ChickyMix 6

Welcome back!

I started the ChickyMix series nearly 20 years ago, an amalgamation of files spread out across fan forums, Flash Flash Revolution, and my own dinkily hosted website. At first, I was young and unskilled but obsessed with the idea of making a massive DDR-style pack like the PS2 games I had grown up with.

I've now accomplished that dream, several times over. First with ChickyMix 4 in 2017, a sort of hearkening back to the Extreme era, and then with ChickyMix 5 in 2021, an update of my style for the newest era of DDR, with a full, shiny set of singles and doubles charts. Even though today I still find places I could improve upon in my old work, I'm very proud of both these mixes.

I'd started work on a new mix almost immediately after ChickyMix 5 ended. But it's been more than two years, and now that they've let everyone out of the house again post-COVID and now that I'm in my 30s, I don't have as much time to make stepfiles as I used to. But here's the other thing: I can't stop. I don't think I could if I wanted to. I don't think making stepfiles is an art, but it's certainly a craft, and it's craft I've spent over half my life working on. And more importantly: even though it takes me a lot longer now to make a stepfile than it did when I was younger for a variety of reasons, I still love doing it. I love putting my work out there.

So, I had to a reach a compromise. Here it is: ChickyMix 6 is in all likelihood the last stepfile pack I'll ever make. But...I don't see it ending. At least not for now. It may be finished one day, it may never be finished. We'll see. But for now, this is the space where I'm going to keep my stepfiles going forward, adding them as I go along. I still want to put out quality work for you all, but it may just be at a slower rate. I hope you understand, and I hope you enjoy what I do put out, now and in the future.

But I certainly wouldn't leave you hanging right at the beginning. Here's the first 9 files of the pack, with my notes written here:



Blow | Kesha
BPM: 126 | Genre: Pop
S - B: 1 | L: 6 | M: 7 | E: 11 | C: 14 | Edit - 13
D.- L: 4 | M: 7 | E: 11 | C: 14 | Edit - 13
(Adjusted pre-X ratings: S - 1/4/5/7/9/9, 2/5/7/9/9)

I’ve had a file for “Blow” kicking around pretty much ever since the song came out. The earliest it ever came closest to being done was during the first iterations of ChickyMix 4 a long time ago. Throughout its many, many iterations, one thing has stayed the same - the gimmick of holding on to a single freeze arrow while playing out the melody from the “blow - ow - ow” chorus. I never quite felt like I stuck the landing, but I really wanted to include this song and this file eventually so I’m glad I finished it.

A few notes. 1 - the BPM is higher than the original song, to mirror the song’s radio edit, which was I think even faster than this. I both like the song better faster, and it allowed me to fit more of it into a 2 minute edit. 2 - this will likely be the only song that features pre-included Edit charts. The single and double edit charts are identical to their respective challenge charts, but with the bulk of the 16th note streams during the bridge removed. I think this may somewhat enhance the single challenge chart and somewhat detract from the double challenge chart (which is already a bit more difficult do to some stretching parts), but you can decide that for yourself. Either way, on the regular challenge charts the 16th streams aren’t too difficult and give the chart some juice, so I kept them in the main versions. 3 - God, I love this song.



Brazilian Fire | Ben Franklin
BPM: 130 | Genre: House | From: beatmania IIDX 17 SIRIUS
S - B: 2 | L: 5 | M: 8 | E: 12 | C: 14
D - L: 5 | M: 7 | E: 12 | C: 14
(Adjusted pre-X ratings: S - 1/3/6/8/10, D - 3/5/8/10)

Do you ever think about how there’s a guy whose name is really Ben Franklin who made multiple songs for beatmania IIDX? I do, and I love that. I hope he’s doing well. I happen to really like this song, a samba-infused house track that features lots of busily syncopated horns, guitars, and synths, giving you plenty to listen to - and move to. The steps, particularly on the singles and doubles Expert/Challenge charts, move with the syncopation, leading up to some more stream-heavy parts towards the end.



It’s You | Duck Sauce
BPM: 128 | Genre: House
S - B: 3 | L: 7 | M: 9 | E: 14
D - E: 9 | L: 12 | E: 14
(Adjusted pre-X ratings: S - 2/5/6/10, 6/8/10)

Together as Duck Sauce, A-Trak and Armand van Helden have long been overlords of deeply fun, sometimes deeply silly music, and this track is no exception. Built around a sample of the 50s doo wop song of the same name, the sped up sample lends itself it to some tricky swing-like rhythms with 24th notes, not unlike recent DDR songs like “Hella Deep” or ChickyMix 5’s “Both of Us”. Unlike this one, though, the focus is more exclusively on the swinging steps, which re-appear during the song’s 3 choruses. Make it to the end and you may be caught off-guard by the sudden stops.



