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Jimmy

Klem, Shaw, Pullen, Vickers, Baker or Fong?

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I thought I might as well make a "poll" for the Doom community to say who is their favorite MIDI-maker. I've taken some of my favorite Doom musicians and put their names here.

Oh, before I do that, a special mention goes to Tom_D for the grungy metal musics in TCIF3. Yeah, mega-props and a special mention, to him. :D

Who's the best MIDI musician? In case you don't know who they are:

Mark Klem: Actual videogame musician and voice actor - Wacky Wheels MIDI soundtrack, as well as Memento Mori I & II, GothicDM, Icarus, Requiem and Strain.
David "Tolwyn" Shaw: Memento Mori I & II, Gothic2, Strain.
Marc A. "Fanatic" Pullen: Intense, grungy MIDI music featured in CIF2, Crucified Dreams and the GothicDM series.
Ralph "Ralphis" Vickers: Seems to specialise in very "Megaman-ish" music, has worked for Odamex CTF and Crucified Dreams. Some of his stuff's borderline awesome.
Vincent "Vicious" Fong: Crucified Dreams mainly, for a couple of nice-sounding and well-structured tunes.
Nick "NiGHTMARE" Baker: Also did music for - guess what, Crucified Dreams - he's cool for his textures as well. :P

...
Then there's me. You don't know me... :P

Personally I love 'em all... Though Klem and Pullen are probably my absolute faves; Klem for his ability to make any kind of music AT ALL - and Pullen for just some plain awesome intense-sounding tracks, which inspired "Bergschrund" by me. I'm aware Nick Baker is a musician but I don't know what kind of stuff he's done... I do know that he's done a few Crucified Dreams tracks.

I'll just take time to name my favorite MIDIs by each one:

Klem: "Dredge" Memento Mori II MAP21: Sanctuary - this song is so varied and so awesome it hurts. :D
Shaw: "And Blood Will Spill" Memento Mori II MAP22: RRF Refinary - repetitive but awesome.
Pullen: Crucified Dreams MAP04: Epiphany - but in close contest with MAP01 of the same WAD.
Vickers: Crucified Dreams MAP06: Chimerical Bombination - 7/4 time and Megaman-ish. Instant win.
Fong: "Dreaming Death" Crucified Dreams MAP18: Massive Bereavement - lots of variation in the main riff. Good guitar parts, too.

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Aren't you missing one? Where's Rich 'Weeds' Nagel who was responsible for Eternal Doom's music, for example? Coincidentally he's also my favorite.

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Graf Zahl said:

Aren't you missing one? Where's Rich 'Weeds' Nagel who was responsible for Eternal Doom's music, for example? Coincidentally he's also my favorite.

Oh yeah, the music in MAP26 of ED3 is one of my favorites of his. :)

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I can't choose between Mark Klem and David Shaw. They make a fantastic team, and their work, particularly in STRAIN, is usually just as vital to the project as the maps themselves.

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Use3D said:
I'd have to say Mark Klem and Gwyn Williams.

Yeah, from all the choices I can remember, I agree.

To those who don't recall, Gwyn Williams is the author of Vile Flesh, a one-man megawad which has original music.

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Jimmy91 said:

Oh yeah, the music in MAP26 of ED3 is one of my favorites of his. :)

Me too, that song has got hard-wired into my brain.

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I like most of David Shaw's works, but although Mark Klem has fewer, he has quite a few epic tracks (like the one he did for Fragtime).

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Ok, there's a couple of names that should be on the list:

First and foremost: Paul Corfiatis.
You really can't run from that one. Made music for nearly every wad he has been involved with, many of which were megawads. General good quality, varied style, sometimes a bit whimsical, but always solid.

Second: John Bye.
Not so well known, but did produce the music for the Talosian Incident which was a major source of the atmosphere in that wad. Also his own work Cygnus IV is worth picking up simply because of the music (though the levels themselves are lackluster).


That said, I will choose Mark Klem with no hesitation. Avalanche, Dreadnaught, Junkie Smack, Triangle of Fear, Nothing so Cruel, the untitled track from MM map14, Retribute, Time + Time = Time, The Wind, Disposition etc. etc. All Gold.

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Little Faith said:
Second: John Bye.
Not so well known, but did produce the music for the Talosian Incident which was a major source of the atmosphere in that wad. Also his own work Cygnus IV is worth picking up simply because of the music (though the levels themselves are lackluster).

I had forgotten John Bye. The music in that WAD nice in itself, but in many levels it's too mellow, sounding "blue" rather than atmospherically dark.

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Is there a place you can access all of Mark Klem's work from? Does he have something similar to Tolwyn's hosted site?

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I may be wrong, but I think Tolwyn did the sound track for "Talosian Incident" which was one of the wads that was on the 10 years of wads list, mainly for its unique and ambient sounding music.

Edit: Ugh i just noticed little faith corrected what I just said before I even posted it.

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Admittedly, I've been looking at this thread for a few days and to be honest I'm very flattered to even be considered to be put on this list with some of these guys. Everything I've produced so far, I feel, pales in comparison to most of these men's work.

With that said, I've got quite a few projects coming up soon that I hope you'll all enjoy. Some I can't talk about at the moment, but some of my work will be available in the upcoming UDMX wad and most likely Odamex CTF 2.

For anybody that enjoys my music, it's a real pleasure for me to know that you've even taken the time to listen and I appreciate the kudos you've given me in this thread.

Thank you very much and I hope I can continue to make music that some of you find enjoyable! :)

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You certainly do better stuff than me, your chord progression, guitar riffs and bass lines in particular. :D

Likewise, my music is full of copypasta, and while yours does repeat itself (particularly the track you did for Odamex CTF MAP04) it just works - mine just seems like it just repeats for the sake of it. Tthere's a bit in Dulce which I'm not particularly proud of the repetition factor of, 2:48-3:20 specifically.

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Julian Now said:

It's always nice to be forgotten... :(

The RTC soundtrack is the best thing ever and I want more of it :P

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esselfortium said:

The RTC soundtrack is the best thing ever and I want more of it :P

Me too D:

My favorite compositor.... hmmm I have to think more about this, but the musics from Ruinbros really pleased me, I dunno who is the author of them.

BTW, another interesting thread would be to know who is your favorite music selector (as many wads have musics already in others pwads or iwads), for my part I hesitate between Ocelot and Vile.

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Either Icarus or Eternal did it for me. I have never heard more catchy or diverse music before. Batman Doom is another win.

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Batman Doom I have mixed feelings about. There were some really killer tracks in there, but at the same time there were some really bad ones as well. While some of Batman Doom's music was very catchy and cool, a lot of it was incredibly syncopated and unpredictable; and to be honest, it sounded very "dodgy". Some examples of these tracks accompany MAP01, MAP03, MAP08 and MAP15. However, some of the best tracks from Batman probably came from MAP11, MAP12, MAP16, MAP20 and MAP30.

All of David Shaw's tracks for Icarus kicked arse, and pretty much everything else did as well. I REALLY liked the themes for MAP03, MAP05, MAP09, MAP11, MAP16, MAP20, MAP21 and MAP29. So that rules about half of the whole WAD out. :P

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I think my favorite midi-composer as for now would be Simon "SlayeR" Judd.
The music presented on his "Slayer's Demense" homepage is absolutely top notch IMO and seem to fit the maps I'm going for perfectly (I've used tracks of him in two of my maps for the Zdoom community project). Unfortunately his homepage seems to be down ATM :(

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