Bracket 1 - Discussion

[k//eternal]

Yes, you don't don't really have that much of a chance with those; as I've seen over the years, personal taste does count, after all. But unfortunately for me, I'm stubborn/stupid and that's just what I like most to listen to and step (reminder: I step for my own enjoyment). I thought I would have learned the lesson, but I was actually confident on this final one, since it is my favorite of everything I've done up to now. Thought it would be nice as an ending. But whatever; I'm really tired of even trying to care anymore.
Glad a few of you at least enjoyed it, though.

what are you talking about? vertex looks like it's going to pass, and if it doesn't, it's really close (and everyone's been saying our bracket is tough). that's quite a respectable file you've got there and it's performing well, no lesson-learning necessary :)

[jammitch!]

Yeah, Bracket 4 was redonk.

Judges were basically given the opportunity to award as many points as they wished to files with extas, with I believe a cap of somewhere around 25 points, and the total for required material was 25.

Definitely don't want that either, which is why I suggested having two points of 15 or 25 for "flextras", and only three for presentation as defined. However, it's kind of too late to worry about that now, both for this tourney or the future. :)

The Day That the Earth Stalled - Way overstepped, jumps everywhere just to up the difficulty and I did not enjoy that. Also sounds like you got a song-cut error in the end where the steps became off-beat big time but I'm not positive and I don't feel like looking into that further. Song-cuts are inexcusable with a constant BPM song.

There's no cut at all - that's the whole song. Someone else said they thought the BPM was slightly too fast; that might be what you're noticing. It's also possible that the song's not really as constant BPM as it looks; it is still live drumming.

You also seem to have a much lower sync tolerance than I do. I'm a highly visual player, so not only do I tend to be able to compensate 5, 10, even 20 ms, but I can't not compensate. I usually start with Audacity and try to find beats, but that's an inexact science. When I'm done, I try to test with Blind / Dark / Hidden / NoJudgement to remove any visual feedback, and when I hit an acceptable Marv/Perfect ratio (shooting for 10:1), I deem it "good enough". Guess that's not true for the more auditory players. There's certainly nothing here that feels off "big-time" to me, or I wouldn't have released it.

As for the overstepping, I have clearly totally lost touch with the upper end. I started with a song that was "a 9 if you could read the mine part", added "a little bit here and there" and ended up with Tell.

I like that I've gotten consistent feedback for this one - it means I know I can make it better! I'm going to look at the sync and redo the overstepping as soon as the file's eliminated (i.e. probably this weekend). Still wish I had made the Heavy the Challenge so that it was featured, but I don't like leaving difficulty on the table.

[Kewing]

what are you talking about? vertex looks like it's going to pass, and if it doesn't, it's really close (and everyone's been saying our bracket is tough). that's quite a respectable file you've got there and it's performing well, no lesson-learning necessary :)

You may have a point, I agree that competition is really high in that bracket. I was judging by initial reaction of people in the approval votes. Vertex *may* pass, but I'm not 100% sure it would advance any further.
I know that sounds pessimistic, but game music sims have never gotten that much of attention in the past.
But anyway; there's lots of great files so far. That is what really matters.

[will-i-am]

I was actually confident on this final one, since it is my favorite of everything I've done up to now. Thought it would be nice as an ending.

Oh, please. You have far too many awesome files to pick out a favorite. Personally, I think Powell from DDREvolved's Anything Goes is your best file I've ever played. Literally, everything about that Heavy chart is magic. The double-taps during the 8th stream, the short 16th trills, you even included forced spins/double-steps that really worked! And the song was fabulous video game music! Lovely trance that's totally in my ballpark. I wish all VGM sounded like that.

I think you've accomplished a lot in your gracious time submitting fun simfiles here and throughout the community that a lot of simfile authors would kill to have achieved. If this is really the end of the road for you, then I wish you the same success in whatever you do elsewhere.

And post more! I was shocked to see you replied. You have a whopping 21 posts and you've been here since BEST-mix #2!

[Valex]

VGM is pretty neat

[Aki]

@Infinity

Regarding the rainbows, because it's so....


*runs*

[Hainaut]

Somehow I overlooked this before, but...

#Infinity, how does the song sounds thin? What does that even mean? The song is the busiest of all entries in the entire bracket, far too busy to even make out all the noises! What did you suppose k//eternal did, then? Make a 6 foot chart for a Trip Machine remix? That'd be a first. It sounds like you're looking for an excuse to dock points. Believe me, I understand that the mash-up sucks other than for the concept, but I think you're being a bit unfair by not really stating what you found wrong with the patterns in the chart themselves and are relying heavily on the whole "the song didn't warrant this difficulty" argument.

