Knowing your note spacing.

So you might ask: Why do i need to know note spacing? I can just go with the keysounds and rhythm and the songs.

True. But if you know how notes are supposed to be spaced then you will get a better grasp on reading notes which leads to: You figure out the timing easier and you can tell what is offset or swung.

Most common note spaces in IIDX:

4ths

8ths

12ths

16ths

32nds

48ths

What does that mean? It means there is X amount of notes if they were single notes per measure.

Some examples:

8ths

http://textage.cc/score/20/shion.html?2AA04~14-14

12ths

http://textage.cc/score/16/bitchoco.html?2HA04~3-3

16ths

http://textage.cc/score/20/beastie.html?2AB04~35-35

32nds

http://textage.cc/score/12/_mei.html?2AC04~65-65

48ths

http://textage.cc/score/19/diavolo.html?2AC04~70-70

You will probably have to get used to how certain spacing feels and looks, mostly 8ths, 16ths and maybe 32nds. 

12ths dont appear very often except in a few songs such as like gigadelic, Bitter Chocolate Striker, The Deep Striker, The Fallen, Ending of Shion, Ending of RE:Generation etc. 

32nds are like the drumrolls of Liberation another and Fake Time another

48ths is stuff like Diavolo and Thor's Hammer

From this you can combine a songs bpm and key sounds to get more accurate timing. 

A song that is 150 bpm with the same spacing will all have the same timing and so forth.

A song that is 300 bpm that has spacing of 8th notes will have the same timing as a song that is 150 bpm with 16th notes etc.

Once you get familiar with spacing you can now figure out what notes are offset or swung. 

How to lose in IIDX.

I haven't posted here in awhile but the reason why I bring this up is because I feel like a lot of players have a tendency to lose to themselves most of the time. How do people lose to themselves? lets start off.

1. Doing things that you cant.

Some examples:

Ok you can beat 11's good job. Im going to go try EX-HARD 11s now.

Don't do this unless you can like nearly full combo that song. There's no point in putting EX hard on if you get like 20+ misses on a song, Congrats you just died in 15 seconds and wasted your time. That got you nowhere.

I beat Special Summer Campaign! Lets play Mei now!

You probably got 500+ misses. Don't play something thats way above your skill level. You just wasted 2 minutes of your life mashing keys.

You get the idea.

2. Self Imposing Rules.

AKA RANDOM IS CHEATING. I guess everyone in top ranker is nothing but cheaters.

I'll be straight up on this one. Having self imposed rules just puts a chain on yourself.

 If its in the game, use it. If it makes you better, use it.

If you don't wanna use it then don't use it. Its fine no one is going to kill you for it, but this is what might be holding you back.

And to those that want to put their own self imposed rules on others.

Kindly shut the fuck up. Especially when they are a better player than you. Keep your comments to yourself and stop being a bitch.

3. Constantly changing your settings.

Play at what your comfortable at. It takes awhile to find the perfect setting for you. Don't change your green number by a huge amount every song. Don't switch your offset every game. Its not the games fault that your not timing correctly. When i change a setting i always like to do it in increments so you adjust more accordingly and you find out sooner if its the right setting for you.

Changing play styles frequently can also be hazardous, just cause you cant hit something doesn't mean your doing something wrong. Stick with what your working with and if you find roadblocks then consider thinking of something at improves your play style. You never know what will come out of it. Unless of course you are playing REALLY dumb like using your feet.

4. Not listening to advice.

If a better player than you is giving you advice, I for one would listen to it. I can notice flaws almost instantaneously by watching someones hands but I normally don't give people advice unless they ask because I feel like its condescending. But if a player is giving you LOGICAL SOUNDING advice then take time to listen to it. If your not sure whether its good advice or not, you can always ask me or someone else about it.

5. Getting frustrated.

IIDX is a hard game no doubt. I like to compare getting frustrated at this game to getting mad and punching a concrete wall. The wall is going to win and break your hands no matter how hard you punch it in the end.

Take a break relax, gather your thoughts, and come back to playing with a fresh mindset. Everyone loses in IIDX by just playing this game.

