Syncing

What is Sync?

Sync, for most players, is the single most important part of any chart. For charters, however, it can be quite hard to learn how to properly sync, and even once you've learned, it can be tedious. Despite this, sync is still an incredibly important part of every single chart, arguably the single most important part.

There are many ways to sync a chart correctly, but for this page I will only go over two surface level techniques that may help a less experienced charter find the right bpm and sync. More experienced charters can usually go by ear for figuring out if a chart is on or off sync, so this advice will only really apply to newer charters.

How do I sync?

To start with, the way you sync changes depending on what editor you use, since the majority of people use Arrow Vortex these days, I will write with that in mind. The first, and most reliable way to get a rough estimate of the bpm and offset of a chart, is to use arrow vortex's BPM detector, seen below.

This feature only works if the song has a single BPM, but it saves you a lot of trouble while you're starting out. Once you gain experience, you'll learn that the feature doesn't quite set the offset correctly 100% of the time, but for starting out, it's mostly good enough. If the offset is noticably incorrect, you can use arrow buttons on the "Music Offset" section to adjust the offest of a single bpm song.

By pressing Tab and then moving to a later part of the song and pressing Tab again, you can highlight a section, and if you then press find BPM, Arrow Vortex will proceed to find the bpm for just that section exclusively. This can let you find the BPM for specific sections in multi-bpm songs, show below.

The second method people use to make sure their sync is correct, is to use your editor of choice's waveform feature. This feature is indespensable for charters, and is a godsend for syncing. You can often times tell very clearly if a chart is on or off sync by how the notes and bpm align with the waveform. To show just how obviously helpful the feature is, I will link two pictures, one of which is synced, and the other is off sync, and I assure you, you'll be able to tell which is which.

Sync is something that is very important to practice, as getting it wrong can cause a chart to be compeltely unplayable for some people. It can take time to learn though, so just keep trying and eventually you'll get the hang of it.