-isolation start "586"; the 32nd after the 16th is unnecessary.
-isolation start "1331"; the snare hit is stepped as a single arrow rather than a jump. Every snare is a jump except this one.
-Isolation start "1351"; I feel there is no need for this to be a jump, as it is inconsistent with what has been done before and after.

Everything else about this file is A ok, and it has really fun patterns as well even though I'm not a huge fan of JS. The easy ending is also cool cause once you AAA the hard stuff it's basically smooth sailing and not having to stress over it makes me happy.

7.999999/10

"wow, whoever stepped this must be a JACKass!" hahahasdaghfs

prolly my favourite chart outa this set. there are parts that are a bit questionable, but after playing it on some rates they're still just as questionable.

-had to change my global offset to +1
-isolation start "32"; this chart could prolly go without this 16th.
-isolation start "46"; the mini stream changes for variety, but i'd personally like to see it notated so it wasn't obviously done so. Maybe even just keep it falling to the left for those two beats, so it'll match the theme of "not changing" when there are repeated sounds.
-isolation start "249"; [14] jacks could have just stayed [14] instead of switching to [23]. though it does add some variety, i think it'd be best to stay [14] as it will compliment the ending of the file nicely. (Similar to what was mentioned for "46")
-isolation start "374, 487, 562"; was a bit eh about this at first, but ya know not everything's gotta be easy so I dig it now.

Gotta say, I love this file. Especially on 1.2x

4.5/10

not a fan of the opening notation,

-isolation start "75"; feels very 'open' from here(I dig the emphasis on the vocals, but it looks like the background notation suffered quite alot). Which isn't bad, but I don't think it matches the uhm.. intensity the music has.
-isolation start "254"; good stream ending with easy to hit hands, nice.
-isolation start "288"; the vocals have been this chart's primary attraction so far. I feel it's a bit silly not to step the vocal stutter here, and at "388" and maybe even "391".
-isolation start "446"; here, the vocal stutter is stepped, unlike from the previous times. From here on it becomes unclear what is being emphasized.
-isolation start "510"; vocals are no longer accented, but at "626" they return. Though it's only for a few measures(32 beats) this part is the place to widen the steps and have a cooldown for what's to come later, bring those vocals out; especially at "586".

I feel like Charu pretty much got the rest covered. This needs work.

3/10

too many things are unstepped
the drums/hihats are very prominent in this piece, and they seem to only be stepped 'sometimes'.

m16 - isolation start "71"; everything before this is great, once the drums come in none of the steps seem to match the music well.
m46 - vocals are nicely stepped
m55 - this would be nice if it were a hand, to accent the beautiful B♭ 4/2 chord
m57 - nice stepping here too.
m65 - from here on, the file has the same problems mentioned in m16.

There is potential, but the overall concept of this chart looks to be the wrong kind, and unfinished.

3/10

Overall, this chart has problems very similar to that of "The Friendly Wolf".

>pickups should start on beat 4 of the first measure, leading onto the first downbeat of measure two. Having beat 1 of the song start on beat 3 of the chart not only makes it annoying to annotate, it gives unnecessary work for the stepper.


There are spots where the kick and vocals are stepped as hands, then later they are not. Sometimes the kicks are stepped as jumps but later, even though they share the same frequency, are stepped as single arrows. This makes the chart noticeably inconsistent, but it is organised with it's inconsistencies; until the end of the file.
Though the reasons for the patterns being so contradicting is apparent, to make the file less dense, the places they are done at do not match the song.

once the pickups into m10 hits, the file gets muddy.
It looks like the kicks are being focused on, but then it just shifts and varies in between phrases; pitch relevancy diminishes during this as well.
Also the kicks are obviously hitting every 16th beat, but they are stepped as jumps every 8th beat. Then near the end of both cadences the 16th kicks are all jumps... sometimes.

m25 - 16th note kicks are stepped as jumps most of the time. compared to m10 where they were not

Too many problems to list tbh...

Pretty nice overall, flowy and all sorts. FFR needs more of this kind of files. 8/10
- Feels a bit like a dump in many places, for example M39-M53. Not that I wouldn't enjoy dumps tho!
- In the end of M22 the polyburst seems too dense.
Diff 78-80

Overall a playable file. 6,5/10
- What a brutal change in difficulty at m24.
- The pattern in middle of m6 is not very flowy.
- 16th jumps at m9 doesn't feel right.
- First pattern at m15 doesn't feel right.
Those jumpjacks at at m24 and the ones in the end are killers. This will be a struggle for many to AAA.
Diff 78-83

A bit glitchy at places, but very good. 7/10
- m6 onwards the slowish 16th note patterns are not very flowy. This thing goes on for the whole first half of the song.
- m33 burst seems too dense.
- m44-m46 the jump pattern seems somehow wrong.
- After this all the polytrills and streams are really nice!
- M110-M125 the jumps between the streams don't flow.
Diff 81-84

Very flowy with some healthy glitchiness. 8.5/5
- M48 the jack makes too much difference to the surrounding patterns.
- M49 the vocals seem a bit off.
- This pattern in M113-M129 is really good. I don't think that we have a pattern exactly like this anywhere in FFR yet. I really like it.
- The minijack at M129 doesn't feel right.
Diff 67-70

