Note: If you are a Freetar user who is considering changing editors, but you find this method too

confusing, you shouldn't immediately give up on EOF. You can use EOF by ignoring the beat
lines and placing notes like you did in Freetar. I wouldn't consider your song "high-quality", but
it should be a long way better than it would be in Freetar.

Guide to Making a High-quality Notechart using EOF

You will need:

* The EOF Editor
* The song you want to make a note-chart for, in OGG or MP3 format. I'd start with an easy
song if it is your first time.
* Optional: A Guitar Pro or Power Tab for your song
* Optional: FL Studio (see Puppetz' Tutorial)

This guide assumes you know how place, delete and move notes with EOF. EOF comes with a
tutorial, so if you've just downloaded EOF, read that. This is only how I make songs in EOF;
EOF is a versatile editor and you can there are many ways to use it. Charts made with this
method will be beat-synced as well as note-synced which is considered by many a criterion (yes,
that's the singular of criteria) for high-quality songs. This tutorial does not work for songs with
large, deliberate BPM changes, but it is accounts for the slight BPM changes that bands make if
they record without a click track.

1. If you have a tab and you can't read tabs or sheet music, you can use the instructions in
Puppetz' tutorial to convert it to a MIDI, and then load it into FL.

2. Load EOF and start a new song. Fill out the artist and title of the song (use proper
capitalisation, it looks more professional), and the folder name can be anything, really - choose
something you'll remember. Browse to your OGG or MP3 of the song. It is OK if it is an MP3
since EOF will convert it to an OGG for you.

3. Make sure your AV Delay is roughly correct (see the tutorial included with EOF). We will be
using the claps for syncing, so it doesn't have to be perfect, but it's a lot easier if it's roughly
correct.

4. Turn on claps by pressing K. Turn off the grid snap if it is on. Play the song in slow motion
(Ctrl-Space) until you hear the first guitar note in the song. Place a note (it can be on any fret for
now) where you think the first note is (ignore the beat lines). Rewind back to the beginning and
play it again in slow motion. Listen to the clap - you want it to sound at exactly the same time as
the first note. Chances are that it'll be slightly off the first time round, so adjust it a bit. Keep
replaying it in slow motion and readjusting it until the clap sounds at the exact same time as the
note in the song does.
5. If the first note is extremely close to the beginning of the song, you can skip this step.

Find the beat line that is closest to the note you just placed. Select the beat marker ("—>") that is
closest and drag it so that the beat line is in line with the note (the little gray line in the middle of
the fretboard shows you the exact position of the note). This "anchors" the second beat line to the
first note.

6. Now you need an approximate BPM for your song. It does not have to be exact. If you have a
tab, the BPM from there should be OK. Otherwise, use the tap-tap-tap thing included in the FoF
editor, or use that Mixmeister program.

Select the beat you moved in step 5 (or the first beat if you didn't do it), go to Beat->BPM
Change in the menu and put your approximate BPM in there. Make sure "This Beat Only" is
unchecked.

In my fake example, the approximate BPM was 114. Don't worry if the beat line is now a pixel
off the actual note; this difference is indistinguishable in FoF.
7. Play through the song for about 10 or so seconds or so, while ignoring the screen, and choose
a clearly audible note. The note you choose must be on the beat in the music (not in-between two
beats). As a test, play through the song and tap the table to the beat of the music, and if the note
plays when you tap the table and not in-between taps, it is on the beat.

Now that you've chosen your note, play through the song in slow-mo and place a note where you
think your chosen note is. Like you did in step 4, adjust it and keep re-playing in slow-mo until
the clap sounds at the same time as the note.

8. Your note should be close to one of the beat lines. If it isn't, then either your approximate
BPM is too inaccurate or you chose a note that wasn't on the beat. Like in Step 5, select the
closest beat marker ("—>" thing) and drag it so it's in line with your note. If they already are in
line, then drag the beat marker a tiny amount (like one pixel) to the right (this just ensures that
there's still an anchor there). Now a beat line will be anchored to your note.

9. Go back to the beginning, turn on the metronome (press M) and play through until your
second note. The metronome ticks should be in time with the music. If they are not, undo (Ctrl-
Z) to where you were before you placed the note. Repeat the steps. Either your approximate
BPM was too inaccurate or you need to choose a note that is closer to the beginning of the song.

10. Choose a note that is on the beat, about 10 or so seconds from the note (anchor) that you just
placed, and repeat steps 7-9 for it. In step 9, you don't need to go back to the beginning of the
song, just back to the last anchor you placed.

11. Keep on placing more anchors until you have gone through the entire song.
12. Now your beat lines should be synced to the song. Press Ctrl-A and then Delete to delete all
your notes you have placed. The anchors will still be there - the only reason we placed the notes
was so that we could use the clap. Play through the song at full speed with the metronome on to
check that it's all correct.

13. SAVE. This is just a precaution. You don't want to lose all that if a power-cut comes along,
right?

14. Now you can start placing notes. Turn on grid snap (I usually use 32nd note snap, since this
keeps the note lengths short) and the notes you place should sync. This is the beauty of syncing
the beat lines first. Most of the time, the notes should be on the beat lines (quarter notes) or
exactly in between them (eighth notes). They might be closer in some points (like solos),
depending on the song. You can use your tab to help you here - see Puppetz' tutorial. I'm not
going to give you a guide on how to place notes well, since that isn't specific to EOF or this
method, and there are plenty of those guides already.

Also, I'd avoid copy-paste for now, since that might give you notes which aren't aligned with the
beat lines. If you do want use it, use alt and left or right (page up and page down on newer
versions) to move the playhead first, so that it stays on the beat lines, and you might have to drag
some of the notes back onto the beats afterwards (it depends).

The notes really are random, so stop guessing what song it is.

15. SAVE AGAIN.

16. If desired, include a medium and easy chart (and maybe rhythm, bass and drums). You don't
have to sync the beat lines again, since they will stay the same throughout the difficulties and
tracks.

17. You are finished. Copy the song folder (remember the name you gave it in step 2?) into FoF's
song folder and play-test it. If you release it, please make sure there's no high-scores in the
song.ini in your released version.