Keyboardsmash Phase I: Legacy Submissions Open

[LoliRam]

Re: Dark Chancellor Pack 2 (ITS HAPPENING.GIF) Submissions Open

ill send my revisions for PotE tomorrow for i am a lazy butt. i started working on a solo file for it as well and it sucks right now enjoy

[stargroup100]

Re: Dark Chancellor Pack 2 (ITS HAPPENING.GIF) Submissions Open

btw choof don't be too salty about songs not getting in because of song choice.

I thought that packs should've been more lenient about things like that, but considering the packs that I thought were successful (such as ODI packs that glove led) which did crack down on song choice and what I play personally, I realized that I was wrong

when glove rejected my submissions for song choice I thought that he was just being too picky, but that kind of filtering does dramatically improve quality control, and you could say is an important part of it too

I tried to be as open as I could without jeopardizing my responsibility to the pack. I would say that if you really are proud of a chart regardless of the song your best bet is probably releasing as a single

[stargroup100]

Re: Dark Chancellor Pack 2 (ITS HAPPENING.GIF) Submissions Open

@Bufang: I removed the jack and made it into freeze, and removed the rolls (which I still think that it fit the song but w/e @_@

It wasn't the rolls in general that were a problem, only certain rolls.


Kirlian Shores (full review)

m4 beat 3: I personally think that this note and the 16th following it should be on different hands, possibly make that 42 instead of 12. Minor nitpick, but I think it works because of the large difference and pitch and both notes come from different voice lines.
m8 beat 3: Same thing as above, though this time there's added rhythm in the fill. Needed to mention this because if you fix the above you should do the same here for consistency, which you probably would've missed.
m9: Again, minor nitpick, but I don't like how the kick drum and snare are both [14]. No reason for them to be the same here in my opinion.
m17 beat 4: More minor nitpicks yay. The two 8th snare hits in a row should preferably share a common note. As in, rather than do [13][24] do something like [14][24], sharing the 4.
m19 beat 1-2: Kick drum and snare drum sharing the same columns again.
m20 beat 2: The snare is really prominent here. You don't need to match 2-chords to every snare hit, but thickening up the notes here wouldn't be a bad thing. For example, instead of the [12]4321[24] pattern you have try [12][24]3[12]3[24] or [12][24]32[13][24].
8th before m22: That's a kick drum you matched to a snare hit.
m23: Near the end of this measure, it feels really dry and plain. Try to find something to follow and fill in here. I know you're focusing on the percussion and most of the interesting stuff happens in the melody, but it's so easy it feels out of place.
m25: Starting towards the second half of this measure, lots of interesting changes in percussion intensity happens through cymbals and instrument changes, and they feel ignored when you just follow everything with single notes without any hold usage. Not necessarily saying you should use holds or anything else, but try to figure out something to do here that will bring out the dynamic contrast of the instruments more.
m27 beat 4: Back to minor nitpicks. The green kick drum after the snare hit is really prominent as a syncopated "anchor" here, and you glaze over it in your notes as if it were a hi-hat. I found that sharing a note with the snare above it (even if you still use a single note rather than a 2-chord) and thus creating a jack does bring this out without the need to thicken the chart.
m28 beat 3: If you listen closely, you hear an abrupt pause here, a sudden brief drop in intensity, and the double you used doesn't work here in my opinion. Probably at the very least change it to a single note, if not doing something else with it.
m33: The layering scheme of this slow section isn't clear. I'm not sure what you chose to make doubles and even if I knew I'm pretty sure it's not consistent.
m41: This entire section is done pretty well, but if you take the advice of the previous sections into account, you should be able to do some minor touch-ups. If not, it's not a big deal anyways, as the chaos makes it harder to pick out and less relevant, but it'll at least be consistent with the beginning.
m45 beat 3: Pretty sure you added a bunch of extra rhythms here.
m49: This slow section is a revisit of the very beginning. You should use the layering scheme you used in the beginning.
m57: As noted before, you should pay attention to the changes in instrumentation. The downbeat here is a kick, located right in the middle of a bunch of snare hits in a fill. And yet, your notes are consistent with previous section as if these were hi-hats.
m65 beat 4: Once again, let the snares come out somehow.
There's a couple more of these things that follow the same idea until the end of the song. I don't need to repeat myself anymore lol.

