Dom Rants: Your scuffed setup is fine.

This is mostly a message to beginners or people who want to try ITG. You can have a lot of fun with a crappy setup and you shouldn't worry too much about getting one.
I know that much of this matters more for other playstyles (sync, polling rate...). But I'm a stamina player and this is from my perspective. I might not be 100% correct all of the time, but I can share my opinion based on my experience and that's what I tried to do here.
⭐CONTRIBUTE TO THE ITG WIKI @ itg.wiki⭐
0:00 Intro
1:49 Polling rates
4:27 Bars
5:28 Syncing StepMania
7:30 Monitors
8:59 Dance game shoes
10:09 Wrap-up

[@domitg]

The URL to the ITG Wiki has changed! It's now: itg.wiki/

[@dimoextremo]

The world is your bar!

[@prccp]

Doesn’t work either

[@Kirbomb21]

The best part is that immediately after that intro, I went to the comments and just 4 comments down there’s already someone complaining about their Ltek board and some suggesting to buy an arcade cab as a reply 😂. This video writes itself.

[@stetsonvestal4751]

Super cool. Thank you for the mention my man!

[@primovictorian]

The only thing that matters is availability. Having a setup is better than no setup at all.

[@natologic]

I passed my first ITG 17 on a crappy wood pad I threw together in a few hours with ~$40 of stuff from Home Depot, after failing to do so for a few years on an arcade setup that cost me $1500. I grew up without a bar and I'm too lazy to actually learn how to use one so I haven't a single ITG pass with one. You don't need one to be good. I don't sync my setup. I've gotten better scores just by practicing rather than trying to adjust the sync. It matters more IMO that you get used to your setup than it be perfectly synced. If you're new to the game and reading this...your scuffed setup is just fine.

[@michaellyga4726]

cmmf quadded Matt Silver on a 125hz penny modded L-tek using a cabinet as the bar. Goated

[@fabsab4434]

thanks dom. i currently have a DDR wii softpad and a gamecube to usb converter.

[@fabsab4434]

i dont have to worry about shoes because I like soft pad in socks

[@CowEye]

Ltek is fine with me, but someday I wanna try Stepmania X pad.

[@juicetin1561]

SMX pads are night and day. It feels like a completely different pad than any other one out there.

[@banditfierce3476]

God I fucking love you so much Dominic

[@banditfierce3476]

[No shirt] stream when?

[@domitg]

@@banditfierce3476 I've been lifting weights consistently since January. Give me like another 6 or 8 months and it'll happen.

[@Cobalt985]

Fully agreed. I literally played on a "modded" soft pad up to ITG 10s. It was a soft pad taped to a slab of MDF with a vinyl sheet stapled over top. I liked what you said at the end. "Don't let perfect be the enemy of good".

[@plaguin5460]

I think this is the video I needed to give me that extra push to finally grab a pad. You had some solid points, and I appreciate the time that went into this

[@CDank]

Got to love the YT algo. I definitely needed to see this! Have no real intentions of playing ITG or whatever, but I'm building a couple pads to use as a scuffed game controller for WoW. I won't agonize so hard over the details :)

[@stephaniedannenberg901]

That shirt is fantastic

[@domitg]

SICK!

[@mistaecco]

Fantastic takes all around. Thank you for this!! Would be very down for a faux-clickbait-y "top 5 WORST things about Dedis/cab ownership" or something like that!

[@teejusb]

4:40 WALKER MASTER RACE

[@xdank710]

what may now be a scuff may one day be a buff💯💯💯

[@wermi573]

one thing i wanna add in regard to polling rates: reminder that PIUIO in ITG2 dedicabs polled at like 60-70hz until R16, which introduced a kernel hack which made it poll at around 100hz. which is still less than a typical USB HID device with bInterval=8 (125hz). those figures are not really relevant anymore in context of modern hacked cabs but it didn't really stop people from getting quads "back in the day" lol.

[@PeterLawrenceYT]

I don't know why people try to overcomplicate things, just hit the arrows!

