Plutonia MIDI Pack project (/idgames link available)

[Jimmy]

Well, we're pretty much right there now, and the only reason this isn't done yet is my neglectfulness. :S I shall be putting together another compilation alpha shortly (which this time will include every submitted track) with all the updates I've had here in the thread. Do post any further ones here in order to get them included in the next compilation.

As far as project updates go, stewboy finished his MAP20 contribution, and PRIMEVAL sadly had to drop out due to other commitments. Hope things are well with you, Mr. Freeze.

I'll shortly be organizing things for the next alpha, i.e. set up a quick "vote" post in which I'll list the unassigned tracks and unfilled slots and let you guys decide. Until then, if anyone does have any particular preference as to which tracks should go where (we have three unfilled slots, 23, 30 and 31) then please say.

[Gez]

Kinda OT, but I've noticed Koliko is still in the "In Progress" folder. It can safely be moved to "abandoned".

[Bucket]

If we assign all the finished unassigned tracks, are there any slots left unfilled?

[Jimmy]

We actually seem to have an excess, thanks mainly to Hellish Godzilla's most recent contributions, which while not finished yet, can certainly be patched up. With only three yet-unfilled slots in the list, and just a few tracks left to be finalized, I think we have the full set here.

[Shin Godzilla]

Let me know what that 'patching up' might entail. If you need extended cuts of my shorter tracks (Sepulchral, Scarlet Citadel), I might be able to throw something together. I wouldn't worry too much about those three fragments I posted on the last page - I just put those out there in case someone was looking for something to do. On the other hand, if anyone's burning to finish them, be my guest. I don't intend to work on them anytime soon.

Speaking of Sepulchral, though, I did make one last attempt to fix the drums during the heavy parts. Trying to make them all fast and pounding just wasn't working, so now they're slower: http://www.mediafire.com/download/hclnfmpzibwddxz/sepulchral3.mid

[Doomkid]

bomp

How's everyone doing so far?

[Jimmy]

I think everything's more or less sorted, minus any last minute changes. All subsequent updates to tracks I think will be purely to fix problems rather than to finish incomplete tracks, so I've marked everything as "done" on the first post. (If there were any definitely incomplete tracks, then let me know that I messed up.)

We're just waiting on Mr. Freeze for an update on his MAP13 track then we're all square. :) Just to clarify, Mr. Freeze - I have you in the slot for MAP10, though Lippeth wrote "Always Watching" for it. Did you get anything done for that map? And how is MAP13's track progressing?

And Hellish Godzilla, thanks for the update and the clarification on those three tracks. If you're getting a bit tired of Sepulchral, would you like me to take a look and see if I can extend it and maybe tidy up the drums a bit more?

ClumsyDoomer, I'd like to ask the same of you for Claustrophobia. Just want to be sure you guys are okay with me making some alterations to complete the tracks.

---

Okay, so the only three slots that are empty now are those for:

MAP23: Tombstone
MAP30: The Gateway of Hell
MAP31: Cyberden

Here are the unassigned/unfinished tracks we have left over.

"D_MESSG2.mid" [yakfak]
"Rise" [Doomhuntress]
"Plucked and Hammered" [Bucket] (unfinished)
"Plug Ugly" [Bucket]
"Plurry" [Bucket]
"Stomper" [Hellish Godzilla] (unfinished)
"The Flood of Mortal Ills" [Hellish Godzilla] (unfinished)
"Evil Light" [Hellish Godzilla] (unfinished)
"Cry of Desperation" [Eris Falling]

Now, I'd like to put it to the community - which tracks should go where? Maps 23, 30 and 31 are the only empty slots, but any of the above tracks can be assigned to them easily - and the unfinished ones can be just as easily, especially if anybody steps forward and volunteers to finish any of them off. :) (I might take a crack at one or two of them myself.)

[Bucket]

"Plucked and Hammered" is not finished.

