Various unknown MIDIs Identifcation Help

Hi,

I have collected a few MIDIs from certain MODs of DOOM over the years and no one seems to know what they are so in hopes someone on Youtube knew what they were, I uploaded samples of them in the link below. Please reply if you know any of these.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMKxPKw7ObI

I am also looking for a short MIDI I found on a site I am unable to locate anymore and it begins with the square insturment playing for a few seconds and then looping a few times and the MIDI ends with either the choir or halo intrument repeating itself till the very end. Thank you.

Gaaaah!!!! The Microsoft MIDI! It burns!!! Really? You have nothing better to play MIDI files? The internet positively bristles with freeware that sounds better than the Microsoft thing.

Anyway, that wasn't the point. I really have no idea. Two and three sound like they may have been taken from commercial games. One and four sound like they were put together in a sequencer with no time spent on making them sound the least bit musical.

One thing you might try is peeking through them in a text editor. MIDI files are of course binary files that will look like patterned crap, but they store meta data in plain text. They often contain authors, titles and dates. Sometimes they just contain the name of the program that created them. I can't remember what happens to them if they've been through tools like midi2mus/mus2midi.

What program would you recommend for a alternate sounding MIDIs?

Basically anything that exists other than that Microsoft one. (Well, not Quicktime either. It used to sound just about identical.) Anything that can play soundfonts is nice. I like Synthfont right now, but that's because I have a convoluted setup where it's acting as a MIDI instrument to play whatever I play in Winamp. You'll see that site has several versions depending on what you want to do with it. The biggest one is the only one I ever got working right. Soundfonts have to be downloaded seperately. There are a couple threads around here about that. My favourite one for general listening goes by the filename SGM-V2.01.sf2. It's about 200 MB>

If you're not that adventurous there MidiG which is smaller and usually works well. It doesn't have a real website anymore. The one I linked seems to work. Its downside is the common 11 MB download version doesn't have a proper setup for french horns or flutes. I found a copy in BitTorrent once that had a soundfont installed in it which corrects this. I have no idea where to find that. It is freeware though. Its other (and IMHO bigger) downside is it can't be used to play MIDI from other programs such as games.

Another nice thing to find if you're on XP or older is one of Yamaha's XG softsynths. They're small and sound great. They don't seem to work on anything newer than XP and it's a moot point because Yamaha stopped selling them a few years ago. :(

Heh, I think I have something like 10 different MIDI players on this comp. The Microsoft one is the one I never use for anything. It usually sounds terrible. Give the middle one in that pile a try. The crap thing about it is it's standalone and can't be used to play the music in your games.

I like Timidity with eawpats or shompats. ZDoom or DOSBox's OPL emulation might also be a good idea, it's possibly what these files were originally made for.

Anyway, I had a listen. 1 and 4 sound like songs, 2 and 3 sound like video game themes. 4 is sounding really familiar but I can't put my finger on it.

Maybe list which PWADs you got them from so we can have a listen with various methods ourselves?

Eawpats for me too. DOSBox > ZDoom in OPL emulation though.

I'm almost sure that number 4 is one of the midis from Zone Raiders.

Edit: Guess not, but it is similar to Area-01.

I can hear the Hyrule Field theme in 2

edit: I was using Microsoft thing but I just installed Synthfont with soundfont suggested by Aliotroph?. It sounds great. Thanks!

edit2: any way I can get ZDoom to use this? nvm got it

And in my tired state earlier I forgot to mention why I really use that rather bloated version of Synthfont. It allows VST effects. If you go here there's a nice reverb plugin called Ambience. Basically dump it somewhere on your computer and point Synthfont at it. When you add it you can then double click it to open its dialog and play with it. Preset #28 seems to work well for me.

I wish I could find a soundfont that sounded like whatever they used on my Sony Ericsson phone. That way I could figure out which MIDI files might sound good on it without having to copy them to my phone and then unplug and reboot my phone to test them. Ironically, I found a soundfont that sounds like my olde Nokia phone. No good there because I never had a cable for that phone and it predates Bluetooth.

