I was just talking to someone over IM, and the process of beatmapping came up. So I wondered, how does everyone make their maps? Like what process do they use, etc?

Personally, for me...

1) Timing. I usually use BPM Analyzer to get an *idea* of what the BPM is. Then I find the offset, and adjust the BPM to match. Apparently, some do the BPM before the offset, not sure how that works...

2) Placement - I place all notes in the middle, for sliders I place bookmarks to add them in later. During this phase, I am playing the song in 0.50x, 0.25x as needed, and placing notes while the song is playing, constantly rewinding to make sure I placed em on the correct beat. Yep. Never. Ever. Do I use copy/paste!

3) Quality Assurance - Once I've placed all my notes, I play through the song at normal speed a few times, correcting/adding notes as I go. Also add breaks and spinners.

4) Spacing - I space all notes and and sliders, 99% with ALT, aka distance snap. Also I add in any sliders.

5) I make the combos, my combos are usually random, and I usually make them as I play through the song at normal speed.

6) Not always, but sometimes I add sounds, that being whistles, finish, etc.

7) Final quality assurance. I'll probably play through the song half a dozen times, making sure everything is good. This is probably why you never find any notes that aren't snapped correctly in the timeline.

8) Background image or video is added. Video offset is played with for about 10 mins, in an effort to get it as close as possible.

Rarely do I ever use the test feature. And that's pretty much how I map. If I had to say, I'd say it takes me about 2 hours to map a ~3 min song. From start to upload.

So... What about you? How do you map? Do you do pretty much all these steps at the same time as you go? Or do you split them up as well?

This is how I make my maps:

1. Timing - Why would anyone who wants to make a good and rankable map wouldn't start with this, really? Usually, I try to find offset first, then move on to finding BPM. I don't use BPM Analyzer, though. It takes too much time for me and results are only approximate which need to be fine-tuned later. And it's useless for any songs with multiple BPMs. (However, I 'm not against the use of BPM Analyzer. It is indeed a very useful tool for anyone who's not comfortable with finding the BPM themselves and can actually saves lots of their time.)

2. Add background video, image - Syncing beats placement to movements in the video is kinda cool, IMO. So if I have a video to add to the song, I usually add it before I start placing beats.

3. Beat placing - I prefer to complete it combos by combos. I'll listen to part of the song, place the beats, sliders, and/or spinner for a combo, arrange them in a nice pattern or sync them to the video while making sure that spacing is correct, replay the combo to make sure everything is right, then move on to the next combo. If I notice that my timing is wrong (which it usually happens), I'll go correct it right away before continuing on beat placing.

4. Add sound effects - I usually add some of them during my beat placing phase, but I'll play through the song once more and add some more if necessary.

5. Quality check - I play-test the song, make sure that everything is perfect, and do some adjustments if needed.

It usually takes me a day or two for my hard map (which is the first one I make for every songs), and half a day for easier ones.

Here's mine:

1. Listen to the mp3 a few times. Gives me a general idea of the rhythm, possible break locations, length, etc. Also gives me ideas of possible beat patterns sometimes!

2. Create .osu file - usually the Hard version first although this varies. The last beatmap I did, I started from the easiest map and worked my way up. Set circle size.

3. Add timing. I don't use a BPM analyzer - as Kharl said, I find it requires fine tuning afterwards anyway, so I just do it by ear. Offset first, followed by BPM. Set slider velocity.

4. Add bookmarks to locate the breaks.

5. Start placing hit objects. I place notes for each musical phrase (usually a bar or a couple of bars), and my combos are synced to these phrases. I find that phrase-aligned combos are a nice visual indicator for players and makes the beatmap more "in tune" with the song. I put down notes and sliders roughly where I want them, go back and finalize their positions before moving on. I don't like placing notes as the song plays - I usually can tell when the beats occur in the timeline, then I scroll to that tick and place. It's slower, but I know that I never have to adjust anything on the timeline this way.

6. When I reach the first break, I stop and test play, tweak if necessary, then continue. When I reach the next break, I test play that individual section, then test play the whole song up to the second break. Et cetera.

7. Add finishes and whistles and a background.

8. Test play the entire song in its finished form at least three times on all difficulties, making sure I can pass on all difficulties. If necessary, I change the drain rate or difficulty to suit, then re-test play. When I'm completely happy, I submit.

Yep, beatmap making is a very slow and long process for me. Usually takes a couple of days for multiple difficulties when I'm in the mood. When I'm not, it will take longer.

EDIT: oh yeah, almost forgot. I hardly ever (i.e. never) use the distance snap function, usually do it by eye since I've been doing that from the beginning. But you should take advantage of it, it's a helpful feature for beatmappers!

Brute force method for me!

1 - Timing - First, I get a rough estimate of the bpm using the "Click here!" device. Once that's kind of close, I go to the start of the song and find the offset with ~0.003s precision. (Not saying I'm always ~0.003 away from perfect, it's just the amount I increment by while trying to set the offset.) And after that, BPM finalization.

2 - Prediction - Listen to the song a couple times in the editor. Since I'm familiar with all of the songs I've beatmapped it isn't really necessary, but doesn't hurt, and I like the songs anyhow.

3 - Setup - I always start on Hard, and adjust the difficulty sliders. This will be the first time I save the .osu file.

4 - Placement 1 - I place all the notes I plan to have, a few seconds of the song at a time. I never go more than 15 seconds of gameplay without testing out the sections I'm working on. Usually I place a few notes down, rewind a bit and listen to it several times, then correct if necessary and proceed forward. When I'm within 20 seconds of a planned gameplay break, I'll place the last note before and the first note after a break and then add the break, so I know it's coming. Adding sounds is low priority.

5 - Placement 2 - After the entire song is done, I run through it in the editor to adjust obvious beat placement errors. Once that's done, I run through the song in test mode (or sometimes in Play Mode) a couple times to double check the beat spacing live. I also focus on sounds more here.

6 - Revision 1 - Revise the beatmap as necessary, play through it again.

7 - Revision 2 - Revise the beatmap again, play it one last time in Play Mode, and then submit it.

8 - Background - Remember that I forgot the background, add it, re-upload.

9 - Revision 3 - Continue to revise the beatmap, on both a personal and feedback-oriented basis.

10 - Ranked? - If it's ranked I don't mess with it any more.