Do you prefer to play with or without music?

[Guest]

[Technician]

With. The music is iconic, it's like not playing Mario with the in-game Music.

[Dav_NW]

Only if the music is unfitting/annoying

[Spectre01]

I play with music, but in case it sucks, I just fire up some Tupac's Greatest Hits in the background and roll with that.

[Voros]

OP, if you mean like that, then i sometimes play a game without music IF THERE IS AMBIENCE NOISE.

And playing Doom with out music is boring, cause theres no ambience. Quake on the other hand had ambience, so playing it without music was still fine.

And not just ambience, but other kinds of sounds, like footsteps, breathing, random sounds(like a noticeable rustle) etc.

Conclusion- no i dont play Doom without music. Even if the music is shit.

[Jon]

For most modern megawads I turn the music off; the fashions in composition for them at the moment is not to my taste.

[Pencil of Doom]

If the music is good, yes, if not, i'll play music from my FD music wads.

[Spectre01]

Jon said:

For most modern megawads I turn the music off; the fashions in composition for them at the moment is not to my taste.

Does that include universally acclaimed soundtracks like BTSX? It's a big reason to enjoy the wad.

[HavoX]

I play with music on (I even made a personal WAD with my favorite tracks), but not always.

[Blastfrog]

Yes, I play with music. Silence is a bit boring, and the music is an intended part of the experience and sets the mood.

[Avoozl]

I use the changemus command if a custom map only uses the default MAP01 track.

[LittleInferno]

Music on. Silence is plain boring.

[MusicallyInspired]

Always always on. As you might guess, I'm a bit of a musical person so I can't turn music off in good conscience when people worked hard on it. It was intended to aid the atmosphere and I will experience any game the way they intended me to. It adds so much and I don't understand why people turn it off for being annoying or "distracting." I'm not saying they're wrong, I just don't relate.

The creators of Myst said that initially the game wasn't going to have music but then they tried it and were impressed with how much it added to each scene. Myst is one of my favourite games ever made and one of my favourite game soundtracks. Now so is Doom's.

[Ribbiks]

music on, as I assume it's an important component to the atmosphere of a map.

music off if either I'm sick of it (from speedrunning attempts, maybe) or if I'm trying to be super-elite cautious survivalist and want to hear every audio cue.

[Li'l devil]

I always play with music on. If the music is boring, i just pipe in my own music, but i rarely do that as there are not many games/wads with truly boring music.

[Azuruish]

Well... I don't play with any music already 8 months (since when Brutal Doom bored me). I'm interested only in speedrunning and while you working with some map - it's important to play without music because you can better hear monsters which you are missed (if it UV-Max of course).
Besides while making TAS - you have to turn music off otherwise it will really piss you off and no matter how cool it is.

[baja blast rd.]

Usually with, but occasionally I've been using -nomusic and listening to awesome dreampop songs like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7ToVteZW4M, mixing in more hardcore stuff like Taylor Swift too.

[Gothic Box]

Voros said:

Quake on the other hand had ambience, so playing it without music was still fine.

Not to mention that Quake's soundtrack is extremely ambient. It fits very very well with the existing ambient noise, and makes the game more foreboding than your girlfriend texting you the phrase "It's fine." Slinking down purple stone Eldritch corridors while the soundtrack softly whimpers and whines always puts me on edge.

[joepallai]

unless it has new music I play without. If I really want to concentrate on the action then I play without.

[shotfan]

Generally with music. Original Doom music just goes along well with action ingame. Special mention to Back To Saturn X, which has beautiful music (done in MIDI!!) with cyberpunk-esque vibe I am a sucker for.
I only make exception for Alien-derived mods, like KontraKommando's TC or Endless123's AVP mod, mostly because I need to keep on my toes for any sound cues (like Alien cries) to warn me of impending threat - enemies there are much faster than Doom's demons and can obliterate you at a moment's notice.

[Tetzlaff]

50/50. Sometimes the midi music is so annoying and unfitting that I have to turn it off completely.

[fraggle]

I always play with the music on, though sometimes I turn the music volume down if I find it's getting too repetitive.

[Zed]

For some reason, I don't like to play any of the Doom games with music (except Strife). And it's not because I don't like the music (I do), but for some reason Doom is one of those games where music really doesn't do anything for me. And not just the midis, any kind of music.

On the other hand, I can't even imagine playing Bioshock without music...

P.S.: By the way, Sign of Evil is fantastic.

EDIT: I made a similar thread a while ago:

https://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/68951-doom-music/

As is usual with my posts, it's not very well written, but I think you get the idea.

[Technician]

rileymartin said:

I play with music, but in case it sucks, I just fire up some Tupac's Greatest Hits in the background and roll with that.

Be shootin' imps all up in the hood, G.

[Jayextee]

Always with the music on. It's a big part of the experience as a whole, and if the music detracts from my enjoyment then this is no less valid than a poor map or monster encounter or texture choice, etc.

And yes, I do judge wads based on their soundtracks as well as everything else (which is a big part of my love for Plutonia 2, if I'm honest).

[40oz]

I play with music because it's recreation. -nomusic when testing maps because that's serious business.

Next thread.

[Seele00TextOnly]

I always play without music. I don't particularly have a good reason for this, other than not liking to have something on endless loop and wanting to hear the ambiance of the map. I know so much of the music that is created for these maps is superb, but I just never seem to want to turn it on. Feel sorta bad about that sometimes. Maybe I should try to change my habit? I'm not sure.

[Uni]

With music always. I think music is important in Doom since it can help build atmosphere and set the right mood, bonus point if the music was specifically made for the map.

[Darklordrobert]

I always have the music on. I do like to use psx music wads rather than listen to the original music, even though I like the original soundtrack too.

[Reisal]

With, it adds to atmosphere.