[@hewhoamareismyself]

Spootybiscuit did a set at the end of ITL on a 15 year old soft pad to prove exactly this from a FA/tech perspective. You can get good on anything. I think he finished top 40 no bar on an LTek

[@PkGam]

I gotta catch up on your stuff, lol! My experience with all of these: Polling rates: Yeah, when I seen other's being all spiky, that's only because the graph is just THAT tight. So it shows the little gaps. But if you are in between, it should still average out to the nearest point. Meaning if the excellent spot is right between the polling, late would still be an excellent. The idea regardless of your polling is to stay on sync so you are as much inside the timing windows as possible anyway. Bars: Yup! Just find anything comfortable as every house has something somewhere that one can use. Heck, my DDRGame bar is quite floppy, so I push it against my bed against the wall. Plenty solid enough then. Syncing Stepmania: This can be really janky and it's not because of Stepmania, lol! If you play a wide variety of packs, you'll find that the syncing is varied. So even if you got SM just right, the songs may not. Like your example about older DDR: I just played. I wasn't that good to notice much and it wasn't until later that I got more in sync that I did notice but I then adjusted for it song to song as needed. Orion 78 Civilization Mix people have PFC'd with it's out of syncness AND it's stepjump glitch. Monitors: As much as I happen to be a lag-free purist myself, for rhythm games it oddly doesn't matter as much as I was expecting. I'm using a BenQ RL2755HM gaming monitor with 1ms gtg. That's about as fast as it can be with LCD tech. "But" it's 60hz because it's for console gaming. I got it before I got into Stepmania on pad yet it works incredibly well for Stepmania. I think it's because players don't necessarily hit to the "visual", they hit to the "sound". Namely because you aren't looking at the targets so much as looking ahead towards the bottom so you can react in time. That being said, I can see why people got the impression that you need as low of lag as possible: Because in OTHER games it matters a lot since you are reacting to things in real time. You can adjust to a laggy screen no matter what, but you won't be as fast as others in stuff like online multiplayer because you are always so-and-so behind depending on the screen. Shoes: This is probably the biggest personal preference out there. Socks with bags for me as I like the lightness of them. But I've seen others get incredible results in shoes too. I tried shoes, felt too sticky and heavy. Tried shoes with socks over them, felt' heavy and still oddly sticky somehow? Tried Furishiki shoes with socks over them, felt' like they slip too much on the inside and still not as comfy as socks only. etc... The only thing I haven't tried yet are some heel cups because I have friction issues at times. One day I likely will. Though I was considering some fabric wrap bandages like Bran in the mean time since we have those lying around as they may be enough insulation for me. Pads in general in the wrap-up: Mentioning that DDR game one is a lot like the one I have. Only my panels are metal-wood instead of plexiglass. They otherwise have the same general structure: Panels sink down into holes to touch zigzag sensors which then pop back up with foam under them and the foam needs break-in time to become soft enough to depress easily. It's almost weird just how adept I got at using it. Like, I always heard that the crater feel was going to hold you back, but it never seems that way as I keep making progress. So I just stuck with it. I am curious about trying some FSR pad someday anyway though. Really good video on this! I too agree that just having anything to play is better than nothing. People have even modded their soft pads by putting a plastic sheet over them stapled to some wood around the bottom to make them more consistent and solid. But the thing about this whole topic is that when players encounter problems, they find solutions. No matter the setup, people will make the best of it.

[@Gotmilk0112]

The new L-TEKs now have 1000hz polling so that isn't a problem anymore. Even so, 125hz polling is still perfectly playable. I quadded a bunch of stuff on mine before I modded it with an Arduino for 1000hz. Just makes things a bit tougher. As for machine sync...yes you should definitely sync your setup, especially seeing how easy it is to do that in Stepmania 5. You shouldn't "adjust to bad sync" when syncing your machine properly just takes two presses of F6 and then playing through an easy song.

[@dannyboyk2]

This was great! Thanks for making a video that spreads positivity. 💛

[@bjamiork]

That intro was fucking incredible. Thank you, Dom.

[@Mawntee]

Thank you. I needed this

[@ottersdangerden]

I would like to also point out that xbox and ps controllers are still at 118-125 hz still. Also if someone were to upgrade something, amonitor would probably have the most impact for the cost, and ease of upgradability.

[@DerekDickey]

Loved this video. Great intro too.

