[CP] Eternal MIDI Pack - A community MIDI replacement for Eternal Doom III

[Devalaous]

This pack can also double as a midi replacement pack for Eternal Deathmatch I guess, heh. '

I've never managed to actually finish Eternal Doom, my last attempt, I lost interest once the castles hit. I guess castle doom isnt my thing, when Heretic/Hexen is there.

[ClumsyDoomer]

17 hours ago, Xulgonoth said:

The use of distorted and overdriven guitar is strictly prohibited. I'm sorry, but rock and metal aren't a great fit for this megawad and this is the best way I can think of to avoid them

Whoa. We know how this approach turned out in doom 2016.
I love eternal and have self-brainstormed some thematic musical ideas, but it's mostly about complicated sound design / processing way beyond the midi realm. And of course, my sketches utilized distorted guitars.

[punch you in the face man]

Well I'm no composer and a 4 minute song seems daunting. Here's a note for anyone contributing: Eternal's composer Rich Nagel made his own midi soundfont called WeedsGM3 which he (to my knowledge) composed the soundtrack in. Consider re-listening to the original soundtrack with it and/or listening to your own compositions with it. Some distinctive samples that come to mind are its heavily vibrato strings (Death March is a good example), in your face saw waves (Searching/Suspense), and bright but not annoying trumpets (Trooper Procession). French horns also sound particularly nice.

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=24355

Good luck on this! Will warrant a replay for sure.

[rfnagel]

Hey Guys,

Sverre sent me a message about the project, I'm really looking forward to hearing your all's remixes and stuff! :)
 

BTW, about my custom SoundFont, here's the latest version of it (¥Weeds¥ General MIDI SoundFont v4.0B): http://bhservices.us/weeds/Temp/WeedsGM4.zip . Using an earlier version of that SoundFont with an AWE32 (and later with an SBLive), THAT is EXACTLY how I heard the music back in the day :) Originally the music was composed on a Creative labs Wave Blaster. The WB 1, and NOT the 2... the 2 was TOTAL GARBAGE IM(NotSo)HO, but shortly thereafter I bought my first AWE32.

Cheers!

Edited July 28, 2021 by rfnagel

[rfnagel]

P.S. BTW, for anyone interested, a couple of remixes that I did quite some time ago (I may have previously posted this stuff here eons ago... I don't really remember):
 

Eternal DOOM Music - "DOOMin': Live!" (Yamaha XG Format)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjA8KXjz_4I

Death Assured Remix (Amiga Tracker MOD Format)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zFjmoCzqAs

Edited July 28, 2021 by rfnagel

[Soundblock]

Hey, wish ya'll all the best in this attempt to up the ante on the original! :)

 

 

7 hours ago, Gez said:

Speaking of, I'd like for it to continue the trend set forth by Jimmy's MIDI packs and explicitly mention that reuse of tracks in other mod projects will be permitted. :)

 

I chatted Rich about the project, explaining it in brief and he's all for it - so everyone's end is covered: 

 

 

(he's like my only FB friend I've never met in person - had to make an exception for ED)

 

As to the length (or brevity) of the original midis, my by now admittedly fussy memory of our mailing list activities to get ED done back then, I _think_ Richard (after showing one song or two when he came onboard) asked us whether we would prefer a small handful of elaborate tracks, or an individual track for each of the original 12 maps. The team went for the latter option, so I guess that became the defining format on them. Could be making this up for all I know, but I don't think so.

 

Anyhoo, I love me some song remixes in general & I think extending, extrapolating or just being inspired by the originals to produce something new, sounds like a cool idea.

[rfnagel]

1 hour ago, Soundblock said:

I chatted Rich about the project, explaining it in brief and he's all for it - so everyone's end is covered

Hehe, I beat you to it, Sverre (see messages above) :) :)

[Xulgonoth]

21 minutes ago, rfnagel said:

Hey Guys,

Sverre sent me a message about the project, I'm really looking forward to hearing your remixes and stuff! :)
 

BTW, about my custom SoundFont, here's the latest version of it (¥Weeds¥ General MIDI SoundFont v4.0B): http://bhservices.us/weeds/Temp/WeedsGM4.zip .

Cheers!

I had no idea you were active on Doomworld! I asked Soundblock for a permission before starting this project, because I thought he was the last Team Eternal member active on the site or around Doom in general... had I known better I would have reached out to you instead. I'm really happy the project has your blessing though :)
While I do think the original tracks are way too short for the maps they appear on, I have to say they are exceptionally fun to work with as motifs, which is why I wanted to make that the main theme of the whole MIDI pack :)

[NeilForshaw]

Can I claim MAP03?

 

22 hours ago, Xulgonoth said:

energetic synth-heavy MIDI

 

Sounds closest to what I feel I can pull off.

[AD_79]

14 hours ago, yakfak said:

edit: never mind. was gonna reserve a slot but I don't really like the compo's rules. good luck anyway

 

I won't lie, I feel similarly to this (not allowing for guitar as a primary instrument is understandable, but barring its usage outright is a bit excessive to me, as an example), but my biggest issue is with the person at the helm. As much as I love the idea of a new soundtrack for Eternal Doom and would probably write some material under different leadership, as it stands I won't be contributing. Good luck with the project though.

