Hey, here we go(from queue)
I think both of your difficulties lack consistency in terms of orientation for the first part of their playtime.
As this is basically the same thing for both diffs, i'll just elaborate it here.
Generally when mapping you have the choice to follow the dominating melody(here the vocals) or the drums as these happen to be the driving parts of song.
During the first part I don't have an idea what you're following at all. It doesn't sound inherently wrong and I can play this without problems but I think you could do a better job there. If i compare the first part to the Kiai-Time the latter is a lot more clear and on point:
You're using the sliderhead of longer (repeat) sliders to emphasize the clearly emphasized vocals and use the time in between to build up the next one.
To give you an idea what I mean in detail:
kind of textyTimings are referring to your normaldiff here.
First of all it's fine to make up an own rhythm for this but you have to be consistent with it and its interaction with melody
Let's pick up the rhythm you came up with for the first 8 beats:
Normal counting would be: "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" but dragging it over 8 beats is fine, we'll count to 8. I'll make the timing with hitsounds underlined so we can see what's going on:
00:07:609 (1,2,3,4,5,6) - 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 and
Try to tap it, numbers with the right hand, "and" with the left and ofc only the underlined ones while counting.
Now it's apparant that the drums are leaving out the beat on the 7 which seems wrong as drums usually maintain the beat. On this part you're forsaking the drums and use the slider 5 for the vocals. Which is fine in my opinion. However you can't really do this when you skip the vocal at "4 AND".
I'm aware that you started the song when the guitar comes in but all that's at 00:10:844 (5) - are the vocals and strings so you can't say that you're following the guitar(which would make sense for 1,2,3,4).
Logical consequence would be to either replace 5 by your own drumline and include the beat on 7 and keep on following the guitar or ignoring melody completely or you're including the vocal at "4 AND".
Of course you can switch between ignoring and following the melody and you can also change your drumline but as a rule of thumb you should do each for 2 full cycles of your drumline before you switch. Repition of a part before getting to something else is very common in music and it feels better in osu! as well.
Now that I elaborated what I meant I will just list the inconsistencies in the boxes for each diff with the comment "kind of texty". I hope my explanation was good enough to be understandable.
NormalPlease notice that my suggestions are purely based on rhythm and may not be easily fit into your current flow.
00:07:609 (1,2,3,4,5,6) - kind of texty
00:14:667 (5) - Make this a normal slider that starts at 00:14:961 - it fits the melody better
Your drumline is inconsistent between 00:17:020 (1,2) - and 00:21:726 (1,2) - but it doesn't sound too bad as it is right now, I'd still advise you to experiment with it(kind of texty)
00:20:256 (4) - Make this a normal slider, the repeat-hitsound disturbs the melody a bit and the circle after it also becomes more interesting if you leave it away
00:24:961 (6,1,2) - I think extending the vocals from 6 to 1 is good here but the extension from 1 to 2 sounds a bit odd. I wouldn't say this is wrong but you could experiment with it
00:28:785 (4,5,6,7,1) - this is beautiful
00:31:138 (1) - the hitsound doesn't quite align with the arpeggio of the guitar maybe silence this one or try another hitsound(the guitar is guilty, your spinnerend is at the correct spot).
00:35:844 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) - kind of texty
00:42:903 (5) - Replace this slider with a circle at 00:43:197 - to match the melody
00:47:608 (4) - Make this a normal slider
00:48:491 (5) - Make this a slider ending at 00:49:079 - and add a circle at 00:49:373 -
00:54:373 - You have to map this(kind of texty) as this is on "8 AND" therefore you can't change your behaviour yet. Moving 00:54:079 (6) - to this timestamp and replacing 00:54:667 (1) - with a circle at 00:54:961 - seems like a reasonable solution
00:58:197 (5) - Shorten this slider to 1/2.
00:59:079 - Adding a circle would be okay I think?
01:04:079 - From here on you basically always have a hitsound on the beat and you aren't following the melody closely anywhere which is why this is part is not kind of texty(i still have some suggestions)
01:26:432 (8) - Risking that I lose all the credibility I've built up until now: I believe it would sound very interesting if you removed this slider and added a circle at 01:27:020 - or a slider from 01:26:726 - to 01:27:020 - However it would collide with the rhythm afterwards which I personally find a bit boring, so take this as a suggestion and see what you think about it
01:32:314 (1,2,3,4,5) - I think the reverse slider and following are fine but personally I'd match the "1 and 2 and" with the guitar. If you think that sucks, removing 01:34:373 (4) - sounds interesting for me as well.
02:17:903 (5,6) - Remove 6 and change 5 into a circle on top of a slider that ends at 02:18:638 - (it's the blue tick but it perfectly matches the vocals here)
Add a circle at 02:19:079 - to compensate for 6
I originally wanted to mod the hard diff as well but it got pretty late and I have to get up early tomorrow so I'll just stop here. Your hitsounds need work as well but I don't have a clue of hitsounding anyway.
it took me like 3 hours to find out what bugs me, put it into words and then do the actual mod for a single diff...but i guess that's how it is when you seriously mod for the first time, lolIn any case, you know what you have to look out for there in the hard diff(kind of texty)