PC Doom sound effects VS PSX Doom sound effects

[Immorpher]

I have always preferred Aubrey Hodges' PSX/N64 work because he heavily customized the sounds for the game, as he mentioned above. They just sounded more sinister to me. A lot of Doom's original sounds (from my experience) were from previous collections.

[Cruduxy Pegg]

I prefer the earraping plasma sound on the PC, am I insane? (All the other ones sound like something that'd get rejected for tetris)

[Linguica]

I am unfortunately in the camp where I associate the PC Doom sounds with the game so completely that I simply cannot play Doom64, which is one reason I am so interested in https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/92901-doom-64-for-doom-ii-respawned-need-a-few-more-testers/ being finished. 

 

[fraggle]

10 hours ago, Aubrey Hodges said:

-Firstly, any sound that I used that was in any way reminiscent to the PC version had to be documented in complete detail. The origin (Sound Library Name, Disc Number, Track Number and exact time locators for the file).

-Secondly, if the source was original/foley or composited from multiple sources, I had to turn in the actual sessions both raw and edited, unaffected (dry) and effected (wet).

Thanks for the reply. Was there some kind of legal/compliance requirement about documenting the sound origins then? That helps put things in some perspective. I've personally always just been a huge fan of Bobby Prince's work and never understood why it was changed for the PlayStation port.

[Dark Pulse]

3 hours ago, fraggle said:

Thanks for the reply. Was there some kind of legal/compliance requirement about documenting the sound origins then? That helps put things in some perspective. I've personally always just been a huge fan of Bobby Prince's work and never understood why it was changed for the PlayStation port.

While I'm not one to speak on it as if I know all the answers, in my opinion, that was a great decision to go in. After all, while the 3D0 could have that redbook audio quality, the PS1/N64 definitely had the most advanced sound chips of their day. I even remember poking around with the formats dumped from my disc, and trying to figure out how it ticked.

 

Aubrey's sound design literally helped define not one, but two entire Doom games. It's hard for me to Imagine Doom 64 without them, and I didn't even own an N64.

 

Hell, it was so good, it led me to buy the albums he released for them. Twice. :)

[Gez]

For me, the new soundscape works great in Doom 64 since it complements a total visual redesign; but PSX Doom is in an awkward position of having largely unchanged PC graphics but different sounds and music. Likewise, although there's a mod for it, I wouldn't play Doom 64 with PC sounds either.

[vinnie245]

Im also glad that the PSX port had different audio than the other ports, actually makes that version even more unique and different to all the others.

I grew up playing the PSX version so i will always be biased towards that version, the midis just do nothing for me.

[Koko Ricky]

I'm reminded of the Sonic fans (myself included) who take umbrage with the Sonic CD jump sound effect, which I believe is the original pitched down. It sounds "wrong" every single time I hear it.

[Fuzzball]

10 minutes ago, GoatLord said:

I'm reminded of the Sonic fans (myself included) who take umbrage with the Sonic CD jump sound effect, which I believe is the original pitched down. It sounds "wrong" every single time I hear it.

Actually it's for a technical reason-

From this video's description

"Ever wonder why Sonic CD had its own jump and skid sounds? The game uses SMPS Z80, a sound driver that's run on the Mega Drive's coprocessor, the Z80. The Z80 is limited in what it can access: it has 0x2000 bytes of RAM, and an 0x8000-byte window into the cartridge. Problem: Sonic CD isn't on a cartridge.

Because of this, the devs had to squeeze every non-PCM sound effect into Z80 RAM... the same RAM that was already being used by the sound driver itself.

To make room, the sound driver was stripped-down, removing the ability to play music, and also for sounds to use the PSG channels. The Mega Drive has two sound chips, one for FM (a synthesiser), and one for PSG (square wave).

So guess which sound effects just happened to use PSG?

And that's why the jump and skid sounds are so different: they were remade in FM.

So how did I get the original sounds back? Well, I didn't feel like adding PSG support back to Sonic CD's driver, so I did the next most logical thing: I ported Sonic & Knuckles's driver to Sonic CD.

