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book_guy wrote:I really hate having to "stress about beats," as mentioned. I don't really get too stressed when I fail to match them, but sometimes my failure to match them is ENTIRELY due to the craziness of the creator. Either, they're unpredictably out-of-whack -- like, basically, trying to sing along with a song that I've never heard before...

Yeah, trying to go beyond basic rhythms on 4/4, 6/8, and 8/8 never works out well. There's a round (the source of which I can't recall right now; might have been Hand to Gland Combat 2) that had a pattern so weird that even though it was the only pattern in the round, I still can't do it after a few playthroughs.

book_guy wrote:...

For CH rhythms, one of my biggest pet-peeves is when beats are simply unintelligible. ...

This is why I prefer having a beatmeter. It gives something to refer back to if the attempt at using words is a complete failure. To me, the only other sensible way of describing beats would be something like "1-3-567-" where each on beat gets its number within the measure and each off beat gets a hyphen. This works best with a highlight effect as the beats occur to indicate the pacing being used, though having an added beat sound also helps. It's also annoying when a creator tries to use this, but changes the pacing (counting half notes vs quarter notes, etc) halfway through.

Point of discussion: suppose you're at a steady 4 strokes per measure, and a break starts. Do you find it more natural to include the first beat of the bar on the break, like 1-3-5-7-1-3-5-7-1-3-5-7-1-------, or to not include it? I haven't decided either way for myself, but I've seen videos with each convention (and a few that switched).

redno wrote:About the beats, i like beat meters and using the "1 up and down" rule for each stroke. However a good example of very easy-to-follow beats is the stroker ace series. There are surprisingly no beat meter in these, but the creator always makes it very clear and simple to understand which beat you're supposed to follow, and when to change because he's so consistent with his on-screen indications, if that makes any sense.

Basically what i'm trying to say is, if you choose a way to do it, could be any way you like, and that you follow always the same logic and stick to it, it becomes very easy for the player to replicate without second thought what you originally had in mind.

I totally agree.

zingg wrote:This is why I prefer having a beatmeter. It gives something to refer back to if the attempt at using words is a complete failure.

because of this and because one may know nothing of the music in these vids, i feel beatmeters are essential, or, in their absence, the pattern has to be kept fairly simple, the click track well articulated with a clear and distinctive presence, and advice given well in advance of beat changes (and i think that would best be done not with words but simply a visualization of the beat in advance - because in this situation there's no beatmeter, one can just put the visualization of the upcoming beat just as one would text, showing the dots or musical-ish (i say "ish" meaning it has to be accessible to people who can't read music) symbols in the upcoming pattern, either explaining up front this is a signal for the upcoming change or having some wording over/under it such as "upcoming beat pattern" or whatever)

servufon wrote:

zingg wrote:This is why I prefer having a beatmeter. It gives something to refer back to if the attempt at using words is a complete failure.

because of this and because one may know nothing of the music in these vids, i feel beatmeters are essential, or, in their absence, the pattern has to be kept fairly simple, the click track well articulated with a clear and distinctive presence, and advice given well in advance of beat changes (and i think that would best be done not with words but simply a visualization of the beat in advance - because in this situation there's no beatmeter, one can just put the visualization of the upcoming beat just as one would text, showing the dots or musical-ish (i say "ish" meaning it has to be accessible to people who can't read music) symbols in the upcoming pattern, either explaining up front this is a signal for the upcoming change or having some wording over/under it such as "upcoming beat pattern" or whatever)

I totally agree again.

I've seen very few vids without a beat meter that I liked. For most of them, the beat isn't strong enough with just the music to figure out what the rhythm is supposed to be. I prefer the beat meter, but now that I'm more experienced with the videos, I would like it to be more simple. I mean can it be more transparent? Why not have it on the side, going top to bottom? The way Awesome-X does it in his newest CH is probably the best I've seen. It could be a little smaller, however.

I really don't like when there's too much text flying around the screen trying to describe the beat. If the video has a handful of different beats, just a quick reminder would suffice. Or, go through them all kind of early and I'll remember what it looks like just from looking at the upcoming pattern.

Has anyone watched the VStroker videos? They just have a little histogram looking thing in the lower left corner. That's a bit too small. But something similar to that would work.

Also, I default to one beat = up and down stroke. I use a fleshlight "Sex in a Can" pretty much all the time. It isn't quite as big as the regular one. I've never had a problem following the beat. If it's fast, I generally just make shorter strokes and if it's slower then longer ones.

servufon wrote: i think that would best be done not with words but simply a visualization of the beat in advance - because in this situation there's no beatmeter, one can just put the visualization of the upcoming beat just as one would text, showing the dots

I think you're on to something here. I mentioned earlier about trying to simplify the beat meter. This might be the way to do it. If the beat track is strong enough, i don't need it to be there all the time, just for the first few iterations of a new beat and then it can fade away. After i have the rhythm figured out, i don't need it there any more. When the beat is about to change, then it can fade in, show the change and then get out of the way again.

I have a rule of thumb to always do the beat the most difficult way possible. And I'd have to disagree with most of you guys on the complexity of beats, if there is a more difficult way to stroke to that song it should always be that way you are doing it, for example dubstep always go with the wobbles never kickdrum. It makes me think that there is so much wasted potential in that song! Never had a problem following a beat as long as its in sync with the song and Ive played pretty much all the CHs by now.

The most important part is not being able to predict the beats, like if the song has a structure where you know whats going to happen it makes playing really easy because you know when to "brace yourself" lol. Recent CHs that are really good at not being predictable are corruption (obviously, it randomly changes the song, which is super awesome) and sensual daze that will hit you with something you don't expect repeatedly. Flux dance is also the only CH with slow beats I like and its because all in the sudden it hits you with something really hard and youve been tricked in to thinking its easy. So yeah that is the most important part for me.