An Alternative DOOM II Soundtrack (chosen by me)

[Touchdown]

At one point I've realized that I really dislike the DOOM II soundtrack. I'm not a huge fan of the map aesthetics either so I started wondering whether a different OST would make a difference. So I've made a mod (only for myself due to copyright) where I replaced all of the music with tracks that in my opinion fit the maps best. I tried to make sure that the music works with the tone and the environments of levels, rather than just picking up 'cool' tracks. In other words, I didn't want it to sound like the Marine is listening to mp3s.

I'm mostly happy with the results. There are some choices that are not so great so I'll focus on the ones that I'm satisfied with. And yes, the new soundtrack has improved my experience significantly.

A note: the abundance of Trent Reznor stuff is a coincidence. I've tried a number of instrumental tracks from many artists. At the end of the day I chose those that in my eyes click with the levels.

Finally, keep in mind that this is a decent soundtrack in my opinion. I know people have vastly different ideas on what music fits DOOM so consider this to be nothing more than just my personal take on it.


MAIN MENU
---------
Track: HYPERPOWER!
Author: Nine Inch Nails
Album: Year Zero
notes: fits swiftly, a good aggresive opening

STATS SCREEN
------------
Track: Reconstructing More Science
Author: Mike Morasky
Album: Portal 2
notes: I love the beginning, I think it's perfect for the stats screen

INTERMISSION SCREEN
-------------------
Track: Unfortunate
Author: Linkin Park
Album: Underground X
notes: n/a
______________________________________

ENTRYWAY
--------
Track: You Will Be Perfect
Author: MM
Album: P2
notes: this is my favourite 'first level' track

UNDERHALLS
----------
Track: Technical Difficulties
Author: MM
Album: P2
notes: a perfect fit

THE GAUNTLET
------------
Track: 7 Ghosts I
Author: NIN
Album: Ghosts
notes: n/a

THE FOCUS
---------
Track: 24 Ghosts III
Author: NIN
Album: Ghosts
notes: I think this fits nicely with the tempo of the level

THE WASTE TUNNELS
-----------------
Track: Eagle Hunter
Author: Frank Klepacki
Album: Red Alert 2
notes: pretty much a placeholder, it's not bad though

THE CRUSHER
-----------
Track: People Lie All the Time
Author: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
Album: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
notes: n/a

DEAD SIMPLE
-----------
Track: The Resistance (starts at 05:18)
Author: Mick Gordon
Album: alleged DOOM 4 track
notes: a great fit

TRICKS AND TRAPS
----------------
Track: 14 Ghosts II
Author: NIN
Album: Ghosts
notes: n/a

THE PIT
-------
Track: 3 Ghosts I
Author: NIN
Album: Ghosts
notes: it saved this level

CIRCLE OF DESTRUCTION
---------------------
Track: Jank
Author: FK
Album: RA2
notes: another placeholder, but better than I expected

THE FACTORY
-----------
Track: 10 Ghosts II
Author: NIN
Album: Ghosts
notes: a perfect fit

THE INMOST DENS
---------------
Track: On We March
Author: TR&AR
Album: The Social Network
notes: n/a

INDUSTRIAL ZONE
---------------
Track: Pieces Form the Whole
Author: TR&AR
Album: The Social Network
notes: I love it

TENEMENTS
---------
Track: 19 Ghosts IV
Author: NIN
Album: Ghosts
notes: n/a

THE COURTYARD
-------------
Track: The Mark Has Been Made
Author: NIN
Album: The Fragile
notes: perfection

THE CITADEL
-----------
Track: Eventually We Find Our Way
Author: TR&AR
Album: The Social Network
notes: kinda opressive, like the map

GOTCHA!
-------
Track: Just Like You Imagined
Author: NIN
Album: The Fragile
notes: perfect

NIRVANA
-------
Track: I'm Different
Author: MM
Album: P2
notes: perfect

THE CATACOMBS
-------------
Track: There She Is
Author: MM
Album: P2
notes: a really nice fit

BARRELS O' FUN
--------------
Track: 26 Ghosts III
Author: NIN
Album: Ghosts
notes: another nice one

THE CHASM
---------
Track: The Greater Good
Author: NIN
Album: Year Zero
notes: and another one

BLOODFALLS
----------
Track: Ghost of Rattman
Author: MM
Album: P2
notes: that one too

THE ABANDONED MINES
-------------------
Track: 5 Ghosts I
Author: NIN
Album: Ghosts
notes: n/a

MONSTER CONDO
-------------
Track: The Four of Us Are Dying
Author: NIN
Album: The Slip
notes: perfect

THE LIVING END
--------------
Track: Vitrification Order
Author: MM
Album: P2
notes: a good one

[joe-ilya]

What's a stats screen?

[tourniquet]

I like NIN, notheless for my taste there's a bit too much Reznor everywhere.

[ChickenOrBeef]

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of Doom 2's music either. After about 30% into the game I just turned off the music and put on Lustmord instead.

I also used the Metal Remixes mod on a different playthrough.

[Tracer]

This post I made earlier today talks about soundtracks. http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/72962-doom-playlist/

I'm not a big NIN fan, but Trent Reznor is an incredibly talented soundsmith.

[joe-ilya]

This:

Will fit with this:

[hex11]

Never_Again made this "Doom music for Doom II" compilation a long time ago:
http://memweb.newsguy.com/~windoze/files/uDOOMmus.zip
It's all plain MIDI so works with Chocolate Doom and everything else. The tracks were ordered with care, so they fit the maps.

OTOH, if you also don't like Doom II looks, it might be better off to just convert all your IWAD maps to Doom format with DM2CONV32 or some other tool like that
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?file=utils/wad_tools/dm2cnv32.zip

This *will* mess up some maps due to special linedefs, like on MAP07 for example you can't exit because the trigger to lower the exit platform doesn't activate after killing the spiders. Maybe it's possible to touch up the maps and correct such things manually. Anyway, apart from that, I had a lot of fun playing converted Doom II maps in Doom (and for the hell of it, I was using Freedoom1 as my IWAD, to make the changes even more striking/interesting).

Oh, and DM2CONV32 does substitute Doom monsters in place for Doom II stuff like mancubus, arachnotron, revenant, archvile... Maybe you'll like the changes, maybe you won't. In any case, it might be possible to "fix" this by adding Doom II monsters back in, since the 1.9 engine actually supports them to some extent (even if running in Doom 1 mode).