Zekhmet music packs - pack one ready, FRESH EARS NEEDED!

[yakfak]

the idea of this project is to create a full 35 song replacement for Doom 2's soundtrack

with no other stuff in the wad so it can be used with any megawad you like

or as a resource for map authors providing new music for their own projects

 

***there are 12 songs so far, first segment releases officially when they're fixed and balanced and tested***

 

these are .IT files rather than .MID - the difference to the ear is minimal but it means this project is aimed at modern ports, primarily tested in prboom+

(fairly accurate .MID versions of these tunes could theoretically be made by people better with MIDI sequencers than I am - if you want to try and create vanilla-compatible versions of these songs then be my guest)

most of these songs have a lot of guitar so they don't piss off Bobby Prince purists quite so much

if you have a moment to help me gauge the relative volumes of these tunes, reply to this thread and tell me:

a) what your music volume setting in prboom+ is and

b) which tunes you thought were way too loud/a bit too loud/just right/too quiet/almost inaudible

thanks!

 

download current version: http://aanaaanaaanaaana.net/drop/zekhmet1-testing.zip

 

songs so far:

map 01: "Godless" - 6m 40; prog; anthemic and epic, Tool but weirder harmonically

map 02: "Woodgrain Fairytail" - 2m 50; alt-rock; subdued and mysterious

map 03: "Sorry to Say He Passed Away" - 3m 30; creepy semi-ironic dirge, 50s torch song with tape damage, no guitar

map 04: "Portal Dolmen" - 3m 30; minor folky rock, a bit proggy, fairly pleasant

map 05: "Smoke Inhalation" - 3m 40 with a slightly varied second loop; some sort of heroic electronic rock

map 06: "infogaia" - 4m 40 of riffy echoey dirging

map 07: "malls123.txt" - 2m 50; orchestral funk? slightly comedic and lumbering

map 08: "Unboxing" - 3m 20; weird murky semi-ambient thing

map 09: "Earthbye" - 5m 00; atmospheric bittersweet lament, unusual chords

map 10: "Astrally Active Ivy" - 3m 10; rather art rock/robot rock, quirky

map 11: "Sheba" - 5m 10; industrial rock/ebm in exotic scale, repetitive as hell

score totalling screen: "VRPotion" - 1m 20; upbeat celebratory cracktro stuff

 

 

don't put any of these songs in a project heading towards /idgames/ until I've released it in a segment. thanks for your understanding and for listening!

Edited February 27, 2018 by yakfak

[Elie.T.Zerg]

how do you convert the .mid archives into .it ones?
and how do you compact it?

[yakfak]

^the file types aren't directly translatable and there's no native advantage to converting a .MID to a .IT

the reason the tunes are in .IT format is because I like the piece of software I use to write them - Open ModPlug Tracker - a lot more than I like any MIDI sequencers out there

 

they're bound to be a little bigger than .MID tunes because I'm dragging the actual instruments and sample sets from the Roland genMIDI table and embedding them in the .IT itself - this is a sample-based format. I've been relatively frugal so that none of the tunes reach 1Mb in size though

[yakfak]

eighth tune added, first post updated!

if any lost souls out there have time to tell me what they think of the track volumes that'd be really helpful and appreciated

[yakfak]

ninth tune added

thinking about turning this into a mapping project so people will actually respond =P

[yakfak]

updated with two soundcloud uploads - click em to get an idea of what i'm doing

[Catpho]

5/6 posts are yours Yakfak XD

Ill try listening to them when i have the time(i dont listen to much music atm,sorry)

[yakfak]

six out of seven now :P its my project thread and i'll cry if i want to

 

 

this is the tenth tune, pack not updated again until i have twelve

[Catpho]

These tracks make me feel like im playing a twisted version of earthbound/mother 3 :P

[Ribbiks]

Hi. I listened to these, and will now write things about them ;D. Seeing as virtually every track here has inspiring amounts of tonal/rhythmic sophistication, I won't belabor that, but rather I'll apply it as a blanket complement to the set as a whole. here's some track-by-track; what it makes me think of, other odds & ends:

 

map01: brings to mind expansive yet low-key industrial spaces, a la tls.wad or hellcore2.0.

- highlights: fresh fuckin' bass line @ ~1:40, piano interlude at 4mins in, and the breakcore-ish section that follows.

 

map02: sounds like the infiltration scene in a heist movie.

-highlights: the sparse section @ ~1:20 with the pitched percussion. vaguely tom waitsy

 

map03: an earthbound cutscene. much more subtly menacing than d2_03 deserves, perhaps :)

-highlights: the breakdowny section @ ~3:00, ez.

-are those ocean and helicopter midi effects? I need to use those more.

 

map05: a wedding and a funeral procession thrown into a blender.

-highlights: really like the off-kilter organ sprinkled in the background from 1min onward

 

map07: les claypool and a bottle of ritalin.

-seemingly the most straightforward track thus far. bluesy turnarounds lend it a distinctly "doom" vibe, despite the wonkiness

 

map08: partly cloudy, chance of rain.

-highlights: bursty percussion bits around ~2:20

 

map09: the "coming clean about an affair" scene from a soap opera.

-highlights: that pan-flute

 

map11: lamb of god, a waterfall, and a splash of tnt.wad

-highlights: extra hectic bits that get layered on about a minute in. also diggin the mildly discordant organ section with the saw wave bass.

-probably my favorite track in the set.

 

I think I missed a track somewhere cuz I'm counting 8. I see m04 listed in the OP but didn't hear it in the wad.

[yakfak]

53 minutes ago, Ribbiks said:

Hi. I listened to these, and will now write things about them ;D. Seeing as virtually every track here has inspiring amounts of tonal/rhythmic sophistication, I won't belabor that, but rather I'll apply it as a blanket complement to the set as a whole. here's some track-by-track; what it makes me think of, other odds & ends:

 

Hey, glad to see you in this thread :))

thanks for your thoughts on these!

the helicopter sound effect is really useful in a lot of ways, probably easier to manipulate in this format than .MID

i've been changing envelopes and using automatic arpeggiating and so forth to wring a little extra spice out of the sounds

 

very happy you like sheba.it, it took some work!

there'll soon be a pack with twelve tunes uploaded, the thread is more up to date than the download right now

Edited February 21, 2018 by yakfak

[yakfak]

bump

all twelve songs are in

 

if any kindly testers are out there lemme know if the tracks are too loud, or too quiet, or a particular instrument in one of the tune seems imbalanced or broken in some way! i'm gonna put this on idgames at some point but not until i've had a little honest feedback! thanks for checking!