How does Doom sound to you?

[TheBlurCafe]

In my opinion, Doom music, much like the game itself, can be appreciated in all shapes and forms, whether it favors a more rock and metal inspired approach, or strives for a different vibe altogether.

Saying Doom should only be metal is also not a valid argument, as both Doom I and II have tracks that lean more on ambience (e.g. E1M5).

[Deadwing]

Melancholic prog smooth "jazzy" shit or liquid funk drum n'bass lol

[xScavengerWolfx]

On 1/29/2024 at 3:08 PM, Astar said:

“Wtf is this music? Is this Super Mario? Doom should be metal.”

This, this is the most funniest comment i've ever read. I feel like this is a Doom 2016 / Eternal doom fan.

 

Now to answer the question "What dose doom sound like to me?" well simple wattson. Doom is meant to be what every you want it to be. Sure metal goes well with demon slaying but sometimes you need a nice balance of uneasy, the thought of "being alone, isolated" being basically on your own fearing the dark and the mystery it has lying beneath it. When i was making my ultimate doom wad (still working on it) i went with more of like dark, gritty, making the player feel like there never alone midis like Snax's midi called "Fallen Monuments" the drown of it makes it feel like you've enter a place you should've never come too.

 

Overall to me doom's music can be what ever it wants to be....as long it fit the theme you're going with for the maps.

[Astar]

4 hours ago, faceplant641 said:

If there's ever an Auger;Zenith 2, I want at least one track from Gunvein on there.

I can imagine that, sounds cool!

 

3 hours ago, durian said:

Creepy silence for me

A-a-and here's another one!

[Faceman2000]

All the people saying that the “Doom is metal” vibe only comes from nuDoom fans clearly weren’t fans themselves before nuDoom came out lol. That sentiment has been around forever.

 

@Gifty nailed my feelings on the subject in a way that I haven’t seen put to words before. It doesn’t need to be metal, but there’s a Doomy essence to the original tracks that I feel a lot of the more upbeat tracks people use today don’t quite capture for me. Which is fine of course, different people like different things.

[pulkmees]

You're fighting demons in hell/earth/whatever. It's pretty damn specific to that. All that Sim City 2000 nonsense always takes me out of it. Definitely dark and eerie.

 

If the map is fast paced, make it fast paced. 

If you intention is creepy, make the music creepy.

If you intend to to show danger....you know already.

Experiment until it fits. Not going to be easy though.

There is a reason the Ashes 2063 soundtrack is that good. It fits.

[LadyMistDragon]

Honestly, I feel like there was a perception that Doom was primarily metal long before 2016.

 

But I'm definitely with the people that say there's plenty of room for/often has spookiness and outright horror at times. Maybe it didn't always do the best job of conveying that in the base game but it's always obvious what Bobby was going for. Although I feel like Doom played a role in shaping my musical tastes but that might be after the fact speculation, the idea that the more energetic midis were automatically "metal" just feels off to me.

[esselfortium]

Doom is a colorful, pixelated game with cartoony graphics and cartoony sound effects. There is nothing particularly scary or realistic about most Doom maps, and certainly not about Doom's monsters or gameplay. Hell, one of the most popular and widely-used monsters in the game was specifically designed to make you laugh when it kills you (paraphrasing Romero about the revenant's poses and sound effects), and then there are the swarms of smiling floating meatballs, etc. People who insist that classic Doom needs to be treated as if it's grim and serious are weird, and I will continue to laugh at their very serious complaints about what kinds of music get used for maps.

[Snark]

I replaced every wad music tracks with Mouldy's stuff. Everything else is boring.

[Logamuffin]

I feel like Doom modding is so diverse at this point that it's music can't really be nailed down to one distinct sound. It'd be like asking what music goes well with a tv show. Okay, what episode are we talking? What scene? Of course there are some picks that will generally work better than others but it depends on the needs of the situation. For the most part though, you can really just put anything as a Doom level soundtrack. Going Down's demented clown music is a good example of that! That being said I don't think I can really have a horse in this race because like 75% of the time I mute the music when playing Doom and put on something else, though more recently I have been trying to listen to the music a bit more.

[Chookum]

The sounds the zombiemen make are quite theatrical, and the death sounds almost sound like they're getting their noises right for a rehearsal of Titus Andronicus. The mancubus going "mwargh" upon being hit is a soundboard favourite. Skinny screaming skeletons spook me silly and slap me stupid. New sounds get introduced with new monsters and features, and yet the care is taken to make them feel like they fit with the existing sound palette, slotting right in naturally rather than supplanting it (in most cases).