Bodom Beach Terror (full review)

m4: Personal suggestion for pattern change: [14]23144. This really isn't a huge deal, just a suggestion, I think it works better.
m5: Starting beat 2, I suggest [14]32[13]1[23]. The added doubles kinda fills in what feels like an empty gap in the notes, using column 3 as a melodic "anchor". Likewise, whenever this pattern occurs again, keep consistency. The 4th repeat going into the fill you can keep as is, as it doesn't have the same spacing issues, but you can change it if you like.
m12 beat 3: I am 99% sure you missed a snare fill rhythm that I think you should highlight.
m13: In this entire section, at the beginning of almost every 2 measure phrase, where you have the 16th syncopation on column 2, you miss blue/red notes in between that are part of the melody. m13 for example, should probably be [14]3-2-232[34]. I personally think you should fill it in in column 3, but how you work that in is up to you, just fill in those missing notes.
m25: In this section, where you start off often with 3232[34], I don't think you noticed that the first downbeat the note is actually different, a whole step below the tonic in the guitar line. Feel a bit off to not have the recognized in the notes. [13]232[34] for example would be one way to fix this issue.
m31 beat 4: Missing a double here? Didn't you layer snare hits?
m32: The 13 flam follows the snares, while the [13] double that comes soon after is following cymbals. Putting them on the same columns while following different instruments feels weird.
m49: Personally, I think adjusting the hold lengths properly would make it feel much more organic. Right now, it feels like you put 8th note holds to everything because you were just lazy. Kil-style guitar wails where appropriate wouldn't hurt, since your given layering choice gives you a lot of room to play around. It also would demonstrate you're listening for the details in the melodic line.
m68: The very beginning of this measure, not only is the rhythm wrong, but you used the exact same pattern as you did last time, but the first time there were snare hits and this time there wasn't. I hit the exact same pattern expecting the exact same music, and got something different, which was a bit jarring. Rhythm was wrong anyways so you gotta fix it regardless.
m77: Not sure why you gave some orchestra hits green color theory treatment and not all of them. Was it just because of the echo effect? I think you might as well put it on every hit.
m80: 24ths leading into this measure are too left-hand biased, considering what's around it. Even a simple change to 123[24] would work. The 16th doubles right before beat 3 I would've done differently (but this is very minor nitpick), and beat 4 should probably be a triple, which would give you better pattern options for the 16th following it in addition to highlighting the snare and transitioning into the fill.
m84 beat 2: I don't hear the entire 16th melody line, I think you may have added extra notes.
m93: Solo section has a lot of incorrect rhythms and patterns are pretty boring compared to what I think I could do. Layering choice here is also questionable, unless you weren't trying to layer, in which case your rhythms really are off. At m98 there's a panning effect you should probably highlight in my opinion (personal choice). From m99 on it seems fine.
m121: I'm not a huge fan of the holds, might be too long. Not sure how else I would do this section but not big on how it is at the moment.
m125: This is up to you, but you should realize that you have the option of dragging a large hold down column 4, which could be cool I think.
m128: This measure almost feels lazy, but nothing particular wrong with it. I would've done more with it personally.
m129: Solo section 2. m130 I think the 32nd miniriff should go left instead of right. Around m131 downbeat I think you could play with the pitch bends or at least not use the same column on beats 1 and 2. The end of the long hold the guitar does something interesting you could play around with if you wanted. I dunno, in general the first two measures of this solo just feels off to me. The rest of it is fine I guess, minus minor pitch relevance problems.

Also, looking at the competition from other charts, I'm bumping my judgment on this from conditional acceptance to Pending until most of these fixes are made.



I also just realized Magic has a lower difficulty. I already accepted the chart but I wanted to add a few comments anyways.
It had really good note density and directional control and the extra space gave it more options for flow, making it just as fun as the harder chart. Though I feel like you got lazy somewhere in the middle (am I right? :P), not that I necessarily blame you for it. Might want you to fix it up a bit anyways though, just to keep it polished.

If you make any changes to Magic, please copy the charts over to a new difficulty before implementing changes.
I really like this one as is, and while I'm okay with improvements, I'm not necessarily sure there's much room for it. Considering how much I like this chart I wanna monitor this one more closely so judges don't rip it apart where it doesn't need it.



If I missed any full reviews that I meant to do, please remind me. If anyone else wants a full review don't hesitate to ask.

