Sycraft's Doom Soundtracks Version 4.00 About: These are OGG Vorbis versions of the Doom 1, 2, and Final Doom soundtracks. Their intended use is with the Doomsday engine to give high quality music, even on systems that lack good MIDI playback. However they are also nice if you just like listening to videogame music while you work or play. These soundtracks were recorded from the MIDI files, converted from MUS with QMUS2MID. The MIDI files were synthesized using a combination of synthesizers, both hardware and software, but mainly using an Edirol StudioCanvas SD-20, the current generation of Roland's SoundCanvas hardware. The resulting wave was then compressed with OGG Vorbis 1.0.1, from a 24-bit source. All audio processing was done digitally, with no analogue phase ahywhere. Usage: If you choose to install the soundtracks to Doomsday, the usage is very simple. They are added as an addon in Kickstart. Simply select activate them, and play the game. You also need to make sure in game that it is set to use external music files (which it is by default). If you choose to extract the OGG files themselves, you can play them as any other media file. Winamp (www.winamp.com) can play them, or you can get codecs for Windows Media Player from www.vorbis.com. Versions: You have a couple different choices when it comes to this soundtrack. There are two different kinds of masters, and two different quality levels. The quality levels are quite simple: Normal quality is compressed with a 128k nominal bitrate (quality 4), high quality is compressed with a 256k nominal bitrate (quality 8). It is up to you to decide if you wish to spend the extra disk space for the higher quality compression. The different masters are a little different. The hot master (available in both normal and high quality) is what I highly recommend for most people. This is the version that is subjectively the loudest. The only problem is that it achieves that volume through dynamic limiting, which reduces the dynamic range of the music. The full dynamic master is available to those that want it. It sounds much more quiet over all, but becuase of the greater dynamic range, has more difference between loud and soft soungs and parts of soungs. So which is right for you? Probably the hot master. It blends the best when playing the game and tends to sound better on lower end speakers. Volume settings: The hot master is designed such that it sounds pretty good with the default volume settings in Doomsday (both music and sound fx maxed at 255). You should find it is audible, unless the fighting is REALLY intense, but not overbearing. The full dynamic master is much too quiet at the default settings. Since you can't turn up the music any more, you need to turn down the sound fx, and then turn up your overall volume to compensate. What's New: 4.00: Changed from using an Audigy 2 with SoundFonts only to using a combination of hardware and software synthesizers. This allows for a lot of flexibility in instrument choices on a per song basis. It also has lead to massive improvements in sound quality as compared to 2.0. 3.00: Never produced. This version number was skipped to keep consistent numbering with all my soundtracks. There is a version 3.0 of the Hexen and Heretic soundtracks (the inital version). 2.00: I redid a far amount of the sample set I was using, and it sounds so much better that I decided to redo my soundtracks using it. All in all I think this version was much improved. This version also includes the necessary definitions and additonal music files to have correct music in Final Doom. 1.00: Inital release, available for Doom 1 and 2 only, not Final Doom. Special Thanks: John Riddle: For converting all the MUS files to MIDI for me to use. Lechtansi: For instructions on how to make Kickstart profile add-ons. Jaakko Keranen: For creating the Doomsday engine. Redistribution: By all means, please distribute this soundtrack. Put it on your website, give it to your friends, give it to your dog, give it to your friend's dog. Known Issues: None. I am quite happy with this release. The Future: I am hoping to do a 5.0 version of the soundtracks at some point in time. While I am quite happy with this release, there is room for improvement. The guitars, specifically, could stand to be better. Many other instruments could also be more realistic. Hopefully some day I'll have enough improved samples to make it worthwhile to do a new version. Other Soundtracks: You can find the most up to date information about my soundtracks here: http://sycraft.org/content/audio/doom.shtml http://sycraft.org/content/audio/hexen.shtml http://sycraft.org/content/audio/heretic.shtml Contacting Me: If you wish to contact me, e-mail music@sycraft.org. I will try to respond to all e-mails I get.