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The lack of official documentation (I'm not aware of any, at least) on the file format makes things confusing.

Here's a rundown of every available tags I found so far. All of them can be used; if by any chance a game doesn't understand one of them, it will ignore it.

Two things to note:
- I do know that some of those tags exist, but have no idea of the format they actually use or what they're for. Such tags include: #ID, #LENGTH, #VERSION
- The #UPDATED tag is something I wanted to include (before knowing a #VERSION tag existed). I'm not too keen on version numbers, and think a timestamp is often more relevant. It isn't used by any of the karaoke games, but I'm thinking this could make songs easier to track once released. Unsure yet on how do to it properly, if that's even relevant.


Basic information
#TITLE:
#ARTIST:

Some metadata about the TXT itself
#CREATOR:
#VERSION:
#UPDATED:
?#ENCODING: (can be "UTF8" when using non-ISO characters)

Detailed info for each song; used for classification within the game
#EDITION:
#GENRE:
#LANGUAGE:
#ALBUM:
#YEAR:

Files used by the song (filename.ext)
#COVER:
#MP3:
#BACKGROUND:
#VIDEO:

Technical info about the song
#BPM:
#LENGTH:
#END:(in beats)
#GAP:
#VIDEOGAP:
#PREVIEWSTART:

Unknown usage
#RESOLUTION:
#ID:

Proposal: give up on publishing a S1-only song pack, and release what we got so far by the end of this week (including the current S2 songs and extras). How do you guys feel about this?

Looks like Derpy ate the file - it has disappeared from the shared folder :D
Awaiting a fix / backup.

EDIT: got a recent backup from BloodStar, fixed.

IIRC that's taken from a German DVD. The video did need a revamp for a lot of reason though, the one from the DVD did not quite cut it:
- Interlaced (trust me, that's ugly to look at in Ultrastar)
- Low resolution
- Burned-in karaoke subtitles conflicting with USDX's ones

Thanks for reviewing it!

EDIT: did you upload your changes? It seems the files are still the same in the shared folder.

Found online too, on the same site as Giggle At The Ghostly. Cleaned the .txt a bit and added our own assets, the end result is stored in the Dropbox share.

Found a decent .txt file from an unkown author on the intertubes, and tailored it to fit this project.
There are a few more available files - tell me what you think of this one, if it's good enough I'll import the others too. ;)

Provided by Fiery

Proof-read it, looks great!

(and one of my favorite songs, albeit often overlooked)

(Err, I can't find it in the Dropbox share)

Since the song starts immediately, you may want to add a 1-2s rest at the beginning.

I'd love to, but unfortunately that's not the way it's supposed to work; the karaoke software is supposed to handle this on its own. A bug report was made against UltraStar to add this feature, but I think the devs dismissed it (saying they did not know what to display during the delay at the beginning of the song). Performous, however, does insert a 2 second delay before every song, and displays the static background image for a while before the game actually starts.

... which also means that if you manually add a delay for USDX, you'll double it for Performous.

Since the song pack is supposed to be independent from whatever Singstar clone you'll want to use (and not tailored to Ultrastar specifically), I think it's better not to insert any additional delay manually and expect USDX to improve and add this feature in the future. Yeah, I acknowledge it's clunky.  :-\

Also, if we do insert a delay in the audio file, I'll also have to add one in the background video, in the instrumental track, and in the other languages...

Extended version of this song should be kinda okay. Added a 720p remade bg video from a Youtube user.

Normal length version not done yet (but lyrics could be copied over from the Extended version, I guess; I'll have to make sure there are no errors on the extended version first).

Found a 720p remake on Youtube and added it as the video background.

Done!
(Actually taken from a "California Gurls" TXT that I ported)

You can try it out (from the Dropbox).

YES YES YES YES YES YES-

I cheated: I had a piano sheet for the lyrics. :D
As always, thanks a lot for reviewing the file!

Added the final S2 tracks (english vocals + vocals only + instrumentals) to the Dropbox share, thanks to CaptainComedy's work.

I think there might be a light latency on this track, syllables start a bit early. Not sure if that's my system or the song - do you notice it too guys?
It's more obvious with Performous.

Yes, perfect.

The -~ files are just automatically-generated backups created by my text editor, and should be ignored (and deleted before the final release).

I think I owe all of you a beer. Or something. :D
Did you update the files in the Dropbox already (apparently yes, just making sure)?

Oh sweet!

...Wait... you've done BOTH?
The awesomeness has been doubled!

Hi there! I'm pleased to see you join the project. ;)

In order to start up, I'd advise you to set up a few things:
- Install UltraStar DX and/or Performous (both are great - Performous has a nice "training" mode that can help build a song, too)
- Install at least one default song to test it out! See the UltraStarDX main page (right column) for a few samples knows to be well-made for instance.
- Install Composer
- You may want to install DropBox too, see this topic for more info and request access. Once you have access to the shared folder,, you'll also be able to try out the songs other people worked on.

The basic workflow then is to:
- pick a (Season 1) song that has yet to be done: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoG1Y_EMdd9odEZua1E0WXZoeFNwZVl3Mk1seEZORkE#gid=0
- create a thread in this subforum so we know what you picked
- get its lyrics and its MP3 from this thread, or from the Dropbox
- use Composer to sync and tune the lyrics. Here's a piece of advice from LardonCru too.
- Test it over and over again by exporting it to the USDX file format and actually singing it ;)
- Once satisfied, share it in your thread (or store it in the dropbox)

There's no need to add a background or any other artwork yet, only to sync the song. You may suggest some stuff if you have something in mind thought!

Depending on who's online, some kind of Live Help can be available on IRC (see here). Don't hesitate to ask either there or on this very forum.

Thanks again and godspeed!