background music??? or not???

Here's one I never really decided on, and depends on the map...

How do you like the background music? For me, it is usually without music, but I will sometimes listen to custom music in WADs or - more recently - I will add DoomMetal, though this works best if using Brutal as well I feel.

I used to have the vanilla music back in the day as it definitely added atmosphere to some of the standard levels, but nowadays I will have the music muted when playing vanilla levels. Not sure why...

Anyway, it would be nice to see what others think.

BTW, I added a poll - first time I tried this, so hopefully it will work properly...

Usually the vanilla music, but sometimes I'll leave something playing in the background instead.  Usually industrial or dark ambient.

For some weird reason I haven't gotten around to trying and figuring out,the sound from GZDoom comes out the PC speaker while I have headphones on, so I end up playing with sound off and music playing somewhere else.

 Else, I'd play with music off but sounds on.

I just turn it off and put on my own music, a podcast or some spooky story compilation and get in the zone. It’s like meditation for me.

Oh, yes - definitely a zone-out thing for me as well

I normally use the IDFKA music for Doom now, though I had the original music when playing it on Doomsday Engine.

On for Doom, never on for Doom 2 or Doom 2 wads without custom music.

I turn it off or on for wads according to how I respond to the music in the early levels.

In Doom I typically am playing a variety of WADs so the music is always changing, and I enjoy listening to the different MIDIs and other formats.

Though playing without music can lend a WAD an extra tense and creepy edge sometimes.

The Binding of Isaac I played a ton of, but of course the music rarely changes. At some point I started listening to Cannibal Corpse and Deicide in the background and now when I hear them I can't stop picturing this cartoon toddler running around crying.

5 minutes ago, DuckReconMajor said:

...I started listening to Cannibal Corpse and Deicide in the background and now when I hear them I can't stop picturing this cartoon toddler running around crying.

That's really funny!! :-)

I let the WAD author decide. So usually it gets turned off after something terrible happens, like the inclusion of $hi77y 90's Pop.

Not trying to be mean, that's just so possible that humans beings reproduce after Terrible, Crap, Stink, Weak, Obvious, and Deaf (everything up to the mid teen age)

I listen to Doom remixes either on USB or YT. 

Usually I won’t listen to game music because as the game goes in it gets repetitive. Usually I will turn it off and listen to the tv or my own music. Sometimes I will listen to dooms music, though, 

If the music is original or adds more ambience to what I am playing, then I prefer to leave the WAD's music on, the first because I feel like I am appreciating the work done by the artists and they made it in order to make the level feel more immersive, the latter (No matter if it's original or from somewhere else) because well, as I said, it adds ambience to the level.

I don't like to play it without music/outside music unless I really want to or something.

Always the music provided by the wad or the original map slots music if new music isn't included.

I always use the music provided in the wad.

If there isn't, I have an autoload wad that has a bunch of midis I collected from various other wads I played, and then I changemus into them via the console command.

I have tons of my own other music on the computer, but I mostly prefer to listen to the map's given music for the full experience.

I'll generally always use the included music. If a WAD does not come with its own music, I wrote a tool to generate a random music pack from a bunch of MIDIs I have, and I'll use that instead.

I always use the music/MIDI provided alongside the wad. If it's truly awful I'll switch it off and play musicless like I had to in the old days anyway, so on that rare occasion it has an air of nostalgia about it.

Lately I've been using soundfonts/VirtualMIDIsynth to really make the MIDIs come to life!

If there's new music in the wad I'll play it with it on for a while. Otherwise I tend to put background music a lot (but with sfx on).

On 4/9/2020 at 6:43 PM, Doomkid said:

I always use the music/MIDI provided alongside the wad. If it's truly awful I'll switch it off and play musicless like I had to in the old days anyway, so on that rare occasion it has an air of nostalgia about it.

 

Lately I've been using soundfonts/VirtualMIDIsynth to really make the MIDIs come to life!

This is what i do. I usually always listen to the music/MIDI that's provided with the WAD, even if it's just the stock Doom/Doom II music. If anything, i'll just turn it down/off. Also D_RUNNIN doesn't really bug me tbh.

A bit of light jazz always compliments epic slaughtmaps 

I always play with the in-game music. Anything else just ruins the intended atmosphere, I find.

Vanilla music as provided in the wad. I agree with MFG38 on this one.

I keep the intended in-game music, If it's too loud I turn it down, If it's awful I turn it off.

Aubrey Hodges’ soundtracks for D1/D2/D64.  For D1 and D2 levels that didn’t appear in PSX Ultimate Doom, I pick one of his “extras” tracks, that he provided with his PSX Doom Extended Mix.  

It's so rare that I play the original .wads that I usually just have the music turned all the way down. I've heard D_RUNNIN so many damn times because I've played so many Doom 2 levels that start on MAP 01, so I just leave it off. The death sounds of the demons and the satisfying boom of the SSG are all I need.

On 4/9/2020 at 1:07 PM, User Name said:

I just turn it off and put on my own music, a podcast or some spooky story compilation and get in the zone. It’s like meditation for me.

Oh yes! I always play one of these nosleep/LetsNotMeet compilations in the background while I play something.

Normal game music, with FluidSynth and an SC-55 soundfont for MIDI, and a customized version of Jimmy's Jukebox as a fallback when a mod doesn't feature its own soundtrack.

Well it depends.
 

• If the wad includes its own midis, I‘ll play with that, at least on the first playthrough. Always good to get the „as intended“ experience before tweaking stuff. 
• If the music in a level gets repetitive while playing, I‘ll just turn it off. This tends to happen only in large maps that take me more than 15 minutes to complete.
• For the iwads, or anything that uses the iwad music, it will depend on my mood. I might play the 2016 soundtrack, IDKFA, or just run with the original midis. Or I‘ll play an album or playlist of my own. Chiptunes, Death Metal, or classical music, for instance. 
• There are wads for which I have found a particularly fitting soundtrack or album, and those I play almost exclusively with that particular music. E.g. Thy Flesh Consumed, and anything resembling it, will be played with the Quake soundtrack. For Heretic it‘s usually a playlist of „medieval“ sounding tracks that I originally used as background for my D&D sessions