Judge: visD
MG1 (mi40) [**9/10]
Judge Notes:
I'm only giving approx timestamps for this one, for obvious reasons lol
Gallop at ~8.853: Don't feel like this is necessary. "girl" is a single syllable the way it's enunciated here
8th at ~11.626: Same thing as ^ with the [u] here, but more relatable, the p-R- sound is stronger
8th above 12.151: this note should definitely go, there is no syllable here
the [L] just after 13.576: same thing with the previous 2 gallops highlighted. I don't know if the ultra-technical approach is really needed here with how easy this file is supposed to be
After 13.906, there should be a 2nd syllable for "go-ING" that is missing here. I mean, I can see why you'd forego this, but given how you've been charting 2 arrows to Single Syllables Slurred Slightly, this one should definitely be included.
**CONDITIONAL: The ultra-technical approach with this file has one really glaring problem, which is your use of minijacks.
For instance, the one that starts at 5.678 ["a - go"] has a span of 0.109s, or what is essentially a 138bpm 16th jack. This is pretty exaggerated given the rest of the file.
I think this was the worst instance, there was another that was just as bad, but there were numerous others I checked in on that were basically 100bpm++ jacks as well.
I know it "feels" more right to have syllables of the same word go to the same note, but this right now is in essence a difficulty ~10 file with difficulty 30+ (and in one or two cases, 40+) jacks in it. You can keep some of the slower ones if you really want, say around 0.2s gap++ apart - ~0.2s because the fastest jacks in Fastest Pointer Finger are also around 0.2s apart, and keep in mind that if we took the jacks out of your file, your file would be approximately difficulty 8-10
Or for an extra data point, go check out hehenonomohe which is a difficulty 26 because of 120bpm minijacks - 130bpm minijacks in a diff 10 file are pretty no-no
OVERALL: this is the sort of thing that would historically get insta-rejected by a good majority of judges, especially in the past, I imagine tbh. And, even today, this will likely still be somewhat polarizing when it is released.
But we're approaching 3000 files in the game and you know what? This is different and memorable. Some newer players will absolutely love it - I know I would have - and, if they hate it, well, for all its technical flaws, it's still short and sweet, and doesn't outstay its high-concept welcome at all, which is very easy to do. That’s a huge plus for an experimentalish file.
The color theory is also tasteful and adds to the experience of the chart in a meaningful way, not just there for no reason. Good shit.
P.S.: for this chart specifically, what you did to sync with the colors is ok, because the attack on these vocal samples are drawn out, not sharp. So nothing really feels desynced.
But in the future there's a much better way to do this sort of thing: chart the file "normally", or as normal as you can make this, and then use the Stepmania Recolorizer:
https://mzrg.com/stepmania/draw/awesome.html
Mysterious Wall (Pizza69) [8/10]
Judge Notes:
35.168 - reverse pr
48.668, 58.268 - shouldn't be jumps, no background piano or guitar here
97.268 should this be a jump?
128.658 - kinda weird pattern for a descending scale; I noted 35.168 earlier, there are other instances of this motif that I didn't highlight in between, because perfect pr is not super necessary or really even a good idea tbh, but this one with a minijack kinda stands out in a not so great way
138.667 - same note as 141.067, higher than 140.467
Ending placeholder note feels a little extra - would at least recommend moving it to a 1 because that's where the player would be expecting a final note (since the penultimate note is on 1)
Solid and clean easy file. PR was generally pretty good, grace notes were justified, jump accenting was neat, whole thing was well made in general.
I find it hard to rate this file any higher, even though this is a very clean chart, just because FFR already has a lot of easier files that are basically like this and I don't know if this will have a lot of replayability value for newer players.
But there will be some who love it - nice file in its own discipline.
Sam's Song (gold stinger) [7.5/10]
Judge Notes:
0.565 you step this sound consistently later on
22.071 starting here, if you want PR, should be 2 {3/4} 2 for these 3 8ths
22.071 also in this part - the 4ths seem to be deliberately omitted even though that guitar sound has been consistently stepped through previously (same as thing at 0.565). For the effect I don't reallllly mind it here, but it does play slightly weird.
37.252 glaring missing note
43.577 nice
48.905 missing 8th to guitar
53.878 ^
59.661 ^? (based on your jump usage, you'll also have to de-jump the next 4th - if I'm correct, seems to be "isolated 4ths with pronounced guitar strums -> jump", which this 4th will no longer be if you add the 8th)
1.00.926 Breaks the above rule for jump usage?
1.01.288, 1.02.011, 1.02.734, 1.03.457 - again these aren't being charted even though you definitely do include them elsewhere --- see 1.14.661, 1.15.023
1.05.444 - missing guitar
1.06.529 - missing guitar
1.11.408 - rule-breaking jump
1.11.950 - missing
1.34.722 really like this 1-3-4-3 patterning for ne-on-light-and!
