MusicallyInspired

SC-55 Music Pack - available in OGG, FLAC, and MP3 (metadata loop tags are supported in all but the MP3 pack) At long last I've finally completed the Heretic music pack. Since I've gotten back to recording these packs I had planned to rework Heretic's soundtrack a bit in light of some new recent information that had come to light from the original composer himself, Kevin Schilder. However, as I half-expected, I encountered a strong desire for the unmolested tracks. So here they are in all their glory. This will work basically out of the box with G/ZDoom, you just have to add the ZIP as a "+file" command line parameter. They can also work on other source ports, though I'm not entirely 100% positive on which ones specifically will. But I know G/ZDoom does very well. I will still be recording an "enhanced" music pack for this game based on the issues I laid out in the aforementioned thread, but that will come after Hexen which is next on my list. I hope you enjoy! And please report any errors or issues you have with the pack. Thank you!

I've encountered a desire for the original unmolested tracks. And since I can respect that need and desire, it only takes one to convince me! But where there's one there are others as well I'm sure. So I will be providing two music packs for at least Heretic. One of the original tracks and one rebalanced by myself with the changes I mentioned above.

Yes.

Really interesting info to digest! This is partially why I have been hesitant to record Heretic with the SC-55 for so long. That note about tweaks to get around too many notes triggering at once answers a lot of questions I had. Since this soundtrack wasn't composed specifically with the SC-55 I've already taken some liberties with loop points and putting notes back to triggering at the same time. I can record multiple tracks to get around the polyphony limit so that won't be a problem anymore. He's right, though. The tracks are rather sparse and it's hard to believe any notes would be silenced (barring those multiple note trigger tweaks he mentioned). Also, for instance in e2m3, there's a guitar track that's so quiet you can't hear it at all from the SC-55. I took the liberty and raised the volume of that channel so you can hear it. As well, the synth strings patch used for that song has a very slow attack so I doubled it with regular strings that have a fast attack so that it doesn't sound like it's trying to keep up with the beat of the song and failing. It all sounds much more lively now. I'll be making changes like this for my music pack just to make it more listenable and closer to what he would have been working with on the Sound Blaster. I did a first pass recording of every track. Now comes the task of going through it with a fine-tooth comb. Thanks so much for digging more into this!

Decided to make a new thread for this and future releases, as there has been some interest in them. I just finished recording the Doom II Roland SC-55 soundtrack and it's available now in OGG, MP3, and FLAC. Doom II Roland SC-55 Music Pack UPDATED V1.2! (added missing duplicate tracks) Each track fades out at the end for out-of-game listening experience but contains metadata info for loop start and end points so when playing with ZDoom or Chocolate Doom (or any other port that might implement metadata loop tags in the future), the tracks will loop seamlessly and imperceptibly while preserving end-note and reverb information without being cut off, giving the illusion of playing with a real SC-55. The packs are boosted and slightly compressed so that they are on a more equal volume level with sound effects, otherwise the music gets drowned out easily. However, also available are the untouched raw uncompressed music packs which have no compression or volume enhancements for the audiophiles out there that want the absolute purest experience possible. I do, however, recommend the boosted packs for in-game play. Enjoy! I also have other game music packs available on my website Roland SC-55 Music Packs, hosted by Duke4.net. Currently I have music packs for Duke Nukem 3D, Doom, Doom II, Rise of the Triad, Shadow Warrior, Blood, Descent, Descent II, and Hocus Pocus with many more planned to come. Next on my list to record are Heretic and Hexen.

I don't see djent as a style/genre so much as a playing technique.

Does there exist anywhere full quality versions of the music he made for Doom 3? These tracks in the game from what I remember are merely 22khz in mono or something.

I bought the game when I couldn't play it too well. Had to lower all settings. The demo performance tanked but the game did ok with all settings at minimum on my old GTX 460. Upgraded to a 970 shortly after, however, and that problem went away. I was playing it fine, though. It is incredibly well optimized.

The berserk powerup glory kill on the imp where you tear its skull completely in half down the middle. That was the most awesome (in the true sense of the word) moment for me. Chainsaw to the baron jaw was another good one.

Doesn't the GBA version split the levels in half sometimes? Does the SNES version do that?

You've got to believe in what you're working on if it's going to be any good. If you don't, the work will suffer. I cannot think of any example where someone did something half-heartedly and it ended up being a hit. And if there are examples, they are very very few. I know that. I was talking moreso to TAPETRVE who first mentioned the comparison.

Just furthers the point that Quake doesn't really have a central focused theme.