Pinpoint your weaknesses and work on them.

Look at my older articles if you ever need more advice in specific things.

-Rea

Using the Fast / Slow timing pop-ups properly.

This is going to be a short article on using the Fast / Slow pop up options.

I know a lot of people probably don't use it because it gets in the way of the notes and its just irritating when it keeps popping up, i hate to say it but if your timing isn't dead on then thats going to happen, so you can either deal with it or just not use it at all its your choice. (Actually you can set it to the side if you want to, prefer for it to appear in my lane).

Keep in mind in Tricoro you can see how much Fast / Slow notes you hit at the result screen if you hold VEFX and Effect (i think).

Ok. So what does it mean when i see the fast / slow? Basically it means your timing sucks, but there is more to that so lets go in depth so you can use this to fix your timing.

What does it mean when i see SLOW

1. Your hitting the notes too late into the timing window
2. You may not be reacting fast enough for whatever green number you are on. You may want to try adjust your green number to a higher number.
3. Your not moving fast enough
4. You may be looking too close to the line which can cause you to hit it late.



What does it mean when i see FAST

1. You are hitting the notes too early into the timing window
2. You are reacting too quickly when you see the notes. Lower your green number, it might help you get closer to the timing window.
3. Moving too fast
4. Looking too high on the screen, which might cause you to hit notes early.
5. Notes are too densely packed together, you might want to spread the notes out a bit to get a better reading on them.


If you want to get desperate you can always change the timing window in Tricoro. Not something i would recommend though unless you are playing on a laggy monitor.

Songs to Practice

Updated with Tricoro songs. As of 3/28/2013

This is going to be my list of songs that i think are good practice songs for certain patterns / charts. These are songs i recommend and usually play myself.

Practicing these songs may help you progress as long as you have the right mentality to do so.

Practice on things that your weak on. You will find that working things that your weak points will help your overall skill.

Basically you want to practice what you wanna work on whether it be timing, reading, or technique and integrate it into your overall play style. The more things you integrate the more versatile you will be as a player.

Just a reminder, this is all on ANOTHER (Unless noted). Im just going to do level 10s and above unless stated. Play the hyper if you want a easier scale, with a few exceptions like Innocent Walls and what not.

You will probably see songs more than once in different categories.

Straight Forward / Constant Streams / Learning random patterns

These songs are pretty much the straightforward songs. You can either do it or can't. No stupid gimmicks involved and for the most part not swung or staggered. These are probably the best type of songs to play if you wanna get used to random and exposure to more random patterns.

10

Nebula Grasper
Andromeda II
Kakumei
Queens Tragedy
Bahram Attack
Back into the light
Programmed sun (xac remix)
Heavenly Sun
Programmed Life
Fly you to the star
Illias
snow storm
Blue Straggler

11

Inazuma
Quasar
Anthem Landing
Shade
Andromeda
Hyperion
Mint
The Deep Striker
Secrets
Programmed World
Programmed Sun
Spiral Galaxy
Quantum Teleportation
V2
Empire State Glory
Anisaksis
Ubertreffen
D.C Fish
The travelers of virtual space
Decoherence


12

AA
F
Broken
Scirpted Connection => A
Golden Cross
Mendes
Kurokami
Timepiece Phase II
Solid State Squad
Todestrieb
Fatal Attack
Bitter Chocolate Striker
Kagonotori
Wonder Walker
Laser Cruster
Nageki no ki
Cuvelia
SYNC-ANTHEM
True Blue
ΕΛΠΙΣ (Elpis)
Liberation


Timing

These are the easy songs that are easy to keep rhythm on. I would only play these if your working on accuracy. Im not going to list all of them since there is a shit ton.

trigger of innocence
Mermaid Girl + Remix
Dazzlin Darling + Remix
Life Scrolling
Rainbow over the snow
LUV can save you
Shining World
Fly Above
Nadeshiko Rock
Into the sunlight
All Terra Songs

Chords

This is another pretty straight forward thing to practice. Not much variety here but here are some songs

10

Wana
Max Love
Love Shine
Daydreamer
Sorrows
Drive me Crazy
EDEN
rottel da mercury
JEWELLREY STORM
and Much Much More

11

DAWN - the next endeavor -
Key
Time to air
Waxing and waning
Tropical April
R5

12

mosaic

Scratches

A lot of variety here besides just DJ MASS songs. DJ MASS songs aren't the only good scratch songs to practice. Keep in mind though that scratches are pretty song specific since usually each song has its own pattern to it.