Interesting. I didn't like this to start with but once I played it being warmed up, it appeared to be my favorite. The patterns are challenging, but not dumpy at all. 8.5/5
- If I would change something, they would be the triples at m45.
Diff 86-87

- I thought the file did rather well. It was definitely structured in a way that it didn't seem like there were any noticable ghosted notes or notes that were exaggerated.
- As soon as the file started, there was a noticable absensce of pitch relevance throughout the entire file, which is kind of disappointing, but the charting in terms of information-noise ratio was spot on.
- Did feel like during the 32nd js area, 783 notes in, you did that part correctly, but the rest of the 32nd js areas have some awkward patterns placed here and there, and makes it difficult to deal with, the large majority feeling like the jumps are random and don't co-operate with 32nd stream there, with an exception for the short 32nd break area that starts directly at 783 notes in, and the [34][34][34][34] jump emphasis part going with 32nds. Those parts are fine. Again:


these parts I liked, the rest of the 32nds felt like it was stepped to be piss hard.
- This kind of patterning makes me angry, but given it's at a slow bpm, it's acceptable.

- this area was also a bit awkward to hit. Idk, I would have used [13][24][13][14] or something, but that's just me.


Overall
Would put this file into conditional as to address pitch relevance and awkward 32nds. Don't know exactly what I can say that's awkward about 32nds in there, but maybe others will be able to better address it than me.

- There isn't much really to point out with this file imo, it's got pitch relevance, and follows note patterning to a tee. Most of the fault is the song choice for out of place patterning, mostly because [14][23][14][23] long section.
- These areas, feel like they can be stepped many different ways. Part of me says they're technically accurate, another part of me says cut out the first 8th jump & just include the 16th & 4th jumps, and then the short js afterwards, at which the technically accurate part of me rebuttles on that saying that the first 3 or 4 jumps (depending on how you look at it) should probably be the same jump, given how many jumpjacks there are in this file.


- Currently some layering issues in-game regarding the 48ths, just thought that I should bring that up.




Overall
I would accept it with a 7/10. The areas I pointed out are but a mere annoyance to me, I don't mind them at all, the voices in my head mind though. But when it comes to actually playing the song, I don't mind all that much. It was fun to play for a small file.

As a person who has dumped YEAR OF THE BAD DRAGON in the first pack I ever released, I can't help but feel like someone took my file here and made their own looking at my dump file as an example. Kudos to whoever stepped it though I thoroughly enjoyed this part at 120bpm consider me japed


Just felt like someone looked at my file here, and watered it down/made it denser in places that needed it. No offense, if you were trying to actually step the file, you really excelled in a couple places, it's just, it needs a lot of work. And for the most part, the file is correct in pitch & in terms of jumps & hands.

(quick plug for my pack if someone wants to look at my version: http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/...d.php?t=136157)

Alright, let's do this.

- missing [3] 16th before the [24]

- missing a 16th in between the 4th note and the 32nd trill here

- again another missing 16th note, it's becoming a recurring percussion exclusion.

- There's quite a couple of jacks in the file that don't feel like they're justified to be there, like this one as an example:

example no.2, not to mention that this becomes the norm for every triplet or 2-part 16ths nearing the end of the file. There's no consistency between the intro & ending of the file, even though they are practically the same.

- Please don't put random jacks in 16th densejs with 32nds & stuff thrown in, that kind of stuff is infuriating.

- fgfgfgffgfsdgddfdfgdfgdfgdfgdfgdfgdfggdfg

- in the part directly after that, there are some arrows where there really shouldn't be arrows, because there's nothing to go to.

it's done here as well.

- Don't have much of a problem with the buildup section before it goes into the really fast section, other than it follows and falls out of pitch relevance every couple of notes.
- It's beyond my ability to even dissect the densest js area in the song, just gonna skip talking about that.
- I think you might be missing some notes right here

- At the end of the file now, making a quick comparison between the start of the file and the end of the file, again just not really seeing the justification of these jacks:

- Considering all the other whammy & whizzy sounds were stepped, there's a missing 8th note at the end of the file:


Overall
There was a ton of stuff that I haven't covered mostly because there's so much of it, and I now have a newfound hatred for Charu for not analyzing it as much as he did Slashmaid, and HeZe thinking it wasn't dumpy. If I were a judge I'd have to regrettably reject it, even though I kind of like the song. ;-;

Ant IDM
Felt quite a bit spiky to me (compared to the music), felt a bit too much like stepping every sound in the song. Yes, it seems like every note is attached to some sound, but it makes the layering feel awkward to me. Some jump-jacks felt a bit unnecessary in relation to the sounds produced.

The song is structured well, and I admit it's not really the kind of chart that I enjoy playing. Putting that aside, I think some of the patterning feels clunky and without much flow. To me, a bit of rework in PR and flow can make this a great chart.

6.5 / 10

koumen break - sHimaU

The layering seems well placed and bursts all seem appropriate. Beginning's occasional jumpjacks hinted towards what was coming at the ending, and I liked that bit of foreshadowing.

8.5 / 10

I don't have a whole lot to say about this chart, seems to be layered a flows well. The tougher jack transitions seem to be used at appropriate times. Seems well constructed and challenging. A bit above my skill level, but seems layered appropriately.

8.5 / 10

I especially enjoyed the Hall of the Mountain King section, once again seems well constructed and way above my skill level. Not really the kind of music I'd listen to, but I won't hold that against it.

9 / 10