Note types

Notes in Ultrastar can have different types. Note type affects the way in which the note is displayed in the game and the way in which the score is calculated.

Basically you can think of it as if there are 3 types of notes - normal, freestyle and rap*. Normal and rap* notes can have optionally golden bonus applied.

*not supported by all Ultrastar distributions

Basic note types

There are 3 basic types of notes:

Normal note

Normal is the base type for the note. All notes are normal unless you specify otherwise. Normal notes are singable and the pitch is validated - player has to sing them in the correct pitch to gain points.

In main editor normal notes simply do not have any special effects:

Golden note

Golden notes are similar to normal notes but they are simply worth more points. You should mark hard notes as golden to reward the person who sings them correctly. Learn more in the golden bonus subsection.

Golden notes in Karedi have yellow glow around them:

Freestyle note

Freestyle notes are not singable - you don't need to set their pitch at all because whether the player sings freestyle notes or not does not change their score. The lyrics are however normally displayed in the game that's why it makes sense to split the lyrics over notes and position the notes correctly.

In Karedi freestyle notes have dark shadow around them and the lyrics are in italics:

Non-standard note types

Some distributions of Ultrastar support also rap notes.

Rap note

Normal rap note is singable but the pitch is not verified. Player will receive points as long as he sings the note, the pitch is ignored - therefore only the position and the length of the note matters.

Rap notes in Karedi have blur effect applied:

Golden rap note

Rap note can also be golden. It is very similar to normal rap note, but just worth more points.

Changing note's type

How to change the note's type from normal to some other type?

Using the toolbar

The first icon with star symbol is used to make the note golden or to remove the "goldness" from it. Please note that the freestyle note can't be golden - if you mark freestyle note as golden it will change type to normal golden note.

The middle icon will change the note's type to freestyle. It will remove the goldness from the note if it was applied.

The last icon will change the note's type to rap without modifying its goldness. If the note was golden, it will stay golden.

With shortcuts

Pressg key to toggle the goldness of the note.

Press f key to mark the note as freestyle or if it is freestyle to turn it back into normal note.

Press r key to mark the note as a rap note. If it already is a rap note, it will turn back to normal note.

Using menu

You can find these actions also in the menu Edit -> Mark as -> Golden/Freestyle/Rap.

Golden bonus

Golden notes are supposed to be a way to reward players for singing hard parts of the songs correctly.

But what is a hard part?

It is subjective, but holding very high or very low notes can be hard. Singing several notes in the same pitch is not hard, however transitioning from one low note to the next high note or vice versa is hard. Singing one long note in the middle of the average person's pitch range is not hard, but correctly singing several short notes with various pitches in a song with quick tempo is difficult etc.

How many notes should be marked as golden?

Not too many, it is adviced to make the golden notes be worth 10-15% of the points. So if in Ultrastar the maximum number of points you can get for a song is 10000, then your golden notes should be worth 1000-1500 points. Remember that every track is graded separately so if your song has multiple tracks you must choose golden notes on each of the tracks.

How do I know if I am in the adviced golden bonus range?

Just check the warnings in the problems manager section below the main editor. If you have too many or too little golden notes on some track you will see a warning. Click on the warning to be transported to the track that needs golden bonus adjusted.

If there is no warning, you are in the adviced range.

You can also check how many points the golden bonus for some track is worth by hovering the mouse over the track's name in tracks manager.

Distributing golden notes

Remember to distribute the notes throughout the whole song. Also if possible do not mark the same pitch pattern as golden in multiple places e.g. if the chorus repeats several times try to mark different notes as golden in each version of it. Just to make the song more fun to sing.