Yeah, as it happens, S&K actually uses SMPS Z80 as well. In fact, it uses a later, improved version (S&K uses "Type 2", while SCD uses "Type 1"). While S&K's driver was also stripped-down, it still has PSG support. All I had to do was take out all the code I didn't need, put SCD's sounds in it, add the one or two features SCD's driver has that S&K's doesn't, and paste it in a Sonic CD ISO.

...That was way easier said than done. Trying to make room for all the sounds was an absolute nightmare. At one point I figured out the time travel screen was exploiting a bug in the driver, so the sound wouldn't be cut off right when the screen goes white. Ironically, to "fix" the game, I had to add that bug back in.

All that just so I can hear Sonic CD without the FM jump sound

[seed]

On 2/14/2016 at 7:57 PM, Salahmander2 said:

Which is better? You can be vague about it or specific.

 

Not so much a question of "being better" but rather a matter of preference.

 

I prefer the sounds (and music, as a matter of fact) of the PSX/D64 version over those on the original games, demons actually sound like they're from another dimension, and I find the weapon sounds vastly superior, especially the ones used for the Shotgun and SSG. Finally, these weapons sound powerful, and yet, I also find the Pistol and Chaingun sounds weaker than the originals and kinda unfit (the new Chaingun sounds fit the D64 model much better than the old one, same for the Pistol).

[CoTeCiO]

It depends for me. In PSX/Saturn Doom it feels a bit out of place with the graphics being pretty much the same as the PC, specially in the Saturn that has no colored lighting, but I like them anyways and they feel more scary for some reason. But they really shine in Doom 64 together with the stylistic change. They feel great, they sound great, they work great and I can't imagine Doom 64 without them, they are responsible for a lot of the atmosphere of that game.

 

There is only one thing that bothers me about the PSX sounds, and that's that the demons activity sound sounds way too similar to one of the sounds the zombies do when they see you. I'm not very fond of the Demon sound effects either, they are pretty much pitch warped versions of the PC ones.

 

And about the PC ones... That plasma gun sound... Ugh.

[Devils950003]

On ‎6‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 3:23 AM, Aubrey Hodges said:

Here are a few of the key design factors that may put some of the sound effects decisions I made into context for everyone.

 

-Firstly, any sound that I used that was in any way reminiscent to the PC version had to be documented in complete detail. The origin (Sound Library Name, Disc Number, Track Number and exact time locators for the file).

-Secondly, if the source was original/foley or composited from multiple sources, I had to turn in the actual sessions both raw and edited, unaffected (dry) and effected (wet).

-Thirdly, I had to maintain enough similarity that the franchise still felt "Doom-like" and not entirely a new IP.

-Fourthly, I had to establish a consistency of style to ALL the effects so that they felt like they belonged together as part of the world.

-Fifth, I had to make sure they were small enough to fit into a small memory footprint but still maintain quality.

-Sixth, I had literally an army of people to please who all seemed to want to force their feedback down my throat and get me to make changes that I didn't always think improved the results.

-And lastly, I had to get all this done in a fraction of the time that the original game sounds were created. 

 

Overall, I'm just happy that it sounded pretty good for the most part and didn't cause me to go insane! Just thought that perhaps these tidbits would provide a little insight as to how these projects actually get churned out. 

 

-Aubrey 
 

 

Awesome to see you on here...I posted to your website some time ago, about how influential and memorable your PSX Doom soundtrack and sounds were (and ARE). 

 

Suffice it to say that everything that you were looking to accomplish within the limitations that you had to deal with, you did it all beautifully.  If not for your contributions, PSX Doom is probably remembered as more of a footnote and a merely pretty good (but limited) console port.  The lighting and darker/grittier atmosphere helped to make up for the truncated levels, occasional frame rate sputters, reduced resolution, and lessened texture variety, but it was really your compositions that made PSX Doom such an enduring version.   

 

BTW I'm playing through the Xbox Live Version of Doom with the extended PSX Doom soundtrack playing through my laptop, and I love it...really fleshes out the PSX tracks and adds to what was already awesome in the best way possible.  Wish I could incorporate your sound effects as well (some of the PC sound effects are REALLY hard to take), but oh well. 