恋のメロディー | SARAH
BPM: 200 | Genre: Rock | From: GITADORA EXCHAIN
S - B: 4 | L: 7 | M: 10 | E: 13 | C: 15
D - L: 5 | M: 7 | E: 12 | C: 15
(Adjusted pre-X ratings: S - 2/5/7/9/10, D - 3/5/8/10)

A turbo-charged indie rock song from frequent GITADORA singer SARAH, with music by Esiuke Takebe, DAIHEI, and Masaki Akaiwa. I was drawn to this song because of its unique combination of a super-high BPM and a swing rhythm - of course, not totally uncommon for GITADORA, but less common in DDR and definitely not common either way for this style of music. Naturally, most of the difficulty from the charts comes from the unique rhythms, but I don’t think it’ll be too challenging. Just keep an eye out for the longer streams during the guitar solo at the end.



Muchas | Myd feat. Cola Boyy
BPM: 129 | Genre: House
S - B: 2 | L: 4 | M: 8 | E: 10
D - L: 5 | M: 8 | E: 10
(Adjusted pre-X ratings: S - 1/2/6/7, D - 3/6/7)

The French producer Myd did this track in collaboration with the American singer Cola Boyy. I especially love the music video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrRImnlJRrw) for this song, a revenge story with a uniquely weird twist. This song features the easiest charts for any song of the release. However, there are still challenges - the single Easy chart features some corner jumps and both singles and doubles Expert charts feature some tricky crossovers.



Neo Heritage | kors k vs MAD CHILD
BPM: 150 | Genre: Techno | From: beatmania IIDX 28 BISTROVER
S - B: 3 | L: 6 | M: 10 | E: 13 | C: 16
D - L: 5 | M: 9 | E: 13 | C: 17
(Adjusted pre-X ratings: S - 2/4/7/9/10, D - 3/7/9/11)

A collaboration between kors k and MAD CHILD (the latter of whom is perhaps more well known for his songs for Sound Voltex) featuring some hard dance beats. Getting through the beginning of the song may be tougher than the ending, especially when playing the challenge charts, which feature a long series of 16th streams at the beginning, followed by some technical sections through the bridge, including some gallop sections across difficulties. Make it through to the end and it’s smooth sailing, with some easier in comparison 8th streams.



Quoi! | Avalon Emerson
BPM: 122 | Genre: Techno
S - B: 2 | L: 6 | M: 8 | E: 12
D - L: 6 | M: 10 | E: 13
(Adjusted pre-X ratings: S - 1/4/6/8, D - 4/7/9)

Avalon Emerson is one of my favorite DJs working today. Her more recent musical output has been more singer-songwriter stuff, but even from the beginning she was putting out techno bangers like this one. Built around a slowed-down sample from the 60s French pop song “Oh ! Eh ! Hein ! Quoi !”, the track is dark and features a highly varied syncopated synth melody, which the steps across difficulties largely follow. The song builds until it explodes into the sample/beat/synth meshing with each other, creating some tricky patterns near the end. The song’s double Medium and Expert charts feature even more challenging technical steps.



Wait | Icky Blossoms
BPM: 128 | Genre: Pop
S - B: 2 | L: 5 | M: 9 | E: 11
D - L: 6 | L: 8 | E: 11
(Adjusted pre-X ratings: S - 1/3/7/8, D - 4/6/8)

I first saw Icky Blossoms, an indie pop band from Omaha, over a decade ago at a tiny but packed club. It still might be one of my favorite shows I've seen to this day. I had always wanted to include an Icky Blossoms song in a ChickyMix but after having some writer’s block with some other charts knocked this one out relatively quickly. “Wait” is an uptempo new wave-like track with glimmering synths and crunchy guitars. During the chorus for the Medium/Expert charts, the steps mirror the melody of the synths and guitars, alternating between gentle 8th note patterns and triplet steps, later turning into a combination of gallops (on the expert chart) or crossovers (on the medium chart) and 8th note streams. I hope this inspires you to check out more of Icky Blossoms’ music; you can find more of it on Bandcamp: https://ickyblossoms.bandcamp.com/




As of now, you can find the whole pack here.



