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Bobby Prince, composer for Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, has died
- ChrisArchitect 4mo agoRIP Legend. Neat that just last month the Library of Congress added the Doom soundtrack to its registry too https://newsroom.loc.gov/news/national-recording-registry-inducts-sounds-of-taylor-swift--beyonc---the-go-go-s--vince-gill--weezer/s/bc258688-e655-4ffb-9f91-f32b94956f36#:~:text=these%20streets%20tonight.%E2%80%9D-,%E2%80%9CDoom%E2%80%9D%20Soundtrack%20%E2%80%93%20Bobby%20Prince%2C%20composer%20(1993),-Originally%20released%20in https://newsroom.loc.gov/news/national-recording-registry-in...
- ChrisArchitect 4mo agoDoom 1 Music Player (Sound Blaster | OPL3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_yIgqw-qR4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_yIgqw-qR4
- bombcar 4mo agoNEDM, Prince. The sound of Doom was a big part of why it was so immersive, and everyone focuses on the mobs and gunshots (there's some pretty cool positional audio for the time), but the music really played a big part of the whole atmosphere.
- gnarbarian 4mo agohe had great taste in metal. most of the tracks were adapted (now classic) speed/thrash metal.
- nailer 4mo agoYep. The Doom 1 demo theme is Painkiller by Judas Priest https://open.spotify.com/track/0L7zm6afBEtrNKo6C6Gj08 https://open.spotify.com/track/0L7zm6afBEtrNKo6C6Gj08
- gnarbarian 3mo agothis is my all-time favorite priest song.
- sublinear 4mo agoRIP one of the best. https://youtube.com/watch?v=qVn6C6uiFo0 https://youtube.com/watch?v=qVn6C6uiFo0
- s_dev 4mo agoThat E1M1 song is iconic. That will be played 00s of years from now, it will stand the test of time.
- recallingmemory 4mo agoWolfenstein 3D has such memorable tracks for me.. thanks for the music Bobby. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UgvFSV2xxI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UgvFSV2xxI
- ozozozd 4mo agoI knew I should’ve paid extra and gotten the Sound Blaster!
- saturn8601 4mo agoThats Ad Lib type music no?
- tadfisher 4mo agoSound Blaster is an Ad Lib (Yamaha OPL2) that mixes in a PCM stream
- d3Xt3r 4mo agoYeah... look at all these rich kids with their fancy sound cards! Peasants like us had to make do with a humble PC speaker and a monochrome monitor. Seriously though, playing old DOS games with fancy music and a color monitor just feels wrong to me.
- montag 4mo agoWondering About My Loved Ones is one of my favorites. Appears also in Spear of Destiny https://chiptune.app/?play=C-eWH0LI https://chiptune.app/?play=C-eWH0LI
- queeshonda 4mo ago[dead]
- AznHisoka 4mo agomein leben!
- bitwize 4mo agoHell put in a special petition to heaven to at least borrow him for a bit—not to torture him, mind, but to retain him to score their official soundtrack.
- curtis3389 4mo agoRIP King https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrIgnNtZrN4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrIgnNtZrN4
- momoraul 4mo agoAt Doom's Gate has been stuck in my head for decades. RIP.
- matheusmoreira 4mo agoRest in peace.
- zitterbewegung 4mo agoRIP Legend. F. Such a good composer for all of those games I can remember those songs still.
- loudandskittish 4mo agoPulled out my guitar to play the Duke Nukem theme and At Doom's Gate (...uh, minus those runs...)
- saidnooneever 4mo agostill entire duke nukem theme just start running in my head each time i see that name what a classic. rest in peace
- ChrisArchitect 4mo agoRelated, including a great segment with the man himself talking about some of the music: A Visit to id Software (November 1993) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpEBUV_g9vU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpEBUV_g9vU (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48600671 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48600671)
- amatecha 4mo agoAh 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/iterations on those bands' songs)! Great memories. RIP \m/
- ndiddy 4mo agoIf anyone's interested in what songs the Doom music was referencing, here's a good overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y3RWlDz_AA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y3RWlDz_AA
- alisonatwork 4mo agoIt'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.
