Songs of the Week (August 24, 2013)

[Xiz]

I really think Suit Up should be more of a 46-48 IMO.

Open to critique >.>

[bmah]

Make a difficulty thread about it if you can point to some objective qualities. Similarly, I wonder if XTC is a 65.

[DossarLX ODI]

Suit Up:
- The 16ths offsetted as 64ths are an entire frame off and it's noticeable. The song runs at 110 BPM for those sections, and a 64th is a guaranteed frame off (possibility of two, but in this case that didn't happen)
- The sudden long jack with the trill is a huge spike in FC difficulty for this file
- Severe slowdowns such as the 27.5 one are entirely unwarranted. There is a hi-hat going at 110 BPM 4ths and stepping them as 16ths at 27.5 BPM is ridiculous. The unnecessary low BPM usage needs to stop; even the 55 BPM ones are pushing it.

[popsicle_3000]

Originally Posted by MrPopadopalis25

]XTC Hill Zone: The steps have a sort of retro feel to them, both in layering and pattern choice,

AH! that's what it was. i knew i liked it a lot for some reason, just couldn't put my finger on why. I'm a sucker for that retro feeling file.

[bmah]

Originally Posted by DossarLX ODI

- The 16ths offsetted as 64ths are an entire frame off and it's noticeable. The song runs at 110 BPM for those sections, and a 64th is a guaranteed frame off (possibility of two, but in this case that didn't happen)

While a 128th arrow would've been preferable, you can just nudge those arrows a frame and send me the swf again.

Originally Posted by DossarLX ODI

- The sudden long jack with the trill is a huge spike in FC difficulty for this file

It's not even a huge spike, but really, people need to stop being obsessed with consistency as if Vertex Beta was the top role model for a file.

Originally Posted by DossarLX ODI

- Severe slowdowns such as the 27.5 one are entirely unwarranted. There is a hi-hat going at 110 BPM 4ths and stepping them as 16ths at 27.5 BPM is ridiculous. The unnecessary low BPM usage needs to stop; even the 55 BPM ones are pushing it.

I personally think this is a stylistic choice in this case, and I'll be damned if a judge takes off points for this.

[qqwref]

Originally Posted by bmah

128th arrow

bmah, there's no such thing as a 128th arrow. Come on.

Originally Posted by bmah

It's not even a huge spike, but really, people need to stop being obsessed with consistency as if Vertex Beta was the top role model for a file.

It's easy to tell people to "stop being obsessed with consistency" when you can AAA the chart (so difficulty consistency doesn't affect you). Dossar is talking about a long jack in a file without any, and long jacks are naturally hard to FC with or without mashing. This spike may matter a lot to someone who can FC everything else in the chart.

[DossarLX ODI]

Originally Posted by qqwref

It's easy to tell people to "stop being obsessed with consistency" when you can AAA the chart (so difficulty consistency doesn't affect you). Dossar is talking about a long jack in a file without any, and long jacks are naturally hard to FC with or without mashing. This spike may matter a lot to someone who can FC everything else in the chart.

Long jacks are very hard to FC compared to spread out patterns. Someone can have a lot of difficulty FCing the beginning of Largiloquent Dithyramb but do great on many other FGOs. So yes, if there is a long jack like that which stands out, I will mention it.

If someone is going to offset notes, they should take the effort to snap it appropriately. DDReam or a recolorizer works for this.

Also making a color mess is not a stylistic choice, that's just being rude. If a song is 120 BPM, you don't slow it down to 30 BPM if there are clear 4th rhythms in it at the normal BPM. Someone could submit a 240 bpm 16th stream file as 60 BPM 64ths and call it a "stylistic choice".

[ilikexd]

i think suit up is really cool and well done

however i agree with dossar that a lot of the bpm changes were just ridiculous

the bpm halving when the background cuts out a few times is a very nice affect, but

the beginning wasnt halved which is like one of the more reasonable places it could be done (it was halved in other places that sound the same as here)

@ around 400 and 850 is kind of absurd to have 32nds and 64ths, if anything it's more reasonable to raise the bpm

of course it's a stylistic choice, and not everybody would approach the song by changing the bpm a dozen times, but that alone isn't a justification, there should always be a good reason to make use of bpm change.. doubling/having bpm to accentuate how energetic/mellow a part of a song is is a good choice (like all the very short halving when the bg cut out was great), but it was done counterintuitively here a few times

i dont think the long trill is over the top though

[mi40]

notice how the simfile author says

DarkZtar

and not

DossarLX ODI/qqwref

[DarkZtar]

I like green~

[bmah]

Originally Posted by qqwref

bmah, there's no such thing as a 128th arrow. Come on.

Actually there is, or can be of any denomination, but anyhow I misspoke there. I meant 192nd.

take that back, it IS 128ths

Originally Posted by qqwref

It's easy to tell people to "stop being obsessed with consistency" when you can AAA the chart (so difficulty consistency doesn't affect you).

There are other parts of the song that can justify for the trill's difficulty. I disagree that it's out of place. It has -nothing- to do with my own performance.

[TC_Halogen]

The argument about BPM scaling also depends on the intensity of the song itself. Listening to Suit Up here, the first 1/4 BPM cut is definitely a stretch considering there's bass drums playing on 4th notes at 110, and they're typically the prominent instrument. The second BPM cut has an accent on each hi-hat, but lacks the heavy percussion that the first one has, so a 1/2 BPM structure would be acceptable here. A 1/4th cut is a bit of a stretch here too.

