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DooM Remix Project - The Dark Side of Phobos

Posted by Zonk on from the your-music-is-about-to-die dept.

djpretzel writes "The Dark Side of Phobos is the latest in a series of site projects at OverClocked ReMix, which each provide unofficial, non-commercial fan arrangements of entire game soundtracks (Sonic 2, Kirby, Donkey Kong Country, and Super Metroid, to date). This latest addition covers id software's perennial classic, the original DooM, with 23 tracks by 19 artists. More information is available at doom.ocremix.org, or simply download the torrent with both mp3 and lossless FLAC, site unseen. Mars never sounded so good."

49 comments

  1. Sync by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    Maybe it will sync with the Wizard.

    (Really lame joke that no one will probably get)

    1. Re:Sync by alaeth · · Score: 1

      I don't get it. Unless you're talking about the pinball wizard? Bah I'll shut up before I look like an idiot. ... too late isn't it?

      --
      Sig goes here.
    2. Re:Sync by faloi · · Score: 2, Informative

      Nah. He means Wizard of Oz... Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon syncs up with the movie really well.

      --
      "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
    3. Re:Sync by Neon+Spiral+Injector · · Score: 1

      Or maybe Fred Savage's Wizard because it is a movie about video games.

    4. Re:Sync by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bingo!

  2. Duuude by duhasteifersucht · · Score: 0

    Two words: Kick Ass

    --
    cha-ching. money baby... money
  3. Legal implications by inkfox · · Score: 2, Informative

    They might want to look into the legal implications, since many of the Doom background music pieces are actually note for note copies of real songs. There's a couple by Slayer, Alice in Chains, Pantera, and others I'm sure that no one has noticed.

    --
    Says the RIAA: When you EQ, you're stealing bass!
    1. Re:Legal implications by SeekerDarksteel · · Score: 1

      And all the regular soundtrack songs that have been remixed and posted on OC aren't real songs? There's no legal implications with these songs that aren't in any other song they have up. You are right in some respect though, mainstream artists may be more legally defensive of their songs than the creator of a game soundtrack.

      --
      The laws of probability forbid it!
    2. Re:Legal implications by Prophet+of+Nixon · · Score: 1

      I think there was some U2 in the DOOM soundtrack too.

    3. Re:Legal implications by Dpaladin · · Score: 2, Informative

      Indeed. TECHNICALLY, derivative works such as these aren't supposed to be produced without permission from the original artists. Or, rather, they cannot be produced if the artist doesn't want it produced. However, to my knowledge (I could be entirely incorrect), none of the DooM music is an exact copy of an existing work, and Bobby Prince is the copyright holder. If Prince doesn't want OCRemix to distribute The Dark Side of Phobos, he can let djpretzel know, and he'll be forced to stop. He's already stopped http://www.vgmusic.com/ from accepting midis of DooM music, even though a great many have been submitted.

      --
      Bad puns gave me bad karma. =(
    4. Re:Legal implications by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There was no U2 in the soundtrack. It was all Pantera, Slayer, Alice in Chains, Metallica, Black Sabbath and ACDC.

      The project is not in violation of any of this, as the original soundtrack was released without issues, so technically speaking, if we were in trouble, they would be too. Nobody really cares enough anyway. We're not doing anything illegal, and the album is fun to listen to, and pays ample amounts of homage and credit to the original game/artists.

    5. Re:Legal implications by SeekerDarksteel · · Score: 1

      Ugh, now that WOULD be scary...

      --
      The laws of probability forbid it!
    6. Re:Legal implications by aaron+p.+matthews · · Score: 4, Informative

      I worked on this project, I was one of the coordinators for a while.

      The music of Doom has been around for 10+ years and while some tunes bear a striking resemblence to certain Slayer/Pantera songs, the copyright holders have not taken any legal action against id or Bobby Prince.

      So yes, I looked into that particular legal implication. It took me all of 2 seconds to realize we have little to worry about.
      cheers.

    7. Re:Legal implications by aaron+p.+matthews · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yeah, getting a cease-and-desist from Bobby Prince is much more likely than getting one from Slayer/etc..

      The difference with vgmusic was they hosted the exact copies of Bobby Prince's material whereas we are providing derivative works.

      Ocremix has been around for years, and we've had derivative works of Doom music on the site for years as well.

      Bobby Prince has shown no animosity to ocremix in the past and I see it unlikely he will suddenly have a change of heart with the release of this project.
      cheers.

  4. Dark side? by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 1

    There is no Dark Side of Phobos. It's ALL dark.

    --
    Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
    1. Re:Dark side? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're being pedantic, it's an obvious allusion to Pink Floyd.

    2. Re:Dark side? by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 1

      You're a complete idiot.

      The words "there is no dark side of the Moon really...matter of fact it's all dark" are ON THE FUCKING PINK FLOYD RECORD, at the end.