[@Genjink]

I like dom rants

[@yiff]

Of all the things, I reckon shoes are the biggest meme. If I can personally play in fake jordan 5s and hear about people playing some crazy difficult songs in flip flops, there's literally no need for anything other than what you have. Obviously don't go playing in heels or chunky solid boots though. That'd break your ankles and the pads.

[@sirlimen333]

Tims ftw

[@ErrorDDR]

I hope FNAFFANBOY is having fun

[@losermanwins4338]

another dominck in the groove banger

[@thecyberquake618]

I'm personally in the "Use a chair with a heavy object as a bar" camp. Though I did just recently order an l-tek, and I'm gonna be looking into designing some system for a sturdy bar that can be collapsed in some way to store. But I think one of the great things about pads like the l-tek is it's a really good starter for a good price that is pretty easy to also get into pad modding if you feel like something is legitimately holding you back at any point.

[@Jongo1]

I played decades ago on a CRT at 60hz and it ran better than it does on my "gaming" laptop I own now. It's because of the ghosting. Ghosting is horrible, I haven't ever been able to get used to it, but my laptop does suffer from it real bad.

[@tacos4q174]

I grew up playing started playing again. I was shocked to learn I’m called a no bar player. Lol 🤷‍♂️

[@Nifterific]

I’m pretty happy with my 125hz bar kit copper strip modded LTEK. I mean I weigh 249lbs and I’m passing 11s (and one DDR level 17) on this thing, getting Tristars on 9’s and lower, 250 PFC’s on my DDR based setup, like 20+ single digit perfect/excellent scores, and 1 flag. I would say it works. Obviously I would love to have an arcade cab but also this pad cost me like $500 and it fits in my apartment. Like you said, the alternative is not playing at all and screw that.

[@flatmanv2]

cool vid, thank you king 👑

[@shane_itg]

Sick video. Thanks for the shoutout! 😎

[@metroidxme6470]

Dom. We need the whole pack back. You, dukamok, jj, mad matt, flash etc.

[@RickyGarcia_Learning]

I have 2 lteks and and I'm hoping to get tp 1000hz so I can finally hit level 3s on itg

[@RemiAutor]

I know somebody who had never stepped on a DDR machine before in their life and wanted to know what pad to get and I told him to get a folding soft pad and not even think about upgrading until all four buttons no longer register any inputs at all (in a week).

[@evergreen1798]

Can confirm as a soft pad player.. it is agony. But it's still progress ^^

[@the_break1]

You can get used to Bluetooth audio latency in your wireless headphones too since SM doesn't have hitsounds. No, the headphones won't fall off if doing stam. Great vid dom

[@TC19]

where are all my CEOs of ✨interesting✨ bars, comment down below

[@the_break1]

Two soviet stools stacked on top of eachother

[@HURGIIDX]

A home gymnast bar for children lol

[@DominickPeluso]

The best bar is just to hold on to your dad's arms

[@SPVLaboratories]

The concrete slab in my basement works great check out my itg vids

[@mistaecco]

Crib made for changing baby diapers with a pool noodle duct taped to it - REPRESENT

[@theYTfox]

I'm a Pump it Up player and 1000% agree with everything said on this video.

[@gort5516]

all new LTEKS are 1000hz anyway. I love my LTEK personally.

[@adamisaacddr]

100% agree with you

[@fakeflake5925]

ive been to a few dance arcade cabs and they all suck the holds are legit rolls because of them being so unsensitive but my ltek with a hockey stick drilled to a cabinet works wonders

[@iatoa2812]

I got a used scuffed dyi plywood contact sensors pad with a broken random 46pin connector that is used in some old school synths (???) and a 5m long cable for that connector to 9pin (???) I desoldered it swapped it for a 9 pin made a 9pin to usb converter with a cheapest controller I found (whole setup pad + controller + male female 9pin cost me 10usd (someone was willing to sell me the plywood pad for 8)), playing Stepmania is as fun as it gets, probably will look into modding my setup somehow to play harder songs in the future but so far playing casual songs has been a fenomenal experience.

[@iatoa2812]

I my setup would be a soviet made car filled with mice In a car analogy and I would still love it dearly.

[@iatoa2812]

Love the wiki idea, I am so frustrated that something that would be an open forum in the 2010s now is a discord where the knowledge is closed its a really good way to mitigate that!

