Ragtime2.WAD   Ragtime music for Doom2


BACKGROUND

The enclosed RAGTIME2.WAD file completely replaces all the music
in the commercial version of Doom2 with piano music from the
ragtime era.  But strictly speaking, it's not all ragtime. Even
way back then the purveyor's weren't above calling music whatever
would help sell it... e.g, the St. Louis Blues issued in 1914 was
1st billed as a southern rag, later a blue rag, and finally
started a whole new denomination of music: the Blues.  So this
PWAD contains a variety of piano music in the styles popular
between 1897 and 1929, such as ragtime, old-time, stride,
novelty, waltz, and tango.  This is the music that is the
foundation of modern day jazz and blues.


LOADING

This PWAD is designed to work with the commercial version of
Doom2.  If Doom2 is installed on your hard disk in the C:\DOOM2
directory, copy RAGTIME2.WAD to that directory and run doom as
follows:

          cd c:\doom2
          doom2 -file ragtime2.wad

You should see a message such as 'loading doom2.wad' followed by
'adding ragtime2.wad' and a warning about running a customized
version.  Hit the ENTER key and you're off!


METHODOLOGY

How was it done?

First you need some MIDI files.  Mine are live performances of
pianist Sue Keller played on a Yamaha Disclavier, with MIDI
recorded by CakeWalk for Windows.  The MIDI files used here are
the same files used to feed a Turtle Beach sampler array (4
Maui's in 1 computer loaded with Yamaha, Stienway, and
Bosendoerfer samples) from which the commercial audio CDs are
manufactured (see AVAILABILITY below).  In addition, vocals
appear on some titles of the audio CDs and are recorded direct to
the hard disk of a 2nd computer which is synced to the MIDI with
SIMPTE.  The difference between the piano sound of the commercial
CD and the RAGTIME2.WAD you play is limited only by the quality
of the samples and effects in your sound card.  Note that I have
refrained from trying to include the vocals in the PWAD for space
reasons... the vocal to the St. Louis Blues, for instance, is
over 50 megabytes in size.

For doom application, my next step was to convert 35 of my
favorite MIDI files to MUS format with the shareware MIDI2MUS
utility.  I then used Doom Editor (the real thing) to list out
the music objects in the doom2.wad file.  Next, I renamed my
files to match the names of the embedded doom2 music objects. 
The final step was to use DEU 5.21 to convert each of the MUS
files to a WAD (the 'I' command) followed by opening each WAD
(the 'R' command) and gathering all of them (the 'G' command)
into the single RAGTIME2.WAD provided here.  My thanks to Scott
Kearney who pointed the way with his classical music CLASSICS.WAD
and was good enough to explained to me how he did it. 


MUSICAL CREDITS

The musical performances contained in RAGTIME2.WAD are live
recordings of one of the world's top ragtimers, Sue Keller.  They
are distributed here strictly for the purpose of promoting the
ragtime art form, promoting the contemporary composers writing
ragtime (bet you didn't know anyone still did that!), and also to
promote Sue Keller and her recordings which are available for
sale on Compact Disc.  Redistribution for these purposes is
encouraged, but the performances are copyrighted and their
commercial use requires the permission of Ragtime Press (see
AVAILABILITY below).  In addition, commercial use of any
contemporary composition requires permission of the author.

The included music is as follows:

Int  The Furry Lisa Rag (George Schnieder, 1972)
1    Nola (Felix Arndt, 1925)
2    Hot Rolls (Christopher Seppe, 1988)
3    Belle of Louisville (Frank French, 1991)
4    Alexander's Ragtime Band (Irving Berlin, 1911)
5    Alligator Crawl (Fats Waller, 1924)
6    12th Street Rag (Euday Bowman, 1914)
7    That's a Plenty (Lew Pollack, 1914)
8    Cranberry Stomp (Sue Keller, 1983)
9    Hyperragmania (Jonathan Jensen, 1973)
10   Crazy Bone Rag (Charles Johnson, 1913)
rd1  Dizzy Fingers (Zez Confrey, 1923)
11   St. Louis Blues (W.C.Handy, 1914)
13   Hard-Hearted Hannah (Yellen, Ager, et al., 1924)
14   Charleston Rag (Eubie Blake, 1899)
15   Mississippi Mud (Cavanaugh & Barris, 1927)
16   Great Crush Collision March (Scott Joplin, 1897)
17   Solitude (Christopher Seppe, 1988)
18   Modernistic (James P. Johnson, 1929)
19   Pork and Beans (Lucky Roberts, 1913)
20   I Love a Piano/Cannonball Rag (Berlin/Northrup, 1915)
21   Bedlam (Christopher Seppe, 1974)
rd2  Lion Tamer Rag (Mark Janza, 1913)
22   Coaxin the Piano (Zez Confrey, 1922)
23   Alabama Jubilee (Yellen & Cobb, 1915)
24   Wanhal Stomp (Sue Keller, 1994)
25   Alabamy Bound (1925)
26   Jingles (James P. Johnson, 1926)
27   Maple Leaf Rag (Scott Joplin, 1899)
28   The Suffragette (James Scott, 1914)
29   Waitin' for the Robert E. Lee (Gilbert & Muir, 1912)
30   Junk Man Rag (Lucky Roberts, 1913)
31   Hanon Rag (Bill Edwards, 1985)
32   Wild Cherries (Ted Snyder, 1908)


AVAILABILITY

Commercially available audio CDs on which these and many other
titles appear are available for $15 post-paid from: 

     Ragtime Press
     Post Office Box 40554
     Staten Island, NY 10304
     (718) 815-3273

Feel free to call or write me at Ragtime Press if you have any
questions or need to contact any of the contemporary composers.

Also check us out on the Word Wide Web at http://www.rtpress.com/
or send email to ragtime@rtpress.com
