very cool
reminds me of some recent maps like schoolboy's tree frog, as well as mattay's lonely rolling star which i particularly love. somewhat freeform visuals but very musically aware, and with especially deliberate movement across the playfield. dunno if these mappers share the same inspirations or if it's just parallel developments. all this is very much up my alley though
i like that the website is so mapper centric. frontpage is just maps and comments, userpages dont have top plays or recent scores, everything is nice and concentrated, you dont have to scroll 10 miles to find what youre looking for. osu website is never gonna have a place where you can see the latest mapping-only-related comments
the 1/4 is technically mapped to hihats, but what the long streams truly do is foreground the vocals while excluding everything else. the mapper even takes care to make the streams fully smooth, with zero angles, so as to avoid emphasizing the drum rhythms
so it feels like it was mapped without music because the singer is only saying 1 syllable every 2 seconds, but there is a real musical perspective there. interpretively i much prefer skystars though
the latest iteration of the "mapper vs players" drama has me thinking back to 2016, before i had really started mapping and when i was still addicted to the game as a player. the abysmal quality of ranked maps at the time had me fleeing to the graveyard section, where all the interesting tech and reading maps were to be found, and which from then on was where i sank 95% of my playtime into. at the time, "tech" was where all the freedom of expression was. compared to the tsunami of sauceless jump-and-stream maps in the ranked section, graveyard tech maps offered a much richer playing experience and a diversity of music expression, which even back then as a player i had begun to take interest in.
at the time, akali was one of my favorite mappers. the pure volume of fidgety alt maps and "you are not hanzer" streams made him my preferred brand of slop, and whatever the quality of his of mapping, he was never in short supply of interesting ideas.
See It Coming is the one map of his i have since remained a wholehearted fan of, both as a player and as a mapper (it really should be played though.) instead of the sloppy maximalism of his later maps, we see a rather dated (in a charming way) adherence to consistent spacing and blanketing. the spacing and the rotational movement during the kiais are what constitute the map's greatest strength: its smoothness. it glides around with the music so wonderfully you'd think he mapped this with distance snap on—saving distance increases only for the most crucial moments: 02:32:971 (6,7,8) - 02:38:441 (5,6,7,8,9,10) - 02:44:088 (7,8,9,10,11,12) -
the aesthetics in this map, especially some of the blanketing in the earlier sections, are redolent of a still-budding mapper from 2014 (this was uploaded a year after his earliest map), but it's a charming style that manages to win you over.
00:46:912 (1,1) -
01:17:618 (3,1,1) - cool
01:20:088 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4) - nice sequence
fantastic map that, despite a relatively elaborate slider style, still finds room for the music, most notably through exceptionally satisfying rotational movement
great song, love what the map does with it. really makes you hear every note. it pays a lot of attention to melody, especially differentiating between high and low notes in different ways, which is an extra cool thing when the melody is so relentless
i play piano also, i didnt discover rubato in a wikipedia article yesterday. i do think you're too attached to the mention of rubato, i was using it to illustrate a similarity between the two: the push and pull of music to produce a certain feeling. it's a fairly new thing in mapping, the mapper himself knows it's experimental. anything truly new is not "generally done" anywhere, there's no point in citing tradition to discredit the new. if it doesnt work for you thats fine, but it's not categorically Wrong because clearly it works for myself and some others, for this song.
if the patterns dont work for you thats also fine, same with any other map. my point is just that the patterning here isnt some new sacrilegious shit, it's no more controversial than anything else thats been uploaded so far
some other points
when he offsets the snapping of an object, its usually to emphasize the melody--the voice, the synth, the strings--and not the percussion. don't singers often sing slightly offbeat to emphasize a certain note or feeling? why should frakturehawkens' hitobjects not be considered their own voice? he doesnt even do it that much, its not like every object is randomly offbeat
rubato is also not "incoherent" with the idea of a rhythm game imo. just tap the key to the sound. it's the same for any track not recorded to a metronome: bohemian rhapsody, recharging the void, whatever. i have also definitely chosen piano recordings to map based on what i can do with the rubato. i honestly think you may just be having the classic kneejerk "wtf something new??? ew" reaction that we've seen in mapping over and over again.
