What do you listen to while mapping? Does it influence your work?

[Kwisior]

I personally don't since I want to focus entirely on the map. Listening to new albums in the background also spoils them a bit.

 

What about you? Does the mood of the music reflect on your maps? Have you made any WADs based around that idea or know any that are?

[ShallowB]

Usually a podcast or a warhammer painting video or something, although when I'm first starting a map I usually listen to music that gets me in the mood for the kind of map I wanna make.

[Doomkid]

I know this is insane but since about 2020, at least 80% of my mapping has been accompanied by ASMR videos with no talking. Subtle noises and movements on the secondary screen oddly help me stay focused on the process. Music, interviews, shows, etc distract me more as my brain wants to pay attention to them.

[BoxY]

Often I just listen to the midi I picked for the map on repeat to remind me what kind of vibe and pace the map is supposed to have.

[phoo]

I usually listen to the midi(s) that I'm considering to use for the map I'm currently working on; I like to select the midi early on. I think the mood that the midi puts me in certainly influences the aesthetic and atmosphere the most. Other than that, I like listening to a lot of ambient stuff while mapping.

[Misty]

I listen various albums from music genres I like when I create my levels, my most recent level was built around listening Radiohead and musing about my future. Sometimes I get so immersed into creation process that my playlist ends and silence and distant sounds from elsewhere keeps me company. 

[EmperorGZT]

1 hour ago, Misty said:

I listen various albums from music genres I like when I create my levels, my most recent level was built around listening Radiohead and musing about my future. Sometimes I get so immersed into creation process that my playlist ends and silence and distant sounds from elsewhere keeps me company. 

i listen to meme rap and phonk type music while im mapping most of the times oh and also like sad music . and i dont think it really influences my maps but i do pause the music when im really thinking about something while mapping 

Edited April 14, 2023 by EmperorGZT

[HorseJockey]

I have been listening to allot of pop lately, but for mapping I have been listening to stuff by Suzanne Ciani and Wendy Carlos.

[Senor Cacodemon]

Whenever I map, I usually listen to videos of people telling stories, but music I listen to video game osts.

[DoktorDeth]

Metal music all the way! It fits well with the aggression of Doom, and it also helps me decide what cool songs I can find in midi form. It also makes playtesting more enjoyable (D_RUNNIN is cool but I understand how long time mappers never want to hear the song again lol) Stuff like Metallica, Fear Factory, Slayer, Disturbed, Megadeth and Pantera sometimes do help with the atmosphere.

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by GreenSlayer

[esselfortium]

Anything I'm enjoying at the moment. Indie rock, prog rock, vocaloid pop, soundtrack music, etc. I don't think it has any influence on what I build, it just keeps the rest of my brain entertained while I'm working.

[indigotyrian]

Sometimes music, sometimes long-form video essays, sometimes a TV show, sometimes nothing. Depends on what I want at the moment. Historically I always come back to XTC, Talking Heads, Miharu Koshi, Barenaked Ladies, Jesper Kyd, Ryu Umemoto, Alexander Brandon, and MASTER BOOT RECORD. As far as long-form youtube goes I'm a big fan of Red Letter Media, Whang, izzzyzzz, Atomic Shrimp, and most recently Dankpods.

[DNSKILL5]

Either South Park is on in the background or it’s MIDI music, especially XG MIDI music.

[NinjaDelphox]

I always either watch the SomeOrdinaryPodcast, Wendigoon, Weather documentaries, or listen to music (Currently it's The Metroid Prime Trilogy, Final Fantasy XIII Trilogy, Parasite Eve, and Dark Souls III) Always just choose whatever my brain wants the most during mapping, almost all of my ideas come from whatever I'm watching + Whatever game I'm currently playing/most recently played, helps me get stuff done fast.

[HorseJockey]

25 minutes ago, NinjaDelphox said:

Parasite Eve

I might be biased because this is one of my all time favorite games, but the OST is so good. 

[silentzorah]

When I used to map, I would listen to science documentaries on black holes and quantum physics.  It was nice.