 

Doom's music has a distinct sound through limitation, being stuck to General MIDI for the most part. But within that limitation the music has evolved and evolved within and outside of Doom. Now Doom can sound like just about anything that suits the gameplay and tone it's conveying, like another layer of nice wrapping for your chosen Doom.

 

This aspect only leads me back to a question throughout modern Doom: How do you like your Doom? It can be anything, now.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

1 hour ago, esselfortium said:

Doom is a colorful, pixelated game with cartoony graphics and cartoony sound effects. There is nothing particularly scary or realistic about most Doom maps, and certainly not about Doom's monsters or gameplay. Hell, one of the most popular and widely-used monsters in the game was specifically designed to make you laugh when it kills you (paraphrasing Romero about the revenant's poses and sound effects), and then there are the swarms of smiling floating meatballs, etc. People who insist that classic Doom needs to be treated as if it's grim and serious are weird, and I will continue to laugh at their very serious complaints about what kinds of music get used for maps.

I always found it to be somewhere between cartoony and serious. I think the fact that DOOM/2 had thoroughly un-scary music (mostly) is the biggest contributing factor in terms of them not being scary - even without the visual adjustments, PSX DOOM has a much different feeling. I like a grim and serious atmosphere, but I don't know where people get the idea that the original games had grim and serious music. I certainly don't get why anyone thinks that something like BTSX needs that kind of music.

[Amaruψ]

Soundtracks akin to Quake and Blood are what defines DOOM's OST to me. The introduction track on Quake is a prime example of my view; Industrial metal or heavy rock infused with dark ambience. That, to me, is the definite way I prefer to hear DOOM. Soundtracks like Blood's, particularly tracks like Pestis Cruento and Father Time will definitely suit dark overrun human structures or medieval architecture in hell. 

[Amaruψ]

7 minutes ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

 I don't know where people get the idea that the original games had grim and serious music. 

 

Certain tracks definitely had a more serious tone to them, They're Going to Get You being one of the examples. Nobody Told Me About Id and Sign of Evil also come to mind. Demons On Pray and hell, one track is literally titled Suspense.

 

DOOM does indeed has grim and serious music, but its washed over by the abundance of metal and hard rock.

[ObserverOfTime]

I remember when I got my first IBM PC with a built-in speaker and there was SOUND coming out of it! Not just beeps and boops, but a whole freakin' song! I have never known computers to make sounds like these (sure, some point-and-click adventures had somewhat of a melody half the time) and I was pretty mesmerized by the "metal" sounding riffs that are the first 20 seconds or so of music. I thought it was pretty damn sweet back then, I still think it is pretty sweet right now. Imagine my face when I started some shareware thing and it played damn music before doing anything else! I recall showing everyone and anyone who'd give me a minute, lol.

 

I don't associate "metal" with Doom in the slightest to be honest. Sick chip tunes, yeah, metal though? I don't know. So many genres of music feel right at home provided they have the right map as a backdrop so to speak. Speaking of, I still have Eviternity 2 map32's "Velocity" stuck in my head, for example. Absolute banger that one. Never mind the map, the music I encountered through playing WADs has been a positive thing in my life, and I think the people who put in the work to create tunes which fit a map are severely underappreciated. An outstanding WAD without good or otherwise fitting music is not possible IMHO. I love that new MIDI tunes are being created for use in Doom WADs to this day, and I love what people have been doing with it. Music has the fascinating ability to instantly take me back in time to a different place, and Doom's music will forever take me back to the 90's. Same thing with the song I mentioned earlier, a decade from now i am sure it will still take me right back to Christmas 2023. While the music is relatively simple and inherently limited by the format, I think this limited ability really breeds a certain kind of creativity.

 

I don't think there is a "correct" way for Doom to sound like. It's just user preferences. The beautiful thing is, you can have it your way, any way you like. You're not stuck with the stock music, there are a plethora of ways to change the tunes to your liking. "The" Doom soundtrack in and of itself is iconic and legendary, perhaps not because it's the best music or anything, but because of what it did and when it did it (and how many people it reached). Computers playing music, at least in the household, was just not something that you commonly expected. That tiny 3-inch speaker really put in some work, at least until the sound blaster came along.