1.41.770 - will stop pointing out these "rule-breaking jumps" but I think you should go back and look over the chart and make sure you're accenting every pronounced guitar strum you want to. Sometimes, you accent them even when they're
embedded amongst 8ths; sometimes, you deliberately ignore very pronounced ones (e.g. 48.999) that are just as loud as the jumps around it.
2.08.577 - like this
2.09.240 - and this, etc.
2.32.011 - I normally don't say this but I'd like to see this very last note stepped. The strum roll at the end there is nice, but this is a really solid way to actually end the song, AND allows the dragged out strum from previously to finish playing. Please fill this in.
This chart was difficult to judge, tbh. I had some questions initially, but on a playthrough, however, most of it melted away - the instrument-switching felt a lot more intuitive than staring at it through an editor - and I was left with a pretty engaging and fun file. You chose literally the *only* possible layering mechanism that this song demands in order to create both an interesting and musically-faithful chart, imo, by taking the risk of switching between the voice and guitar whenever possible.
I do think you should return to at least clarify the jump usage and make it more consistent throughout, I didn’t label the pronounced strums exhaustively but you should decide if you want to highlight ALL the pronounced ones (my suggestion, frankly; it gives the file a nice spicy flavor), or only jump the ones that are isolated (no notes immediately before or after). This is the main inconsistency to resolve. Still acceptable anyways, because it’s hardly noticeable on a real playthrough, so don’t feel the need to gatekeep CQ for this.
The Light (storn42) [**8/10]
Judge Notes:
Trills at 18.282 onwards - given the difficulty of the rest of the file, these slow trills lasting for about 12 seconds feel a bit bland and understated. You have a variety of options here to liven it up a bit:
you could start the snare jumps (which you have right before and after this section) as early as 19.032, or only fill them in on the repeat (starting at 24.282). You can also layer the cymbal jumps here if you want.
Just a couple of suggestions to consider - see if you like any of them in particular, no pressure.
42.282, 48.282, 60.282, etc: what are your thoughts on layering jumps to these prominent cymbal crashes? Again, your 16th drum fills that end on a jump are a lot harder than any of these sequences.
** Section starting 1.12.282 (and the repeat at 2.12.484): starting this section, the layering gets a bit hazy. The jump at 1.14.157 and the hand at 1.14.532 and the jump at 1.15.657 and so on strongly imply that you're now layering the vocals in (a move which I strongly agree with).
Great, but:
- why is 1.16.682, 1.17.344, 1.17.907 a jump (only voice, no kick)?
- 1.18.094 is a ghost note?
- there's a glaring misrhythm at 1.22.782 and 1.23.157 where the vocals fall on the 4ths, but no note is here; instead, the 8th kicks immediately after each of these get highlighted as jumps
- this previous problem is the most noticeable one
- Please relook at this section overall to ensure that the vocals are properly layered in (are they supposed to be jumps unto themselves at certain points?)
- Note that this stuff repeats in the repeat chorus at 2.12.484.
- Note that in *that* section, the vocals repeat twice, so please don’t forget the area around 2.36.284+ too.
The color fuckery in the next part is awesome.
2.49.409 is this yellow bc "show you the light"? lol
2.51.659 it's sections like these that reinforce a good reason to have slightly heavier layering before the first chorus - this is a short run of 160bpm jumpstream; whatever accenting you might have wanted to do earlier but couldn't due to difficulty concerns shouldn't be in play here
Song is very awesome, file is pretty fun, drum fills are always a hoot to play. Color theory done right. Just need to fix up some layering and we good.
CONDITIONAL: Chorus layering and rhythms. I realllllllllly wanted to accept this outright, because this is fun and song is great. But that glaring misrhythm and confusing layering in the chorus sticks out way too much, because there’s nothing else going on in the chart at that point - it became pretty distracting on my playthroughs. Please fix, otherwise this is poggers
The Phoenix (TC_Halogen) [8/10]
Judge Notes:
13.408-26.741 I think this section could be very confusing to a casual player, to be honest. The clear foreground melody is being ignored for a very sporadic sound - that further has minijacks to adjacent notes from that instrument, when (while technically correct) those notes have their relative pitch muddied and prominence diminished by everything else that is louder than them: the claps and other percussion, the foreground melody. It genuinely took me like 3-4 times replaying this section just to vibe with the current setup during a 100% playthrough.
36.471 this is so good aaa
53.408 given the 16th stream just above this bit feels kind of underwhelming. Would consider jumps on the 4th...the music here is arguably even more intense than the preceding stream
but 1/2 the density. I'm sure you already considered this, but consider again lol. At the very least, the snare hits at places like 54.241 and 54.866, which you put jumps to when colliding with violin earlier.
1.00.875 consider moving preceding 4th jumps to [12] or [23] for a clearer visual distinction between their big, punchy percussion and this high-pitched guitar note here
1.04.075 this works better!
2.12.475 move this off [14] to accommodate the pr on violin?
Simple and effective. The beginning is my biggest gripe, but everything after plays instantly intuitively.