[leejacksonaudio]

On 7/27/2021 at 5:17 PM, Xulgonoth said:

MAP04: Nucleus
Theme: Techbase/Sewer
The first map by @Soundblock, MAP04 is the real intruduction to what makes Eternal Doom so speacial. Nucleus is massive for its map slot and filled to brim with creative set pieces... while managing to make a dark dank sewer look good. The original MIDI unfortunately doesn't leave much to work with, but what the map really needs is a musical masterpiece.

 

You're right - there's not much to work with. Please let me try. Mark the level as reserved, if you would. :)

[rfnagel]

7 hours ago, Xulgonoth said:

I had no idea you were active on Doomworld! I asked Soundblock for a permission before starting this project, because I thought he was the last Team Eternal member active on the site or around Doom in general... had I known better I would have reached out to you instead. I'm really happy the project has your blessing though :)
While I do think the original tracks are way too short for the maps they appear on, I have to say they are exceptionally fun to work with as motifs, which is why I wanted to make that the main theme of the whole MIDI pack :)

Yep, been on Doomworld for quite some time, alhough I don't post too much. Agreed about the length of the tracks, they're way too short for the massive levels that they try to compliment.

[rfnagel]

P.S. Shoutout to Lee Jackson, howdy howdy! :)

[roadworx]

rich nagel and lee jackson in the same thread, wowie

[Soundblock]

7 hours ago, rfnagel said:

Hehe, I beat you to it, Sverre (see messages above) :) :)

 

Doh! <G>

[ICID]

I'd like to reserve MAP26, please!

[Xulgonoth]

After some deliberation about the feedback over the rules, I've lifted the strict ban on the distorted and overdriven guitars. But please don't use them too prominently, MAP26 should still be the only one that goes ham with them.

[pcorf]

I will claim MAP28. Love the song in that map and I think I can make a really good remix.

[rfnagel]

8 hours ago, roadworx said:

rich nagel and lee jackson in the same thread, wowie

I am HUMBLED by Lee Jackson's presence :)

[rfnagel]

21 hours ago, Xulgonoth said:

Well, I'm finally back at my computer, so I can just post the whole soundtrack here :D

Eternal_DOOM.zip

Something sounds weird with the MIDIs in the ZIP that you posted, Xulgonoth. I only listened to a few, but something is a bit off. If you (or anyone else) has any issues with downloading my old submission to the Doomworld archives, here's a link to the original pack -> http://jasonwilliams400com.startlogic.com/snor/weeds/Weeds_Music/Eternal_DOOM_Soundtrack.zip . Cheers!

[TheUltimateDoomer666]

28 minutes ago, rfnagel said:

Something sounds weird with the MIDIs in the ZIP that you posted, Xulgonoth.

I looked at a few of the MIDIs in my sequencer, and it seems they were inaccurately converted from another format. Several instrument tracks in the MIDIs have channel settings that are missing entirely.

Edited July 29, 2021 by TheUltimateDoomer666 : Clarification.

[Xulgonoth]

1 minute ago, TheUltimateDoomer666 said:

I looked at a few of the MIDIs in my sequencer, and it seems they were improperly converted from another format. Several tracks have channel settings that are missing entirely.

I pulled them straight out of the Eternal Doom wad file. It was probably caused by the conversion from .mus to .mid.

[rfnagel]

1 hour ago, Xulgonoth said:

I pulled them straight out of the Eternal Doom wad file. It was probably caused by the conversion from .mus to .mid.

That's what I was thinking as well. Hehe, the old issues of MUS to MID conversion LOL.

[HavoX]

I personally like the music from Eternal Doom (III), but I do agree it is rather inconsistent, especially given the length of each song.

 

Good luck, you're gonna need it.

[Varis Alpha]

i'm on board with this project, Eternal Doom really deserves a new soundtrack. i'll claim map09 and map13 for now.

[continuum.mid]

I think I want CyberSweeper (MAP33). Had the idea to build a sort of arcade-y trance track around the ambient noises in the original.

[PsychEyeball]

Map24 seems like an interesting concept. I'd like to try that one.

[Varis Alpha]

what the hell, i'll claim map19 as well. it and map09 are among some of my favorites of the mapset, and had music whose atmosphere i enjoyed quite a lot, so i'll try my best to honor that atmosphere in my tracks, while being much more meatier in terms of content as well.

[Xulgonoth]

3 hours ago, Viscra Maelstrom said:

what the hell, i'll claim map19 as well. it and map09 are among some of my favorites of the mapset, and had music whose atmosphere i enjoyed quite a lot, so i'll try my best to honor that atmosphere in my tracks, while being much more meatier in terms of content as well.

Great! Though you made me realise that maybe for now I should limit claims to 3 per person :D

[Xulgonoth]

I've just added @northivanastan's submission for CyberSweeper. I really should have excluded it from the 4 minute rule, but Ivan managed to fight my error incredibly well and made an absolute banger :D