[Inno]

PSX sounds and music, easily. Doom is a game that wanted to have lots of action, but have an atmosphere of horror, but PC Doom never got that across with the sound design, relying ONLY upon the visuals (and even then, that's inconsistent due to some bright, amusing enemy designs). PSX Doom fixes that. The music throws out the "HAHAHA, THIS IS BADASS!" vibe the original tracks gave the game, instead giving you a soundscape that creeps you out (the track 'Unhallowed' that played on Geryon is really notable as one of the best dark, ambient tracks I've ever heard, at least to me, with the weird 'screech' sound going from a quiet, faded sound amongst other disturbing noises, to front and centre, demanding your attention) and reminds you that what you're fighting is sheer evil, and the forces against you are, in totality, completely overwhelming. When it comes to the sound effects, the added reverb adds a lot of depth to the scene, the sound of your own gunfire essentially bouncing off the walls of facilities empty of any humans, and full to the brim of being that want nothing more than to rip you apart, all the while still maintaining the punchy, satisfying sound of each of the weapons (which are superior, even without the reverb adding to them) that does so much to make Doom's gunplay engaging. And, while less 'iconic', the sounds for the enemies are deeper and more menacing. In every way, the sound design works towards the goal of merging Doom's action with horror in a way that the original game never did.

 

That's not to say the original sound effects and music aren't satisfying in their own way (though I'm curious to know what Bobby's atmospheric work would've sounded like, if he hadn't been told to make covers of metal songs. I hope it would've been less repetitive than his Duke 3D work), but to be honest, I tire of hearing Bobby's music when playing the games, and much prefer hearing them outside of the game through the use of a better soundfont. What I think is most interesting about the original sound design is that it is, I think, the single most important defining characteristic of Doom as a franchise. If the original games were, by some magic, able to use Aubrey's work, I think Doom 3 wouldn't have felt so alienating to so many people. But, likewise, had the original games been able to use work like Aubrey's, Doom 2016 would never have had the gameplay and badass music it ended up with, either. Really, even if I think the PSX work is superior, I would never hope that the original sounds had been changed to something else or anything. It worked out for the best, even if I think Doom 3 as a whole doesn't get quite as much love and respect as I think it deserves, and I think Doom 2016 lacks a horror edge to it that I wish it possessed to some small extent.

 

I'm just pleased that both versions of the original games exist, and that there's such a skilled and dedicated community to this series of games that, even on PC, I can play the games with the PSX style of design. And if the original level selection from the PSX games isn't satisfactory to me, I can simply plop in the missing levels, which are altered to fit the PSX's atmosphere. Whatever someone wants, when it comes to Doom, they can have, and that's a wonderful thing. Wish Doom 64 were on PC? Shit, we got a few different ways of that. Do you like Doom 64, but wish it looked and sounded like Doom 2? You're about to get it, my man. This is a modding community where your Doom dreams seem to all come true eventually.

Edited June 29, 2018 by Inno

[CoTeCiO]

I know what you mean, PSX Doom has managed to scare me in a way PC Doom never could, and Doom 64 even more. I just feel it felt a bit out of place to have the visuals of PC Doom but an entirely different (mostly) sound set, while in Doom 64 it worked great as part of the whole stylistic change, it really fitted the new atmosphere brought by the new graphics. I'm not saying the sounds in PSX Doom don't work, they do, but I'm a nostalgia bitch and I like to play Doom the way I first did.

 

I like to think of Doom 3 as the next step from Doom 64 and Doom 4 (yeah, I call it Doom 4, that's what it should've been named) as the next step from Doom 1. I don't think Doom was too much about horror at the beginning but action. I think the feeling of horror was brought mostly by PSX Doom and Doom 64, but before that it was more like "you're one badass insane motherf**ker with a thirst for killing and nothing will stop you", while PSX Doom and Doom 64 was more like "you're being hunted by demons, have a good day".

[Inno]

"But I'm a nostalgia bitch and I like to play Doom the way I first did."

For me, nostalgia is always a light and very rare feeling, and even when I start feeling it, it never causes me to be biased in favour of something. I'm not sure why I work this way, as it seems abnormal, but alas. Thus, despite a lot of time and experience spent with the original PC games, I still feel no bias towards them. So I look at the original assets used in PSX Doom and, with the altered visuals, I'm not left thinking, "Wow, the visuals don't match." I think Doom 64's visuals match the PSX sounds BETTER, but that only makes sense, as they were made with the PSX version's atmospheric direction kept firmly in mind.