 

So, to circle back to the original question "How does Doom sound to you?" I guess the short answer is "nostalgic", if we are strictly talking about Doom and Doom II.

[Edward850]

People demanding that their game soundtracks can only sound one way are robbing themselves of some of the best soundtracks. Halo 3 ODST is fantastic explicitly because it changed styles to noir styled jazz, and you won't get things like that if you only demand a single genre.

Edited February 1, 2024 by Edward850

[ducon]

Doom in one sound?

DSITEMUP

[ZeroTheEro]

14 hours ago, Zulk RS said:

Honestly... at this point Doom modding has grown so much that I'd say ANY music is Doom music if placed in the right music.

 

Yes... you can even use Despacito and Barbie Girl as the music to a doom level and it would still feel like "Doom"

HitFloor.mid comes to mind :p

 

[Doom-X-Machina]

19 hours ago, Zulk RS said:

Honestly... at this point Doom modding has grown so much that I'd say ANY music is Doom music if placed in the right music.

This.

[Astar]

15 hours ago, esselfortium said:

There is nothing particularly scary or realistic about most Doom maps

I... don't quite agree.

 

I never paid attention before, but when I started mapping, I began to pay attention to torn bodies hanging on the walls and similar stuff. And it's a pretty creepy scenery, at least for me.

And some of the tracks in the game are quite melancholic and intense

[Grain of Salt]

On 1/31/2024 at 4:05 PM, ZeroTheEro said:

[yt video]

 

soundtrack to the best shmup stage of all time!!!! \o/

[raddicted]

anyone who has the opinion of "doom maps should be exclusively bloody and have heavy metal music" should not be allowed to touch anything relating to doom ;D

[yakfak]

(when the MIDI uses Goblins patch

when the MIDI uses notes which are so high in pitch the system plays them as bizarre tinny harmonics

when the MIDI writer understands beats that aren't rock beats and uses chords that cover the whole note range

when the BPM is below 70, when the time sig isn't 4/4

when the MIDI is actually a module and it includes a drum break and/or a sample of a belgian guy saying "TECHNO")

 

gawd knows i grew up on simple rock music but the first time I heard ELP and Mike Oldfield midis in usermade wads endeared the game to me SO MUCH MORE. I just wanna add that stewboy rules, I know he is the target of a fair share of the "This Isnt Doom" garbage and the garbage is wrong

Edited February 1, 2024 by yakfak

[Wo0p]

Headphone users beware!

 

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxBt-lgWbHHPP1LMjoEoOTrpgaVY-RyHng?si=s34fLj_mVTFfjWsg

 

Is this a dead meme yet?

Edited February 4, 2024 by Wo0p

[Treehouseminis]

Classic doom maps I prefer more synth and ambient type soundtracks.  There's so much variety though, and music is powerful in setting a tone for what the mapper is trying to do.  I've made maps with classic midis everyone knows and dark creepy ambient mp3s. 

 

For midis I prefer ones that don't sound like a metal or electric guitar rip because midi guitar just sounds so weird to me.  I do love doom eternal and it's soundtrack works so well with it.  

[Drago]

Personally i enjoy doom music that consists of a sequence of musical frequencies with differing timbres.

[VICE]

Spoiler

 

 

[LegendaryEevee]

    Eviternity & Ancient Aliens has my favorite soundtracks in all of vintage DooM. 

 

As well as:

 

Classic Doom

1. Nuclear Plant (Knee Deep in the Dead)
2. E1M4
3. E2M1
4. Tower of Babel (Shores of Hell)
5. Phobos Lab (Inferno)
6. DIS (Inferno)

DooM II

1. Entryway (will forever give me nightmares since MyHouse.pk3)
2. The Crusher
3. Tricks & Traps
4. The Pit
5. The Chasm

Final DooM

1. Worm Hole
2. Prison
3. Crater
4. Deepest Reaches
5. The Mil (yes....the mil)
6. Heck
7. Pharoah
8. Carribean

 

 

[Grain of Salt]

"how does doom sound to you"

 

pretty good, I could go for some doom round about now

[Pancrasio]

On 1/29/2024 at 10:21 PM, Doom-X-Machina said:

<RAH!!!!!>

 

<BANG BANG BANG>

 

<SHRIEK>

 

<BANG BANG BANG>

 

<KABOOM!!>

<CLICK CLICK>

<BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH... NING-NING-NING-NING-NING-NING-NING-NING-NING-NING-NING-NING>

That's the Dario Casali way of thinking