Stepmania University: We'll make your files suck less (under construction)

[rzr]

Agreed with neon. In as student.

[Patashu]

Alright then.

First off, you need a song, obviously. If you have no idea I'd recommend looking through the OSTs of your favourite video games; look for things with a prominent, 'obvious' main melody. It's your first stepchart, it doesn't need to be the best thing in the world, you just have to get how it works. (Make sure it's constant bpm!)

Second step: Run smpackage.exe in \Stepmania\Program, use the create song button and get the song you want to step. Now run stepmania, go to the edit/sync songs option and look for the song under the My Creations group. Make a new singles chart and edit it.

Third step: For your notes to fall on meaningful parts of the song you need to set two things: The beats per minute and the beat 0 offset (how far into the song the first beat sounds). These are set with F7/F8 and F11/F12 respectively.
For the bpm, download Mixmeister BPM Analyzer and run it on the folder with the song in it. Round the bpm it gives you to the nearest 0.05 (it's a bit off most of the time) and set the chart's bpm to this number. Save.
For the beat 0 offset, lay out some random 4th notes then hit escape. Scroll down to song options and set the rate to 0.3x and turn assist tick on. Now, play the song, and listen/watch to see roughly where the song's first beat plays. Move to a smaller note interval (hit right and watch the colours change), place a note where you think the first beat plays, play it again to see how far off you are and repeat until you can't get it any more inaccurate. Look up in the top right and record the exact second it plays at. Now, move to the first bar of the chart and use F11/F12 until that beat's timestamp matches the timestamp of the first beat. Play it one last time to verify. Save.

Fourth step: Just step it! The basic commands you'll need to know are:
Up and down: Move up and down
Left and right: Change the note interval used
1, 2, 3, 4: Lays down a left, down, up, right step respectively or removes it. (hold down while moving to make a hold note)
Page up, page down: Moves you a measure backward/forward respectively. Handy.
Home/end: Moves you to the start/end. Also handy.
F1: Tells you all the shortcuts!

If you have no idea what to step, focus on whatever is the most prominent. Have assist tick on and check to see if the claps sound at the same time as the song's notes, and use a lower rate if you absolutely can't figure it out. Don't worry about PR or layering or being technical yet, my first file didn't have any of that either.

And last but not least: Not all songs were created equal. If you can't figure out what to do with a song, it might just not be the right kind of song to step. I know I'd never go near some music.

If you finish anything, just upload it in my thread; I (or someone else for sure) will tell you if you're doing it right so far, and what you can think about for your next chart. Baby steps encouraged.

[Xandertrax]

I'm definitely interested in this. Not sure whether I'd be a student or a tutor though. I know the basics, but don't really pay that much attention to layering, etc.

P.S. that second step is totally different than how I make new files. How many ways are there to do that?

and some sm history: what ever happened to .smzip? how come everyone seems to use plain .zip now?

[kommisar[os]]

i could teach advanced stepmania theorem calculus aka the list of dark chancellor stepmania theories perfected by kil

also here's a little tutorial i made a while back http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...28748355&hl=en

[Patashu]

can you really kommisar? can you really.

@Xandertrax: I'm thinking about a tiered system where it's 'kosher' for upper level students to help out lower ones. Still need to think about it.

e: Oh, thanks for reminding me, haha. I need to make a video that's just me stepping a song for 10-20 minutes sometime

[gnr61]

divisions seems like a good idea (advanced vs. beginner "theory") because i know plenty of people -- moches/xander/who_cares -- have already mastered all the purely technical elements of stepping.
also i'd like to tutor but idk what file to send you ;D

[Patashu]

that's okay, haha. I'm not sure what I'd send myself!

a lot of the stuff I've been thinking about lately with regards to high-end stepmania theory I don't think I've ever actually put into practice. I guess I'll have to try stepping some things to challenge myself

thinking about things like how you can use specific subsets of pattern space to designate a particular aspect of music, beyond just pr or this column equals this. like you might have a song with two different instruments playing stream; when instrument A streams you put down stream patterns that, say, tend to face left, while instrument B gets stream patterns that tend to face right. in a similar vein you might put bass-derived jumps as 12, 23 or 34 while snare-derived jumps get 13 or 24 and the almighty cymbal crash gets 14

another good area of research would the best ways to 'pack' various instruments in together where layering them all together would get too crowded and too chordsmashy. stuff like kil's infamous snare-goes-on-the-right streams

[marioGP87]

This is a neat idea. I'm in as student and I'm currently working on a file (pokemon Maemuki Roketto Dan; 2:55 long; author = pokemon) right now (Oni = 12 currently; may change later on the file, may not...).

(P.S.: relating to the first question, I think that you should first assign each student to their proper professor and then they'll give the feedback to the students. But, that's imo)

[Patashu]

yeah professor/student relations will definitely come in at some point. for now just post everything relevant in here.

damn I'm tired. peace for 8 hours yall

edit: LOL and as far as artistic files go...anyone remember my 'Ghosts' file from SMG2?

[t-rogdor]

I need this like a Lawyer/Mathematician needs some kind of proof. Sign me up.

[kommisar[os]]

i was actually serious about teachin tho


I can even give homework aka steppabl songs and i'll grade them

[moches]

Welcome to the University of Stepmania. This is where the rest of your life truly begins. Allow us to show you around the campus. We have a 92% graduation rate based off of data accumulated from 2000 to 2008, and 86% of those graduates go on to submit to the big league packs. If you develop freeze abuse, our counselors are the best on the Internet.

Observe the facilities, built off of a 2000 song budget (although only 50 of those songs will actually be played more than once). The artwork you see inside was done by stargroup. Look at all the colors! Magnificent!

We will start our studies tomorrow. Remember to bring a working copy of DDReam Studio for dondon to inspect, and plenty of Kleenex 'cause we're going to make this the most rigorous, arduous course that ever friggin' existed! Got that?

[gnr61]

u know what would be cool...embedded audio samples alongside screenshots or something rofl. i dont think the forums support those ;.;

[t-rogdor]

Originally Posted by gnr61

u know what would be cool...embedded audio samples alongside screenshots or something rofl. i dont think the forums support those ;.;

Why not just use youtube?

[Nullifidian]

Just got the results of my first test at Stepman University.
I shore did graet

[Necros140606]

this is a great idea *contemplates blackboard*

[Oni-Paranoia]

This is going to be wonderful to watch..

[{Zero}]

I need some help with my sm files, sign me up as a student please.

*Edit - I need help with making the arrows flow well with the music, I can calculate the Bpm easily and place the notes to the beats but how do i make the notes flow?

[i love gabba]

Sign me up as a student too !

[ZC_Wolfy]

sign me up as a student please.