How do I make MIDI music for doom 2?

[-.-Spade-.-]

This is my first post ever on this website, so excuse any rules broken. I wanted to know exactly how to make MIDI's for DOOM 2 wads, I'm using Ultimate Doom Builder to make my own wads, but I don't know how to make my own music.

[Shakariki Heisenberg]

well do u have like a digital/eletric piano or a synthesizer

[Tactical Burger (Old acc)]

1 hour ago, -.-Spade-.- said:

This is my first post ever on this website, so excuse any rules broken. I wanted to know exactly how to make MIDI's for DOOM 2 wads, I'm using Ultimate Doom Builder to make my own wads, but I don't know how to make my own music.

You can use midi programs to make midis. Many people use Sekaiju but it's way too complicated for me. I stick to Aria Maestosa. You can hook up a midi keyboard and use it if you have one. You don't need one to use aria maestosa but I'm not sure about sekaiju. Here's the download link for both: https://ariamaestosa.github.io/ariamaestosa/docs/index.html and https://openmidiproject.opal.ne.jp/Sekaiju_en.html

[-.-Spade-.-]

All I got is a yamaha PSR f51 

[-.-Spade-.-]

14 minutes ago, Tactical Burger 69 said:

You can use midi programs to make midis. Many people use Sekaiju but it's way too complicated for me. I stick to Aria Maestosa. You can hook up a midi keyboard and use it if you have one. You don't need one to use aria maestosa but I'm not sure about sekaiju. Here's the download link for both: https://ariamaestosa.github.io/ariamaestosa/docs/index.html and https://openmidiproject.opal.ne.jp/Sekaiju_en.html

I already have sekaiju, but Imma try the aria maestosa.

[TheHambourgeois]

12 minutes ago, Tactical Burger 69 said:

You can use midi programs to make midis. Many people use Sekaiju but it's way too complicated for me. I stick to Aria Maestosa. You can hook up a midi keyboard and use it if you have one. You don't need one to use aria maestosa but I'm not sure about sekaiju. Here's the download link for both: https://ariamaestosa.github.io/ariamaestosa/docs/index.html and https://openmidiproject.opal.ne.jp/Sekaiju_en.html

Going to throw my hat in for Sekaiju. Aria Maestosa has a workflow I do not like. Some people recommend Domino but I haven't used it. I am not familiar with that keyboard. If it has a 5 pin midi out and you have a way to connect it to your computer (some kind of MIDI interface) you could use that, otherwise if you really want a midi keyboard for note input you can look for some cheap MIDI via USB options like a cheap Nektar or Akai controller

[-.-Spade-.-]

1 minute ago, TheHambourgeois said:

Going to throw my hat in for Sekaiju. Aria Maestosa has a workflow I do not like. Some people recommend Domino but I haven't used it. I am not familiar with that keyboard. If it has a 5 pin midi out and you have a way to connect it to your computer (some kind of MIDI interface) you could use that, otherwise if you really want a midi keyboard for note input you can look for some cheap MIDI via USB options like a cheap Nektar or Akai controller

Money is not an option and I cant go out and buy whatever, Im mainly looking for software

[TheHambourgeois]

Ok, then you may be reduced to click and dragging in the piano roll (which is what I do lol).

If you do get some spending money, Nektar has a little 25 key controller for like $50 on Sweetwater if you're really hurting for it but you're probably not going much cheaper than that.

[-.-Spade-.-]

7 minutes ago, TheHambourgeois said:

Ok, then you may be reduced to click and dragging in the piano roll (which is what I do lol).

If you do get some spending money, Nektar has a little 25 key controller for like $50 on Sweetwater if you're really hurting for it but you're probably not going much cheaper than that.

What Piano roll?

[Skronkidonk]

11 minutes ago, -.-Spade-.- said:

Money is not an option and I cant go out and buy whatever, Im mainly looking for software

I recommend using Sekaiju. It SEEMS complicated at first, but a YouTube tutorial or two will help you out.

Its a free software, and requires no keyboards or anything.

EDIT: It's pretty similar to FLStudio if you've ever used that.

[-.-Spade-.-]

Just now, Skronkidonk said:

I recommend using Sekaiju. It SEEMS complicated at first, but a YouTube tutorial or two will help you out.

