I'm loving this continuing series of teaching music theory using Doom MIDIs as examples, I'm sure newer composers will find these videos very valuable! One great example of pedal points I would like to add is Bucket's "Plurry" (plutmidi map30). It's in the key of D minor, and the second half of the track has the electric pianos holding down a droning D note whilst the string section throws a variety of chords on top of it, and only resolving to D minor itself at the end, I always thought that was a really cool section
Thank you man, I hope they do! I wish I had thought to include Plurry here. It completely escaped my mind while I was making this, but ah well, maybe in another one. I love that track though. The part leading up to the droning electric pianos where it's just the music box playing individual notes is enough to make someone's skin crawl. It's so creepy in the best way
All of these examples are in the bass, but pedal tone can be applied to any of the registers. Good example is the vanilla World of Warcraft music by Jason Hayes which often plays a sustained tone in the mid to upper register throughout the entire cue. I used to just call this stuff the "anchor" before I knew what the formal terminology was since whatever is playing in the other registers will be "anchored" to that tone. Ostinatos can also serve a virtually similar function as mentioned, and I also tend to think of groups of fourth/fifth intervals qualifying as pedal tones as well since they remain very harmonically neutral for arrangement purposes.
Gotcha! I didn't find any tracks that used it in higher registers this time around, hence all the bass examples, but I don't doubt there are more tracks out there with uses of pedal tone outside the bass realm
Another great video! Pedal points are such a useful compositional tool, and one that really get you away from root position chords. Some other possible topics I think would be good (I'm biased, of course, as these are things I regularly try to write): - Suspension, anticipation, non-chord tones, and resolution (I'm weak for this one, as pretty much every non-tonic chord in MAP13 of Dominus Diabolicus uses this) - Atonality - Ostinatos - Syncopation - Hemiolas - Classical forms (such as fugues, though I doubt you'll find enough fugue MIDIs to just have one like that - the one in Eternal Doom is hardly even a fugue)
Thank you! Ooh those are all fantastic topics! I'd really like to do a video on atonality soon in particular, as there are a couple of examples that immediately come to mind. That's interesting about fugues though - I wonder why they aren't as common in MIDIs?
@@ThePhobosAmphitheater If I had to guess, it's because it requires maintaining multiple melodic lines that, despite being independent, reference and relate to one another in very specific ways.
From what I’ve learnt here… a good example is also the TNT map02 song, how the bass plays the same riff while the rest of the instruments changes That one is still my favorite by far
I totally forgot about that one! Smells Like Burning Corpse would fit right in to the lineup in this video, especially with that single, albeit, higher-pitched, guitar note droning along in the background too
How about covering Mock2? I can't deny that some of its music has an undeniable charm. Something like "Why Mock2's music amuses you" as a video would be so cool to watch.
@@ThePhobosAmphitheater They're easily confused. I'm studying music in the conservatory and I really like this videos that apply theory and analysis to game soundtracks (one of my favorite kinds of music). It's perfect to see the sheet music with the audio, it really helps with the study. Keep the good work! 😀👍🏻
Niiiiice, brilliant stuff, lad! Thanks for the mention; you were bang on with the chords in my piece. I’ll slide you the WIP midi if you like. I also used pedal point in my earlier piece Bible Black, although I didn’t know it was called that. I just call it “tying notes” lol. I learned something! 😎👌
Thank YOU! The (what I assumed to be) B-flat dim chord really tripped me up for a bit haha, but I'm glad all the approximations were accurate. I just listened to Bible Black, as idk how I missed it earlier, but yeah! I can definitely hear it in the second half with the bass. Neat stuff!
That reminds me of something I've been thinking over a lot lately - about whether music from another game featured in a Doom WAD should be covered on here. I definitely would like to explore Lee Jackson's work in future videos, but since this channel focuses on original music made by the Doom Community, I'm most likely gonna stick to his contributions to Doom MIDI packs, PWADs, etc.