[spineapple tea]

I almost always have some Youtube video (preferably longer than an hour or two at least because long Youtube videos are awesome) playing on my right monitor while mapping. Right now I've been watching a lot of videos from Simon Whistler's various channels, most being from The Casual Criminalist. It's a sort of podcast-styled video where a writer makes a script about a criminal, usually a serial killer, and he reads it without having done so before. His video about John Wayne Gacy was over three hours long if I remember correctly. If not a video, then it'll probably be a playlist with all the music I've been listening to for the last few days, which is currently a mix of songs off of Destroy Erase Improve, Chaosphere, and Catch Thirtythree (in school for the last few weeks, I've been listening to each of those albums literally multiple times a day every day). None of what I watch or listen to really influences the map itself, but since I'm awful with coming up with map names, I'll often go through a band I like's discography and try to find a song title that could fit the map. This formula worked up until MtPain27 released his video covering Nostalgia, a megawad where every map is named after heavy metal songs, and at least two of the maps in it shared a name with a project I was working on or had already released.

Edited April 15, 2023 by spineapple tea

[Andrea Rovenski]

mostly i pick a midi for the map and write the basic layouts and all of that while listening to it on loop. while detailing and playtesting ill sometimes change it to a lecture or audiobook

[CyberDreamsInteractive]

I have two playlists:

 

One is specifically for Doom mapping, and is mostly Slayer, Pantera, Megadeth, and a few other bands that Doom's soundtrack... uh... "is inspired by".

 

The second is one i've been using for game development, and other creative stuff for years. It is entirely composed of NIN tracks that aren't the popular ones, and Tweaker. Love the feeling it gives me.

[Sneezy McGlassFace]

Anything I fancy, really. I never noticed the thing I listen to would influence my mapping. Best guess is that my mapping palette isn't broad enough for it to take effect. But lately, I've been putting on some long form talking head videos. Game reviews or show retrospectives or anything 1hr+ on a subject I'm interested in, as long as it's competently written and presented.

 

12 hours of Oblivion analysis? Count me in. 2 hours on crypto and nfts being a grift? Yes, please. 5 hours of history of the A button challenge in mario64? Nice. An hour on the new chronology conspiracy theory? Sure. Nearly 2 hours on Genshin Impact? Nope, no way because neverknowsbest can't write, nor read script for shit. I'm only half-paying attention but I'd have to be comatose to listen to him ramble on and on, stretching each sentence to the breaking point, and go on pointless tangents repeating himself multiple times, and with all that not actually get anywhere.

Or music I know and like or I have just discovered and like - I regularly post in the 'what are you listening to' sub, whenever there's something particularly interesting to me.

[D0M0]

It really depends on how I feel.

I’m not much of a mapper myself but I have made a couple maps in the past. I listen to game OSTs that relate to the map i’m making. Like if I was making a suspenseful map, then i’d crank up that Silent Hill OST. 

 

I should make maps more often…

[MFG38]

Generally I listen to one of two things: 1) a Daily Mix on Spotify or 2) whatever WMP decides to pick from my ~4,200-track music library on shuffle. But I find that what I listen to very rarely influences the outcome - more often than not, it's what ends up happening within UDB itself that shapes the final product the most.

[heliumlamb]

 

[Somniac]

Usually MIDIs, maybe the one I want for the map if I've found it yet. Any other music has to be minimal and chill otherwise I find it distracting, dub techno works quite well. Sometimes ambient.

 

I really like @Doomkid's ASMR idea though, I want to try that sometimes.

[prfunky]

When testing, I get to listen to whatever MIDI I selected for that map.

But when I'm actually mapping, I just listen to the voices inside my head; they tell me things...

OOPS!

 

[OliveTree]

i dont really listen to music as much as I'd like (especially considering i make music myself), but I tend to listen to shoegazey stuff or else specific video game osts

[rita remton]

normally i would listen to [music.youtube.com] to find any new songs i fancy. if i wanted to concentrate on something, i would listen to an audio file i made several years ago for studying. the audio consists of sounds of nature (small trickling stream, the wind in trees, chirping birds in the distance, etc) infused with [white noise] and [brown noise] to enhance focus. and no, music does not influence my work.

Edited June 5, 2023 by rita remton

[OniriA]

On repeat currently during the various mapping nights.

 

 

[TheHambourgeois]

All shoegaze all the time baby!

No but for real I was listening to a lot of Microphones and Mount Eerie when I made Condemned, I don't think it made an impact on much other than a couple of the tracks I composed for set. I tend to listen to music before mapping than during because otherwise I get distracted.

[Plerb]

MIDIs and tracker music. It doesn't usually influence the mapping itself.