How (and why) to Add Silence to Your FFR Submission

[bmah]

Re: How (and why) to Add Silence to Your FFR Submission

If a file stops while the song goes on, one should do a fade-out. Although this doesn't matter too much since you pretty much leave the gameplay mode instantly once you hit the last arrow. Too bad we still have to add a placeholder arrow for some songs.

[championanwar]

Re: How (and why) to Add Silence to Your FFR Submission

FL is better

[trumaestro]

Re: How (and why) to Add Silence to Your FFR Submission

Bump.

Added Cuts and Fades to this.

[jimerax]

Re: How (and why) to Add Silence to Your FFR Submission

btw, sticked this since this is important for FFR submission.

[Silvuh]

Re: How (and why) to Add Silence to Your FFR Submission

Ohhh, this is a very nice guide you have here. Good work!


If someone wants more manual control over the volume, they can use the Envelope tool instead of the Fade In and Fade Out effects. You could add a section on the tool relevant to making cuts on your guide.

You perhaps could add a section about cutting in the middle of songs. There may be melody sections repeated several times ... to make a more compact version of the whole piece.

There's probably more to this than what I have typed up here. And maybe you can work it into your own style so you can add it into the OP ... Anyone else who has worked with cutting sections from the middle of pieces like this should comment on their ... uh, experiences with it and if more information should be added to the guide.
(( Other note: with all the new information in your guide, a little table of contents at the top would be helpful. ))

I used Above (which I sent to this batch) as an example ... The parts of the original track that are in my cut are in green. On the bottom track, I mapped out the melodies.


When doing cuts like this, one needs to keep in mind
● How many seconds are in each measure and how often patterns repeat
● How many instruments are playing at different times and any mixing effects
● How the song feels as a whole

★ To make sure that a cut doesn't cause skips in the music, exact values related to the BPM must be cut from a piece.[B]60 / BPM will equal the seconds per beat. In 4/4 time, there will be 4 beats per measure, &tc. Patterns often repeat in two- to four- to eight-measure intervals. Depending on the time signature, you can calculate how many seconds it takes for most patterns to repeat.

Above is in 4/4 and at a BPM of 150, so each small block (four measures: how often patterns repeat) in my image is exactly 1.6 seconds.

The bottom of the audacity window displays the second where your cursor is. When you make a selection, it will display the start, end, and total time of the selection. Always watch this value. Milliseconds are important. If you don't cut the right length out, all your arrows will be that many milliseconds off.

★ If a song repeats a pattern exactly multiple times with no effects and no new instruments, then it doesn't matter when in the pattern you cut as long as it is the right number of seconds. The start of the selection will match up perfectly to the end of the selection.

If the quality of the instrument changes or new instruments are introduced, then change would be instant and noticeable.

Because of this, one may need to find the start of a measure by zooming in close and selecting from there. It may be a little hit-and-miss at first being able to read the waveform. It's possible that the sounds before and after the measures cut will be too different to sound correct without the measures between them. Using the envelope tool to make the break less noticeable could work, if it's necessary a section must be cut out.

★ It's important to find the "balance" in the piece. Some sections may be easier to cut than others because of the amount of progression on the patterns, but ... don't cut too much of one section. You may end up with an intro longer than the core of the song. Try to proportion the sections so your cut still feels whole and balanced.

[SKG_Scintill]

Re: How (and why) to Add Silence to Your FFR Submission

But Silence is already on FFR, why send it again?

[Xx{Midnight}xX]

Re: How (and why) to Add Silence to Your FFR Submission

Oh my gosh this better get fucking stickied if it's not already. Files should be auto rejected if the 2 seconds of silence aren't there it's annoying as hell when stepartists don't take the 5 minutes to do this.

[Reincarnate]

Re: How (and why) to Add Silence to Your FFR Submission

this needless workaround is all the result of completely stupid coding on FFR's part, grats

[I like it]

Re: How (and why) to Add Silence to Your FFR Submission

I followed this guide, and after exporting it, the songs quality was terrible. Anyway to fix this?

[Artic_counter]

Re: How (and why) to Add Silence to Your FFR Submission

export in .wav

[bmah]

Re: How (and why) to Add Silence to Your FFR Submission

no

Edit --> Preferences --> File Formats --> Bit Rate to 320
(you might also want to check the Quality tab)

It is likely that the set bitrate is lower than your original mp3, so when you exported the song, it was converted at the lower bitrate.

[I like it]

Re: How (and why) to Add Silence to Your FFR Submission

I tried that and it sounds a whole lot better, thanks man!

[Arkuski]

Re: How (and why) to Add Silence to Your FFR Submission

Now if I have already stepped a song and I haven't added the silence...

[bmah]

Re: How (and why) to Add Silence to Your FFR Submission

Then what you need to do is add the silence, then readjust your file gap/offset in your editor. Remember, you only need silence if the first arrow begins within those first 2 seconds of the song. If you have a song that begins right away but you don't step for at least 2 seconds, then you don't need to modify the mp3 at all.

[Arkuski]

Re: How (and why) to Add Silence to Your FFR Submission

Oh that's great thanks