[Jimmy]

Noted, and edited. :)

[Shin Godzilla]

Jimmy said:

And Hellish Godzilla, thanks for the update and the clarification on those three tracks. If you're getting a bit tired of Sepulchral, would you like me to take a look and see if I can extend it and maybe tidy up the drums a bit more?

If you're okay with that, I'd like to see what you can do. I do need to tend to some other commitments for the next while, so I don't want to hold things up for the rest of you guys. For the record, I think a finished "Plucked and Hammered" would work for Map23. The tempo, at least, should match well enough.

[Bucket]

It would require some work - and frankly, it's probably not worth it as I cannibalized some parts for the TNT2 project.

[Shin Godzilla]

That does pose a problem. I like all the other tracks that Jimmy re-posted, but I'm not sold on them as Map23 candidates. I suppose things can be reshuffled once we have 32 finished tracks to work with. For now, though, I think I'll change my vote to "Cry of Desperation" for Map23. It's a bit cheery, but "Bye Bye American Pie" also strikes me as weirdly upbeat, so it's not so bad.

[Bucket]

Having checked the front page, I see you haven't included "Plug Ugly". I had a reason for discarding it but I'd hardly put my foot down. May as well add it to the pool of candidates.

http://speedy.sh/GsK9H/plugugly.mid

[Jimmy]

Alrighty, added. :)

[Tristan]

Hellish Godzilla said:

"Cry of Desperation (...) It's a bit cheery

Aw..Thanks for the vote though :)

[ClumsyDoomer]

Ugh! I've just came back from another trip. :)
As for claustrophobia - of course, Jimmy, do whatever you want, I was really bored of editing it - it didn't become any better... So, I'd like to remake it from scratch. Should I, or it's too late? :)

[Bucket]

I see nothing wrong with Claustrophobia. I feel it's somewhere between Hell On Earth and TNT; TNT had more chromatic stylings but a dearth of faster tracks.

[Shin Godzilla]

Yeah, I really like Claustrophobia. If it needs a bit of fixing up, that's cool, but I'd probably leave it otherwise.

Eris, I hope you didn't take my comment as a slam against the track generally. It's pretty good - reminds me a bit of early Nightwish for some reason. I just wasn't sure how suitable it would be for Map23. The map's pretty intense and a bit dour texture-wise. I suppose I should play the map with "Cry of Desperation" first, to see how it works out in practice.

[Tristan]

Not at all, but I wasn't going for a happy tone with it :P

[Doomkid]

Yakfak's track seems to suit Cyberden perfectly, that's a sure vote for me.

Cry of Desperation almost seems like it could be a map30 track - If other's agree, I'll just lazily lump my vote in with theirs.

Map23, though... I'm totally split!

[Jimmy]

Okay, here's my take on Sepulchral. I, er, guess I wound up making a bunch more edits than I said I would, so this is just on SpeedyShare for now rather than the project MIDI folder. It's been extended to nearly two minutes, and the melodies themselves have been altered slightly so there's not so much chromaticism.

Hope it's to your liking, Godzilla. Sorry if it's not. >_<

http://speedy.sh/hd4yP/sepulchral-jimmy.mid (1:53)

I'll be looking into Claustrophobia next.

---

Looking at what we have right now, I have to say these are my current thoughts on what should go in the remaining slots:

Bucket's Plug Ugly is a pretty cool track and fits MAP23 quite nicely, I think.

Plurry is awesomely creepy and can really go in no other place than MAP30's slot.

Cry of Desperation's similar feel to "Legion of the Lost" makes me feel like it would fit MAP31 nicely. The only problems I have with it are the slow build-up and the sudden change to a fast-paced track. I think the track would work wonders if there was a little bit more going on during the intro and the drums in the latter half were at half speed.

I also had a little brainwave, which was to swap MAP10 and MAP11's tracks (Always Watching and Denied). MAP10's is ominous and melodic, where as MAP11's is heavily drum- and power-chord-oriented. Anyone (hopefully the authors) agree? :)

[Doomkid]

I can't help but love Sepulchural, such a great riff. I love the fact that it takes a book out of the "This riff sorta already exists" book, just like the original D1 tracks, but it's way different at the same time. Very genuine style of Final Doom music and I think Jimmy's changes help it out even further. I think a splash or something at the very beginning may help it loop smoother, but it's awesome.

