Doom music
From DoomWiki.org
This article is about the original Doom music. For the 2016 game, see Doom (Original Game Soundtrack). For Robert Prince's album, see Doom Music (album).
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All of Doom's music was composed by Robert Prince. There are 23 distinct tracks present across the original 3 episodes, with Thy Flesh Consumed not introducing any new tracks. In 2021, various musicians led by continuum.mid created the Ultimate MIDI Pack, which added a new soundtrack for every level including Episode 4.
Unsourced attributions should not be added here. The information below is based on metadata included with the original files, "word of God" from Bobby Prince, or other reliable sources.
Track listing[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ↑ The inspiration behind E1M1 - At Doom's Gate has historically been a long-standing issue of discussion and contention among Doom's fanbase. Tracks by bands such as Metallica or Pantera have been suggested as sources, but there was previously no conclusive evidence that supported any particular track. The track itself is based around a generic heavy metal riff, meaning that it sounds similar to many different heavy metal songs. In a 2017 interview, Bobby Prince claimed that it was not inspired by any particular song, and was written before having listened to any heavy metal music.[1] However, in 2023, the source MIDI files were discovered for all Doom and Doom II tracks in the OS/2 port. These contain metadata in a similar manner to the unused songs, and confirm that "At Doom's Gate" was inspired by Metallica's "Master of Puppets". (Doomworld forums thread)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Information has been derived from the OS/2 version of Doom, which contains the original source MIDIs for both Doom and Doom II.
- ↑ Uses all the same instrument tracks as un19.mid from the unused songs released by John Romero. The main riff of this song is a slight rearrangement of the unused one, the tempo is augmented slightly and all the singular drum tracks are merged into one, but the song structure, MIDI instrument selection and drums are otherwise kept completely unchanged.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 The inspirations for the tracks noted above are substantiated by metadata comments found in the unreleased MIDI tracks (archived 🏛) released by John Romero, many of which are alternate versions of the MIDI tracks used in Doom. See the article: Musical inspirations behind Doom's music.
- ↑ Metadata for this song in the OS/2 version also references the Slayer song "Silent Scream"; however, it is suspected this was either only applicable to an earlier version of the song, or was copied to that MIDI from another, as the song in-game bears little if any resemblance.
- ↑ Also known as "I've Been Hurted By Your Words!" (Doomworld forums thread)
- ↑ The metadata for an early unused version of Donna to the Rescue references Soundgarden - Outshined as its base, but two other unused MIDIs reference the same song as well, yet sound completely different. The metadata may be a leftover note from a different unused MIDI (un32) that is more clearly based on the track.
- ↑ The Doom IWAD file includes two title screen MUS lumps, D_INTRO and D_INTROA. The latter is used when using OPL MIDI playback (ie. on an AdLib or Soundblaster card).
- ↑ Also known as "The Sweet Little Fucked Up Bunny" (Doomworld forums thread)
Trivia[edit]
"Hiding the Secrets", which is present twice in the IWAD, exists in two slightly different versions:
| Lump names | Size | CRC-32 |
|---|---|---|
| D_E1M9 | 21266 | 7462c0df |
| D_E3M9 | 21272 | be086715 |
"Demons on the Prey", which is present thrice in the IWAD, exists in two slightly different versions:
| Lump names | Size | CRC-32 |
|---|---|---|
| D_E1M7 and D_E2M5 | 8591 | 46d83cbc |
| D_E3M5 | 8597 | 9409b4ad |
"Intermission from Doom", which is present twice in the IWAD, exists in two slightly different versions:
| Lump names | Size | CRC-32 |
|---|---|---|
| D_INTER | 29082 | 7b6851c1 |
| D_E2M3 | 29082 | 166211b7 |
"Waltz of the Demons", which is present twice in the IWAD, exists in two slightly different versions:
| Lump names | Size | CRC-32 |
|---|---|---|
| D_E2M7 | 7015 | 9b788f57 |
| D_E3M7 | 7015 | b0c3d646 |
- The D_E1M7 and D_E2M5 version of "Demons on the Prey" has a cymbal instruction in bar 7 that has a wrong Legato instruction that causes the note to play at the very start of the song in some MIDI players. This is never heard in-game, and the D_E3M5 version of the song does not have this issue.
- The D_E1M9 version of "Hiding the Secrets" has a broken silence in Channel 10 (percussion) that causes the drums to come in at the very first bar, and play 1 bar early for the rest of the song in some MIDI players. This never happens in-game, and the song plays normally regardless. D_E3M9 does not have this issue, and will play correctly in any instance.
- "Waltz of the Demons" is the only one with an audible difference in-game: the bass string instrument that comes in at about 10 seconds in is quieter in D_E2M7 than in D_E3M7. (MIDI channel volumes of 80 and 100, respectively.) The other songs have slightly different MIDI data between versions, but nothing that causes a difference in the way they are played.
- "Nobody Told Me About Id" was used as a base for "Mourning" from Blake Stone: Planet Strike.
See also[edit]
External links[edit]
- Doomworld.com page about Doom music
- Doom Covers, an article at Doomworld in which samples of Prince's music are compared with his sources
- Thread about remastered Doom and Doom II soundtracks, from the Doomworld forums
- Doom and Doom II music (archived 🏛) synthesized and converted to MP3s
