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Bobby Prince, composer for Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, has died

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Re: Bobby Prince, composer for Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, has died

#34
post #30

Ah man, hell no :( The music in DOOM was such a huge influence on me. I had the Macintosh version which IIRC had the .mid files alongside the game, so I hung onto those and listened to them outside of the game quite frequently. I was just a kid at the time, and later on when I discovered bands like Pantera, Slayer, Judas Priest etc. I suddenly "got" all the references (not previously having known they were references…

If anyone's interested in what songs the Doom music was referencing, here's a good overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y3RWlDz_AA

It's amazing how much better all these sound to me in OPL2.

When CD-ROM soundtracks because the norm it really ruined a lot of game music for me, because all that chip music perhaps inspired by guitar and orchestral music just ended up being replaced with actual guitar and orchestral music, and then games just ended up sounding like movies and it's like what even is the point?

From my side I remember painstakingly transposing Led Zeppelin into an 8 bit tracker when I was a kid and being thrilled at how much more exciting the 3-channel square wave interpration sounded, and pretty much from that point on my guitar just became something to noodle out a riff prior to inputting to the computer.

Re: Bobby Prince, composer for Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, has died

#36
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone's interested in what songs the Doom music was referencing, here's a good overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y3RWlDz_AA

It's amazing how much better all these sound to me in OPL2. When CD-ROM soundtracks because the norm it really ruined a lot of game music for me, because all that chip music perhaps inspired by guitar and orchestral music just ended up being replaced with actual guitar and orchestral music, and then games just ended up sounding like movies and it's like what even is the point? From my side I remember painstakingly tr…

Huh? Those are the original MIDI versions of the music, which is how Bobby Prince composed them on a Roland SC-55. There is no more authentic sound.

I doubt anyone in 1993 thought the OPL2 version of the music sounded better. General MIDI was mind-blowing in comparison.

Re: Bobby Prince, composer for Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, has died

#37
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone's interested in what songs the Doom music was referencing, here's a good overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y3RWlDz_AA

It's amazing how much better all these sound to me in OPL2. When CD-ROM soundtracks because the norm it really ruined a lot of game music for me, because all that chip music perhaps inspired by guitar and orchestral music just ended up being replaced with actual guitar and orchestral music, and then games just ended up sounding like movies and it's like what even is the point? From my side I remember painstakingly tr…

When it was actual guitar and orchestral music it was one thing, but when it was "much better but still not quite there" midi renderings of orchestras and guitars, that could be a bit uncanny valley. And even when it wasn't, stuff that was really written for a 2 op FM idea of an orchestra, often sounded a bit thin on a real orchestra.

Re: Bobby Prince, composer for Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, has died

#39
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing how much better all these sound to me in OPL2. When CD-ROM soundtracks because the norm it really ruined a lot of game music for me, because all that chip music perhaps inspired by guitar and orchestral music just ended up being replaced with actual guitar and orchestral music, and then games just ended up sounding like movies and it's like what even is the point? From my side I remember painstakingly tr…

Huh? Those are the original MIDI versions of the music, which is how Bobby Prince composed them on a Roland SC-55. There is no more authentic sound. I doubt anyone in 1993 thought the OPL2 version of the music sounded better. General MIDI was mind-blowing in comparison.

Presumably most midi game composers checked that their music didn't sound like trash on the AdLib sound card most users would actually have? Good music that's actually written for AdLib can be extremely good, check out Stephane Picq (who sadly also died recently).

Re: Bobby Prince, composer for Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, has died

#40
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing how much better all these sound to me in OPL2. When CD-ROM soundtracks because the norm it really ruined a lot of game music for me, because all that chip music perhaps inspired by guitar and orchestral music just ended up being replaced with actual guitar and orchestral music, and then games just ended up sounding like movies and it's like what even is the point? From my side I remember painstakingly tr…

Huh? Those are the original MIDI versions of the music, which is how Bobby Prince composed them on a Roland SC-55. There is no more authentic sound. I doubt anyone in 1993 thought the OPL2 version of the music sounded better. General MIDI was mind-blowing in comparison.

It sounded great on my Gravis Ultrasound with custom midi samples.

(it was also a pain when the Sound Blaster compatibility was needed, dma 1 irq 5).

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