☆ OVERDRIVE

WORK IN PROGRESS!

This page details how to author Overdrive (OD) for your song.

Overdrive is the same thing as Star Power in Guitar Hero: A meter you fill by comboing certain marked parts of a song, and when half-full or more it can be activated to double your points and stop your from failing out while active.

Authoring OD for your chart is a super important step, as without it your chart will be impossible to earn a gold star rating on when playing on Expert.

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Overdrive is authored on the MIDI note G#7 116, right above the Expert chart, on all instruments. All other notes that appear during the duration of this marker will turn into an Overdrive note in-game. Vocals have their own Overdrive rules which will be explained further down.

When authoring OD, these are some basics to keep in mind:

• Length - In most cases, Overdrive markers should not last longer than one measure. It can be shorter, as long as it makes sense with the song. If it goes on for too long it just causes fake difficulty.
• Intervals - You'll want to have a new OD phrase approximately every 10-15 measures. Any less and the song might be artificially harder to Gold Star.
• “Big” moments - Sometimes it might feel cool to put the OD phrase over a notable part of the song, such as a unique lick or an iconic drum fill. Just make sure not to put it over something that is almost impossible to hit, or people will complain.
• Hold off on adding OD toward the end of the song - Make sure to not author OD so close to the end you won't get a chance to use it all during notes. This is especially important for Drums and Vocals, since they can only activate on specific spots.
• Don't have 2 OD markers in a row - The song will not build in Magma unless there is at least one normal note between each OD phrase. This is usually not a problem, but it's good to keep in mind for songs with long breaks, so you don't put OD right before and right after the break and have Magma yell at you.

Keep in mind Vocals have a completely different system with its own rules, which is described further down on this page.

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Unison Phrases are Overdrive markers that appear on multiple instruments at the same time, awarding bonus energy for hitting it on all those instruments. You'll want one of these about every 20-28 measures in your song, unless there are long breaks where only one instrument is playing. This equates to between 3-5 Drums OD activation lanes between each Unison in most cases.

Here is an example of how it should be set up (the single OD in between can of course be placed anywhere and not just dead center between unisons):

To chart these, simply author an Overdrive marker at the exact same spot and length for every instrument you want to include in it. In most cases, you'll want to include as many instruments as possible.

It often feels cool to include the first note of the next measure after the phrase when authoring these, as when you hit it the final note of the unison makes a loud “woosh” sound effect.

Be aware that Vocals overdrive functions completely independently of the other instruments, and as such cannot be part of a unison.

1. Hold CTRL on your keyboard, then click on all instrument MIDI tracks you wanna open
2. Press CTRL+ALT+E on your keyboard, this will open all instrument tracks at the same time in one window
3. Press ALT+N on your keyboard to cycle between tracks. Find the Drums MIDI and author the Overdrive markers you want as unisons there first
4. Copy-paste the Overdrive to the other tracks using ALT+N to quickly toggle between them
5. While having all tracks open, author the rest of the Overdrive notes in between the unisons

This method makes the process much faster and easier once you get used to the keyboard shortcuts.

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Vocals OD is also authored on the MIDI note G#7 116, but with a catch: it has to line up perfectly with the phrases on both Solo Vocals and HARM1. It is not authored at all on HARM2/3, as they will automatically use the OD data of HARM1.

You'll want to make every 4-5 phrases a OD phrase in most cases. If you can't activate OD during the final part of a song, do not author any beyond the point of when you'll be able to activate. If you're unsure, playtest this before releasing your chart.

If HARM1 and Solo Vocals OD phrases don't line up due to Harmony stuff, see if you can adjust phrases on one of them to fit the other while still keeping any HARM2 or HARM3 notes in the mix covered by it still.

• If you want maximum compatibility between games, be sure to avoid having the end of an OD phrase touch any notes you don't want marked. Some PC clones will consider a note simply being next to the OD marker as being part of the OD phrase. An easy fix is to simply make the OD marker itself a 32th shorter, so it still covers everything you want it to.