New file out now in the first post! A remaster of one of my older releases! Stream of Consciousness by Dream Theater! A huge thanks goes out to Mollocephalus for the beautiful background and banner. It ties the whole chart together nicely!
So I charted this for the Community Keyboard Megapack Volume 4 back in 2010 when I wasn't as experienced with DDReam studios and was an absolute melon when it came to charting something as difficult as a Dream Theater song, let alone this song. I had some general goals for this remaster:
1: Fix the sync. When I opened the chart in DDReam for the first time in 10 years, I was astonished by how off the syncing was in certain sections, so I went through the entire song and adjusted all of the strong beats as well as inserted multiple sub beats.
2: Eliminate unnecessary color notes. The goal was to eliminate some of the absurd baq12 syndrome that was present throughout the entire song. I have a bad tendency to step as accurately as possible, and it results in a very colorful chart that can be a little tedious to look at, so by inserting sub beats I can still step accurately but eliminate the extra color notes by locking it to 16ths, 24ths, 32nds and so on. I didn't do this for the drum, guitar and keyboard solos for artistic contrast.
3: Adjust patterns to make the file flow more smooth. This is one of the coolest and most complex instrumental sections Dream Theater has ever done. The complexity in the amount of layers from section to section is absolutely nuts and can lead to over-layering, which leads to bad flow. I went in to adjust quite a few of the patterns, specifically in the guitar and keyboard solos. I first took out a lot of the layered drum in the keyboard solo, specifically in the holds, and left the snare and tom hits. I then took out any awkward bursts that were near impossible to hit and replaced them with more fluent patterns. I also adjusted the pitch relevancy as well, especially in the guitar and keyboard sections. I think the patterns in comparison to the original 2010 chart flows much better and feels super good to hit.
Though it was an immense amount of work, it was an absolute joy getting to remaster this. I hope you all enjoy it just as much as I do.