[@dan-othemando7958]

People Forget The NUMBER 1 Rule For DDR/ITG/PIU JUST PLAY THE DAMN GAME!!!! I Remember Playing ITG2 R7 @ The Arcade and This Pro Player Was Whining About The Right Button Being .07 Seconds Slow.......My Friend Yelled Your Right Foot Needs To Be .07 Seconds Faster!! His Crowed Dispersed and We Just Continued Our Playing.......Fun Times....Miss Playing on Soft Pads @ The FRYS Electronics.

[@Owen2131_]

I play in adidas lite 4.0 currently on my ltek ex pro 2 Btw, WHERE DID U GET THAT SHIRT!!! I NEED IT

[@Ralgondo]

been on the fence for years about buying one of these ltek pads... i might finally pull the trigger

[@shane_itg]

Go for it.

[@Oni591]

just as an update the ltek now does 1000hz - without modding

[@cmyk8964]

*Guy who’s new to ITG:* “Hi, I’m new to ITG, how’s my okay setup?” *Guys who are not new to ITG:* _[extremely granular stuff that a guy new to ITG would not care about]_ Remember, DDR polls at 60Hz (or at least used to for a long time) and it’s doing fine. 125Hz is already more than twice as good as DDR.

[@NekohitaTenko]

hint : l-tek G2 have 1khz now stock Apart from that, i'll say this.. The Best dance game setup, is the one you can master.

[@garrt8949]

So if I play using a soft pad from Amazon I will become God of this earth. Got it

[@Hsarus]

Did you spoil that StaminaCon 2 will be a thing at 11:55 :o because damn I want this finally go at it jeez

[@thecorrespondence6609]

this. this this this??!!?!?!?

[@GUCFan]

My setup is nowhere near perfect. Two Xbox foam pads hooked up to an old Mayflash adapter that gives me two controller ports for the pads. Home made navigation boxes to navigate the menus just like on a ITG cabinet and all running under ITGMania with the DDR XX theme. Why ITGMania? Mainly due to the fact that its a fork of SM5 that bought back pitch and speed based rate mod which i think sounds nicer than just speed based.

[@AED_001]

Based video

[@codingtranquility]

Don't the new ltek 2's poll at 1000hz now?

[@fridgepuff1722]

I bought a penny modded l tek to replace my smx pad since I'm living on campus for college I love my l tek and I can bring it around

[@jjtaot2661]

Hey Dom, Do you know if a arduino leonardo can make a 9 panel pad? The reason I’m asking is that a teensy has analogue inputs from 0-10 but the arduino leonardo only has 0-5

[@domitg]

Sounds like it wouldn't work but I haven't used those arduinos before, only teensys. You could ask in Teejusb's discord because I know some people there use them. The invite link is on the readme of his GitHub project.

[@jjtaot2661]

@@domitg alright thanks!

[@fridgepuff1722]

My set up is an smx pad an outdated pc and a Logitech 720p webcam as long as you're using atleast an ltek you'll be able to have a great time

[@ggezlol-]

I play DJMAX without the sound on all the time, I'm just on auto pilot from playing it so much.

[@Cardmaster12]

lol im a ddr player my ITG setup is like 50ms off what most ITG players would consider offsync, you do just get used to it (white cab is inherently late) lol

[@magmuse]

When i used to play osu mania i play on laptop (60fps) and it feels for me way better then anything higher tbh

[@CaveyMoth]

The synchronization thing is the same when it comes to Beat Saber. I always struggle to get the perfect synchronization. Everything seems weird. So I just set a latency that allows me to see the notes coming on very fast songs. The key is to have it to where you don't freak out trying to hit notes. And then your brain can get used to it from there. But then when you play on a different headset...oh, boy... Anyway, I play DDR on PS2 using a Vizio HDTV from 2011. It has about 13 ms of input lag. It's just fine. I'm not skilled enough to complete songs that are 15 steps, anyway. =\

[@ibtarnine]

is it really fine? i played for years on a dedicab that i maintained, so it was always in very good shape, and i'm worried i'll buy an l-tek pad and it'll just feel.. flimsy. that solid feel is really important to me. not super concerned with accuracy or polling rate or whatever.. but if i spend $500 and it feels like a cobalt flux i'm not gonna be happy, lol. i'm glad to see people pushing limits with stamina stuff but i really just want to play like 10s-14 with shoes.

