Master Levels Music Pack?

The Plutonia music pack was pretty awesome, but was anything like this ever done for the Master Levels? Obviously this would be kind of tricky since most of the Master Levels occupy the Map01 slot, meaning players would have to manually insert the MIDIs into each level (or just make a music WAD with 21 new tracks and have people IDMUS/CHANGEMUS to each appropriate track), but I still think it would be pretty cool if ML had its own music set. The levels themselves are pretty distinct, and maps like Bad Dream, Titan Manor and Black Tower could really lend themselves to some interesting aural moods.

Just something for our talented Doomworld composers to consider. :)

If something like this happened, I'd love to attempt making something for it. Key word being "attempt" :P

I'm interested and I'm claiming Geryon in advance.

Wait, not Geryon. Maybe Paradox or Subspace

This sounds like a great idea. I'm curious to hear what people come up with.

When I made my Plutonia MIDI, I really wanted it to reflect the overall quality of the wad, and I'll do the same for Master Levels!

http://www.mediafire.com/download/khy8420ote3pnrq/MASTRMID.mid

could be fun. though to be honest, i have never, ever played the Master Levels aside from a level or two from the PSX Final Doom, so i have absolutely no idea what mood i should try to convey.

Doomkid said:

When I made my Plutonia MIDI, I really wanted it to reflect the overall quality of the wad, and I'll do the same for Master Levels!

http://www.mediafire.com/download/khy8420ote3pnrq/MASTRMID.mid

fucking lol.

Doomhuntress said:

could be fun. though to be honest, i have never, ever played the Master Levels aside from a level or two from the PSX Final Doom, so i have absolutely no idea what mood i should try to convey.

Well, there's YouTube videos of all of the levels if you look for them. Those could help.

The full list of all the maps are here:

http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Master_Levels_for_Doom_II

I wonder if all of Dr. Sleep's levels sure share a melody or something since they're part of a series.

Doomkid said:

When I made my Plutonia MIDI, I really wanted it to reflect the overall quality of the wad, and I'll do the same for Master Levels!

http://www.mediafire.com/download/khy8420ote3pnrq/MASTRMID.mid

You inspired me, and so I've decided to make a worthy successor/sequel to one of the MIDIs I submitted to plutmidi

http://www.mediafire.com/download/obdqp8idedv81u1/fuck.mid

(I will contribute something serious to this project eventually xD)

Obviously, I'm no music director, but I thought I'd give some of my own insight into the tone of the levels, in case it might help the composers who're struggling for inspiration:

ATTACK - For all intents and purposes, this is generally considered the "first level" of the Master Levels, and it's kind of generic overall and not particularly challenging. Therefore, whomever does this one should probably just try to write it as a typical first level in a Doom game, most likely a bit of rock-and-roll to get the juices flowing before you move onto bigger things.

BLACKTWR (Black Tower) - Likely to be one of the most epic pieces of the music pack, due to the map's size and difficulty, and the fact that it's one of the only maps in the Master Levels to explicitly take place in Hell. It's an arduous journey up a huge tower with lots of nasty enemy encounters awaiting you on every floor. The original text file described the tower as "the nucleus of black magic and the occult in all of Hell," and that you're dead-set on reaching the top of the tower and exacting revenge against the cyberdemon that lords over it. I could imagine something more orchestral being fitting here, considering the weight and scale of the presented themes.

BLOODSEA (Bloodsea Keep) - Something like the dungeon/torture chamber from Super Castlevania IV (link) instantly comes to mind. I think it really captures the bleakness of being trapped out in a freaking sea of blood with your only of escape being through some creepy old castle. Bloodsea Keep is a bit more "open" than Castlevania's dungeons, though, with lots of windows and large outdoor areas, so a less claustrophobic sound would be more suitable. Regardless, with the dungeons and blood fountains and all that stuff, this map really could use a gothic tone to its music.

MANOR (Titan Manor) - According to the text file, apparently this actually takes place on one of the moons of Saturn, despite appearing more like a mansion on Earth. Something stately but subdued would work well here, perhaps with emphasis on organ music, both to suit the mansion theme and because the map is very puzzle-oriented: you'll want something more meditative while you look for hidden switches, not a bunch of thumping bass. Now, if only someone could mix together traditional mansion-type music with a spacey quality to remind the player that they're on a moon...

TEETH (The Express Elevator to Hell) - You're in big trouble pretty much the exact moment this level starts. Really cramped and pretty much done exclusively in techbase textures, you wanna think "high-tech," "claustrophobic" and "manic."

TEETH 2: Bad Dream - This is a really loud map, with all the stomping cyber-legs and giant crushing ceilings, so something loud and imposing would seem fitting. A boss fight, basically. Or you could do the exact opposite: something ambient and spooky that makes you worried about opening that first door into the inky maelstrom of death.

Those are the ones that really stick out for me

speaking of rock music, i got reminded that i have written some of that style of music recently. the first one's better, the second one i'd need to do something else with so it's less shit.