Don't listen to these guys, the Microsoft midi is the king and should be the standard in which midis are composed in present day

And played through the internal speaker - as Gates God intended. :P

Following Aliotroph's reply, I've downloaded Synthfont with the SGM-V2.01.sf2 soundfont, and listened a bunch of MIDIs. It's... different. Some sound a lot better, some sound a lot worse. For some tunes, it sounds like a half-assed mp3/ogg - kind of like an audio version of the uncanny valley. It was interesting to give it a try, but this seems to be an awful lot of tinkering for a so-so result. Sticking with the Microsoft thing here.

Of course, I'm also the guy who genuinely can't tell the difference between 128kbps and anything higher. You may now point and laugh.

I agree. There are some instruments that sound wonderful, and some that don't. Like when playing MAP01 in ZDoom with Timidity++ and that soundfont, there's this sound that sounds like either a gun shot or a bowling ball hitting the ground, and it overpowers the rest of the music and doesn't sound too good. When I take the MUS, turn it to MIDI and play it in Synthfont, though, that noise isn't there.

I remember from back in the day I heard a song on a Doom/Doom2 map (which I reused CONSTANTLY because I loved it) that started with a low pad hum and the main melody instrument was the Atmosphere effect, atop mixing a little of strings 2/3 or 1/2 into the song.

It was also relatively small with the MUS coming out to around 14kb, if any of the hints above might ring a bell to anybody who might know.

I would really like to know what was used in AV Map01.

Kagemaru_H said:

I would really like to know what was used in AV Map01.

http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/MAP01:_Sunset_%28Alien_Vendetta%29
"it uses a MIDI rendition by Christer Holm of the Level 1 theme from the Commodore 64 game, The Last Ninja 2."

All that's left now is Maes coming up with technical sound data about MIDI quality.

So? Where are songs 1 and 2 from? They appear in the Army of Darkness wad, so I'm definitely interested where did Stefan Maes and Co. take them from.

I'm also looking for clues on this music, because I'm currently using it in a map: http://www.speedyshare.com/files/20861170/MUSIC.MID

Super Jamie said:

http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/MAP01:_Sunset_%28Alien_Vendetta%29
"it uses a MIDI rendition by Christer Holm of the Level 1 theme from the Commodore 64 game, The Last Ninja 2."

The first part of the quoted sentence said:

In the first release of the megawad, [...]

In the second release of the megawad, that specific song occurs on the "Clandestine Complex" level instead.

printz said:

I'm also looking for clues on this music, because I'm currently using it in a map: http://www.speedyshare.com/files/20861170/MUSIC.MID

That is "DLA" by Mark Klem. The most well-known version appears in Memento Mori, first occurring on MAP03. However, the version you've put up is from Mark Klem's old Doom episode, Cringe. The soundtrack as a whole includes early versions of Memento Mori tracks, a song that has not been published anywhere else, and a song that wasn't published anywhere else until he published a finished version as an MP3 in 2009.

Interesting. Too bad these people don't upload their music to /idgames.

printz said:

All that's left now is Maes coming up with technical sound data about MIDI quality.

Nah, I just pop up when someone mentions that OPL emulators sound nothing like the real thing.

Mr. Chris said:

I remember from back in the day I heard a song on a Doom/Doom2 map (which I reused CONSTANTLY because I loved it) that started with a low pad hum and the main melody instrument was the Atmosphere effect, atop mixing a little of strings 2/3 or 1/2 into the song.

It was also relatively small with the MUS coming out to around 14kb, if any of the hints above might ring a bell to anybody who might know.

If it's the one I'm thinking of, then that's a great MIDI. This page identifies it as "Sucubus Dream."

Super Jamie said:

http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/MAP01:_Sunset_%28Alien_Vendetta%29
"it uses a MIDI rendition by Christer Holm of the Level 1 theme from the Commodore 64 game, The Last Ninja 2."

I think I had the second release in mind.

"In the first release of the megawad, it uses a MIDI rendition by Christer Holm of the Level 1 theme from the Commodore 64 game, The Last Ninja 2. In the second release, it uses an unknown music track."

I looked up the midi and no match. There should be some internet database that allows one to load a MIDI into a search engine and any MP3 similar sounding would come up.

Kagemaru_H said:

There should be some internet database that allows one to load a MIDI into a search engine and any MP3 similar sounding would come up.

Easier said than done. Someone first has to design a search engine that has an ear for music.