i dont think it actually is that deep at all. the most unfriendly technique here is probably the strange snapping. in music there's this concept of "rubato," which is where when you're playing a piece of music on an instrument you can push and pull the tempo in order to bring out one aspect of the music or another. imo theres something similar going on here: he places an object earlier or later than the sound it corresponds to, to try to produce a certain feeling. obviously it can be a little jarring to hear both the original timing and the "altered" timing together, and that's likely the main thing people find offputting
but other than that it's actually not that weird of a map? pretty much every object has a VERY clear musical purpose, and there are tons of highly structured patterns that clarify the mappers intentions. even when there are no patterns the purpose of an object is so clear it should almost be obvious. it's certainly an unusual map but i dont think it should be a confusing map, at all. even the section at 03:19:788 (1) - which is a little more freeform than the others (with very fun movement and rhythm usage), at least is divided into 2 via NCing to give the section a sense of progression. this is no more incoherent than literally any other map, ever
i do find that in the recent mapping community there is a severe deficiency regarding patterns, both in recognizing them and in using them. which means theres a deficiency regarding that aspect of music which patterns can best express (and which is imo the most important aspect in mapping, partially because it relates to many other aspects as well.) ironically, it's a type of musical understanding which the game of osu! itself specifically teaches you to unlearn, because when you play the game you usually focus on one or two objects at a time. which is why, as time has gone on, maps and mapping attitudes have become less and less pattern- (and less music-) based. it's something i also sort of unlearned for a bit, and had to eventually relearn
but that also doesnt HAVE to be whats happening here. maybe you just dont like this map or song in particular. i definitely dont love every pattern-based map i see. you can decide for yourself which one it is
very cool
reminds me of some recent maps like schoolboy's tree frog, as well as mattay's lonely rolling star which i particularly love. somewhat freeform visuals but very musically aware, and with especially deliberate movement across the playfield. dunno if these mappers share the same inspirations or if it's just parallel developments. all this is very much up my alley though
02:41:395 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13) - rotational awareness is my shit, from the same guy who mapped 02:05:362 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15) - in uncanny long arms. but i actually like this pattern more, especially this bit 02:45:653 (5,6,7) -
dont think ill ever get back into mapping but im feeling kind of inspired by this recent spate of maps
i like that the website is so mapper centric. frontpage is just maps and comments, userpages dont have top plays or recent scores, everything is nice and concentrated, you dont have to scroll 10 miles to find what youre looking for. osu website is never gonna have a place where you can see the latest mapping-only-related comments
wouldnt it still take some amount of work even with the data? but itd be nice if it happened
totally unexpected news, im a lot sadder than i thought i would be. feels so weird having to only look at maps through the osu website
goodbye omdb its been fun to write and read comments
also check out this map
the 1/4 is technically mapped to hihats, but what the long streams truly do is foreground the vocals while excluding everything else. the mapper even takes care to make the streams fully smooth, with zero angles, so as to avoid emphasizing the drum rhythms
so it feels like it was mapped without music because the singer is only saying 1 syllable every 2 seconds, but there is a real musical perspective there. interpretively i much prefer skystars though
always seated for 239hachiman
fun fact the bg is a single frame from the wachowskis speed racer https://youtu.be/3FtBAGMSw-I?si=6m5nCSXHkxTZpM_t&t=126 2:06
01:35:194 (1) - ive always loved this
didnt look in editor but it was fun to play
lokovodo truthers rise up
so true
very cute
so cool map man
part of me did want to ask him to change it. but then i saw him hit it first try on stream and i was like "ok skill issue i guess"
the latest iteration of the "mapper vs players" drama has me thinking back to 2016, before i had really started mapping and when i was still addicted to the game as a player. the abysmal quality of ranked maps at the time had me fleeing to the graveyard section, where all the interesting tech and reading maps were to be found, and which from then on was where i sank 95% of my playtime into. at the time, "tech" was where all the freedom of expression was. compared to the tsunami of sauceless jump-and-stream maps in the ranked section, graveyard tech maps offered a much richer playing experience and a diversity of music expression, which even back then as a player i had begun to take interest in.