The 1/2 BPM cuts in between the verses of the song are perfectly appropriate.

[hi19hi19]

Pretty lame week overall. Despite being one of my least favorite types of music, Sagano Rakuyou Emaki was a standout for how well-made the file was. Definitely the favorite of the week.


Alice's Garden
PR errors everywhere in the grace notes. Grace notes should follow the direction the tone is being rolled. Also some more minor PR errors in the melody, such as a repeating jump near the middle where the tone actually goes up. In a file this simplistic literally all there is to do is get the PR absolutely perfect; that it is incorrect is a problem.
Not sure about the arrow colors: either the white arrows were for color theory and went to absolutely nothing, or the BPM was wrong. Use small BPM changes to avoid this. Either way the arrows were the wrong color and that was annoying.
Overall just your typical technically weak file that got in because it's easy. Judges please be more harsh with this level of file in the future.

Note: As far as stylistically, I've said this before and I've said it again: easy files should have a consistent beat and give new users something to follow to practice reading and rhythm. This overabundance of ambient, color-fucced gracenote fests are bad for the game and push away potential new players. I would actually prefer being the most harsh with easy files, as it's the experienced players who know they will have to wade through some bad files to get to ones that make sense. New players shouldn't be thrust into the world of ~dumpy artfiles~ without at least the chance to understand the core of the game first. It's why we moved Synthlight files to Legacy and it's why we should hold files like this to an incredibly high standard before accepting.

Sagano Rakuyou Emaki
Interesting layering scheme, PR and the white arrow color theory followed nicely and was used where appropriate.
I applaud your restraint in not stepping the trills. The difficulty flows really well as a result.
Despite not being a fan of the music, I happily concede that this is a really well done file and an excellent addition to FFR for those who do like this genre.

Suit Up
Started out really fun. The half BPM sections made sense to me. As noted, the green color theory arrows were frequently a frame off. Use BPM changes to fix this next time (if you want an example, check my Silence file from my Tournament Pack. It's a huge pain in the ass to do correctly.)
The trill was definitely a huge difficulty spike but whatever, sometimes you need a dumb difficulty spike to give an otherwise bland file some character. It's a tradeoff.
The quarter BPM section was a little excessively hard to read. Got pretty repetitive after that, to be honest.
Overall just a really repetitive song pick, then you put some gimmicks and difficulty spikes in to give it replay value.
On one hand it's not that bad technically, cool song, fun to play and all that, so I guess it's fine. On the other hand though it was a pretty weak song choice from a steppability perspective and that's why people are raging, I think.

XTC Hill Zone Act 24.7
Super generic file. Lots of little background rhythms that could have been utilized to give some variety that weren't, especially in the beginning. Not saying what was stepped was wrong, just that there were some missed options to spice it up.
Most steppers have made a file with lol16ths and jumps to the bass drum, glad to see the tradition lives on. (DESTINYYY)
Overall nothing hugely wrong with it, nothing majorly recommending it. Cool Sonic nostalgia from the sound effects. 24ths and the color notes to Big were fun little interludes (was that a Game Grumps sample at the end? lol). JS patterns were solid.
Like there's not too much overtly wrong with the file except for the fact that I'm a jaded old stepman and have seen all this before so yeah. Good stuff, I suppose.

[Choofers]

Originally Posted by hi19hi19

Pretty lame week overall. Despite being one of my least favorite types of music, Sagano Rakuyou Emaki was a standout for how well-made the file was. Definitely the favorite of the week.


Alice's Garden
PR errors everywhere in the grace notes. Grace notes should follow the direction the tone is being rolled. Also some more minor PR errors in the melody, such as a repeating jump near the middle where the tone actually goes up. In a file this simplistic literally all there is to do is get the PR absolutely perfect; that it is incorrect is a problem.
Not sure about the arrow colors: either the white arrows were for color theory and went to absolutely nothing, or the BPM was wrong. Use small BPM changes to avoid this. Either way the arrows were the wrong color and that was annoying.
Overall just your typical technically weak file that got in because it's easy. Judges please be more harsh with this level of file in the future.

I had this marked down as a 3.5 until I had to pass, due to it already being accepted. I don't get why it received the scores that it did rofl, the pattern usage is blatantly incorrect, grace notes make absolutely no sense, it's super boring, and yet the highest it got was an 8.5.

Judges need to be harsher, otherwise we get shit files that people don't like in-game.

[hi19hi19]

Hey Choof you gotta be politically correct, it's not "people don't like this file" because I realize one person likes the file.

The problem is we are trying to appeal to more than just one person when you put something up for public consumption on a site with thousands of active members.

[Choofers]

still a bad file

[mi40]

i think we just need to step newgrounds techno

lmk if u object to my suggestion

[hi19hi19]

Originally Posted by Choofers

still a bad file

I was being sarcastic rofl

hard to be sarchasm on the internet oh well

Originally Posted by mi40

i think we just need to step newgrounds techno

lmk if u object to my suggestion

omg or, or

get this

we could step artsy ambient flashberb songs

but we could step them in a technically sound way


CRAZY

[KiI14]

rofl Alice's Garden so bad

[Choofers]

posting after kil doppleganger