Believe it or not I've only ever used the Microsoft MIDI synth. For one, the instrument set is what I've been hearing while playing Doom for so many years that I've come to associate it with Doom. For two, a "low-resolution" soundfont fits the abstract, grainy nature of Doom and other classic games better than larger soundfonts with more "realism," or clarity - when using these soundfonts, an aesthetic dissonance is created. For three, now that I actually write MIDI music (about once a year, heh) I feel that I should compose it to sound good in the synthesizer that most people will use to listen to it. For four, I'm absolutely CRAZY because only a complete nutbar would subject himself to this aural torture willingly AGAIN and AGAIN I want to use a better sound font SO BAD but could never figure it out Timidity's install process is completely incomprehensible I hope I pray to God that this Synthfont thing works please oh please oh please it just HAS to it just has

Aliotroph? said:

Two and three sound like they may have been taken from commercial games. One and four sound like they were put together in a sequencer with no time spent on making them sound the least bit musical.

Yeah, both 2 and 3 are very stylistically distinct from anything I've ever heard by a "Doom composer," so they're probably from commercial games - and very nice, I might add. I would think the OP had taste in music if he didn't also like 1 and 4.

DuckReconMajor said:

edit2: any way I can get ZDoom to use this? nvm got it

Mind telling me? I can't figure it out.

EDIT AGAIN: Welp, everything I've ever written sounds like crap when not played with the Windows MIDI synth. This is having the effect of making me leery about composing MIDIs at all. It may be time for me to look into other tracker formats... so that I can include all of the patches from the Windows MIDI synth in every song I make and FORCE people to hear it.

Still don't know how to use Synthfont with ZDoom. I know I haven't been waiting for help for long but I really want to try this out. I don't have a sound card. Will that be a problem?

The second song, for being used in the Army of Darkness TC, makes me think of Army of Darkness, reminding me of the Army of Darkness film opening theme music actually, only happier. Can this article help?

Hellish Godzilla said:

If it's the one I'm thinking of, then that's a great MIDI. This page identifies it as "Sucubus Dream."

Nope, that's not quite it..I think the atmosphere kicks in about 7 to 10 seconds into the song.

GreyGhost said:

Easier said than done. Someone first has to design a search engine that has an ear for music.

There's already an app for iPhone that does that, so we're not too far from such a search engine.

Creaphis said:

Still don't know how to use Synthfont with ZDoom. I know I haven't been waiting for help for long but I really want to try this out. I don't have a sound card. Will that be a problem?

What you do here is connect Synthfont to the MIDI mapper in Windows. You do this using a virtual MIDI-cable program like MIDI Yoke. With that installed you tell the MIDI mapper to output to one of its "out" ports and you point Synthfont at the "in" port with the same number. Then you toggle the "activate MIDI input" button in Synthfont.

If you're on Vista I think you need an extra tool to be able to change the MIDI mapper from the default MS synth (on XP it's in the control panel). Also on Vista you need to turn off UAC to get that thing installed. I've never done any of this kind of stuff on Windows 7. I hear you can't change MIDI synths on Windows 7, which would make using things like Synthfont with games impossible unless the games start supporting a way to do it.

Aliotroph? said:

What you do here is connect Synthfont to the MIDI mapper in Windows. You do this using a virtual MIDI-cable program like MIDI Yoke. With that installed you tell the MIDI mapper to output to one of its "out" ports and you point Synthfont at the "in" port with the same number. Then you toggle the "activate MIDI input" button in Synthfont.

If you're on Vista I think you need an extra tool to be able to change the MIDI mapper from the default MS synth (on XP it's in the control panel). Also on Vista you need to turn off UAC to get that thing installed. I've never done any of this kind of stuff on Windows 7. I hear you can't change MIDI synths on Windows 7, which would make using things like Synthfont with games impossible unless the games start supporting a way to do it.

Thanks! That was definitely too complicated for me to figure out.

EDIT: Heh, actually it doesn't really work on my computer. In the several ports I've tried, the MIDI music only plays steadily while the game is paused. While the game is running, the music only comes out in occasional bursts. I guess there are just too many levels of emulation and abstraction involved.

Creaphis said:

Mind telling me? I can't figure it out.

I was actually talking about the soundfont. Just install the ZDoom Timidity and point the configuration to the soundfont.

http://zdoom.org/wiki/Using_custom_MIDI_instruments