Maps made worse by their music

[BaileyTW]

Sometimes I play a map and think "wow this is neat but does this 30 minute map really need this song that feels like it loops every 15 seconds". Sometimes the music reminds me of another map I would rather just not be reminded of. Sometimes the music just sucks and it brings the mood down.

 

What are those maps for you? The ones who's music makes playing the map a worse experience.

 

Plutonia's map 3, Aztec, is the example for this I always go to first. Haven't played it with the midi pack, so it's just a couple minutes of On the Hunt playing and it feels like it loops 3 times a minute. I think this looping problem is the biggest sin a map's music can have for me. The inspiration for this thread is that I am currently on Alien Vendetta's map 32, No Guts No Glory, (and probably will be for a while really) and it uses the same midi the wad does for intermissions that being Heretic's E1M9 music and it actually feels like it loops every 10 seconds even though I know this isn't the case. It's actually a little demoralizing, but not in the good way.

[Li'l devil]

I disliked all maps that use "Hells Bells" from TNT: Evilution because of this piece of music (both in TNT itself and in other wads). It's just too loud and especially repetitive, that I can't stand it.

Tbh, there are many more lesser examples, but they're more tolerable. I don't like most of the music from Doom II, so I tend to not like the maps that use some of these tracks, like "Countdown" (this one feels so boring that it gives me a bit of fatigue just listening to it; and because of it I don't like map 03 as much as I could've).

Edited June 21, 2021 by Li'l devil

[out_of_service]

E2M3 and Entryway.

[yakfak]

there's this big power metal album-length epic that shows up in slaughtermaps, think it first surfaced in New Gothic Movement? and it bugs the heck out of me somehow, just an instant idmus01 for me. it's well written, high quality music that I just don't like! I don't let music picks ruin maps for me though cos you can just remix them with one simple trick wad compilers dont want you to know about

 

edit: im often deactivating the music in less serious map-sets entirely cos it's gonna be in-jokes I don't know, or that tune from ROTT with the wrong pitch bend ratio baked in or choice cuts from Mock 2. also I kinda find the default GM square wave grating as a lead instrument and will idmus away from that, too (although I like the way people have come to layer squares under distortion guitar for punch!) none of this ruins the levels because you don't have to listen.

 

edit 2: I remember reading about people idmusing away from my tunes in like pccp2 or mutabor and im fine with that too, people should use the command more than they do

Edited June 21, 2021 by yakfak

[xScavengerWolfx]

For me i have to say D_RUNNIN (entryway). it drives me nuts and E2M4 music i really hate.  

[GamingMarine]

MAP15 of Slaughterfest 2012 is (Compared to the rest of the WAD) pretty bad on its own. The fact that the music is a MIDI rendition of Gangnam Style makes it even worse.

[LouigiVerona]

On another note, for the past couple of years I got into a habit of playing without music. In fact, sometimes I might put on a podcast or a YouTube video and listen to that while playing Doom.

[galileo31dos01]

The most recent was a case of "wrong music for the wrong map" in map 31 from the alternative midi pack in "Doom 2 Unleashed". It was something like cheerful tropical music, with the first 5-seconds beat looping over and over and over, in a map I wasn't even a fan of for multiple other reasons alone, and the midi was not helping at all. 

 

And yet I never turned off the music or idmusXX in that map. I don't know why I don't do this more often though. It isn't the most common thing for me to find a music selection to mismatch with the map where it was purposely destined for, unless the music is recycled from an older map that I casually enjoyed more because of how such music fit in it, and also changing the music myself doesn't feel right, so I should probably just start muting from now on whenever I need to. 

 

The one time I felt forced to stop the music was in Hell Ground map 04, because it was triggering something in my head as I started to feel horribly depressed and anxious out of nowhere. That shit had never happened to me before, playing doom I mean. No disrespect to the musician or Eternal, also I should clarify it wasn't the song's fault, just a sad coincidence perhaps.

 

1 hour ago, yakfak said:

there's this big power metal album-length epic that shows up in slaughtermaps, think it first surfaced in New Gothic Movement? and it bugs the heck out of me somehow

 

Oh yeah I feel you there. I was glad my prboom executable blew up everytime it tried to load the map because the midi's length was too much to handle, heh. In such cases my go-to alternative is idmus25. No hate towards the midi though, it's a masterful piece and all but I'm more into soothing midis for maps in the slaughter spectrum.

