An ode to BrutalDoom's sound design

[greendingbat]

Perhaps one of the less obvious triumphs of BrutalDoom's design is its sound. It amazes me how often the importance of good sound effects is overlooked even in big-budget games. I just finished Shadow Warrior and was completely baffled by its entire wimpy-sounding arsenal. Compare that to BrutalDoom, where each shotgun blast makes you feel like you've just punched a hole in the sky.

What other games had sound design that really stuck out to you (in a positive or negative way)?

[Varis Alpha]

ah yes, i love how Brutal Doom's sound-effects never fails to my make my ears explode from all of the brickwalling constantly going on in there.

[Agentbromsnor]

That's funny, because one of the things that I hated the absolute most when I played Brutal Doom years ago was the god-awful sound-design. Let's not forget those super cringe-y "taunts" as well, which sounded like some edgy fifteen year old recording Doom comic lines through his bargain-bin web-cam.

[greendingbat]

Hahaha, the taunts are definitely bad. But I always found them kind of endearing for that exact reason.

[ZALGO]

I find that Dark Souls has quite the sound design when it comes to atmosphere, music, and the impact that your sword, bow, cudgel, or greatsword hits an enemy. I'd check that one out if you so wish.

[Jayextee]

That seems to be a rather loose definition you're using of sound design if you think Brutal Doom had designed sound instead of being thrown together (or recorded) from disparate sources with apparently little-to-no regard for how it all works together and if it clashes, etc.

Sound design I really admire? Street Fighter II. It fell upon musician Yoko Shimomura to produce the sound effects as well as 11/12 character themes, and the ones she made are iconic; six different impact sounds for six different base attacks (the normals/buttons), as well as blocked hits and 'whiff' sounds for moves in-motion. Today it's unsubtle and raw, but no less functional than when the game hit the arcades in the early '90s. On top of those classic character themes, it's a great package.

[ranhcase]

greendingbat said:

Compare that to BrutalDoom, where each shotgun blast makes you feel like you've just punched a hole in the sky.

My thought exactly, that's why the shotgun is my favorite in BD

[Programme]

Brutal Pack's sound design is absolutely amazing. I can't really say the same for Brutal Doom, though.

As for other games, Half-Life 2 and every Super Mario game ever stands out in sound design.

[rehelekretep]

Brutal Doom's sound 'design' is objectively awful.

[Deleted_Account]

I remember in one of the earlier versions where you would blast a zombieman or sergeants limbs right off they would let out that agonizing scream that would make my headphones rattle. It would be so loud that it would overwhelm every other noise in the game, even the music. Oh it stuck out alright.

*Blows off zombiemans arm*


AAAGGHGHGHGHGHGH! AAGHGHGHGHGHGHGH! AGHGHGHGHGHGHGHHGHG!

[Megalyth]

HMMMM... HAHAAAAAAHH

[Jayextee]

Dat clipping on vocal samples tho. D:

[greendingbat]

Megalyth said:

HMMMM... HAHAAAAAAHH

I've started making that sound when playing other games during triumphant moments XD

[Doomkid]

lol at first I thought this thread was sarcasm. The sounds themselves would honestly be fine if not for all the gain and clipping. It might be better in newer versions though, last time I played there was a lot of ear rape moments in servers, especially when multiple players were firing or taunting or whatever at the same time.

Piper Maru said:

I remember in one of the earlier versions where you would blast a zombieman or sergeants limbs right off they would let out that agonizing scream that would make my headphones rattle. It would be so loud that it would overwhelm every other noise in the game, even the music. Oh it stuck out alright.

*Blows off zombiemans arm*


AAAGGHGHGHGHGHGH! AAGHGHGHGHGHGHGH! AGHGHGHGHGHGHGHHGHG!

It was a nice gesture making the sound play for like 40 seconds though, wouldn't you agree

[Aquanet]

As grating as it is, I do like it when he says go fuck yourself.

[greendingbat]

VonHootie02 said:

Brutal Pack's sound design is absolutely amazing. I can't really say the same for Brutal Doom, though.

As for other games, Half-Life 2 and every Super Mario game ever stands out in sound design.

Just checked out Brutal Pack. You're absolutely right! Great sound work there. Much more polished and cohesive than the other Brutal variants.


As it also turns out, I was thinking of Project Brutality rather than straight Brutal Doom. Booth are...rough to be sure, but they both manage to create a feeling of impact with the weapons. I actually like the "roughness" of the whole project, from the distorted samples to the hilarious(??) one liners.

[Voros]

Megalyth said:

HMMMM... HAHAAAAAAHH

Isn't this a Zandronum specific sound? Whenever I load up Brutal Doom in GZDoom, i can never get it to play that sound, but I remember loading Brutal Doom in Zandronum and it played. This was v20 around the time when GZDoom 1.8.x was the latest.