Map10 seems a little too fast-paced for the draggingly slow Denied, but honestly I don't mind either way, I'm just glad for it to be used :) Always Watching also seems to fit Hunted very well, in fact I'd say both seem to fit 11 better than 10, oddly enough. I'm happy either way though!

[Tristan]

I've started Cry of Desperation again from scratch, it'll just be easier for me to remaster it like that.
Since it's also inspired by Porkchopper from DNMP, what would think about having that latter part slower, and then bringing in a faster part later on, similar to the DNMP track?

[Shin Godzilla]

I really like what you've done with Sepulchral, Jimmy. I think it leans more heavily toward atmosphere than my original did, which certainly isn't a bad thing for this project. There's only one thing I'd quibble about: I'd be inclined to cut the first 7 seconds. A lot of the tracks we've submitted have these gradual buildups, but I think a colder opening helps signify that, hey, this map might fuck you up, so be on your guard. That's my take on things, at least. I'm sure we can work something out if you disagree.

[Tristan]

80%-finished remaster of "Cry of Desperation"
I haven't brought the bells back in yet and the guitar still needs finishing, but I just want to make sure I'm on the right track here :)

[Jimmy]

Doomkid: Thanks for the feedback and comments. Very happy you're in agreement. :)

Hellish Godzilla: Yay, glad you think so! :D You're right about the intro, I'll see what I can do with it - don't want to make it too heavy but I think there should certainly be a bit more going on in it.

Eris Falling: Really nice work, I like it a lot! :D I would say that the harp needs to be much quieter than the acoustic guitar, though - the harp seems to work nicely at 76 volume and the guitar at 96. I would also suggest introducing string ensemble block chords (perhaps instead of the guitar) at bar 21, when the drums kick in. Then bring the guitar back in on top at bar 25. (Might be worth increasing the note duration on the guitar's notes to make it sound not quite so "robotic".)

To add a bit of drama and some slight dissonance, I'd also be tempted to add a ninth interval (F#) into both the CM and Em chords once the song builds to a certain point (maybe bar 37?).

Really nice job so far, though. ;) Keep it up!

[Doomkid]

Jimmy said:

To add a bit of drama and some slight dissonance, I'd also be tempted to add a ninth interval (F#) into both the CM and Em chords once the song builds to a certain point

Going bold I see! ;)

If I see any servers running plutonia* without the midi pack as well in the near future, I'll be hurling an array of insults at the server host.

(Or I'll kindly inform them that there is now a custom music pack.. Either way.)

[Tristan]

haha, thanks Jimmy. I didn't hear the effect of changing the guitar note duration until I put the soundfont into default. I assume you also meant set the volume of Atmosphere to 76 as well as the harp?
Moving on to the strings now. Will try it with Warm Pad first, since I already had that there :D

[Jimmy]

Actually the atmosphere is pretty much okay as it is. :)

My suggestion for the warm pad is to bring that in at a fairly quiet level before the strings, to give a mellow background ambience to the piece, and then introduce the strings on top, as they'll make for a really epic introduction to the more dramatic parts of the song starting at bar 21. :)

[Tristan]

I have to make a confession, but praise you at the same time Jimmy...

"Add more to the intro? That's going to detract from the sad atmosphere I'm going for"
"Slow the drums down? I'm pretty sure this won't work"
"Strings? I'm not confident on this."
"9th interval? an F# in a chord alongside B/C and E? Reaaally?"

OK, I haven't managed to do that last one yet, but I've learned my lesson, and it'll be the same I'm sure:



I wrote Cry of Desperation originally when I was kinda upset about stuff, hence the title. I'm happier now and it's sounding sadder and more epic than I could've imagined it, against logic, thanks to your guidance. Thanks a lot, man :D