[Sergeant_Mark_IV]

Doom 2's Healer Stalks (Map02). It's not creepy. It's not fun. It's just boring. This song shouldn't exist.

[ebrl]

Man, I know I'm going to get absolutely shredded for this, but I'm about halfway through Eviternity and I think barely any of the maps so far had fitting music. Imagine my shock when I checked the soundtrack list and it was all Jimmy Paddock this, Stuart Rynn that, Mark Klem here and there, etc, basically an all-star cast, all these dudes with amazing music everywhere else. I think Eviternity is just going for a vibe that I don't really vibe with.

[Doomkid]

There are so many old wads that have passable levels, but use some 30 second loop of Ode to Joy, or some other truncated classical MIDI.. I’m sure this is a result of MIDIs being nearly impossible to find in great numbers before the internet, but I’ve seen it multiple times scouring shovelware discs or 90s wads on idgames. I’ll always idmus to something else once it loops..

 

2 hours ago, BaileyTW said:

The inspiration for this thread is that I am currently on Alien Vendetta's map 32, No Guts No Glory, (and probably will be for a while really) and it uses the same midi the wad does for intermissions that being Heretic's E1M9 music and it actually feels like it loops every 10 seconds even though I know this isn't the case. It's actually a little demoralizing, but not in the good way.

I LOVE that song because so many Doom DM arenas used it - but in a DM it’s rare to be on one map for more than 5 mins. Not an ideal choice for SP, especially for a longer level... Plus it’s got this tribal/barbaric vibe that matches the general pace of DM better than SP anyway. Even though I like the MIDI I’d be idmus-ing after a few minutes as well.

[Andromeda]

44 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

The one time I felt forced to stop the music was in Hell Ground map 04, because it was triggering something in my head as I started to feel horribly depressed and anxious out of nowhere. That shit had never happened to me before, playing doom I mean. No disrespect to the musician or Eternal, also I should clarify it wasn't the song's fault, just a sad coincidence perhaps.

I played that level yesterday and I can definitely see what you mean, very powerful piece.

[ENEMY!!!]

I haven't played that map but I fired up a playthrough on YouTube and I can see why.  I imagine such a powerful emotional piece of music would add to a rather creepy experience for some, and be overpowering for others.  The track comes from American McGee's Alice, Pool of Tears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNCe3AhOTqQ

 

Edited June 21, 2021 by ENEMY!!!

[Gothic]

There is a map in Kama Sutra (can't check rn) that uses the worst Michael Jackson midi I've ever heard

[SuperPIter_DoomWorldthe2nd]

Just now, Gothic said:

There is a map in Kama Sutra (can't check rn) that uses the worst Michael Jackson midi I've ever heard

Christ, that doesn't sound good at all.

[Ichor]

E2M3. It would be fine if that wasn't the intermission music, but after hearing it after every map, it just sounds wrong with that same music starts playing for the next map. As if the actual music was missing and it defaulted to the intermission music.

[Lorenz0]

MAP07 of Alienated, idk what I was thinking with that one lol

[Li'l devil]

I have no problem with E2M3 music being used, as during the intermissions you typically only hear the first 5-10 seconds of the song, and the full track is over 4 minutes, not to mention I think it's a pretty good track on its own. For Doom I specifically I'd argue it's the opposite issue: the level it was used on was rather weak, and it's this music track that made it stand out at least a little bit.

 

"Running from Evil" on the other hand.... Well, pretty much no serious mapper ever uses it on their levels, but if someone would, that'd definitely make the level worse, as everyone heard this track indescribable amount of times, and in my mind it's ingrained as the music theme for "I started working on a new wad".

Edited June 21, 2021 by Li'l devil

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

The last map of Epic, the song is so repetitive and short and annoying that it actually makes me laugh.

[Sena]

2 hours ago, Doomkid said:

There are so many old wads that have passable levels, but use some 30 second loop of Ode to Joy, or some other truncated classical MIDI.. I’m sure this is a result of MIDIs being nearly impossible to find in great numbers before the internet, but I’ve seen it multiple times scouring shovelware discs or 90s wads on idgames. I’ll always idmus to something else once it loops..

