Hexen RAVEN MIDI Pack II - Breathing Life Into "Deathkings"

1 hour ago, Darman Macray said:

 

Are you proposing a midi pack to redo the doom 1 & 2 soundtracks?

If I understand correctly, he’s proposing one to replace the duplicated tracks in the Doom 1 & 2 (and why not TNT? It probably needs it most of all) soundtracks. So your E1M1 music will still be safe (in fact, ALL of E1’s music will be safe) but you won’t have to listen to Waltz of the Demons three times before you finish the game.

Also, gonna throw out there how much I support this idea haha.

21 minutes ago, Faceman2000 said:

If I understand correctly, he’s proposing one to replace the duplicated tracks in the Doom 1 & 2 (and why not TNT? It probably needs it most of all) soundtracks. So your E1M1 music will still be safe (in fact, ALL of E1’s music will be safe) but you won’t have to listen to Waltz of the Demons three times before you finish the game.

Ah! That sounds like a fun idea!

Not redo. Fill the gaps, like here. Doom the Way Bobby Did (tm). They did a lot of song recycling in both Doom games.

An idea for Abbatoir. As always I'll fine tune it once I sit with it for a while, and feedback is welcome.

You're Made Out Of Meat01.zip

If Ruined Village is now open, would anyone like to collaborate on it? I don't necessarily want to claim it, but I like the idea of it being a group effort as long as the vision stays in tact. While I don't have a clear idea for it, I would approach it with a similar vibe as Bright Crucible from the first Hexen, but a little darker and more heroic sounding.

Also I'm open to collaborate on anything with anyone, I've never done a MIDI song with someone else and I think it would be a fun experience!

3 hours ago, Lippeth said:

If Ruined Village is now open, would anyone like to collaborate on it?

I was working on this but ran out of ideas and had other projects to work on so I dropped out, here's what I had if you're interested:

Doom

If not, I was gonna try and finish it off myself at some point whether for Ruined Village or the unused pile but I'm not fussy either way.

Its because I said 'no pressure' isnt it

(I totally like that idea of filling out music for Doom, doom 2, and TNT after this project, even a mini one for No Rest for the Living would be neat.)

@Jimmy Track done, except of course if you want me to change anything.

Follow your path.zip

This seems like fun, and Schidler's style is killer! Mind if I try my hand at Hub 4's Sewer Pit?

I must say, I'm looking forward to this. I haven't played Deathkings in at least 15 years and I love the thought of original music for it. But since the point of the project is to get people to play Deathkings with the new music, I need to point something out for those who have never played it before. The original MAP54:Nave could never be legally finished. Two of the gear placement linedefs are tagged "Player Uses Line". The other two are tagged "Player Crosses Line", so you can't place the gears to open the exit. I kept waiting for Raven to fix this, but they never did. ZDoom and GZDoom addressed this with a compatibility fix, but I don't know about other ports. I doubt Chocolate Hexen would, and AFAIK, the Steam release is version 1.0. I don't know anything about the Unity port. So I think that limits playability to ZDoom and GZDoom. Does anyone know more?

A musical question: I looked through the thread and didn't see it, but this is the perfect place for it, so I have to ask: has anyone written a song for this yet called "Even in the Quietus Moments"?

@Jimmy I don't know if you have another project lined up after this, but I was playing the first Community Chest wad and noticed there are only eight pieces of music in it. I don't know if any of them are original.

7 hours ago, EffinghamHuffnagel said:

 The other two are tagged "Player Crosses Line", so you can't place the gears to open the exit.

Actually, you can place them there, if you manually use puzzle items on lines with that special, it'll ignore whatever activation method it has and properly use the item in question regardless.

Also, update on the musical side:

Mutually Assured Squishage - V2.zip

I've made a very small change at most, I think I'll feel done with it now. I'd made this change quite a while ago, but I never sent it because I was a bit focused on doing other things.

There's still the midi for ice hold left for me. Hope I can get something for it to actually surface, I'm not confident in what I have nor where I want it to go.

On 10/29/2020 at 4:16 AM, Alper002 said:

Actually, you can place them there, if you manually use puzzle items on lines with that special, it'll ignore whatever activation method it has and properly use the item in question regardless.

The first time I played through Deathkings was the vanilla 1.1 version in a DOS window in Win95 or 98 and I couldn't place them. When I played it again, maybe 10 years later using ZDoom, I could place them. That's when I checked and found that ZDoom had added a compatibility fix. I was just pointing out that I don't know if other ports did the same thing.

46 minutes ago, EffinghamHuffnagel said:

The first time I played through Deathkings was the vanilla 1.1 version in a DOS window in Win95 or 98 and I couldn't place them. When I played it again, maybe 10 years later using ZDoom, I could place them. That's when I checked and found that ZDoom had added a compatibility fix. I was just pointing out that I don't know if other ports did the same thing.

I wasn't referring to being able to do it in zdoom, I've beaten deathkings in chocolate-hexen, which definitely did not fix the issue you mentioned. I couldn't place in the gears when normally pressing use, and had to use the correct puzzle item manually from my inventory to actually place them.

