So I'll do an actual mod post.
So I'm open to discussing the neccessity for low AR. However, the biggest issue I had with the high AR in the easy is that it had NO relation to the SV. AR puts a mental expectation on the speed of the map, and the distance of things.
https://osu.ppy.sh/b/252238 <- this map has AR10 (or something, I'm too lazy to check the specifics, but it's fast), and the beginning plays fucking retarded because like these things are coming out of nowhere and you're building up the expectation that the rest of the map will move fast, but then it's "hurr durr slow." Granted, this is a different case because this is a matter of not having multiple ARs in a map, but still, it's relevant to this.
Now, I'm going to ignore the AR debacle, since while I'd love to spend all of my time on that, I'm aware that I'm really hyper-conservative when it comes to issues like that. So let's just focus on the issues that are being overshadowed by this discussion (primarily the hitsounds I talked about in my last post)
Easy:
00:00:449 (1) - I'm finding that leaving the sliderhead on a soft hotsound but leaving the sliderbody and sliderend on normal hitsounds works really effecitvely.
00:28:574 (1) - Don't put finishes where they don't belong. A lot of the groove of this map is that it's very cut and dry when it comes to the drum pattern. There's not a whole lot of the washyness that comes with cymbal usage. This is more of an issue later but I'll talk about it when I get there.
00:30:449 (2,3) - To emphasize the "YOU" "CAN", I find that using a drumclap and then a drumnormal is effective. It kinda contradicts what I was saying earlier about the finishes and stuff, but tom drums don't really affect the groove of the music. But I understand if you don't wanna put them in for authenticity sake.
00:34:667 (3) - clap?
00:35:136 (4) - clap on sliderend?
00:41:230 (2) - clappp???
00:41:699 (3) - The thing is that you've already established your clap as following the snare drum, so it sounds out of place when you have it suddenly following vocals. I think it'd be cool if you just did drumwhistles instead.
00:43:574 (1) - and now you're changing the groove from hitnormals on every large white tick to every tick? If you want to go for a build-up, since this is approaching the kiai, you might want to play more with volume, and make things gradual.
00:46:386 (1,2) - same suggestion as before with the toms
00:49:199 (3) - So this is going to be a blanket statement for everything else because this is the point where I realized that hitsounds were an issue in this particular mapset. So this song really sparesly uses its cymbals. Which is fantastic, because then the points when they are using it are much more emphasized. What you've done is kind of added your own cymbals, and most important normal-hitfinishes, one of the heaviest hitsounds in the game. They sound mega out of place and are super unneccesary.
00:51:074 (1) - And then the claps just kind of dissapear
00:54:824 (1) - and then when finishes actually exist, they're not put in the map
01:04:199 - So for this particular section, the hitsounds are just aaaaa. Like, for music of this genre, and a LOT of genres that are popular in osu!, it's built upon a principle that the drums keep a consistent beat, and your hitsounds should reflect that. You've previously established that your hitclaps are being used to emulate the snare drum, which is being hit every 2nd and 4th beat of every measure. When you do things like this, the groove gets messed up and it sounds really weird. It's incredibly inconsistent and doesn't even really do anything to benefit the map since there's nothing indicating that the consistent groove should be changed. This is why whistles, drum hitsounds, and other things exist to be your auxillary hitsounds, so you can use those to emphasize rather than the hitsounds that's being used to keep the groove.
I hate making long mod posts so just kinda apply the general things I've said to the entire diff.
02:32:324 (1,1) - This is like mega boring, to have so much space in between. Especially when it has the higher AR, this must have been a LONG time to just sit and stare at an empty screen. I understand that you wanna follow the backing vocals, but you should do so in a way that consistently keeps the player engaged in the game. Also, a lot of people aren't really fans of "blocky" sliders, but I use them all the time so I won't be the one that will tell you to change them. Be aware of that though.
Quick scan through your other diffs
Normal:
I feel like this is more of an advanced diff since this diff has a lot of 1/4 and is significantly faster than the Easy diff. I uhhhhhh. . . I'll let BNs decide on this I guess??????? If I were in the BN I might give you shit about this but since I'm not like idgaf lol I'm tired.
00:28:574 (1) - I use these a lot and I love them, it's become a trademark of my mapping style. The thing that makes these effective are 2 things. (1), that the linkage happens at the endpoint of the 1st slider and the middle of the 2nd slider (which you did), and (2), that there are no overlaps (which you didn't do). The overlaps make an otherwise clean pattern look messy and cramped. Try to adjust something to make the overlap dissapear.
01:17:324 (1,2,1,2,1,2,3,1,2,1) - Like since you have this as a break in Easy and you're really not doing much effective things here, why not make this a break as well?
01:30:449 (1,2,3) - So firstly, hitnormals pls to emphasize this. Percussive effects like these generally benefit from being made hitnormals in a hitsoft map. Secondly, this. . . it's a little confusing since it kind of isn't the rhythm. The rhythm is notated as so in osu! terms (
http://puu.sh/oyivW/2d711f0a81.jpg ). However, that's really fucking hard for a normal diff. So I'd suggest leaving out (3) entirely. It makes (1), (2), and (3) all equidistant, which is kinda cool, and allows players to not have to play guesswork when playing this pattern.
03:03:964 - why the change in comboing?
Hard:
00:00:449 (1,2,3,4,5) - normal hitwhistles are the most invasive of hitsounds, so you really only want to use them when you're at a loud part. A build-up with no drums is not one of those times. Make this a gradual crescendo, since that's what this is anyway lol
01:28:574 (3) - this is just ugly lol
02:06:074 (1) - never do this ever. This is the equivalent of getting a food stain on a white shirt. The map is so clean and well crafted and then you just kinda push this slider in and suddenly it looks messy and untridy.
Insane:
00:00:449 (1,2,3,4,5,1) - samsies are hard. Or honestly if you just dropped the volume like 20% or something this might work.
yeah so uhhhhh I'm hoping the AR debate doesn't kind of overrun the fact that the easy needs a lot of cleaning in terms of hitsoundsing, and a few other things need to be polished. It's an otherwise okay map (the yeahyeahyeahhh version is a personal favorite of mine so I'm gonna always believe that that one is better, lol
).