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/r3avgtk1owhb0m6/i%20fuck%20things%20up_2.mp3?dl=0
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/h7aplmgsorot6go/something%20metal.mp3?dl=0

There's an official level ordering for them as an episode, thanks to the PS3 version of Doom, we could probably get a little exe in order that assembles a pwad with the levels in order along with the right music tracks. I dunno.

I always give approval to Master Level focused projects though, its the most unloved level set. Man, I'd kill for a ML version of the TWID series, with 32 levels mimicking the ML authors.

..okay I probably just want more Sverre levels :)

I like this idea; I don't know when I'd get to it, but I'd totally be down to contribute.

In all seriousness, I might make something for this.. Gotta empty my mind of my preconceived notions and give Master Levels a fair go.

Eris Falling said:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/obdqp8idedv81u1/fuck.mid

this is so beautiful

Doomhuntress said:

speaking of rock music, i got reminded that i have written some of that style of music recently. the first one's better, the second one i'd need to do something else with so it's less shit.

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/r3avgtk1owhb0m6/i%20fuck%20things%20up_2.mp3?dl=0
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/h7aplmgsorot6go/something%20metal.mp3?dl=0

The second track's really not bad, aside from that somewhat "empty" bit of cymbal-tapping from 1:06 to 1:26. However, the speed and intensity seems better fitting for a slaughtermap, which Master Levels is lacking in. It might work in Vesperas though. That's one of the more fast-action levels of the set.

The first track would fit really well for Paradox. It reminds me of the music in The Citadel in the original Doom II, and Paradox has a similarly grand, imposing scale, so it's a good fit. Garrison would be an acceptable second choice. I guess it could work for Bloodsea, too.

Doomhuntress said:

.mp3

I don't understand why you always offer mp3 links and then only give the midi if people are interested. Personally I'd rather download a 60 kb midi file to get an idea of whether I'd like to download a 5 mb MP3 rather than the reverse.

because according to the old Revilution thread, FLS fucks up MIDI exports in one way or another, and they have to be manually fixed in another MIDI editor like Sekaiju. it's frustrating since i have no way of hearing the issues that got reported, so i just don't submit MIDIs at first because they're apparently broken on export.

to clarify, the issue was that it had extraneous pitch-bend commands as well as other shit in the file that had to be removed/edited. so i fixed it before, and all seemed to be well. however, doing the same fixes now, given that i actually DO use pitch-bending in my songs on a more common occurrence, as well as other effects like stereo-panning, applying the same fixes now just outright removes pitch-bending from the MIDI file. even though i am not touching the actual pitch-bending done where the notes are written. i don't understand it either.

Doomkid said:

When I made my Plutonia MIDI, I really wanted it to reflect the overall quality of the wad, and I'll do the same for Master Levels!

http://www.mediafire.com/download/khy8420ote3pnrq/MASTRMID.mid

Well... this looks more incomplete than bad... except for the retarded drums. hehe

I use FL Studio for VSTi stuff, and the pitch bend sensitivity there defaults to an octave. Dunno if it's different for MIDI but I guess if it's like that on one midi it affects all the others >_<

@Doomhuntress:

MP3's are also a good idea since different sound cards/sound fonts can make MIDIs sound vastly different, so a straight recording like that lets people hear what you originally intended the music to sound like, instead of the sound system's interpretation of it.

i'm not really concerned about what soundfonts or MIDI devices or whatever else people choose to listen to my songs with. what i AM concerned about is having my tracks being able to actually play perfectly well in the game without them fucking up for everyone else. it's just a bit soul-consuming to have to go into the event editor and edit out problems that you can't even predict happening yourself.

Sounds like your MIDI editors are putting you guys through hell... I know this kind of shit is hard to relearn, but Guitar Pro 5 has always been super reliable for me. Never misses a beat, never fucks up my panning, bends, etc.

The only limitation is tonal range... You can't hit ridiculously high or ridiculously low notes that CAN be hit in other editors. A big flaw, really, but this thing is actually designed for tabs so considering, it does a damn fine job. Only had it crash on me once in 5+ years, and i was spamming commands so it's not that surprising anyway.

GP5 seems to not utilize a sequencer-styled interface or any kind of piano roll though. it seems to be made for people that can actually read music. like, notes, guitar tabs and shit like that. i cannot read that stuff and have never learned to, so i wouldn't know what the hell is going on with the program.

If we're discussing MIDI programs, I've been learning how to use Sekaiju and it seems quite good.

i've been using Sekaiju to fix my MIDI files after export, and in the Revilution thread, it seemed to work out quite well. just... at this point, i am using all kinds of pitch-bending, stereo-panning and such effects, and when i tinker with those MIDI files in Sekaiju, i can't seem to fix and clean up the things i've done before, because it just outright disables any pitch-bending in the file. which isn't a desired effect at all. so that's been a bit of a problem i don't know how to fix. i can't exactly google for these things, because the problem seems to be so specific, something that most musicians wouldn't pay much mind to at all.