- gryson 4mo agoHuh? 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.
- vintermann 4mo ago
- PaulCarrack 4mo agoLoss of an absolute legend. One of my favorite videos (and songs) sang by Bobby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w3yoIOK-9U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w3yoIOK-9U (Eat Your Vegetables) RIP. You will be missed Bobby.
- thombles 4mo agoAlas. Loved his work on Major Stryker.
- MikeShah 4mo agoI've been teaching my students for years about sound and music, and I always showcase Bobby Prince's work. Here's a fun clip of him playing in the early days: https://youtu.be/9w3yoIOK-9U?is=alZLs2OSL8pJ7JEQ https://youtu.be/9w3yoIOK-9U?is=alZLs2OSL8pJ7JEQ
- xnx 4mo agoToday I learned that he also did (all of?) the sound effects for Doom. RIP (and tear)
- toomuchtodo 4mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Prince https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Prince
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- CalRobert 4mo agoShame. E1M8 (Sign of Evil) is still a great metal tune
- htx80nerd 4mo agoF to a Legend and titan.
- taffydavid 4mo agoI can easily recall the Duke nukem music, even though I haven't played it in about two decades
- Archer6621 4mo agoVery sad news, RIP. Particularly enjoyed his work for Duke Nukem 3D, you could easily tell the difference between the tracks made by Bobby and the ones made by Lee Jackson, Bobby's tracks were a bit darker and more gloomy, adding a lot of atmosphere. Beautifully written article by the way, as the legend deserves.
- buffer_overlord 4mo agothose were my favorite games
- p0w3n3d 4mo agoAnd Commander Keen. Don't forget about Commander Keen
- inigyou 4mo agoAndrew Prince is an unfortunate name.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- jmorenoamor 4mo agoHis name will be remembered forever in the industry. Thanks for being a great part of my childhood. Farewell.
- andai 4mo agoMany moons ago, I emailed Mr. Prince, and he replied! > What is the sound card the DOOM sound track was composed on? It sounds different on each one. So we wanna know, how was it "meant" to sound like :D It was a Sound Blaster 1.0, which first came out in 1989. Creative Labs released almost a version of that card each year, but so many people had bought the 1.0 that the bulk of gamers had that model for several years. And the newer Sound Blasters used the same music synthesizer chip (Yamaha OPL 2 -- an FM type synth chip). A big plus of the Sound Blaster was that Sequencer Plus (MIDI sequencing software) supported making my own sound libraries, and I was able to tweak or "invent" sounds within the limitations of the synth chip. Some time later, I "translated" the sequencer files into General MIDI (GM) files, using the sound set of the GM file spec. Generally, they worked ok, but some of the original FM synth sounds could not be emulated. As sound cards got fancier, they didn't use the OPL2 FM synth chip, but emulated it. What they didn't figure in all this was that you could bastardize the sound of an FM instrument by playing it well out of normal music range, and you'd end up with a usable percussive instrument sound. I had done just that to create my own drum sets for the OPL2. When those sounds were emulated by the fancier sound cards, they actually sounded a musical tone rather than the bastardized sound. So my snare drum would sound like two little tin drums being played (I used two adjacent musical notes as left and right drum sticks. As for emulation of the OPL2 FM synth chip, I don't think you can get much better than the synth in DOSBOX (http://www.dosbox.com/ http://www.dosbox.com/). As for the real thing, you will be able to get the sounds as they were "meant" to be on any sound card that has the OPL2 FM synth chip. I hope this answers your question. Best regards, Bobby
- mock-possum 4mo agoBrilliant - I’m sure some enterprising person has rendered a version of the soundtrack ‘as it was originally written,’ I should track that down…
- amatecha 3mo agoThat's awesome, thanks for sharing this!
- tomaytotomato 3mo agoRIP Prince My favourite Doom track, "Into Sandy's City" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkhCNx-8Qos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkhCNx-8Qos