The expansion is beatable no matter what version you play, it's just slightly less obtuse on zdoom I suppose.

I feel like I'm struggling with ideas for my song, it just feels restricting so I'll free up my slot.

I'm happy to report that my drafts for H3M1 and H3M7 are all but complete, and I'd like to reclaim H3M3 for my third slot.

I just re-noticed that in the original Hexen campaign, MAP24: Effluvium uses the same song (Crypt) as MAP13: Shadow Wood. A bonus map slot?

4 hours ago, Gez said:

I just re-noticed that in the original Hexen campaign, MAP24: Effluvium uses the same song (Crypt) as MAP13: Shadow Wood. A bonus map slot?

As an interesting aside, that song was originally written for a dropped level called the Black Crypt Swamp. This was *not* the same level that became Darkmere. I believe we have seen pictures of it, however, in the form of pre-release shots. Unfortunately I've lost track of them and they're hard to find these days.

EDIT: I found 'em

8 hours ago, Quasar said:

As an interesting aside, that song was originally written for a dropped level called the Black Crypt Swamp. This was *not* the same level that became Darkmere. I believe we have seen pictures of it, however, in the form of pre-release shots. Unfortunately I've lost track of them and they're hard to find these days.

 

nice

Apparently the middle shot is an early one of Darkmere according to the text Romero wrote up for the release of these (a ton of detail missing, but it seems to be the castle area that is in the final map). The other two I can't match up to it though.

Apologies for the one-month bump but, now that I'm finally pushing myself to play Deathkings for the first time, I'd be more than happy to have this pack in place for it. I'm looking forward to the project's completion. Godspeed, y'all.

On 12/31/2020 at 9:53 AM, Gez said:

I just re-noticed that in the original Hexen campaign, MAP24: Effluvium uses the same song (Crypt) as MAP13: Shadow Wood. A bonus map slot?

Hexen has two unused tracks, one of which was repurposed for Marketplace in Deathkings (the one exclusive track it has!), would probably be better to make a small patch that assigns the unused track to Effluvium. A pity Maze was removed, that could have housed the second unused track :p

Oh I didn't even know this project was a thing until today, awesome! I would love to do Hub 1 M1 and Hub 4 M5 if that's possible. I'm really familiar with Hexen and have done some music for mods for it before, so being able to re-score part of the official expansion would be a wonderful opportunity.

Hi everyone! Sorry, I've been away from this project for far too long. Things got busy around the time it started, but I am a little freer to continue the proceedings now!

First allow me to offer feedback on the tracks that have since been posted:

@Lippeth, you're like a musical chameleon. These works scream Schilder from the mountaintops.

"Withheld Offering" is a really tense, heated piece that should work like a dream for Pyre. I really appreciate the melancholic chord progression and the groovin' combo of the bass and drums. I consider v2 that you posted to be in a perfectly fit state for inclusion!

"You're Made Out of Meat" is delightfully dissonant, and the almost tribal percussion puts me heavily in mind of medieval dungeons and torture devices. Great work all around! I'll mark this one as done as well, but will welcome any further changes you have.

@Alper002

"Mutually Assured Squishage" is a very nice track, minimal but full of mystique. Transit needed a track exactly like this - not too distracting, but full of the Schilder-esque musical motifs to keep a consistent tone with the rest of the soundtrack. I think the only thing that stands out is that the drum channel feels a tad loud - the hihats at the beginning seem a little overly present and there's a couple of hefty snares that could afford to be dialled back just a bit. I think all you might need to do

here is lower the overall track volume, to be honest! Other than that exceedingly minor thing, great job with this.

@TheEvilGrin

"Follow Your Path" has turned into a really nice, ominous, slow-burn track. All the elements have come together really nicely. There is perhaps one last suggestion I have, which is to try and vary (or outright subtract) some of the repetitions on the harp and piano lines. It works nicer on the harp in the first section since it's outlining a harmonic progression, but the low piano line is quite incessant, and I think past bar 25 this track really needs something else going on instead of having that repeating piano line be front-and-center. Good stuff overall, though! I can definitely picture this in Blight.

I've also gone over the OP and - I think - everything is in order now. Please let me know if anything's not quite right!

There is a track being made for H1M1 by JD Herrera, who DM'd me the track on Discord. The in-progress piece is shaping up very well but I think I'll wait for JD to make a post here sharing it, instead of doing so myself. Eris has been taken out of the H1M1 slot so JD's piece can definitely fit there, although I saw Lippeth also wanted to collab for that slot, and Speedy you've also shown interest. I absolutely welcome the idea of collaboration! So we'll see what comes of that. JD's track can definitely go in an open slot if H1M1 is too hotly contested.

This project is progressing really nicely, guys! Gonna kick it back into gear now, hopefully. :)

@Speedy Thanks for your interest! I've slotted you in for H4M5 just for now - JD's track got to me on Thursday, just before you made your post, so it may go to him. Hope this is okay!