9

Watch out
Close your eyes for me

10

Feedback
Buffalo
Really Love
D.A.N.C.E
bass 2 bass
Light shine
rottel da sun

11

naughty girl @ queens palace
digitank system
Halfway of Promise
Rakuen
1st Samurai
Checking you out
Brainstorm
Just a Little Smile
Bounce Bounce Bounce
Wonder Bullfighter

12

Shakuketsu Beach Side Billy
Red. by full metal jacket
Black by CROSS X FADE
Snake Stick
Blue Mirage
VOX UP
Plan 8
Watch Out pt.2
Sense 2007
The Sampling Paradise
Scream Squad
Troopers
one or eight
eVANs

Offset / Swung Songs

Most of the times these songs are pretty unique and have their own feel to them. This is mostly to read swung patterns as well as getting a feel for the keys / key presses.

9

Dual Control
Summer Vacation
Moon Race
Tommorow Perfume
Thunder

10

水上の提督
Golden Palms
evergreen
Double Thrash
Whats Next
D.A.N.C.E
Make a Difference
Mr. T Take me higher
QQQ
POINT ZERO
Votum Stellarum
Snow Storm
bluemoon
Blust of Wind
Yellow Head Joe
Freeway Shuffle
portal


11

Bounce Bounce Bounce
Broadbanded
in the Blackest Den
Caldera
Usual Days -remix-
Beyond the Earth
four pieces of heaven
Giudecca
Saturn
DROP
ZED
S!ck
Illegal Function Call
rainbow flyer
rislim REMIX
Spica
Xenon
The Flying Rerun
Quantum Teleportation
Holic
天空脳番長危機十六連打



12

A
AA
F
fffff
HAERETICUS
perditus paridisus
Fuchikan Candy
Tripping Contact
Due Tommorow
bad maniacs
Session -9- Chronicles
Session -12- Esther
Sejin no Tou
Children's Sketchbook
quell
gigadelic
Shounen A
NNRT
Proof of the existence
SYNC ANTHEM
Tamayura
Little Star
Concertino in Blue
neu
DAY DREAM
Sol Cosine Job 2


Speed / Stamina

These songs are basically songs that are 175+ bpm with fast ass runs plus patterns that require alot of move ment.

10

Phoenix
Hardcore Mania
Lovely Storm
end of world
POINT ZERO

11

Anisakis
Aurora
Genocide
Im so Happy
1st Samurai
in the Sky
Snow Goose
Smile
532nm
Sound of Giallahorn
prompt
Light and Cyber
Breaking Dawn
No. 13
Four pieces of heaven
New Decade (IIDX Edition)
Conceptual
Tripping Contact Remix
Tranoid
Kamaitachi
君のハートにロックオン


12

Little Star
ΕΛΠΙΣ (Elpis)
Devilz Staircase
Torikago no Houoh
狂イ咲ケ焔ノ華
The Limbo
NNRT
YAKSHA
Colorful Cookie
G59
Quaver
Perditus Paridisus
One More Lovely
Cookie Bouquets
DOMINION
Candy Galy
VOX UP
Biometrics Warrior
Bad Maniacs
Fatal Attack
Exusia
neu
Sol Cosine Job 2
Evans
Paradise Lost
HAERETICUS
Session -12- esther
Thunderbolt
Fatal Attack
3y3s
NAGISANOKOKUMA LOVELY RADIO
Confiserie
Seijin no Tou
Mei
恋する☆宇宙戦争っ!!

Drumrolls

Not just R5 drumrolls. There is shit more advanced then that.

