90s pop midis that are actually kind of ok

I’ve got a soft spot for goofy 90’s wads, including the ones with poorly recorded soundfx from movies and quotes from tv show characters and all.

Although sometimes 90’s movie soundtrack and metallica midis can sometimes be pretty grating, I actually find many of them to be pretty cool, even if it’s worth is usually an allusion to something that’s cool on its own, and not necessarily the composition of the track itself.

Although I find some Nine Inch Nail midi’s to be pretty lacking, I always thought the Head Like a Hole track was actually pretty cool. I’ve never listened to Nine Inch Nails until today (weird considering that I love the quake soundtrack) and I found the actual song to be much worse than the midi I’ve heard so many times!

I also like when some wads use Nirvana – Blew. I just like that song a lot.

I also thought the Terminator theme for MAP01 of Deus Vult to be by far the best application of that midi. It sets the tone perfectly, the tone of course, being that you’re as badass as Arnold.

Anyone have any favorite 90’s wad midis that you have an unconditional appreciation for?

Speaking of NIN MIDIs, the MIDI for Last on Community is Falling 1 was really well made.

all those old NIN MIDIs i've listened to are kind of laughably bad and does a horribly job at representing the source material. stuff like Metallica MIDIs were usually of much more competent quality, though.

Coincidentally, I'm playing Blood Stain right now, and boy was I happy when MAP05 ended. This wad is pretty old-school in regard to MIDI selection, for better or for worse.

DWANGO5 MAP01 OF COURSE.

40oz said:

I found the actual song to be much worse than the midi I’ve heard so many times!

That happened to me with Marilyn Manson -- Rock Is Dead. The MIDI was great, but the song itself... not as much.

The main theme song to John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 is a great tune, there's a midi version of it out there somewhere and sounds pretty good for Doom.

Here's the original song:

What the hell do you mean "kind of ok", these are the best midis ever.

Somehow Village People - YMCA perfectly fits the theme of mall.wad.

Memfis said:

What the hell do you mean "kind of ok", these are the best midis ever.

Well.. they're midis.

a-ha's Take On Me during Ralphis' intervention in CIF3.

40oz said:

I’ve got a soft spot for goofy 90’s wads, including the ones with poorly recorded soundfx from movies and quotes from tv show characters and all.

Although sometimes 90’s movie soundtrack and metallica midis can sometimes be pretty grating, I actually find many of them to be pretty cool, even if it’s worth is usually an allusion to something that’s cool on its own, and not necessarily the composition of the track itself.

Although I find some Nine Inch Nail midi’s to be pretty lacking, I always thought the Head Like a Hole track was actually pretty cool. I’ve never listened to Nine Inch Nails until today (weird considering that I love the quake soundtrack) and I found the actual song to be much worse than the midi I’ve heard so many times!

I also like when some wads use Nirvana – Blew. I just like that song a lot.

I also thought the Terminator theme for MAP01 of Deus Vult to be by far the best application of that midi. It sets the tone perfectly, the tone of course, being that you’re as badass as Arnold.

Anyone have any favorite 90’s wad midis that you have an unconditional appreciation for?

"I'll swallow your soul!"
"I've got two things right now. Jack and shit and Jack left town."
"Swallow my boomstick!" (I think? I can't remember rightly--so long ago).

There are some others from the 90s that were my first exposure to sound mods in doom, but I can't remember them anymore. :-/

EDIT: Piper Maru, your avatar is disturbing. It reminds me of The Walking Dead, which is also disturbing.

The Sisters of Mercy midis in Scythe 2 are really good. I didn't know what they were from originally, I just thought they were catchy midis, and I suppose they still are :)

Piper Maru said:

The main theme song to John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 is a great tune, there's a midi version of it out there somewhere and sounds pretty good for Doom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS7k3G_6IjE&fmt=18

This?

Voros said:

This?

Yes that's it!

esselfortium said:

The Sisters of Mercy midis in Scythe 2 are really good. I didn't know what they were from originally, I just thought they were catchy midis, and I suppose they still are :)

There's also a few midis of Symphony X songs in Scythe/Scythe 2 which are really well put together and sound surprisingly good.

40oz said:

Although I find some Nine Inch Nail midi’s to be pretty lacking, I always thought the Head Like a Hole track was actually pretty cool.

It's too bad that the dumb Windows MIDI font butchers it by silencing all drums. This is not a problem if you use PrBoom+ or GZDoom though.

Yeah, the "Last" track is pretty damn great and Doomy. The first time I heard the song is in DODEAD, so it's memorable.

I'd definitely rather hear '90s pop music than '80s NES music. Yes level designers, I know you have fond childhood memories of that upbeat thirty-second chiptune loop (in some cases so do I), but that doesn't make it any more appropriate for slogging around for ten minutes battling hellspawn, however "arcadey" the layout! At least pop songs usually offer two or three minutes with variations.

Urban Space Cowboy said:

I'd definitely rather hear '90s pop music than '80s NES music.

On the other hand, playing a Slaughterfest map and hearing an Ecco: The Tides of Time midi, that has made me positively grin in the past. ;)

Whichever Slayer midi is at the end of one of the NDCP's I find leagues better than the song it's derived from. Then again, Slayer never was my thing.

Can't remember the name of the wad, but I think it was one of Chris Hansen's that had a really good Yngwie Malmsteen midi, so good in fact that I had to hunt down the original version even though I'm not a fan at all of this "neo-classical metal" thing.

In Mars War, there's "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath for the intermission screen, and map 3's song reminds me of "Material Girl" by Madonna. In Drown in Blood, there's "Dig Up Her Bones" by the Misfits, "Worlds Within the Margin" by In Flames, and "Devil's Call in Your Heart" from F-Zero X. In Scythe, map 26 "A Fool's Paradise" and map 29 has "Lady of the Snow," both songs by Symphony X.

I've always loved this one, it's a ubiquitous entry in any Skulltag WAD from around the 2000s. Can't remember the song name though.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ktdt8npd08pf8j/FRAGFACI.MID?dl=1

darkcvnt.wad is almost entirely Metallica midis, except for map12, which is based on the King Diamond song "Cremation". Map07 is technically the Diamond Head song "Am I Evil?" but it sounds like Metallica's cover version, judging from the intro.

Pop midi music is the quickest way into my heart. I have too many to list, but if I had to pick my favorite examples:

mydoom2.wad - Depeche Mode

catharsis - DEPECHE MODE!

Nite Life - Got a few nice eurodance tunes

Path of the Fallen Angel - the only wad I've found with a U2 midi

Serenity Series - Some of the jazziest midis on Earth can be found in the Eternity and Infinity episodes

Dimensions of Time - It opens with Woo Hoo by Blur. Perfect.

And to toot my own horn, music in my Nebula 95 series consists  of midified funk, jazz, and classic synthpop

On 3/11/2017 at 4:21 AM, fraggle said:

Somehow Village People - YMCA perfectly fits the theme of mall.wad.

Oh god... flashback.

So what graphical software was everyone using in the early/mid 90s to produce all this work that looked remarkably similar? Hell2Pay and Perdition's Gate have the same style of dithered gradients and shading.

Probably Neopaint.