[Chezza]

There is definitely some old sound issues in brutal doom, and the obnoxious taunts are the major remaining culprits but I do agree with the OP. Brutal Doom provides the right sound effects to create that high level of satisfaction. Although the Project Brutality does offer some even better variants.

The blast of BD's double barrel shotgun is superior to the classic Doom's sound (bunch of people gasps). Of cause Doom's SSG has amazing sound - back then - which I do appreciate, but it's out of date and BD's version is simply more satisfying. Also that brutal blast directly on a cacodemon close range, causing its top half to explode in bits makes it even more satisfying and realistic.

[Graf Zahl]

Voros said:

Isn't this a Zandronum specific sound? Whenever I load up Brutal Doom in GZDoom, i can never get it to play that sound, but I remember loading Brutal Doom in Zandronum and it played. This was v20 around the time when GZDoom 1.8.x was the latest.

Some of the later FModEx versions seem to have problems with some not quite standard conformant Ogg Vorbis files. I guess it's the same thing again.

[Megalyth]

Voros said:

Isn't this a Zandronum specific sound? Whenever I load up Brutal Doom in GZDoom, i can never get it to play that sound, but I remember loading Brutal Doom in Zandronum and it played. This was v20 around the time when GZDoom 1.8.x was the latest.

Maybe it was at one point, I'm not overly familiar with Brutal Doom. I've played around with it a few times and checked out the Starter Pack. It plays when you rescue the captured marines.

[Agentbromsnor]

Megalyth said:

Maybe it was at one point, I'm not overly familiar with Brutal Doom. I've played around with it a few times and checked out the Starter Pack. It plays when you rescue the captured marines.

That sound was also a taunt in Skulltag, so I doubt it was something made specifically for BD.

[idbeholdME]

Serious Sam has very characteristic sounds to me. Especially the AHHHHHHHHH of headless kamikazes. And hearing the sound of Kleer skeleton hooves makes me uneasy.

[Dragonfly]

rehelekretep said:

Brutal Doom's sound 'design' is objectively awful.

I couldn't agree more.

Now one game which has fantastic sound design: Devil Daggers.

[Swine & Roses]

Agentbromsnor said:

That sound was also a taunt in Skulltag, so I doubt it was something made specifically for BD.

Pretty sure it's ripped from Quake III. Grunt's taunt, I reckon.

[Rifle Infantry]

I honestly think that Brutal Doom's sound design is perfectly okay given what it's trying to accomplish. It's the Doom Comic in game form; you're supposed to be cracking one-liners, doing brutal executions, and singing the praises of heavy firepower over the sound of your weaponry.

While BD in no way tries to be perfectly "realistic", it does do some things to heavily improve immersion, and I don't just mean headshots and reloading. I do particularly love the sound design; goddammit, if I'm firing a 12-gauge shotgun, I want a BOOM. Doom's stock sound is beloved, and I'm perfectly fine with it, but with Brutal Doom's frantic, bloody combat, it just doesn't work. The deep, throaty BANG of BD's shotgun going off is perfectly suited to the mod. To me, Stock Doom works best when one disassociates themselves with the graphics and sound design and focuses on the experience. Brutal Doom gives both an excellent experience with excellent graphics and sound design for a free Doom mod.

People often complain about it "destroying their eardrums" or "being too loud". I personally have no issue with this- I can hear monsters and environmental cues just fine over the sound of even the BFG-9000 (objectively the "loudest" gun in Brutal Doom).

On the subject of taunts, voices, and other such additional content, I personally enjoy the Doom Comic filter of the entire package, but if you don't want any of those simply don't use them. I know Project Brutality has a setting to remove its one-liners, and Brutal Doom simply doesn't have random one liners anyway.

As far as I'm concerned, a lot of people either hate Brutal Doom because they tried it a while ago and didn't like it, and never bothered to check where it is now, or simply react poorly to the base idea. I'm not one to judge, but that seems to be the most reasonable explanations.

[WhiteLightning]

You haven't heard quality sound design in a Doom WAD until you've played UAC Military Nightmare.

[Jayextee]

Rifle Infantry said:

As far as I'm concerned, a lot of people either hate Brutal Doom because they tried it a while ago and didn't like it, and never bothered to check where it is now, or simply react poorly to the base idea.

I was perfectly fine with it until the shotgun got a swaying nutsack.

[sesq]

VonHootie02 said:

Brutal Pack's sound design is absolutely amazing. I can't really say the same for Brutal Doom, though.

As for other games, Half-Life 2 and every Super Mario game ever stands out in sound design.

Every time something crashes in any other media I always think of HL2 for this.

As for the main topic at hand, I think I rather like it. I never actually use taunts as they're pointless, save for pissing off Cyberdemons