[@Cobalt985]

But do you have the option of going to that dedicab whenever you want? I built my own pad with no experience and after TONS of tweaking I have it where I like it and I wouldn't choose most random arcades over my really shitty-looking wood pad (only _looks_ shitty, it actually uses FSRs). Basically once you have stuff tweaked where you like it, playing on other people's setups is going to feel weird. I don't own an L-TEK so I can't speak to their build quality but because they're so popular there's TONS of mods out there now so you aren't stuck with what you get stock. Hell, I'm sure people FSR modded it the week after it was released.

[@ibtarnine]

@985i actually did a bit more research and i've decided to build my own wood FSR pad too. i figured i wouldn't be satisfied with an L-Tek purchase at all. to me it appears to be the best route to go, since i can replicate a solid arcade pad feel, while also being able to fix anything that breaks since i built it myself. did you use a guide? i was going to follow Dom's video guide he has.

[@patrickbateman00]

I'm surprised pad modding wasn't brought up.

[@Hsarus]

My down is sliced in 2 panels lolll so I have 2 downs

[@HURGIIDX]

I don't even think l tek even sells the 125hz pad anymore lol

[@xxsummer666xx4]

i hear similar stuff in the clone hero community too. humans are literally unable to comprehend content that would require 1000hz (yet). 90% of rhythm game players should be fine with 125 regardless of the game

[@carb_rta]

pov you dont understand how polling rate affects accuracy

[@carb_rta]

oh wait I forgot your game doesn't have accuracy ratings LOL

[@xxsummer666xx4]

pov u didnt read the comment. in many circumstances 125 should be fine, but of course there are use cases for higher polling rates (such as fa+ in itg or justice in etterna)

[@carb_rta]

@@xxsummer666xx4 125hz effectively reduces the amount of time you have to hit even pretty generous timing windows and is a pain in the neck in a lot of games. you don't need to be grinding tiny timing windows for 1000hz to be a massive upgrade. not to mention it lags your inputs in an inconsistent way and can make your sync worse

[@xxsummer666xx4]

@@carb_rta im not trying to argue that it isn't advantageous, im trying to say its not essential for everyone

[@kingofjuice4087]

I play with socks (even if they shred)

[@TheCornholio29]

DDR tryhards screaming and crying and shitting their pants right now

[@michaellk2254]

This hertz

[@Gewoah]

Honestly I got the new ltek pad that I wanted to start ITG but I never got motivation to keep going I don't know how to even start at all

[@domitg]

I'd suggest joining a community and meeting some folks. They will help you get started itg.miraheze.org/wiki/ITG_Communities

[@Gewoah]

Yea, I'm just the person who wanna like start quick and get good lmao

[@qwrosu]

People have this mentality with osu too. "I need a really good rhythm game keyboard and expensive wacom tablet to get to 3 digit" no you really don't. any cheap tablet and mech kb will work.

[@NOCTACRY]

just use a g502 lmao

[@patj007ddr]

It is so annoying when people come over your house and complain about your setup the whole time. I’ve stopped inviting some people over because of it.

[@fridgepuff1722]

Shoes kinda matter but it's a comfort thing and you can get good results out of cheap shoes

[@shane_itg]

They really don’t. People just get used to whatever they play in. For instance I play in socks using an ltek and hitting the down arrow use to hurt my heels but I’ve done it for so long I can’t feel a thing.

[@fridgepuff1722]

@@shane_itg I play in socks at home too but with shoes at the arcade

[@SefyZero]

What meme song is your quad?

[@domitg]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/moW5nWVuo6mtacU

[@sujurean]

where was this video when I just was getting into playing ddr at home :'(? I got so particular bc of how ppl are like FSR, StepmaniaX, Cabinef, cobalt flux-specific that I thought I could never play the game again until I got a hardpad. I got a hardpad in 2020. I had a decent softpad in 2017, I could've been playing that entire time, instead I don't because ????? I should've just played the game!

[@dan-othemando7958]

Rule # 1 Just Play The Game!!!

[@acactusnamedjosh708]

Y'all have pads?