10

Feel It
Love Magic
RE:generation
Space Time
Door into the Rainbow
The Hope of Tommorow
Vermillion
Narcissus at oasis

11

Pollinosis
R5
D.C Fish
405nm
Do it Do it
Drop
Hyperion
Inazuma
TYPE Mars
Steel Needle
Nemesis
Kailua
Let the Track Flow
G2
Stellar Wind
Beastie Starter

12

Paradise Lost
Gigadelic
NAGISANOKOKUMA LOVELY RADIO
Erasermotor Phantom
quaver
Colors

Jacks

These include songs with a lot of double taps and jackhammer notes. This will help you look for those random double taps that appear and just kill you. This will also help you learn where the double taps are.

10

Jack
Lab
Mr.T take me higher
D.A.N.C.E
Dive into your heart
Hyper Eurobeat
Power Dream
Leaving
Macho Gang
Scripted Connection => N mix
LAB
Traces

11

Bounce Bounce Bounce
Click Again
Saturn
D
G2
Stoic
The Flying Rerun
Nemesis
Be Quiet
Scripted Connection => H mix

12

Sense 2007
Scripted Connection => A mix
Electric Massive Diver
Innocent walls
one or eight
please dont go
Balace of Astaria
Dances with snow fairies
reunion
DAY DREAM
Setsugekka
Implantation
Fascination MaXX
ワルツ第17番 ト短調"大犬のワルツ"

Holds

Honestly there are probably only a few hold songs worth practicing. Most hold note songs are pretty straight forward or simply don't have enough holds (like D).

10

Door into the rainbow
Golden Palms
Everlasting Resort
Light Shine
Spinning Around
Almace

11

New Sensation
Elisha
Scharfrichter
Kailua
Flower
Sakura Reflection
The Black Knight
Blooming Feeling
Miracle Meets
Energy Drive
Kagachi

12

Almagest
Electric Massive Diver
Paradise Lost
Hollywood Galaxy
Periditus Paridisus
Sakura Storm
Todestrieb
Balance of Astaria
Timepiece Phase II CN ver.

Whats going on? / Whats next.

Hey everyone,

I haven't had much time to write articles recently due to moving to a new house and other life shit and Borderlands. I'll give you guys a heads up on what i will be writing about in the future thanks to some suggestions that people made.

Some of the things i will be writing about in the near future:

Songs to practice
Approaching harder songs/patterns
My favorite charts
My training sessions
Getting over walls
Review of Tricoro (if we get it)
Controllers/Monitors to use

Of course i'm always open for suggestions.

For those on Facebook heres a great community to join:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/301373199970205/

Scratching

So you know that disc shaped thing that is next to the keys? What is that? Its the most fucking pain in the ass part of this game.

What makes scratching hard?

So think of a easy song with just like a easy run of notes. Now try think of it with like multiple 16th scratches, its now really fucking hard.

Scratching is hard because of the fact that it forces you to put yourself out of position and also limits the amount of fingers you can use on your scratch hand. Not to mention it also makes hard to time shit because you not only have to focus on the notes, but now you have to focus on the scratch when its scratch heavy, two things are harder to focus on then one. Not to mention its a lot harder when the notes are random.

What can you do to make scratching easier?

These are all shit that i do for pretty much every scratch song like Beachside Bunny and shit. I probably could not do any of these songs without thinking about these.

Memorize the scratch patterns / Where the scratches are

This especially helps when there are notes involved. When you memorize where the scratches are and what the scratch patterns are then this allows you to focus on the notes more.

Knowing where the scratches are will also allow you to react faster into getting in a better position for the notes.

The scratch is the only key that will never change unless you use Random+ or All Scratch so it makes sense to memorize it.

Feeling the scratches

This mostly applies to heavy scratch songs like any DJ MASS song. The easiest way to get used to a heavy scratch song is to just to memorize the feel of the stream of scratches. Its pretty hard to actually treat a stream of scratches as all separate notes especially when its faster then 150 bpm or when they are 24ths.

This one is a little tricky because depending on what machine you are playing on and what kind of controller your on as well because not every scratch is the same.

