Part 7: Golden Notes

TL;DR

Golden Notes aren't necessary, but if added correctly they can make a chart more fun. The main things to keep in mind when setting golden notes are:

Yass shows a number of 'ideal' beats that should be set as golden; anything over or under that value will mark the chart as having an error. It is recommended to stay as close to the middle of that ideal as possible. If deciding between going over or under that ideal, pick under. It is better to have too few golden notes than too many golden notes.
Setting long notes as golden notes is kind of boring. You are limited by the number of beats that should be golden, so don't waste them on long notes unless you have a specific reason to.
The best notes to set as golden are ones that are particularly hard to attain within the context of the song.
You can also set golden notes to things that are thematically relevant, like the word "sparkle" or "gold" or something.

Overview

Setting golden notes is entirely optional. I haven't set them in the vast majority of songs that I make since around the beginning of last year because I personally feel that that time could be better spent making new songs, but if you don't make songs too frequently then you might as well put in the little bit of extra effort to set them.

The main guidelines for golden notes are as follows:

At the bottom-left corner, Yass will show a little bar that, at the beginning, says "plus (value)". That value is the number of UltraStar units that should be set as golden, based on the length of the song. If you do not stay within that bar (for instance, you have zero golden notes, or the whole thing as set as golden notes), then it will be marked as an 'error' (an "uncommon golden bonus"). Try to stay within the golden portion.
- If you're deciding between being slightly above the middle (the 'ideal') and slightly below the middle, opt for below. It's generally better to have too few golden notes than to have too many golden notes, for score balancing purposes.
What notes should be set as golden? It is entirely up to you. The general recommendation is to select things that are hard to sing or possibly unexpected to the player. A golden note essentially indicates to the player, "hey, this part is hard, and you will get extra points if you nail it".
Don't set super long notes as golden notes. That will end up being kind of boring, because it's not particularly difficult to stay on one pitch for a long time (unless the song you're doing gives you basically no breaks). It is also a pretty big waste of your limited golden note quota that you should stay within.
You can set things as golden notes for other reasons, too. Maybe the song has the lyric "shiny" or "sparkle" or "gold" or whatever, and a golden note would be thematic there. Maybe the song ahs something funny that you want to highlight. You can set those as those as golden too, if you want.
Ultimately, golden note placement is up to you. Bad golden note placement won't necessarily kill a song, and a lack of golden note placement might not even be noticed by some players.

"Suggest Golden Notes"

So, uh, Yass has a "suggest golden notes" option in the Extras tab. You can click it and then it will automatically set golden notes at places that it thinks are good. I tried it with the example song and it doesn't look like it'd be any worse than what I'd personally set (the only thing I might change is adding a couple of goldens in the middle, rather than bunching more than half of them at the end). Try it for yourself, I guess?

Next steps

After you've set golden notes (or decided not to set any golden notes, your call), you're ready to start testing the song! Please test the song before you publish it. Seriously, it's important.

<< Back to Part 6: Pitching >> Continue to Part 8: Testing

Quick navigation: Index / Preface A / Preface B / Part 1: Audio / Part 2: Lyrics / Part 3: BPM / Part 4: Tapping / Part 5: Finetuning / Part 6: Pitching / Part 7: Golden Notes / Part 8: Testing / Part 9: Submission