Prey was entirely a Bethesda decision. id wasn't involved. Doom's reboot was id's call and Beth just let them do it. That's entirely different. The Quake example holds a bit of water. Except that the original Quake was already a mess thematically speaking. How would you make a sequel to THAT? Doom was always a more focused idea. I would argue that Doom 3 was not as far removed from the source material as Doom 4 1.0 was, though. Again, it was their call to make and they made it. At the end of the day they wanted something they felt felt like Doom and to them Doom 2016 was the answer. From the sounds and looks of things, and judging by what id has said, Doom 4 1.0 would not have made near the waves that Doom 2016 did.

Yep. Well, you and a few others. I mean, your opinion is valid. Maybe it's just because I had absolutely zero expectations for Doom 4 judging from its mid-development reboot, which I likened to DNF's development reboot(s) which ended horribly. I wasn't looking forward to anything. Right into the MP beta. The trailers were cool with all the violence and glory kills (both the ones you perform and the ones done to you) but I wasn't wowed. It wasn't until the release and the demo that I discovered something I really enjoyed. Actually playing it was my wow moment. I like the game the way it is. I don't have any dogs in the fight of what Doom should be, but I enjoyed what Doom 4 turned out to be and I wouldn't want anything about it as it is now to change. I do hope a sequel is not just a repeat without taking it further (in the same way that Doom II was).

Enemy damage, health, and health/armour pickup values are the only things changed. I don't think there are any more or less enemies along with AI changes at all that were made for different difficulties.

I started trying out multiplayer for the first time in a while. It seems like every time there's a big update they redesign the entire interface for the menu. I still get demolished and it seems like I can't find a groove to fit into. I think I managed to get two kills overall. One of them I died at the same time, so, yeah. I dislike multiplayer games and especially playing with super experienced players because it's hard to break into it easily. I'm good at single player, but there's just something different about the human element that is absolutely overwhelming when you first get your feet wet in it. In every game.

I just barely beat The UAC on Ultra-Nightmare last night just to get the achievement after dozens of attempts beforehand. So that's definitely too high. I think Ultra Violence is probably a good spot for me too. I found Hurt Me Plenty challenging as the game went on and I had to retry a few times. Especially the Spider Mastermind boss. That took me forever. After a while I never really had any problems with the arena hoardes, though. But then, I had been upgrading my weapons as well. Which is why I think Ultra-Violence is a good spot. Theoretical as I haven't tried it yet, though.

But it's all completely serious and makes sense in the game world. And it treats it seriously (again, no DNF). I'd say Duke was largely reimagined for Duke3D, though. It was all cheese in 1 and 2 for sure, and there's no doubt they carried over his narcicism and self-worship from Duke Nukem 2 and dialed it up to eleven, but beyond that the game world of Duke3D is taken more seriously than either Duke 1 and 2.

Nothing wrong with a little linearity. Argent Tower was also linear. That was a fun trip to the top. I don't 100% agree with the note about Duke. I look at Duke3D as mostly serious, but it's the character of Duke alone that makes it funny. Nothing else about the game is really funny save for the easter eggs. The story is plausible. That is, if aliens existed, the things they did in the game would make sense even for a serious movie. Sometimes they look a bit over the top, but they weren't meant to be funny looking. The humour comes in when you plop a larger-than-life hero with attitude taking them all on like it's nothing into the mix. I always looked at it as a serious world; a rated R action movie synopsis, where the stark contrast of Duke's character is what transforms it and gives weight to all his actions. DNF is a completely different story. The whole world is a parody and I think the game suffered for it and downplayed Duke's contrast. They completely missed what made Duke3D great.

A space level fighting demons in zero g might be fun.

I don't think a hybrid or balance of any kind is possible. They said they were struggling with the story for the entire development and discovered that the best way to present it was to not. I really enjoyed hell being the constant punching bag. There's enough games, movies, books, etc that portrays hell as this ominous, monstrous, threatening, and undefeatable obstacle. I like them being the whipped for once. It was totally empowering. Do I want that for another sequel? Maybe not....maybe not so overboard. However, I don't think it's possible to have that hybrid. I'm happy to be proven wrong....I think in the end Doom 4 would still be my favourite of the theoretical two, though.

Read the rest of that same post. I went on to retract that statement. All I meant to say with that original thought was that there was never much attention given to story, storytelling, or context to anything beyond the story blurbs in between episodes and levels. They didn't have characters and exposition in the actual gameplay of the game.

Then how am I "conveniently forgetting" everything else you've said about the game? I was only talking about the atmosphere.

It's either one or the other, man. You can't appreciate what they did and hate and badmouth it at the same time.

From part two: "You're either on board with us or you're not." I guess he's not.