      Jeez. I was paraphrasing Pink Floyd, in response to a paraphrase of Pink Floyd. Gimme a medal.

      --
      Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
  5. OCRemix by kyouteki · · Score: 1

    I'm a big fan of OCRemix. Even though I'm not always a fan of DJPretzel's writeups for the songs (using them occasionally as a double for a news page, which I think is wrong), the judge panel they use ensures that nearly all of the music posted on the site is of very high quality. The variety of music, too, is incredible. Nearly all genres of music are covered (as far as I can recall) and literally hundreds of games are represented.

    --
    A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
    1. Re:OCRemix by The+Evil+Couch · · Score: 1
      agreed. OCRemix has had quality music on its site for quite a long time. I'm very much intrigued by the choices that the artists have made making these songs.

      I think they made some bold choices. Some paid off, some end up sounding a little rough, but it's a very enjoyable listening experience.

      --
      The World's Worst Webcomic!
  6. Starting to download now, but .. by Improv · · Score: 1

    I wish they had separate torrents for the FLAC and the mp3s. I imagine most people will just want one or the other, and it's a waste of bandwidth to get both.

    --
    For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
    1. Re:Starting to download now, but .. by aaron+p.+matthews · · Score: 1

      We recommend getting a BitTorrent client like Azureus that will allow you to only download the files you want.

      cheers.

    2. Re:Starting to download now, but .. by mc_barron · · Score: 1

      Completely agree! What a waste of bandwidth for everyone.
      Makes me want to cancel the download entirely...not even worth it to download TWO copies of every song (one copy being 10x larger than the other).

    3. Re:Starting to download now, but .. by Improv · · Score: 1

      That may be nice for some people, but I'd rather not be running Java just to do bittorrent, and actually like the nice, curses interface that runs in a terminal. It's not a big deal, but if you want to be really nice to your end users (and the networks between you and them), please consider that most people don't want to download custom clients, so it'd be very cool to provide the more select downloads.

      --
      For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
    4. Re:Starting to download now, but .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      I'm using bittornado in a screen session. Using the --priority argument, I can select only the mp3 files.

    5. Re:Starting to download now, but .. by supertux · · Score: 1

      The reason there is one torrent download instead of two has more to do with managability issues than anything else. Over the lifetime of this torrent (which could be years) it will be easier to manage and maintain as one file instead of two. It will be easier for seeders to seed one file instead of two. And I would think it would be easier for users to download just one file instead of two.

      If you wanted to download just the mp3s you could use one of the many mirrors listed on the doom site.

      If you wanted to download the flac version so that you could burn them to CD, what is the big deal with downloading an extra 134MB of mp3 data along the way? You could always move the mp3s onto your iPod or whatever anyway, or just trash them.

      Of course this makes me look insensitive to the modem users out there... but if you have broadband, this is just not a big deal.

      -SuperTux

    6. Re:Starting to download now, but .. by NotSoSuperMario · · Score: 1

      Just tell your bit torrent client "download never" for the ones you don't want. When the light turns blue, you're good to go.

    7. Re:Starting to download now, but .. by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 1
      but if you have broadband, this is just not a big deal.

      Just because I have broadband doesn't mean I have to unnecesarily strain the network more.

      Your point about maintaining one file instead of two makes sense though.

  7. Doom midi music by nherm · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The midi instruments in my 486 was so annoying that I usually turned off the music in all of my games.

    So basicaly I played a silent doom (except for the sound FX), until two or three years later, when I bought a casio keyboard midi-capable.

    Motivated by curiosity, I bought a midi cable, connected it to my 486, configured and started doom... what a surprise! The music was very nice, there was a map from episode 3 which used some chorus sound and a electric guitar, it was very post-apocalyptical...

    Ok, my casio keyboard may not be the "best of the best", but the improvement from my soundcard was appreciable (at least for me)

    It's a sad thing the midi instruments in the (then) most popular soundcards (i. e. sound blaster 16, which was my case) were so bad. The quality of game music from the 90's was simply lost for most of the people because of this. Duke nukem 3D also had very nice music during the game, but my sb16 turned it out to a childish mess of "noise"...

    So I'm glad somebody made those remixes, so the rest of the people who never listened to it with the proper equipment (a good midi instrument!) can give it another try...

    1. Re:Doom midi music by Jerf · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I had a Korg X5, the same innards as the venerable (and I believe considered "classic") 05/W series in the mid-90s.

      Only in modern times am I hearing music from consoles/computers that was as good as what I heard from that machine, and most of the time the modern music isn't dynamically generated.

      Tie Fighter and the opening to Day of the Tentacle stand out as excellent game music. The former has wonderful orchestral arrangements, and the latter has this solo clarinet that almost sounded like someone was actually playing one. (My clarinet patch was good, but that arrangement made it even better.)

      Music has, for all the press, been pretty neglected by modern times. We have the tech for some great dynamic music, but we just get MP3s instead; certainly nicer than FM synth, but lacking for many games.

