Thank you Jimmy for bringing midi music to Prodeus!

[Pixel Fiend]

With a brand new update launched today, Prodeus has an alternative sountrack by James Paddock @Jimmy. It is a phenomenal feature that brings Prodeus even closer to our beloved Doom.

 

I'm personally not a fan of Andrew Hulshult's music and will very happily have this alternative soundtrack be my primary one. So far I am indeed very very pleased with the midis. Thus Prodeus is shaping up to be the game that seems almost too good to be true. I am extremely thankful to everyone who supports the game and its creators. 

 

Prodeus RULES!

 

 

[Rudolph]

I have only played the Prodeus demo. Can we get a sample of Jimmy's soundtrack?

[Pixel Fiend]

https://twitter.com/ProdeusGame

 

They posted a few samples today.

[Rudolph]

Nice! I still do not care much for Prodeus and I am not sure if those MIDI tracks really fit the game, but those tracks are nice nonetheless.

[hybridial]

I dunno if it's just me but the game seems even smoother to play than before the update, the game's coming along great, I already think it might be one of the best FPSes ever made and it's not even finished. 

 

The midi tracks seem pretty nice as well. 

Edited April 15, 2021 by hybridial

[Jimmy]

Lots of love in this thread. :D

 

Very pleased to announce that the 10 MIDI tracks I wrote for Prodeus are also now available on my BandCamp!

 

STREAM/PURCHASE TODAY!

 

https://jamespaddock.bandcamp.com/album/prodeus-the-midi-soundtrack

 

Edited April 15, 2021 by Jimmy

[D4NUK1]

Great midis Jimmy!

This will also expand in manys custom maps where a MIDI Soundtrack fits better for the game.

I'm playing rigth now and Pulverize it's my favorite.

[Jimmy]

I reckon Geiger is my favorite. The riff that goes up in minor thirds towards the end is deliciously simple but has me headbanging every time. Very happy with how that one turned out. :D

Edited April 15, 2021 by Jimmy

[kwc]

I flipped when I saw this announced. Really cool they are employing folks from the Doom scene to help build this game.
Now I wonder who they can hire to produce the next texture sets......................... 

[D4NUK1]

@Jimmy I got a question about the process of making this MIDI Pack.

Did you take in account the dinamic style of music of Prodeus (Passive-Normal Battle-Big Battle) like, having the differents styles in mind, or just go like a song that's it's cut in that way.

[kwc]

4 hours ago, D4NUK1 said:

Did you take in account the dinamic style of music of Prodeus (Passive-Normal Battle-Big Battle) like, having the differents styles in mind, or just go like a song that's it's cut in that way.

I'm curious about this too.

 

Just to wax on the subject, I've always thought dynamic midi stuff would be a clever implementation in a game/sourceport/etc, I'm not aware of games that have done it or to what extent.
I could imagine something like changing patches in certain channels or having linedefs or script events that trigger velocity/modulation/expression envelopes or somesuch thing, or just pointing to different points in the midi file.

Edited April 16, 2021 by kwc

[Jimmy]

I had to go in with that in mind. The dynamic music system swaps between those three looping tracks depending on combat intensity, and so each track I wrote needed to be first split up into three distinct looping sections, and brief transitional parts also needed to be written.

 

The tracks you hear on BandCamp are unique arrangements I did, beginning with the Ambient loop, then transitioning into Action, then into High Action, and then back to regular Action, during which a fadeout is done.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Jimmy

[Rudolph]

@Jimmy Did the Prodeus developers approach you about making a MIDI soundtrack or did you offer them your services?

Edited April 16, 2021 by Rudolph

[Jimmy]

@Dragonfly was already on board the project and put in a good word, I believe. The Prodeus devs were happy to take me on board as second composer which was a very pleasant surprise.

[Gez]

15 hours ago, kwc said:

Just to wax on the subject, I've always thought dynamic midi stuff would be a clever implementation in a game/sourceport/etc, I'm not aware of games that have done it or to what extent.

The LucasArt developers had made a dynamic music engine (IMUSE) which was used in most of their games. Dark Forces, for example, uses it. It was based on having MIDI tracks that follow a specific template, with some instrument tracks dedicated to ambiance, other dedicated to combat, etc. so by fading in and out the relevant tracks the music can adapt perfectly seamlessly. It's not an ambiance song getting interrupted by a combat song which is then interrupted by a victory fanfare before restarting the ambiance song -- it's the same song that gets adjusted to circumstances dynamically.

 

The system was unfortunately mostly abandoned with the MIDI era, as CD audio tracks and MP3s do not offer the same flexibility.

[Blzut3]

5 hours ago, Gez said:

The system was unfortunately mostly abandoned with the MIDI era, as CD audio tracks and MP3s do not offer the same flexibility.

It may have disappeared for a brief while during the redbook era, but pretty sure there are a lot of games that do the same thing with PCM music by effectively rendering a multi-track real time.  Off the top of my head I believe Descent 3 was a relatively early example of this.  But this idea seems to be part of the commercial audio middleware (e.g. FMOD and Wwise).

[kwc]

7 hours ago, Gez said:

The LucasArt developers had made a dynamic music engine (IMUSE) which was used in most of their games. Dark Forces, for example, uses it. It was based on having MIDI tracks that follow a specific template, with some instrument tracks dedicated to ambiance, other dedicated to combat, etc. so by fading in and out the relevant tracks the music can adapt perfectly seamlessly. It's not an ambiance song getting interrupted by a combat song which is then interrupted by a victory fanfare before restarting the ambiance song -- it's the same song that gets adjusted to circumstances dynamically.

 

The system was unfortunately mostly abandoned with the MIDI era, as CD audio tracks and MP3s do not offer the same flexibility.

Man, I literally thought of tagging you in that post, glad to know I wasn't off-base. :P
Cheers Gez, as always. 

[Dragonfly]

OK so, if we were able to port that functionality to <doom ports of choice> I know for a FACT that I'm willing to compose MIDI's that follow the structure necessary, and I'm relatively certain most other authors here would be interested in working to that spec too - imagine it, a library of MIDI's composed with that functionality specifically in mind!