If its a loose scratch then you probably have to keep in mind that if you scratch too hard and you have to scratch on the way back, you will probably get a misfire or hit it bad which can lead to shit like a bad run.

Tight scratches will probably require you to put more force into the scratch. My personal preference is a tight scratch since i usually find myself a little more accurate with it.

Think about the amount of fingers to use / Hand placement and fingers to use

You don't always have to pinky scratch. Try pinky scratch on BSB (Beach Side Bunny) another, you probably wont be able to hit it well and you will get a mean blister. If its more scratch heavy then consider using more fingers so you have more hand strength to work with which will help with doing constant streams. I use my middle, ring and pink together on songs like Black, Red, and BSB etc.

As for your fingers and hand placement, You will only probably will have your pointer and thumbs to work with on your scratch hands. For your non scratch hand you will probably have to cover 6 keys or even play one hand. Use your instincts to determine when to change your placement, some times its not always necessary depending on when the notes are placed on random.

Conclusion

Scratching can make everything a lot more complicated. Not to mention that scratch songs are pretty much a whole different game. Just remember that when there is scratching involved you will probably have to change your play style. Don't just revolve your play style on hitting keys only.

Lunatic Rave / BMS

Haven't been able to get back to this in awhile thanks to Borderlands 2 and other life shit.

A lot of people ask me this question: "Do you have to play Lunatic Rave (LR2) in order to get better?"

Well this article should be able to answer that question.

What is LR2?

First off for the people that don't know, LR2 is a IIDX simulator that you can play on your computer. I'm not going to write a tutorial on how to get it running and what not since there are a bunch of start up guides that you can find. I will post a bunch of links at the end for people that want to get into LR2.

LR2 allows you to play BMS's which are original made charts by users. Most of the time these charts are often WAAAY harder then IIDX 12's, but not all of the charts are like that and there are multiple rating systems. But most of the time in order to play on the standard scale of BMS's you have to pretty proficient in IIDX 12s.

Rating systems

These are totally unofficial just to let you know.

The first rating system is the what im going to call the "White Star" system, which varies from 1-12. This is closer to actual IIDX ratings. I'm not too sure how accurate it is to IIDX since i never played any of the charts before.

The second system is the "Black Star" system which varies from 1-24. This is what you would call the "standard" BMS scale and includes most of the harder BMS's.

The third system is the "Overjoy" scale which are insanely hard or stupid ass songs. OJ varies from 0-7 (Only 1 song in the OJ 0 category). Basically to compare it to the standard BMS scale a OJ 1 is equal to a 21 or so on the standard scale.

There are other rating systems such as the long note system, scratch and what not.

When to start playing LR2?

There's no absolute time when to start playing LR2, its a good option for people who don't have access to CS or for people that want to play more songs since CS is currently dead at the moment.

I haven't started played it until maybe about 1 year ago or so, my reason being that i wanted to get better at reading denser / harder shit and work on stamina.

Where to start?

If you just wanna play more easier and casual stuff then i would recommend playing stuff from like BMS of fighters or from the white star rating system. Most of the stuff here will be easier and closer to IIDX ratings.

I would recommend to start playing on the standard scale if you can consistently beat 12's such as AA another, Golden Cross another, and what not. A level 1 on this scale is about equivalent to AA another. If you are already like a pro then i would just play like different levels of difficulties until you know what your threshold is of clearing stuff. Once you find your threshold then i would practice songs from that level and if you want to progress then play songs that are 1-2 levels above.

Don't even try OJ unless you can beat 20's or so on the standard scale.

Progressing  levels in LR2

I'm just going to give a general range of level gaps on the standard scale. You probably want to make sure you can beat most of the songs in each level before moving on to the next level of songs. There are some exceptions with stupid songs that have dumb ass gimmicks. Keep in mind playing the lower level songs are always a good thing to practice, when i practice them i just work on combo-ing, timing, and control of my hands. Where i wrote "wall" is where i had the most problems and is where i believe good checkpoints are of progress.


