Bobtheduck wrote:I tried out stepmania, but the BPM won't auto detect (is there a plugin that will do that?)
There is no way to reliably auto-detect the BPM of music. Some programs will make an estimate (may even get it right, but also can be off by 50+%), but StepMania isn't one of them. I've written a couple stepfiles for StepMania -- I find the best thing to do for songs that have a fixed tempo is to just make a line of straight quarter-note beats and then fiddle with the tempo until it's pretty close. From there, fine-tune the offset, and then extend the line down about 20-40 measures and check if it's still in time there. If it is, then you probably will only need to do some VERY fine tuning on the finished work, if any at all. Familiarize yourself with how the different playback options work to make this whole process easier.
Bobtheduck wrote:and the songs I got are WAY past the difficulty they say... Also, it won't let me do the songs I want because they are too long... How long are they allowed to be and how am I supposed to fix that?
Not sure what you're asking here...
Bobtheduck wrote:Another thing, it will only play 2 beats worth of my song when I tell it to play all... I want it to work, I mean it would be great to have dances to some songs that would never make it on DDR (some rock songs would be nice) but if the difficulty is so high, I don't think I want to bother...
In the editor, playback stops after 2 measures when it reaches the end of the steps. If you want to play further, just jump down a whole bunch of measures and place a single step note. Page-down will get you down there pretty fast, and of course, Home will bring you right back to the top once you've placed it. Just remember not to leave it there forever.
Bobtheduck wrote:Speaking of backgrounds, if I ever figure out an effective way to do the steps, which I haven't yet, it would be nice to have my own backgrounds... Can I do animated backgrounds, like AVI or WMV files? Even quicktime, if I have to?
Short answer, yes. You can make your own backgrounds. I haven't a clue how to do it, but my understanding is that doing just an AVI background isn't too hard.
Bobtheduck wrote:Anyhow, the two songs I'm trying to make dances for are the german sailormoon theme (the techno one) and the techno german version of "Rubber ducky" from Sesame Street. The rubber ducky one, in particular, has a long intro (though I DO know how to change when the song starts in the dance) and it's hard to nail the beat down at the beginning of the song, but... If anyone could do these songs, that would be awesome. Maybe a strongbad techno, too, probably the original because it's shorter... Just make them... Difficulty level appropriate (most of these songs are NOT appropriate for the difficulty level they're set at)
It's finals week right now, so I really don't have time ... I'm also a bit slow about building my stepfiles, so ... yeah. Anyway, if you, or anyone else, is interested, I'm uploading my personal favorite of my creations. I'll post a link in a little bit.
http://rapidshare.com/files/6692352/04_-_Lonely_in_Gorgeous__original_instrumental_.rar.html
There we go.