Don't know if it would make a cool video, but I would love if you looked into Organic Gods, by Mark Klem, from Memento Mori 2 map 17. It's one of my favorite midis ^-^
I wonder if you plan to cover Doom WAD OSTs composed of sampled tracker modules. I can't think of any examples of tracker module music composed specifically for a Doom WAD in my head(aside from the few made for the joke WAD Mock 2), though, but some early 2000s ZDoom maps and total conversions use sampled tracker music.
Hmm, I hadn't thought about this till now, as I haven't really explored any kind of sampled (or covered) pieces so far on the channel unless those pieces have appeared in videos about music referenced in original MIDIs. I'll definitely look into some of those early '00s WADs and see what's there though
Hey mate hope you have been well. I love the Allroy.wad music such great nostalgia. Soo many pwads have great new music for doom. What's your favourite pwads for new music?
Thank you, and same to you! I've never heard of Allroy before, but I'll have to check that one out some time. Oh man, there's so many great soundtracks out there it's hard to pick favorites. Although Speed of Doom, Hell Revealed 2, Eviternity are some ones I've been listening to recently!
He’s just teaching us music theory and disguising it as Doom, I love it.
:D
I'm loving this continuing series of teaching music theory using Doom MIDIs as examples, I'm sure newer composers will find these videos very valuable!
One great example of pedal points I would like to add is Bucket's "Plurry" (plutmidi map30). It's in the key of D minor, and the second half of the track has the electric pianos holding down a droning D note whilst the string section throws a variety of chords on top of it, and only resolving to D minor itself at the end, I always thought that was a really cool section
Thank you man, I hope they do! I wish I had thought to include Plurry here. It completely escaped my mind while I was making this, but ah well, maybe in another one. I love that track though. The part leading up to the droning electric pianos where it's just the music box playing individual notes is enough to make someone's skin crawl. It's so creepy in the best way
All of these examples are in the bass, but pedal tone can be applied to any of the registers. Good example is the vanilla World of Warcraft music by Jason Hayes which often plays a sustained tone in the mid to upper register throughout the entire cue. I used to just call this stuff the "anchor" before I knew what the formal terminology was since whatever is playing in the other registers will be "anchored" to that tone.
Ostinatos can also serve a virtually similar function as mentioned, and I also tend to think of groups of fourth/fifth intervals qualifying as pedal tones as well since they remain very harmonically neutral for arrangement purposes.
Gotcha! I didn't find any tracks that used it in higher registers this time around, hence all the bass examples, but I don't doubt there are more tracks out there with uses of pedal tone outside the bass realm
thank you for accompanying the lessons with the little snippets of sheet music . I think it is helpful for understanding! thank you!
You're welcome, and thank you for watching!
Another great video! Pedal points are such a useful compositional tool, and one that really get you away from root position chords.
Some other possible topics I think would be good (I'm biased, of course, as these are things I regularly try to write):
- Suspension, anticipation, non-chord tones, and resolution (I'm weak for this one, as pretty much every non-tonic chord in MAP13 of Dominus Diabolicus uses this)
- Atonality
- Ostinatos
- Syncopation
- Hemiolas
- Classical forms (such as fugues, though I doubt you'll find enough fugue MIDIs to just have one like that - the one in Eternal Doom is hardly even a fugue)
Thank you! Ooh those are all fantastic topics! I'd really like to do a video on atonality soon in particular, as there are a couple of examples that immediately come to mind. That's interesting about fugues though - I wonder why they aren't as common in MIDIs?
@@ThePhobosAmphitheater If I had to guess, it's because it requires maintaining multiple melodic lines that, despite being independent, reference and relate to one another in very specific ways.
From what I’ve learnt here… a good example is also the TNT map02 song, how the bass plays the same riff while the rest of the instruments changes
That one is still my favorite by far
I totally forgot about that one! Smells Like Burning Corpse would fit right in to the lineup in this video, especially with that single, albeit, higher-pitched, guitar note droning along in the background too
It's a real banger! Though I think of that riff as more of an ostinato than a pedal point.