1-4
5-7
8-9
10-11
12-14 Wall
15-16
17-18
19
20 Wall
21-22
23 Wall
24
FDFD = DANNY LEE

I basically brute force my way to read shit by doing stuff like playing the charts that im trying to get used to reading to over and over even though I 2% it. Keep in mind that doesn't mean you can just play a hard ass chart and mash on it. Just make sure you know yourself that you can COMPREHEND it and HIT it to a CERTAIN extent. Don't do this when you can't even comprehend it.


There is a dan ranking system in LR2, for people that are curious i'm only a 10 dan in LR2.


4 Songs that's a good gauge to judge your skill that isn't gimmicky as shit

12: Gengaozo -GOD-
20: AIR -GOD-
23: Little HeartS -GOD-
OJ: FREEDOM DiVE FOUR DIMENSIONS


So what can LR do to me to get better?

This is what LR2 will help you with: READING notes, stamina, and overall technique to a certain point. Technique is something i don't really focus on in LR2 just because i do feel like you DO have to wrist scratch  ESPECIALLY if your playing on a non-KOC dimension controller. As for myself I play completely different from IIDX AC and LR2. There are players that don't wrist scratch on LR2 and still get around just as crazy.

LR2 v. IIDX

These are the biggest differences between IIDX and LR2.

1. Timing on songs are different

Every BMS on LR2 can have its timing adjusted when its made. The most common timings you will see is EASY and NORMAL. EASY timing is a lot easier then standard IIDX timing, the windows for JG and Greats are a lot bigger. NORMAL is closer to IIDX AC, in my opinion its a little tighter then AC but it could just be me and my game going off sync.

2. The normal bar on songs are also different

The normal gauge can be adjusted on each song on how fast it builds up. You will run into a lot of songs that have high ratings but have noticeably easier charts and a REALLY hard normal bar. When i mean really hard i mean it takes about 800 combo of greats to get to 80%. Of course if you can hit most of these charts then you can just hard bar it since hard is standardized for any song.

3. Holds

The holds in LR2 do NOT need to be let go. IIDX you have to time when you let go the holds.

4. Randoms are replay-able / select-able

Yes, you can keep playing a random you cherry picked. Just hold a blue and white key when you get to the result screen. You can even choose your random if you have IR activated with G-Battle, which allows you to play the same exact chart that someone played on IR, but you will have to play the same bar as the ghost your battling. Playing fraud randoms all day is pretty fun once awhile.

5. Notes are a lot more mashable

You can literary mash all 7 keys during a cluster fuck and combo it.

6. Controllers

Use a KOC if you wanna get good at LR2. Use a ASC if you wanna have more of a feel for IIDX.

Epilogue

To me LR2 helped me progress a lot in IIDX mostly from reading, stamina and the ability to wrist scratch on AC IIDX to a certain extent. It didn't help me too much in timing since when i play LR2 my play time doesn't really focus on timing but more on hitting notes.

I'll admit LR2 does take some dedication, but don't get demoralized if you don't get better at it, since this is WAY HARDER and WAY STUPIDER then IIDX, you will run into the dumbest gimmicks that will piss you off. Pretty much any song you run into from 19+ will have some kind of dumb ass gimmick.

Links

Setup tutorial
http://pastebin.com/89ZtkYeE (I think this was originally wrote by LongGone so give credit to him)

All the songs ready for DL on the standard scale of 1-24 + Overjoy 0-7.
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=b95cff3a8a971013&sc=documents&id=B95CFF3A8A971013%21104

Website for all the BMS events such as BMS of fighters and what not
http://manbow.nothing.sh/event/event.cgi

BMS uploader, you can find a lot of fan made charts here.
http://absolute.pv.land.to/bmsuploader.html

3 rating systems
http://losak.web.fc2.com/normalSP.html
http://losak.web.fc2.com/insaneSP.html
http://achusi.main.jp/overjoy/nanido-luna.php

LR Internet ranking
http://www.dream-pro.info/~lavalse/LR2IR/search.cgi?mode=search&type=insane&exlevel=0&7keys=1