UPDATE 8/7/23


Two for summer.


Cruel Summer | Taylor Swift
BPM: 170 | Genre: Pop
S - B: 2 | L: 4 | M: 6 | E: 10
D - L: 5 | L: 7 | E: 12
(Adjusted pre-X ratings: S - 1/3/5/7, D - 3/5/8)

I had been working on completing the chart for “Summerblue” and I had been thinking of a nice summer song to accompany it. Coincidentally, I’ve been hearing this song a lot on the radio this summer, but it didn’t click that I should include it until recently, which is a bit shocking. I mean, come on, the word ‘summer’ is right there in the title! Anyway, I thought the charts for this were going to turn out fairly easier, but this song has a pretty fast tempo, which upped the difficulty slightly more than I was expecting. However, aside from the Double Expert chart, the patterns are overall very simple, with much of the difficulty coming from the speed and the higher number of jumps in the harder charts.




Summerblue | Toby Fox & Camellia
BPM: 73-145 | Genre: Trance | From: beatmania IIDX 30 RESIDENT
S - B: 3 | L: 5 | M: 10 | E: 13 | C: 15
D - L: 4 | M: 10 | E: 13 | C: 16
(Adjusted pre-X ratings: S - 2/3/7/9/10, D - 3/7/9/10)

Toby Fox’s recent involvement with making Bemani music has of course been a welcome surprise, and this collaboration with Camellia is no exception. Bright and breezy with some fun 8-bit half-time sequences, this chart’s difficulty mainly comes from its heavily syncopated melodies, with the challenge charts featuring some additional drills and some trickier patterns near the end, but still overall on the easier end of technical charts.

UPDATE 11/8/23

One for Halloween (well, one I tried to finish before Halloween, anyway.)



Oh Oh Oh Sexy Vampire (Initial P Remix) | Fright Ranger
BPM: 204 | Genre: Hardcore
S - B: 4 | L: 10 | M: 12 | E: 14 | C: 17
D - L: 11 | E: 13 | M: 15 | C: 18
(Adjusted pre-X ratings: S - 3/7/8/9/12, D - 7/9/10/12)

By now, most of you have probably heard the original “Oh Oh Oh Sexy Vampire” by Kid Whatever alias Fright Ranger, which has been floating around us in the ether now for over a decade, but how many of you have heard this ultra-high speed remix? I knew it would make for a very interesting take on a song that’s been done a lot of times before. There’s a lot of fast streams, to be expected for a song with a BPM as high as this, but the challenge charts diverge in a key way - the singles features a lot of crossover 8th note streams, and the doubles chart features a lot more stretching sections partially inspired by the ITG doubles charts of yore. Don’t be fooled by the slight difference in ratings, though - the singles chart is one of the more difficulty 17s I’ve written.


UPDATE 11/30/2024

I'm back. Finally! It's been...a minute. Here's two new charts from two hot names in the dance music world right now:



Dreamer | Four Tet
BPM: 135 | Genre: House
S - B: 4 | L: 6 | M: 10 | E: 13 | C: 15
D - L: 6 | E: 10 | M: 13 | C: 15
(Adjusted pre-X ratings: Singles - 2/5/7/9/10, Doubles - 5/7/9/10)

In spite of Four Tet's growing popularity as a DJ, I'd had this file sitting around in my folder of unfinished stepfiles for roughly 5 years. I had this idea for a chart revolving around the huge streams at the back end but couldn't quite seal the deal. Then something clicked for me recently and here you go! Here's the rest of those charts! Honestly I like it!



Real Move Touch | Confidence Man feat. Sweetie Irie
BPM: 130 | Genre: House
S - B: 3 | L: 7 | M: 10 | E: 13
D - L: 5 | E: 8 | M: 15
(Adjusted pre-X ratings: Singles - 1/5/7/9, Doubles - 5/6/10)

I saw (and played a lot of) the nDDRo revival file for the Confidence Man song "Don't You Know I'm in a Band". It also just so happens I'm a really big Confidence Man fan, love the new album, and wanted to make some charts for at least one song on the album. So here we are. Watch out for the doubles charts with an emphasis on stretching. Also, everyone say thank you Sweetie Irie.

[A side note: I hope that means I'll be more active soon - I had a lot going on this year and it was nice to sit down and just knock out a couple stepfiles.]