at the time, akali was one of my favorite mappers. the pure volume of fidgety alt maps and "you are not hanzer" streams made him my preferred brand of slop, and whatever the quality of his of mapping, he was never in short supply of interesting ideas.
See It Coming is the one map of his i have since remained a wholehearted fan of, both as a player and as a mapper (it really should be played though.) instead of the sloppy maximalism of his later maps, we see a rather dated (in a charming way) adherence to consistent spacing and blanketing. the spacing and the rotational movement during the kiais are what constitute the map's greatest strength: its smoothness. it glides around with the music so wonderfully you'd think he mapped this with distance snap on—saving distance increases only for the most crucial moments: 02:32:971 (6,7,8) - 02:38:441 (5,6,7,8,9,10) - 02:44:088 (7,8,9,10,11,12) -
also love the use of repeated placements, you can never have too much of those. a very common technique, but they can feel either meaningless or meaningful, depending on the way they're used. the rotational gameplay here makes them extra effective:
02:28:559 (6,1) -
02:31:206 (4,5,6,7,8,9,10,1,2,3) -
02:34:029 (4,1) -
02:42:500 (4,5,6,7,8,9,1,2,3,4,5) -
the aesthetics in this map, especially some of the blanketing in the earlier sections, are redolent of a still-budding mapper from 2014 (this was uploaded a year after his earliest map), but it's a charming style that manages to win you over.
00:46:912 (1,1) -
01:17:618 (3,1,1) - cool
01:20:088 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4) - nice sequence
and two random details i like a lot
02:26:706 (1,1,2,1,2,1,2) - such a perfect intro to this great section and melody
01:47:618 (1,1,1,1,1) - love the last two sliders
the kinda shit that makes you doubt your eyes. are these sliders even real
lmao
fantastic map that, despite a relatively elaborate slider style, still finds room for the music, most notably through exceptionally satisfying rotational movement
some examples:
00:30:708 (1,2,3,4,5,6,1,1,2,3,1,2,3,4,1) - clockwise to counterclockwise
00:37:617 (1,2,3,1,2) - ccw to cw
01:34:344 (4,1,2,1,2,3,1,2,3,4,5) - cw to ccw
01:37:435 (6,1,2,3,4,1,2,1,2,3,4,1) - cw to ccw
01:41:071 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1) - cw
01:50:526 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,1,2,3,4,1,2,1,2,3,4) - cw to ccw
followed by 01:43:253 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,1,2,3,4,1) - ccw to cw, one of my favorite patterns in the map. reusing the 4stream in the opposite direction.. so good
another amazing one. 00:33:071 (1,2,3,4) - low notes, clockwise, then 00:33:435 (1,2,3,4,5) - high notes, counterclockwise, 00:33:980 (1,2,3) - low notes, clockwise, 00:34:344 (4,1,2,3,4) - high notes, counterclockwise.