    2. Re:Doom midi music by david.given · · Score: 1
      Tie Fighter and the opening to Day of the Tentacle stand out as excellent game music.

      Oooh --- iMuse!

      It's worth getting a copy of Monkey Island II just so you can wander around the village at the beginning of the game and listen to the soundtrack. It's masterful. Each location has its own distinct style and theme which reflects the overall village theme. As you move from location to location, the music seamlessly segues to the new version in a way that's musically appropriate. I've never heard any other game do it quite as well. (Tie Fighter's shifts are just a little jarring, and I was never terribly keen on Day Of The Tentacle's soundtrack --- apart from the opening, which as you say is great.)

      Michael Lands, who did most of the Monkey Island music, is most underrated; both as a composer and a programmer... I'm still trying to find any solo projects of his.

  8. Re:Time could have been better spent by aaron+p.+matthews · · Score: 1

    why thanks, it's always good to know some random person on slashdot knows better how to spend my free time on than I do. Perhaps I should instruct you on how to spend your free time?

    If you don't like the music from Doom, fine.
    If you don't like the project we did, fine.

    But saying we should've spent time on something else just because you don't like it, well... sorry you couldn't help posting that.

  9. Remix of Doom music? by dpilot · · Score: 1

    Next thing they'll have Doom books and a Doom movie. Heaven forfend that such a movie might even star Dwayne "The Rock" Whatsisname!

    (Billing now as "Dwane" I suspect he's trying to distance himself from "The Rock" as he moves further into movies.)

    --
    The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
  10. Re:Time could have been better spent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hello, Analoq. My name is Anonymous Coward and I love you, too.

  11. Well Done by Karnatos · · Score: 1

    Well, I must say; this is great stuff! Congrats to the whole team on finishing this project. I've been listening to it from work for the past hour and it's passing the time nicely as I bang out code. Thanks for the hard work!

    1. Re:Well Done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sames, this burned up almost 2 hours of MFC debugging, thanks guys!

  12. Re:I'm sure Pantera would approve... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    E3M3 is Behind the Crooked Cross by Slayer.

  13. Sonic 2 Songs.. by euxneks · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you have trouble downloading the songs, you might try copying the address for the song and stripping the leading "http://www.timebit.com/sonic2/"

    The songs are there, you just have to find them.

    --
    in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
  14. Re:Time could have been better spent by DarkHelmet · · Score: 1
    Analoq,

    Don't let it get to you. There are lots of people who will appreciate this. I've been wanting more Doom remixes on ocremix for a long time, and this will definitely hit the spot.

    There used to be some mp3s on Doomworld that were the midi tracks recorded through a Roland SCD-15 (I believe). I downloaded those a while back, and used one of the Doom ports to play that for level music instead of midi.

    I'm hoping to replace some of those mp3s with these. Can't wait until the torrent finishes.

    By the way, I really wish it were possible to buy a professional looking CD of this. I was really hoping for this and the Metroid mixes.

    --
    /^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
  15. Blood on the walls by Stormwatch · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A kickass DooM-inspired song, by the Manny Charlton band. Get it from John Romero's site.

    --
    Circumcision is child abuse.
  16. Look for the CD audio songs from Bobby Prince. by antdude · · Score: 1

    They do exist. I see that he doesn't sell them anymore. Not sure where you can still buy them. They sound great without the use of MIDI cards.

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  17. Re:Time could have been better spent by Metasquares · · Score: 1

    "Good" material is subjective, especially in music. Who are you to say that the music doesn't "deserve" to be remixed?

  18. OT: BitTorret fails the 'is it useful test' again by NBarnes · · Score: 1

    Hey, guys, you need to seed Bittorret or it blows and nobody uses it, which leads to it blowing more, and you end up with nobody at all using it.

    I know there are people out there that get good use out of BitTorrent as a technology, but 9 times out of 10 I try it, it turns out to simply not work.

  19. Re:Time could have been better spent by XXIstCenturyBoy · · Score: 1

    Doom L1E1 music, the Mario bros theme song, and the first Sonic gane theme are one of the few video game song that gamers will remember all their lives.

    I feel that you should have spent your posting time on something a bit more deserving. And unlike your opinion about Doom's music, I am not the only one who think that.

  20. Nice Job by alexmat · · Score: 1

    I love Doom ReMixes!! Thanks to everyone who made this happened. I'll be sure to seed for a while.

  21. I'd like to see some work done... by Lisandro · · Score: 1

    ...with the best damn rock game soundtrack of all time: Quake 2. Yeah baby!

        I still play that CD (as audio) from time to time.

  22. Re:OT: BitTorret fails the 'is it useful test' aga by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sounds like a problem between the keyboard and chair to me.

  23. You're not a DooM fan unless... by jasonmicron · · Score: 1

    ...you type DooM LikE ThiS