An opportunity for collaboration on this slot is definitely there between you or JD or Lippeth. :)

Whoops, i missed out on a lot of the midi projects. Would love to see an eternal doom tribute or more fantasy styled beasts on the table someday. Can i have the last slot?

Hello there everyone. As Jimmy said, I've reached to him privately to see if I could give it a shot on slot one for this project. I asked the first slot as it was the first free I saw. Anyways I'll attach the midi I'm working on in the current state. Obviously volumes, pannings and automations are temporary, but the structure is there. I want to still work on this one to bring some closure (it's not supposed to end like this) and maybe come up with some other parts. I'm open for collaborations unless I finish this midi first XD... Which is not guaranteed as I'm not working constantly on it during working days. Almost forgot, I'm obviously open to any criticism.

Oh, almost forgot, the title of the midi is a terrible pun, Cha-Useless Sphere... Because Hexen Lore.

Cha-Useless Sphere.zip

On 2/23/2021 at 2:36 PM, Jimmy said:

I think the only thing that stands out is that the drum channel feels a tad loud - the hihats at the beginning seem a little overly present and there's a couple of hefty snares that could afford to be dialled back just a bit. I think all you might need to do here is lower the overall track volume, to be honest! Other than that exceedingly minor thing, great job with this.

Following that bit of feedback, here's an update on the midi:

Mutually Assured Squishage - V3.zip

Also, Here's what I think on JD's midi so far: I like it a lot, but I think it could use less repetition in some bits(particularly around the last minute of the version posted here).

Now, let's try making that Ice Hold midi...

Here is a first pass at Market Place's track.

Kinship (3:04)

It's been a while since I tried to capture the Hexen sound and I'm not quite sure if I nailed it. I think I got close enough. There may be a slight amount too much repetition?

@JD Herrera As I said to you before, I really love this track, it's got a really nice Schilder vibe - sounds like a cross-breeding of both a Heretic and a Hexen track. That Hexen-y "breakdown" at the end is great! Definitely will be right at home in this project. Suitably upbeat for H1M1 but I feel there'd be a place for it just about anywhere.

If you're stuck for ideas on how to close this out, here's a daring suggestion: I feel like you could look to a track like "Jach" (the Seven Portals theme) for some material to quote for the ending section. I'm thinking of that little string/piano bit that happens about halfway through - a little quotation/homage scattered here and there throughout this project certainly wouldn't go amiss. :)

@Alper002 Thank you for the update! Eager to hear your next submission!

I'm loving the new tracks, very excited to hear this whole thing in-game!

@JD Herrera Map 01 sounds great! I've only got two (subjective) suggestions: Extend the interlude before the drum beat comes in, either two more bars, or the two plus another four, that would build up more anticipation and would give the beat a better payoff. Maybe even add a reverse cymbal or fade in a regular crash and end on the beat.

The second is very minor. The lower notes in the harp run at 1:14 feel a bit too pronounced and could benefit from lowering the velocity. Other than that it nails the vibe and is a great way to start the game!

@Jimmy Excellent, I wouldn't consider it repetitive, it keeps a nice tension with spooky melodies and those chromatic piano runs are the most Hexen thing that could ever exist. All I could potentially hear that isn't already there is some tambourine sprinkled in, and giving the kalimba at the beginning a nuanced 16th note delay effect instead of mimicking the pizzicato strings, similar to PERCR.mid from Silent Refectory. Even without that feedback, it nails everything about Hexen, and that ending build up and groove is absolutely stellar!

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

@Alper002 I Agree, the last minute could benefit some shortage, I've doubled everything to give me the space to enrich each riff with more passages or movements, but at the time of posting I hadn't come up with anything. If I won't find a valid way to keep it like this I'll cut some of those parts for sure.

@Jimmy Thanks for the suggestion, Jach is one of the tracks I listen the most! I'll follow your hint and try to focus on that specific part and see what I can come up with. (also solid thumb up for Kinship!)

@Lippeth I'll experiment with the intro as well, also I kind of like the idea of using reverse cymbals, even though it's the kind of touch I'd think about when finishing the project. Same goes for velocity, very little in my midi has been tweaked to that point but I'll make sure to check the harp part as well as the rest of the project. I'm mainly worried about the structure now, however I'll make sure to find some parts to enrich with reverse cymbals and maybe other fxs.

By the way I wasn't able to make any progress this week beause I'm switching position at work so this is going to be a busy and long week (yes, I know it's friday), but hopefully next week I'll be in a better situation at work that allows me to have some time and free mind to work on some midis at home. In the meantime thanks again everyone for the feedback!

I know it's sad to hear after a month of no news, but I feel like I've been unable to really get going on making my midi for ice hold. Either it's writer's block or it's me feeling like what I'm making is too derivative, or something else.

I'm pulling out my claim for the map, I'm sure the slot will be filled faster than never if someone else gets the chance to make something for it!

Will still probably be following the project and giving feedback though.