Maurits' charting turorial [Tempo mapping, guitar, PROdrums]

[Maupy2]

You might have heard me say that I was planning on doing a video tutorial, but I had second thoughts. It's too much work to get a video program working. So I did it in text format.

I hope I explained everything clearly. If there is anything unclear, you can ask me in the comments below!

This is a charting tutorial for Phase Shift, by the way.

Downloads
Part 1: Starting a song and creating a tempo map
Part 2: Guitar charting
Part 3: Pro drum charting

Questions
Q: Will this tutorial work for FoFiX and/or FoF?
A: I have no idea about FoF - I have never made any charts for FoF.
Part 1 of the the tutorial fully works with FoFiX. Part 2 and 3 will only partially work with FoFiX, but I'll mention what does and does not work with FoFiX.

Q: Why did you make this in a Word document?
A: I used pictures in the tutorial, and it's easier to put pictures in a Word document than it is to put them in a forum post.

[Yhughu]

Awesome guide, even though I've been here quite a while i still have one question though. I've never ever let the time signature start at the start of the track, always at the first beat the music starts, and I've never had any issues. So what are those minor issues? XD
Also, the 3 second delay at the start of the song is only neccesary to be exactly 3 seconds when you convert it to rb, since i've always did a random silence and it works fine in PS.

I think this is great for new charters since it covers the essence of the charting process, and it makes people realize they can do it too!

[BombDude24]

The beginning measures get converted to 4/4 automatically, I believe, and if the time signatures don't return correctly, for example, a 4/4 measure only having 3 beats, and the beat that WOULD have the 4th beat has its own time signature change. If you convert to Rock Band and vice-versa with broken time signatures, it gets really messed up. Phase Shift and FoF/FoFiX don't know the difference, though, and they'll work fine in any of those.

EDIT: Also, thanks for the guides, I can finally learn how to chart now. :p

[Maupy2]

@Sygen Really? I thought that it did mess a bit with Phase Shift. If I remember correctly I've had it in some charts that the beat lines showed up at the wrong places in Phase Shift. That stopped happening when I added correct time signature to the beginning measures.

@Yhughu Yeah, I don't do it exactly three seconds either. I always just aim for *about* three seconds. I didn't realize people might interpret it like the leading silence has to be EXACTLY three seconds. I'll change it when I have time.

General comment: I've been working on the guitar charting part today. It's not done yet, but I hope to finish it tomorrow. (Or, with luck, today.)

[BombDude24]

I meant play-ability-wise, you can still play the song just fine in PS and FoFiX, but converting to RB3 and back yields a ton of errors.

[Maupy2]

Yeah I guess.
But still, like I said. It causes that minor issue of beat lines appearing at the wrong place, which kind of does bother me. Plus, it causes problems when playing drums and wanting to activate starpower - the notes that activate starpower appear on beat lines, after all.

[Yhughu]

Yeah I guess.
But still, like I said. It causes that minor issue of beat lines appearing at the wrong place, which kind of does bother me. Plus, it causes problems when playing drums and wanting to activate starpower - the notes that activate starpower appear on beat lines, after all.

Thats fixed by starting the beatlines at the first notes as far as i know, since i haven't had that issue in any of my 100+ charts :D

[Maupy2]

True, but starting the beatlines at the first note causes problems when people try to convert the chart to other games like GH or RB. ;p

[m1999]

True, but starting the beatlines at the first note causes problems when people try to convert the chart to other games like GH or RB. ;p

Actually, it causes more problems NOT to start the beatlines at the first note (at least when converting to RB) because you won't be able to align the first notes to 3.1 without having to re-tempo-map the entire song. I had to learn that the hard way unfortunately when trying to convert my charts to RB :/

[FrOoGle]

Thank you for taking the time to write this guide! I already know how to chart, but this is excellent for the people that don't chart and would like to know how!

[Maupy2]

True, but starting the beatlines at the first note causes problems when people try to convert the chart to other games like GH or RB. ;p

Actually, it causes more problems NOT to start the beatlines at the first note (at least when converting to RB) because you won't be able to align the first notes to 3.1 without having to re-tempo-map the entire song. I had to learn that the hard way unfortunately when trying to convert my charts to RB :/

Seriously? Welll.... #ohdear.
Must be just GH that it's causing problems for, then.

-- Edit: 21 Oct 2015, 21:39 --

Thank you for taking the time to write this guide! I already know how to chart, but this is excellent for the people that don't chart and would like to know how!

Yeah, that's the idea behind it.:) Though everyone who has replied to this topic already knows how to chart, hahaha. Makes me doubt whether a new charter has actually tried my tutorial.

[Maupy2]

Makes me doubt whether a new charter has actually tried my tutorial.

The silence that ensued was painful. (jk.:p)

I uploaded part 3.

[gyates08]

Awesome, you did make it. I'll be studying this judiciously and y'all can expect to see a chart thread from me. no ETA, but it's going to happen. I almost think I want to play drums for career, but I know I want to give back to this community which has given me so much fun and later knowledge. thank you @Maupy2.

I wrote that before I even DL'd them and didn't post, they are excellently written.

[Maupy2]

Great to hear man! I'm glad it's of use to you.c:

[farottone]

Kudos for doing this. I would suggest spending a paragraph explaining how to line up the audio correctly at the very beginning by identifying the first downbeat instead of assuming that the first peak is the first downbeat: that's in the top 3 of the main issues in FoF tempo maps.