 

"I like to think of Doom 3 as the next step from Doom 64"

Agreed. I'm not even sure if Doom 64 was even an influence on Doom 3's development, but it genuinely feels like a successor to absolutely everything Doom 64 was moving towards in terms of tone, enemy design, and sound design.

 

"...and Doom 4 [the next step] from Doom 1."

I think it's a bit more accurate to look at Doom 2 (due to the faster pace granted by the level design and larger enemy roster), but yes, I agree with this as well. And I've always found this terribly interesting how the two different directions both derive very naturally from the elements present in the original games.

 

"I don't think Doom was too much about horror at the beginning, but action"

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Doom was a horror game, but there was still a strong horror element present in the original design back in the day. Walking into a room, grabbing a key, only for the lights to go out and enemies to appear behind you is just one example of a clear horror theme that was being attempted. After all, remember, it was chiefly attempting to emulate the tense, but exciting action in 'Aliens'. The darkness at a distance present in the original renderer was instrumental in presenting a particular tone to the visual design, a tone that I think was heavily undermined by poor decisions made regarding sound design. Carmack clearly seemed interested in thinking of Doom as having a stronger presence of horror elements, considering the direction Doom 3 later had when Romero was no longer present to disagree with him.

[OliveTree]

This is unrelated but the theme created for playstation doom is my defacto tune that pops into my head when I think of "doom songs"

 

Not E1M1. Not d_runnin. The psx doom theme. Hellll yeahhh

 

bah bah-dah-dah-daaaah! bah-dah-dah doh, doooooom! doooooooom! (bom bom bom)

[kb1]

To me, there's no "PSX" or "PC" sound effects...it's just what sound an imp makes, or a baron, a shotgun, or a door. I've played for so long, that these items make specific sounds, just like an electric can opener makes a specific sound. I play Doom on the PC.

 

In other words, for me, no matter how cool the PSX sounds might be, they are not the correct sounds, for me. For me, there's no "A. vs. B.". There's no "better or worse." Only "right", and "wrong".

 

It might be fun to compare each game's sounds, one-by-one, and compile a WAD with the best choice of each. That would be especially nice for people that haven't been playing Doom for 20 years.

[jazzmaster9]

On 9/20/2018 at 11:34 AM, kb1 said:

To me, there's no "PSX" or "PC" sound effects...it's just what sound an imp makes, or a baron, a shotgun, or a door. I've played for so long, that these items make specific sounds, just like an electric can opener makes a specific sound. I play Doom on the PC.

 

In other words, for me, no matter how cool the PSX sounds might be, they are not the correct sounds, for me. For me, there's no "A. vs. B.". There's no "better or worse." Only "right", and "wrong".

 

It might be fun to compare each game's sounds, one-by-one, and compile a WAD with the best choice of each. That would be especially nice for people that haven't been playing Doom for 20 years.

So, As someone someone who started with Doom 64 then i can say that the PC sounds are not the correct sound "for me"? Or am i just wrong?

 

[Antnee]

A little of this, a little of that.  But mostly that.

 

D64 gripes:  I find D64's shotgun sound to be a little wimpy.  It just lacks punch.  Now that I think of it most of the D64 weapon sounds aren't as punchy as they should be.

 

D1/D2:  The sound of shooting a demon in Doom is really sharp and grating, especially with a chaingun.  I almost never use the plasma gun because the sound is just way too damn loud.  I don't like the music in D2 at all, with like maybe three tracks being the exception.

 

Overall I think the PSX/D64 sounds and music just meshes with each other far better than D1/D2.  I much prefer the music of PSX/D64.  The D1/2 sound effects really do feel like a bunch of random stock effects that just got tossed in with each other.

[RedDash16]

I prefer PSX DooM soundtrack over the original.

Most sound effects I prefer are from regular DooM.

[Vermil]

To me a lot of the PSX Doom/D64 sound effects and music are too similar to one another to tell them apart. I feel the PC sounds and music are more distinct from each other.