[ScylaX]

Re: Dark Chancellor Pack 2 (ITS HAPPENING.GIF) Submissions Open

I'll ease off with the mines and make slightly shorter freezes for I'm Your Daddy. I guess the file will be done for good after that.

As for Insane Techniques, I'm making the fixes Rebirth requested, however if they still don't satisfact you, you're free to apply minor modifications yourself. I fixed the sync of the m8, varied the notes of m38~41, stepped the mines of m41 and suppressed most of the messy miniholds of the last part (as Stargroup suggested too), the only thing I don't really feel like doing is the relayering of m18~33 because there are chances I'll fuck up the whole part and not change it the way you imagined to. I'd rather let you do it yourself if you really want it (along with the other fixes you told me, if the modification I made doesn't totally match what you wanted), go ahead, just give me the modified .sm file so we can both agree on it, and if I'm okay with that then I personally don't have any trouble with considering it a collab

Also, I think I'll send my Endless Despair II that was originally made for VGMP4, I already have a decent number of sims for that pack and we're sure this'll not get released in near future. Plus, Endless Despair II is a sim I'm quite proud of (like the finest stuff I made since last year) and I think it'll be better noticed in a pack that aims for ~excellence~ rather than in a pack that aims essentially for ~video game music~.
I just hope this will not be a bother for anybody

[stargroup100]

Re: Dark Chancellor Pack 2 (ITS HAPPENING.GIF) Submissions Open

april#02 crashes for me, can't review

[rCaliberGX]

Re: Dark Chancellor Pack 2 (ITS HAPPENING.GIF) Submissions Open

Probably because of rolls, it works fine on 3.95 and 3.9+ without xmods for me

[kommisar]

Re: Dark Chancellor Pack 2 (ITS HAPPENING.GIF) Submissions Open

april#02 crashes for me, can't review

"i'm using an inferior broken version of stepmania so it's ur fault I can't review this file pce"

[Buta-san]

Re: Dark Chancellor Pack 2 (ITS HAPPENING.GIF) Submissions Open

Magic
Expert:
- Most of the jacks that last one full beat aren't necessary. The only places where it is accurate is at m35 beat 2 and m51 beat 2
- Add jump to every red note after m58, don't leave out some. (same issue with the hard chart, but it makes more sense to do it on that chart)
It sounds like the minijacks are alright but the longer ones aren't except in those two spots.

The longer jacks were following the wubbass. There were 2-3 occasions where it overlaps with the melody. Hard follows the ascending melody, challenge followed the consecutive wubbass. A harder chart Im planning on will have those two layered.

Similar with akubyou, i used mini jacks to emphasize consecutive sounds, when theres a stream with 5+ notes, to accent it.

The chorus towards the end of Akubyou mainly follows the melody. Then I added mini jack patterns for every syllable of the vocal たい　さん. Thats where those came from. I do admit its not warranted enough and I could take it away=more boring file.
Stargroup, your talkin about the whole ladder section right? I could easily restep that whole thing. This section went against my own rule of minijacks Lol

Will resubmit with this in-mind and other fixes.

[rCaliberGX]

Re: Dark Chancellor Pack 2 (ITS HAPPENING.GIF) Submissions Open

Is that Magic by Nhato?

[Ghakimx]

Re: Dark Chancellor Pack 2 (ITS HAPPENING.GIF) Submissions Open

Why is GD like the only dude to review Amatias? ;_;

@ kommisar: lololololol

[stargroup100]

Re: Dark Chancellor Pack 2 (ITS HAPPENING.GIF) Submissions Open

Oh I just followed Rebirth's list because I wanted to review charts in the order of submission, and it wasn't on the list. I'll review right now, I apologize.

Amatias - I would've taken out a lot of those miniholds. I don't think they're necessary in my opinion, as the cymbals already have dedicated triples. Overall it has the potential to be really fun, but a somewhat significant issue is the pattern choices. It's hard to explain, but it just feels kind of weird throughout. There are a lot of ways in which you have the right idea, such as the piano section, but execution falls just a bit short because you miss certain details. A lot of these issues would be almost insignificant by themselves, but here they're so prevalent it almost pervades your charting style. It could be good though, it just needs that push. I get the feeling you might want, and you should ask for, a detailed review from me. Pending

I'm your Daddy (updated) - Much better, much cleaner. An 8th before m34 I dunno if you meant to ignore that sound. Not a big deal if meant to, just curious. Accepted

