What midis should i use for an abandoned base setting?

[SlayerOGames666]

I would like an idea of what i could use.

[PeceMan]

I don't have an answer, I just kinda wanna know too

[RonnieJamesDiner]

Well, I would think the gameplay has as much of an influence as the setting over your choice of MIDI (but I suppose this is debatable). What kind of map is it? Slow and suspenseful? Totally action packed? Somewhere in-between?

[SlayerOGames666]

55 minutes ago, RonnieJamesDiner said:

Well, I would think the gameplay has as much of an influence as the setting over your choice of MIDI (but I suppose this is debatable). What kind of map is it? Slow and suspenseful? Totally action packed? Somewhere in-between?

It's mixed.

[RonnieJamesDiner]

Hmm. It's kind of tough to say without knowing how the map plays/looks/feels, honestly. Picking music (for me personally) is not generally an easy task, and I often play through my maps with several MIDIs before landing on one that I think actually fits -- and sometimes even then it doesn't really.

 

The original Doom 1 OST has some great tracks that sort of blur the line between gameplay genres, in the sense that I think you could get away with using them in a mixed environment. Ones like The Imp's Song, Dark Halls, and The Demons From Adrian's Pen come to mind. Doom II also had some good ones that could potentially fill that role, such as DOOM, In The Dark, and The Dave D. Taylor Blues.

 

It usually comes down to just listening through collections until you stumble upon the right one, if you aren't going into it with a song in mind already. If nothing in the Doom 1 or 2 soundtracks work, it might be worth listening through the TNT: Evilution soundtrack for something, or the community made Plutonia MIDI pack.

 

One of my personal favorite bounties of seemingly limitless glory is Jimmy's MIDI collection. There's almost certainly something in there that would work. There's plenty of other musical talent around here to check with, as well. 

 

If you're looking for a more serious, sinister tone, I know a lot of people really enjoy the sound of the PS1 Doom soundtrack, which could definitely provide a certain ambiance to the map, if that was what you were aiming for. Though, I'm fairly certain this OST needs to be purchased.

 

Depending on what format your map is, you can also experiment with changing songs mid-map, if you want to start with something slow and tense, and transition the music with the gameplay as things ramp up. You could also get really ambitious and forego music altogether, choosing instead to create a soundscape of ambient noise. Or some kind of hybrid mix of all of the above, to create a truly unique audio experience.

 

Hopefully this helps point you in some kind of direction. 

 

 

[Doomkid]

This NIN tune from dwango5 is begging to be used in some isolated base map:

https://www.midiworld.com/download/3367

[RonnieJamesDiner]

@Doomkid Ooh, this is a great one!

 

That actually raises another good point -- if you hear an actual song that feels like it might fit your map, chances are there's a downloadable MIDI version of it somewhere.

[Aurelius]

What is generally a good practice with MIDIs based on real songs? Are they all free to use no matter what original composition they're transcribed out of? Or are the exceptions?

[Doomkid]

I think they’re freely distributable unless explicitly stated otherwise. You’d run into trouble if you tried charging for a wad using copyrighted midi but if I understand correctly it’s okay outside of that.

[Gez]

I am not at all a lawyer, but song copyright is a complicated issue. Generally, what you have to watch out for is the copyright on the record -- a specific performance, recorded and then played back. Different performances have different copyrights. It makes sense, intuitively, the copyright for a recording of Johnny Cash's "Hurt" doesn't belong to Nine Inch Nails, or that the copyright for Marilyn Manson's version of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" doesn't belong to Eurythmics. Just taking the melody and doing another performance of the same song doesn't infringe the copyright on the record. That's why cover bands are allowed to exist. The case of the Happy Birthday to You song is interesting, in that here we had a record company that aggressively claimed copyright on the melody and requesting royalties from anyone performing it, even if you're just singing it a capella at a friend's birthday you were supposed to pay Warner $700 for the privilege of doing so.

Quote

On September 22, 2015, federal judge George H. King ruled[39] that the Warner/Chappell copyright claim over the lyrics was invalid.[40][41] The 1935 copyright held by Warner/Chappell applied only to a specific piano arrangement of the song, not the lyrics or melody.[42] The court held that the question of whether the 1922 and 1927 publications were authorized, thus placing the song in the public domain, presented questions of fact that would need to be resolved at trial.[39] However, Warner/Chappell had failed to prove that it actually had ever held a copyright to the lyrics, so the court was able to grant summary judgment to the plaintiffs, thus resolving the case.[39]

So, the takeaway is that lyrics, melody, arrangement, and performance are all different and separate copyrights.

 

And famously, nobody ever sued Bobby Prince or id Software for Doom's soundtrack.

[Roofi]

 

[Andromeda]

Two MIDIs that I've heard recently and I felt were rather moody are the ones on MAP14 and MAP20 of Congestion 1024.