Oooh, featuring an Eviternity 2 track!
Would be nice if you could feature Velocity by Tristan Clark from there.
Another one noted for a future video! The list keeps on growing :)
Your channel is a goldmine for learners. Keep up the good work!
Absolutely will. Glad to hear it!
Bout time someone had the courage to make a channel that is willing to break down "Stars".
How about covering Mock2? I can't deny that some of its music has an undeniable charm. Something like "Why Mock2's music amuses you" as a video would be so cool to watch.
That's a great idea!
Bro got 1000 SUBS in what feels like seconds 👏
I owe decino a beer for that
Great video!
Just a little correction. The example from 1000 Lines 3 is an ostinato, not a pedal point.
Thanks! Oops yeah, you're right about that. I had it mixed up there
@@ThePhobosAmphitheater They're easily confused.
I'm studying music in the conservatory and I really like this videos that apply theory and analysis to game soundtracks (one of my favorite kinds of music). It's perfect to see the sheet music with the audio, it really helps with the study.
Keep the good work! 😀👍🏻
Niiiiice, brilliant stuff, lad! Thanks for the mention; you were bang on with the chords in my piece. I’ll slide you the WIP midi if you like. I also used pedal point in my earlier piece Bible Black, although I didn’t know it was called that. I just call it “tying notes” lol. I learned something! 😎👌
Thank YOU! The (what I assumed to be) B-flat dim chord really tripped me up for a bit haha, but I'm glad all the approximations were accurate. I just listened to Bible Black, as idk how I missed it earlier, but yeah! I can definitely hear it in the second half with the bass. Neat stuff!
Any chance you'll look at Lee Jackson's DN3D music some? He does some cool stuff with bass
That reminds me of something I've been thinking over a lot lately - about whether music from another game featured in a Doom WAD should be covered on here. I definitely would like to explore Lee Jackson's work in future videos, but since this channel focuses on original music made by the Doom Community, I'm most likely gonna stick to his contributions to Doom MIDI packs, PWADs, etc.
Don't know if it would make a cool video, but I would love if you looked into Organic Gods, by Mark Klem, from Memento Mori 2 map 17. It's one of my favorite midis ^-^
I absolutely want to do a deep dive into that one. It's one of my favs of Mark Klem's too :)
I wonder if you plan to cover Doom WAD OSTs composed of sampled tracker modules. I can't think of any examples of tracker module music composed specifically for a Doom WAD in my head(aside from the few made for the joke WAD Mock 2), though, but some early 2000s ZDoom maps and total conversions use sampled tracker music.
Hmm, I hadn't thought about this till now, as I haven't really explored any kind of sampled (or covered) pieces so far on the channel unless those pieces have appeared in videos about music referenced in original MIDIs. I'll definitely look into some of those early '00s WADs and see what's there though
Does the music covers for Doom on SNES count? Technically that's sample/tracker based, and with some hardware reverb FX too.
Hey mate hope you have been well. I love the Allroy.wad music such great nostalgia. Soo many pwads have great new music for doom. What's your favourite pwads for new music?
Thank you, and same to you! I've never heard of Allroy before, but I'll have to check that one out some time. Oh man, there's so many great soundtracks out there it's hard to pick favorites. Although Speed of Doom, Hell Revealed 2, Eviternity are some ones I've been listening to recently!
@ThePhobosAmphitheater No worries I am up and down myself thanks. Looking forward to your next video!
I am smarter now, thank you, sir! Musically illiterate, but this helps me appreciate what i listen to.
I noticed that all the Doot Eternal Stuff went down, what's up with that?
I'm gonna redo those videos down the road. There are more original ways I can talk about the music featured in the article
do you know a good midi editor like lmms but with midi files
As far as editors go, I know MuseScore, Crescendo, and MixPad are pretty popular. Anvil Studio is what I use for composing and editing also