[@Fresca64_]

Where can I get the shirt? Also 125hz ltek early adopter gang 😎

[@domitg]

In one of my recebt videos i gave links to the files and explained where to buy shirts

[@Fresca64_]

@@domitg sorry i'm a fake fan i will go look for it

[@yolosnuff1476]

LOL i heard about the SAME PROBLEM about polling rates but for osu! crazy how the same "problem" exists for completely different games, of course an expensive keyboard to fix it is nothing to an expensive pad. a good keyboard should net like 100$ and you get to use is for other games. a perfect dance pad could net thousands

[@Cobalt985]

SMX stages are like 1300 so yeah, around there

[@AznKei1]

Wow, the commenters from the intro are annoying imo. I wouldn't to deal with them in any way. Anyways, I had found memories with ITG but I play PIU now because I like doing Doubles which is why I bought a double softpad from PIUDancepad. I'm happy about it since I can stage pass S19s/D18s even though I can stage pass up to S21s/D20s in the arcades and the build is still solid after 3 months. My setup's consisting of rug pads underneath, with packs of water to hold the softpad in place while I'm using a cloth drawer for my bar, my monitor is 1080p/60hz and I play barefoot. Also, people are having bad experiences with DDR softpads that we have in the west and I couldn't play with hard pads like LTeks or SMXs because I live in an apartment which is hard to store them. I surely want to play DDR & ITG as well, but not on my PIU softpad even after tilting at 45 degrees because the layout is different.

[@omgdisfunny4852]

Which is the best ltek people have tried, they ruined the explanation for their pads. Does anyone know the difference between the LTEK EX Pro 2 And LTEK EX Pro X

[@jeremyquiros5483]

The X just has a special print on the corners. That's the only difference.

[@TakuMii_ca]

The Pro X -is old stock with the 125hz board and- has a few aesthetic differences. -If you're buying new, you're probably better off with the Pro 2.- edit: rip nvm I was thinking of their old old pads, not the Pro X

[@omgdisfunny4852]

@@TakuMii_ca then why are they charging more money for one

[@TakuMii_ca]

@@omgdisfunny4852 I was wrong about the 125Hz, the description seems to say the Pro X was upgraded to 1000Hz too, even though it's not mentioned in the thumbnail like it is on the Pro 2 but yeah it's literally just for the materials and design

[@omgdisfunny4852]

@@TakuMii_ca and its still more expensive than the metal model? 🤔

[@LeTrueNoir]

lol

[@TOASTboy27]

I love my super modded lTek made me a better player in general

[@ggezlol-]

I play in vans lol

[@snil4]

I don't know about you but I've never seen DDR+ITG Players acting like that, except for the bar because for the love of god please don't buy an L-tek bar that thing is worthless. But just to not be an elitist one day I really wanted to play some ps2 mixes so I took a broken ps1 controller and soldered it to my pad and it was the shittiest job the controller was all dangling out of my pad, but seeing one of the old school player's reaction after not playing extreme for over 10 years was priceless.

[@codingtranquility]

Ltek's should be avoided like the plague. Recently bought one with the bar. First off the pad was misfiring, and I was told different methods of trouble shooting it, but it didn't end up working out. The bar is a piece of shit, it's tiny, flimsy, and definitely not worth the extra 200$ + shipping costs. Finally after being told I'd get a refund, they decided to only give me a refund for the dance mat, and partial shipping costs for the dance mat. So now I'm stuck with a bar/mount for a pad I no longer have/want, and an extra set of panels for a pad I no longer have/want. Seriously avoid it at all costs.

[@lupin6741]

wasted your money on the bar package tbh. with simple modding, LTEKs are easily playable. I've seen some kid on the ddr/itg facebook group getting quads on the old 125hz model too

[@Cmmf_]

lteks are very viable for hard content play, i have the 125hz model and use a dresser bar and can FA on the hardest tech content and also stamina ~19s, just takes time to mod

[@codingtranquility]

@@Cmmf_ maybe it's just the 1000hz model, but it was completely unplayable. I'd average 4 misses per song, just playing 8's and 9's to test the pad.

[@fridgepuff1722]

Penny mod the pad trust me it makes a world of difference also although I've never tried the 125 hz one the 1000hz one feels amazing for tech