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Gifty

MIDI software

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Being both a musician and a huge Doom fan, I've always wanted to make custom Doom music, but it seems the problem with composing for games from 1993 is that all the applicable software is also from 1993, and I've found them extremely difficult to use. I know plenty of modern DAWs that can do MIDI, but none I know can edit or export it in the capacity required for Doom. Could any of the local noisemakers tell me what they use, or what the most friendly DAW is for making Doom music?

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I know that most people use Anvil which is a great software for midi making, but i personally use FL Studio 11 'cause i'm more familiar with the layout and i've worked on it for 3 years now.

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When I first started I used Anvil. It's a pretty good beginners tool, you should look into it.

Fl Studio is also really good. You don't even have to buy the full version, just use the demo version and export your MIDI.

There's also a soundfont-based MIDI workstation called Synthfont which is fairly good as well. For the soundfont, I'd recommend the Roland Sound Canvas.

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Gifty said:

but none I know can edit or export it in the capacity required for Doom.

What do you mean?

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Kore said:

What do you mean?

Some modern DAWS like Ableton Live (which is what I typically use) can edit piano rolls, but they don't have the capability to really work with soundfonts or export multi-track MIDI files. They're basically set up for using VLC plugins, not older stuff.

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I see what you mean. Reaper has amazing midi editing capabilities, especially compared to other DAWs. Although it might seem a bit clunky at first, it can do all you would want to do. I can say all of this because I wanted to do music for a Doom64 EX wad using the Doom64 soundfont. Did I also mention it's under 50MB?

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Kore said:

I see what you mean. Reaper has amazing midi editing capabilities, especially compared to other DAWs. Although it might seem a bit clunky at first, it can do all you would want to do. I can say all of this because I wanted to do music for a Doom64 EX wad using the Doom64 soundfont. Did I also mention it's under 50MB?


What kind of sample interpolation algorithm does Reaper use? I used Synthfont years ago for the same thing but it uses linear interpolation so the samples would sound horrible when played several octaves below their root.

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jdagenet said:

What kind of sample interpolation algorithm does Reaper use? I used Synthfont years ago for the same thing but it uses linear interpolation so the samples would sound horrible when played several octaves below their root.

If you're referring to soundfonts, it dependends mostly on the soundfont player plugin (Don't take my word for it, I haven't done my research), and Reaper doesn't have a native one. If you're refering to samples in general, it has a bunch of options ranging from Nearest-neighbor to 512pt.

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I've been giving Sekaiju a try since it seemed to be the most recommended freeware program, and I think it's a keeper; there's a learning curve but it seems like a pretty solid tool. Thanks, you guys! C:

Here's my maiden midi.

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That's pretty nice for a first MIDI :) Has a nice bit of dissonance to it.

Just a few pointers for the future, all those empty piano tracks look kinda messy especially in other editors, wouldn't hurt to delete them. Also, it's worth changing some of the track names to hold some useful information, such as the song title and your name as the author (or File -> Property, which has dedicated fields for this).
Cool stuff.

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BlackFish said:

FL Studio is capable of exporting to usable midi, but it costs money.

You don't need to buy the full version of FL to utilize its MIDI features. You can export the MIDI's and re-open them all in the demo version.

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KevinHEZ said:

I know that most people use Anvil which is a great software for midi making, but i personally use FL Studio 11 'cause i'm more familiar with the layout and i've worked on it for 3 years now.


I've been using FL Studio for over a decade and I can't seem to get MIID output to work right. There's usually some kind of fuck-up in the render, especially if I have a lot of automation clips for say, velocity dynamics, and I also noticed that if I shift the pitch on one instrument, it will affect ALL instruments upon output. Any advice?

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GoatLord said:

I've been using FL Studio for over a decade and I can't seem to get MIID output to work right. There's usually some kind of fuck-up in the render, especially if I have a lot of automation clips for say, velocity dynamics, and I also noticed that if I shift the pitch on one instrument, it will affect ALL instruments upon output. Any advice?


FL Studio is not the one fucking up the render, like most midi-based software, if there is too much information and things going on with the instruments, it may cause some bugs, try to keep a little simpler.

As for the pitch shifting, i have two techniques that i use both with midi instruments and vst's, the first one is a bit barbaric which is to use the notes on the piano roll to simulate a note change while doing bend shifts.



You'll have to experiment with the velocity to make it sound perfect, but it's a nice workaround especially with vst's.

The second one is with the channel pitch, you'll have to edit the event manually in each pattern that you want a pitch shift, and remember to put 0% on the first pattern otherwise it will carry on the pitch shifted.



This one can be a bit tedious if you plan on doing it a lot on a song, but you can make perfect pitch shifting with it.

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You can also use Guitar Pro if you're a guitarist or you're familiar with the application. Just write it as you would a normal tab and export it as MIDI.
I just made a quick song for testing purposes only using Guitar Pro, and Doom seems to support everything including bending notes and sliding.

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I have a question about ANVIL Studio.. How do I get my MIDIs to MUS format so I can use them in my Chocolate Doom maps?

I tried MIDI2MUS on DOSBOX and can't figure it out...

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TheNerdTurtle2 said:

I have a question about ANVIL Studio.. How do I get my MIDIs to MUS format so I can use them in my Chocolate Doom maps?

I tried MIDI2MUS on DOSBOX and can't figure it out...

I think MIDI2MUS is just about the only option out there. Unfortunately I've never used it before so I can't offer much advice, but I did find this XWE tutorial that might be of assistance.

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Do not convert to MUS format! It's not necessary, and strips the MIDI of all metadata, meaning it can't be identified if needs be. It also becomes an incomprehensible mess in a MIDI editor when converted back into MIDI.

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jdagenet said:

I think MIDI2MUS is just about the only option out there. Unfortunately I've never used it before so I can't offer much advice, but I did find this XWE tutorial that might be of assistance.


I will give it a go!

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Eris Falling said:

Do not convert to MUS format! It's not necessary, and strips the MIDI of all metadata, meaning it can't be identified if needs be. It also becomes an incomprehensible mess in a MIDI editor when converted back into MIDI.


Yeah but Chocolate Doom doesn't play MIDIs :(

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I'm not sure, but doesn't it need a output file name too? Something like "midi2mus d_trapped.mid d_trapped.mus".

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TheNerdTurtle2 said:

Yeah but Chocolate Doom doesn't play MIDIs :(


If Chocolate Doom doesn't play a MIDI, then it is either a bug (it should be able to play it) or it's because your MIDI is too complex to be converted to MUS format anyway.

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Defsan said:

You can also use Guitar Pro if you're a guitarist or you're familiar with the application. Just write it as you would a normal tab and export it as MIDI.
I just made a quick song for testing purposes only using Guitar Pro, and Doom seems to support everything including bending notes and sliding.


Good to know! I was considering using Guitar Pro to create custom Doom music, glad to see it works fine.

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