Insane Techniques (updated) - Also much cleaner. Accepted

Endless Despair - Overall really fun and on the right track. Personally I think it could do without 70% of its holds or at least duration cut shorter on a lot of them. Some of the jack patterns probably could've been done better but considering the way the song develops and your note density control I'll let it slide. Personally, I would've also have liked to see some fun playing with guitar bends and wails near the end, but I'm crazy like that so you can ignore that if you want. Aside from that I can only see minor nitpicks on specific things, so I'll see what other judges think. Generally excellent chart. Accepted

[stargroup100]

Re: Dark Chancellor Pack 2 (ITS HAPPENING.GIF) Submissions Open

The longer jacks were following the wubbass. There were 2-3 occasions where it overlaps with the melody. Hard follows the ascending melody, challenge followed the consecutive wubbass. A harder chart Im planning on will have those two layered.

This is basically I wanted to keep an eye on this chart. I felt like judges were ripping on the jacks, which I thought were the most appropriate choice here.

But I'm not sure how you'd layer both though, I don't know if it's possible to do realistically, but I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Stargroup, your talkin about the whole ladder section right? I could easily restep that whole thing. This section went against my own rule of minijacks Lol

Will resubmit with this in-mind and other fixes.

What's the ladder section? lol
All I know is that somewhere along the line in the heavy chart it felt like you got lazy. The challenge chart may have a couple of small minor tweaks it could use but it feels so right that I honestly didn't care, and some of them could be justified probably. For example, the m61 beat 3 32nd riff should be 24ths.


Do you mind if I tack on a 6k chart of my own on this just for the hell of it?

[choof]

Re: Dark Chancellor Pack 2 (ITS HAPPENING.GIF) Submissions Open

The longer jacks were following the wubbass.

wubba dubba dub izat true

[James May]

Re: Dark Chancellor Pack 2 (ITS HAPPENING.GIF) Submissions Open

It wasn't the rolls in general that were a problem, only certain rolls.

That was removed after rebarf's review of it @_@

And dear god Kommi...real life Kid Icarus Eggplant curse @_@

[Rebirth0]

Re: Dark Chancellor Pack 2 (ITS HAPPENING.GIF) Submissions Open

I do agree with most of your comments on Bodom Beach Terror. Before you had posted that I had fixed a couple of those things already, in addition to layering in some more triples and changing that one handed shit solo at the beginning of the solo section. (There is still a 34 24th section for 7 notes but there is nothing else that can be done, the music is different than the rest of the trills and I'm not changing that)

m49: Personally, I think adjusting the hold lengths properly would make it feel much more organic. Right now, it feels like you put 8th note holds to everything because you were just lazy. Kil-style guitar wails where appropriate wouldn't hurt, since your given layering choice gives you a lot of room to play around. It also would demonstrate you're listening for the details in the melodic line.

If anything, after listening in a lower rate, some of the holds should be longer, if I were truly charting to the length of the notes. I'm not really sure what I could do here to make that look better for you

m77: Not sure why you gave some orchestra hits green color theory treatment and not all of them. Was it just because of the echo effect? I think you might as well put it on every hit.

When listening to the music, those two notes felt JUST SLIGHTLY late, and one of them still does, but I changed them back to red/yellow notes.

m84 beat 2: I don't hear the entire 16th melody line, I think you may have added extra notes.

The notes are there, the jumps aren't really supposed to be since there isn't anything being emphasized right there though. However, when the same thing happens 4 - 5 measures later, it is emphasized a bit more and I did the same thing. I simply wanted to do the same thing for both spots (and I chose the overlayering for the first one as opposed to underlayering the second) mainly just to add some more difficulty to the song. Probably not going to change that.

m93: Solo section has a lot of incorrect rhythms and patterns are pretty boring compared to what I think I could do. Layering choice here is also questionable, unless you weren't trying to layer, in which case your rhythms really are off. At m98 there's a panning effect you should probably highlight in my opinion (personal choice).

The only layering I'm doing at all is to the percussion, but I did change the patterns just slightly. Going back through this did make me notice a 64th at m93 beat 4.5 which I put in.

Not sure how I could really highlight the panning effect here. I removed the [13] jumps and left only the 3 notes but that doesn't feel right. I don't know.

The rest of the things I basically agreed with and fixed either prior to the review or after it. I also tried to clean up the very last solo section at m143 - 145, which feels slightly better to play now.


Resubmitting.