 

Adding to this, for some reason classical music always just sounds terrible in Doom. Equinox's map 5 (?) had a pretty good rendition of The Planets, or at least it would have been a good rendition, if not for the fact it doesn't loop properly so there's a good 3 minutes of complete silence.

[Gez]

MAP18 from Epic 2. In the middle of all the MIDI soundtrack, that OGG feels out of place. It doesn't help the recording quality isn't very good, and all these triumphant trumpets aren't my cup of tea to begin with.

 

Good thing there's changemus to get the MIDI alternative.

[The_SloVinator]

'One Bloody Night' has Map 03 & Map 05's very repetitive music. I think Map 03 has a midi version of some boss battle from some JRPG or something.

Just eh... doesn't work with the maps you play. Very annoying when it loops & a very rare moment where I just turn off the music.

[continuum.mid]

TNT Evilution MAP27: Mount Pain, the epitome of Into the Beast's Belly syndrome. Actually, quite a few levels in TNT have excessively short and simplistic tracks, so I am glad there's a MIDI pack now.

 

I hear this complaint leveled against Eternal Doom a lot actually. Really long maps, really short MIDIs.

 

I disagree with everyone who said Entryway. Running of Evil is a good track, certainly not the worst on the Doom II OST, it's just that Doom players hear it so often it becomes deeply tiring. A new player, hearing it once in its original context, will not have a problem.

Edited June 21, 2021 by northivanastan

[Li'l devil]

Oh yeah, "Into the Beast's Belly" is annoying as hell, I forgot about it. Also, correction to my first post, the TNT track I mentioned is "Death's Bells", not "Hell's Bells".

[BoxY]

I'll accept almost any type of midi in a map except iwad music, which I consider basically inexcusable unless it's carefully picked for a very specific type of mood (Slaughtermax map19 and Sunlust map32 pulled it off). Also Sunder map11 gets some shit points for spreading a 72 second midi over an hour of gameplay like when you're trying to scrape the last smear of butter out of the bottom of the tub to cover one last piece of toast.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

50 minutes ago, Gez said:

MAP18 from Epic 2. In the middle of all the MIDI soundtrack, that OGG feels out of place. It doesn't help the recording quality isn't very good, and all these triumphant trumpets aren't my cup of tea to begin with.

 

Good thing there's changemus to get the MIDI alternative.

This too. I haven't played Epic 2 in about a year, but I'm fairly certain you're referring to the "space canyon" map?

Edited June 21, 2021 by TheMagicMushroomMan

[Rytrik]

5 hours ago, BaileyTW said:

Sometimes I play a map and think "wow this is neat but does this 30 minute map really need this song that feels like it loops every 15 seconds". Sometimes the music reminds me of another map I would rather just not be reminded of. Sometimes the music just sucks and it brings the mood down.

 

What are those maps for you? The ones who's music makes playing the map a worse experience.

 

I can't think of any particular Doom maps that have music which drives me nuts. HOWEVER, I am highly cognizant of people looping the same fucking thing in other media (songs, jingles, hold music). Non-repetitive music is extremely important. That said, if it is going to loop, at least make the loop interesting. 

[Horus]

The one and only time I had to turn off/change the music in a Doom map was map 13 of MAYhem 2019. Just a constant offputting drone

 

(footage from LY203 below)

 

 

 

Edited June 21, 2021 by Horus

[Xulgonoth]

2 hours ago, Gothic said:

There is a map in Kama Sutra (can't check rn) that uses the worst Michael Jackson midi I've ever heard

It's technically a rendition of the Alien Ant Farm cover of Smooth Criminal, not the original MJ version. But to be honest I couldn't bring myself to hate that midi despite how hilariously bad it is, something about Kama Sutra's HR-styled high-octane abstraction surprisingly makes it work.

I really only have three other words to add to this thread: "Sweaty Mancubus Armpits"

[Devalaous]

Pretty much anything childish or bad midis of random popular songs from various eras. I tend to groan when I hear metallica or NIN midis (Sorry NaturalTwwenty!) for example, as I'd rather just listen to the album than hear midi bleeps that are supposed to be vocals.