Its a free software, and requires no keyboards or anything.

last time I looked I didnt find any good tutorials, I already have it so

[Skronkidonk]

Just now, -.-Spade-.- said:

last time I looked I didnt find any good tutorials, I already have it so

What do you need help with?

[-.-Spade-.-]

1 minute ago, Skronkidonk said:

What do you need help with?

Nothing, I think im fine, thanks tho

[Dark Pulse]

@LVENdead made a pretty good Sekaiju tutorial that may help out nicely.

 

 

[Dragonfly]

I did slap a quick tutorial together for someone on my Discord server for their specific questions - I've been told that this helped some people learn the interface in general though, so it might also help you?

 

 

[Herr Dethnout]

Domino.

 

Just Domino.

[Individualised]

Domino is not fully translated into English so if you don't speak Japanese it's difficult to use. It's also difficult to use for some things in general (you have to "brute force" things like pitch bends) and it only has a Windows version, meaning while it's not impossible to run on Linux it's a bit more difficult than the average Windows application with it being a MIDI editor that needs to access a MIDI output device.

 

I might have a look at Sekaiju, but what I do now is just use OpenMPT's MIDI import/export - I much prefer trackers over piano rolls anyway. It's not ideal as OpenMPT doesn't natively support MIDI in the same way it supports tracker formats (it allows you to import an .SF2 soundfont as a instrument set though, so you can still have what-you-hear-is-what-you-get editing) but I much prefer it.

[plums]

@Individualised yeah trackers! I really don't like piano rolls. Have you tried ztracker or ztrackerprime? I'm trying to figure out how to compile them on Linux so I can fix some bugs and other stuff with them, might just have to bite the bullet and install a Windows VM or something for now. A while ago I was playing with schismtracker for midi since it translates all kinds of effects into midi CCs, but there's no direct midi export and schism's midi timing isn't great so I could never get things feeling tight unless it was a really simple track.

[Plerb]

On 8/8/2023 at 6:51 PM, Individualised said:

I might have a look at Sekaiju, but what I do now is just use OpenMPT's MIDI import/export - I much prefer trackers over piano rolls anyway. It's not ideal as OpenMPT doesn't natively support MIDI in the same way it supports tracker formats (it allows you to import an .SF2 soundfont as a instrument set though, so you can still have what-you-hear-is-what-you-get editing) but I much prefer it.

Wow, I thought I was the only one who used OpenMPT to make MIDIs! Though I haven't made .mid files for most of my tracker MIDIs yet. In my experience OpenMPT's MIDI exporter usually doesn't export the drum track properly, and might mess up some other things. Now I'm wondering if there's some way around those problems other than manually fixing them in a MIDI sequencer, that'd save a lot of work.

[plums]

1 hour ago, Plerb said:

Wow, I thought I was the only one who used OpenMPT to make MIDIs! Though I haven't made .mid files for most of my tracker MIDIs yet. In my experience OpenMPT's MIDI exporter usually doesn't export the drum track properly, and might mess up some other things. Now I'm wondering if there's some way around those problems other than manually fixing them in a MIDI sequencer, that'd save a lot of work.

I've also tried MPT for making MIDIs, a while ago, and I do remember it having some problems that I couldn't fix just with the program itself, so probably not, unless you want to try fixing the source code. Also IIRC it was hard to do pitch bends etc. with it? It's very usable but not perfect.

[Plerb]

Yeah, pitch bends had a tendency to break. I plan to eventually make my own .it to .mid converter, but that'll take a while.

[wumbo]

3 hours ago, Plerb said:

Yeah, pitch bends had a tendency to break. I plan to eventually make my own .it to .mid converter, but that'll take a while.

 

If you want to pitch bend easily, I recommend a MIDI editor called signal. It's interface is almost perfect, and you can browse effects for MIDI, one of them being pitch bending. You should try it, its super underrated.

[Plerb]

2 hours ago, wumbo said:

If you want to pitch bend easily, I recommend a MIDI editor called signal. It's interface is almost perfect, and you can browse effects for MIDI, one of them being pitch bending. You should try it, its super underrated.

I looked this up and it looks interesting (I guess it's a web interface?). I prefer using tracker interfaces over piano rolls, thanks for the suggestion though!

[user76828904]

15 hours ago, wumbo said:

 

If you want to pitch bend easily, I recommend a MIDI editor called signal. It's interface is almost perfect, and you can browse effects for MIDI, one of them being pitch bending. You should try it, its super underrated.

Thanks for the tip.