preserving and repeating movements, then tailoring them to fit changes in the music to create A Pattern
00:38:890 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,1,2,3,4,5) -
00:42:526 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,1,1,2,3,4,5,1,1,2,3,4,5) - similar swooping motion
01:53:617 (1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5) - obviously
some other cool stuff
01:06:344 (1,2,3) - lmao
01:09:799 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15) - a classic enepoyo shaped stream
01:24:344 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,1,2,1,2,1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,1,2,3) - two phrases here. really like the choice to represent the first half of each phrase as a stream over the vocals, then switch to vocal sliders for the second half. really makes the second half vocals hit harder
01:49:071 (1,2,1) - cute
great song, love what the map does with it. really makes you hear every note. it pays a lot of attention to melody, especially differentiating between high and low notes in different ways, which is an extra cool thing when the melody is so relentless
2 types of turning points
02:23:250 (1) -
02:25:096 (9) -
02:26:019 (13) -
02:26:942 (17) -
02:28:788 (25) -
02:29:711 (29) -
02:30:634 (33) -
ty for the kind words, appreciate it
very cool
i play piano also, i didnt discover rubato in a wikipedia article yesterday. i do think you're too attached to the mention of rubato, i was using it to illustrate a similarity between the two: the push and pull of music to produce a certain feeling. it's a fairly new thing in mapping, the mapper himself knows it's experimental. anything truly new is not "generally done" anywhere, there's no point in citing tradition to discredit the new. if it doesnt work for you thats fine, but it's not categorically Wrong because clearly it works for myself and some others, for this song.
if the patterns dont work for you thats also fine, same with any other map. my point is just that the patterning here isnt some new sacrilegious shit, it's no more controversial than anything else thats been uploaded so far
some other points
when he offsets the snapping of an object, its usually to emphasize the melody--the voice, the synth, the strings--and not the percussion. don't singers often sing slightly offbeat to emphasize a certain note or feeling? why should frakturehawkens' hitobjects not be considered their own voice? he doesnt even do it that much, its not like every object is randomly offbeat
rubato is also not "incoherent" with the idea of a rhythm game imo. just tap the key to the sound. it's the same for any track not recorded to a metronome: bohemian rhapsody, recharging the void, whatever. i have also definitely chosen piano recordings to map based on what i can do with the rubato. i honestly think you may just be having the classic kneejerk "wtf something new??? ew" reaction that we've seen in mapping over and over again.
i dont think it actually is that deep at all. the most unfriendly technique here is probably the strange snapping. in music there's this concept of "rubato," which is where when you're playing a piece of music on an instrument you can push and pull the tempo in order to bring out one aspect of the music or another. imo theres something similar going on here: he places an object earlier or later than the sound it corresponds to, to try to produce a certain feeling. obviously it can be a little jarring to hear both the original timing and the "altered" timing together, and that's likely the main thing people find offputting
but other than that it's actually not that weird of a map? pretty much every object has a VERY clear musical purpose, and there are tons of highly structured patterns that clarify the mappers intentions. even when there are no patterns the purpose of an object is so clear it should almost be obvious. it's certainly an unusual map but i dont think it should be a confusing map, at all. even the section at 03:19:788 (1) - which is a little more freeform than the others (with very fun movement and rhythm usage), at least is divided into 2 via NCing to give the section a sense of progression. this is no more incoherent than literally any other map, ever
i do find that in the recent mapping community there is a severe deficiency regarding patterns, both in recognizing them and in using them. which means theres a deficiency regarding that aspect of music which patterns can best express (and which is imo the most important aspect in mapping, partially because it relates to many other aspects as well.) ironically, it's a type of musical understanding which the game of osu! itself specifically teaches you to unlearn, because when you play the game you usually focus on one or two objects at a time. which is why, as time has gone on, maps and mapping attitudes have become less and less pattern- (and less music-) based. it's something i also sort of unlearned for a bit, and had to eventually relearn
but that also doesnt HAVE to be whats happening here. maybe you just dont like this map or song in particular. i definitely dont love every pattern-based map i see. you can decide for yourself which one it is
02:13:577 (1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2) - so in love with this. the four note ellipses afterwards seals the deal
02:32:039 (1,2,3,1,1,1,2,3,1,1) - four sliders counterclockwise, four sliders clockwise
02:53:138 (1,2,3) - takes a movement that lasts two white tacks, and expands it to three: 02:53:797 (4,5,6,7,1) - ... i think about this often
03:54:456 (1,1,1) - classic
im obsessed with the song. one of my favorite lks maps. also check out reiji-RJ's map which inspired this
poging