By "thin," I mean there isn't enough emphasis on the song's bass, nor is there a very solid, coherent melody to follow. The synths are quiet and 8-bit, and the only percussion is a busy drum 'n bass track without a strong beat. The problem I have with the Heavy steps is that they try to closely follow a lot of things in what is already a mess of a song, and because there isn't enough of a beat in the production to support it and hold it all together, the steps have little focus for me and go overboard. There are plenty of difficult simfiles that I like because the hard rhythms and melodies they follow are a lot more audible and prominent. In Trial Machine Phoenix Wright's case, however, the complex steps tried to go along with cues that don't stand out enough to warrant following them that closely. Standard is much better in my opinion because it just flows with the track nicely and doesn't overshoot what it's trying to follow.

[k//eternal]

actually, the way trial machine's charts work is supposed to be the other way around--the steps are meant to guide what you're listening to (yes, the standard chart too, and they follow pretty similar trajectories in that regard)

if you lean heavily toward playing by ear though it'll probably get confusing, i readily admit

i know that's also not how it normally goes, but i wanted to submit some files that are kind of different for this competition

[Telperion]

oh

[will-i-am]

Ahahahahahaha! Dat ending.

[Valex]

oh

good

Looking back, it's kind of ironic my file is the one that caused a lot of the doublestep controversy, haha. I've never been too into doublesteps in DDR-style shit but I figured those spin-things would be a neat way to step that part

[Kewing]

I think you've accomplished a lot in your gracious time submitting fun simfiles here and throughout the community that a lot of simfile authors would kill to have achieved. If this is really the end of the road for you, then I wish you the same success in whatever you do elsewhere.

Actually it was the end for well over year ago, I haven't done any simming since late 2010/early 2011. The DDR community in my country practically completely died long ago, I haven't got as much time as before, and my own interest in the game has decreased over time. Considering I do sims mostly for myself, I don't really have much motivation anymore to sim.
I've never thought my work is worth of such praise, but thanks, it's nice to see someone else enjoys it. Looking back, though, it's true that I've come a long way after all this time. It's been definitely fun :)

[hellrazor]

Been working on re-sync of "The Ghost of Stephen Foster" and the 16ths from beats 166 - 199 are incorrect they should all be 24ths (it's a swing-tempo at that part). The song is also pretty consistent it isn't taking me many BPM changes to sync it so far each section of the song seems constant, even the speed ramp doesn't speed up very much, basically it's much easier to sync that it sounds like it would be or that all those BPM changes would reveal but most of them were OVER-UNDER shifting the whole time, I'll post my values when I'm done.

[hellrazor]

Finished my re-sync of Stephen Foster, just 22 BPM changes not so bad for a random BPM song with a speed ramp, I think I had 10 BPM changes in the 2011 Mashup and I didn't expect any when I first choose that song. Just goes to show this song is actually fairly consistent (although I did spend about 2 hours getting this sync done and I did it by hand). You still have to change the 16ths from Beats 168-200 to 24ths to match the music especially if you fix the sync it's more noticeable with better synching.

.DWI format

#TITLE:Ghost of Stephen Foster;
#ARTIST:Squirrel Nut Zippers;
#BPM:143.6;
#GAP:3434;
#CHANGEBPM:128=142.2,256=141.24,416=140.84,544=142.46,640=144.2,672=137.66,
800=139.9,832=142.2,896=141.2,960=139.1,1080=136.3,1084=95,1088=82,1104=83.7,
1120=88.2,1136=94.4,1152=102.5,1168=108.5,1184=128.7,1200=131,1216=143.24,
1280=144.3,1328=136;

And because I'm nice, .SM format

#OFFSET:-3.434;
#BPMS:0.000=143.600,32.000=142.200,64.000=141.240,104.000=140.840,136.000=142.460,
160.000=144.200,168.000=137.660,200.000=139.900,208.000=142.200,224.000=141.200,
240.000=139.100,270.000=136.300,271.000=95.000,272.000=82.000,276.000=83.700,
280.000=88.200,284.000=94.400,288.000=102.500,292.000=108.500,296.000=128.700,
300.000=131.000,304.000=143.240,320.000=144.300,332.000=136.000;