Which Doom sound effects do you like/hate?

[Castelia]

Sorry if this exists already, this forum's been around for ages and the only other topic I could find about this was from 2004. Would've been quite the bump.

Regardless, I'm curious. Sound effects are a considerable part of the Doom experience, and maybe I'm just weird, but there's some unrelated sound effects that just sound really nice to me for whatever reason, even outside of their in-game context. These would be:

- Teleporting (DSTELEPT)

- Switch noises (DSSWTCHN/DSSWTCHX)

- The Cyberdemon's walk sound (DSHOOF)

- The Spider Mastermind's alert sound (DSSPISIT)

- The Baron's alert sound (DSBRSSIT)

- Arch-vile flames (DSFLAME)

- Gibbing (DSSLOP)

- A particular Former Human death sound (DSPODTH1)

- The Icon of Sin throwing cubes (DSBOSPIT)

- And finally, mein leben (DSSSDTH)

On the other hand, there's only one sound that I dislike, and that's more to do with the in-game context rather than the sound itself. That sound would be DSSGTATK, or the sound of Pinkies/Spectres attacking. Coupled up with their attack animations, it reminds me of being surrounded/cornered by them and getting torn to shreds, which is never a fun experience, especially without a Super Shotgun. Odd considering some of my favourite sounds are of similarly undesirable situations, but whatever.

 

Anyway, enough from me. What about all of you?

[seed]

I like 'em, except for the Revenant alert sound, it rapidly becomes annoying.

[idbeholdME]

I hate how your Chaingun sounds awfully inadequate compared to Heavy Weapon Dudes. It's like theirs went through puberty while you still have the pimply squeaky virgin Chaingun.

 

I like most other sounds but SOME of my favorites are doors opening, Plasma Gun, BFG and explosions.

[Eurisko]

The SSG going off followed by a pinky's snort and hitting the ground is a pure eargasm.

[unerxai]

I like all of them.

 

Dislike... well, if the ZDoom "secret found" sound counted then I'd say that one.

[cambreaKer]

i like the gibbing and explosion sounds

[dmslr]

2 hours ago, Eurisko said:

The SSG going off followed by a pinky's snort and hitting the ground is a pure eargasm.

Man this is why I fell in love with Doom.

[Noiser]

5 hours ago, seed said:

I like 'em, except for the Revenant alert sound, it rapidly becomes annoying.

[Tartlman]

15 minutes ago, Noiser said:

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images you can hear

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

Favorites - Both the shotguns sound pretty awesome.

Least favorites - The Hell Knight sounds and the Pain Elemental pain sound always struck me as kind of goofy.  Owwie!

[Doom_Dude]

The sounds I like the most:

• doors, crushers and lifts
• exploding barrels
• archvile alert + flames
• chaingun, shotguns, plasma gun and rocket launcher firing
• zombie and pinky death
• various fireballs
• cyberdemon walking
• uac coffee machine brewing sound

Can't think of anything I don't like.

Edited January 23, 2020 by Doom_Dude

[Boaby Kenobi]

The dying sound of an arachnotron is probably my favourite. I also like the sound effects from Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3.

 

[BBQgiraffe]

the plasma rifle sfx make my ears hurt

[Scorpius]

I would say the Cacodemon alert sound, only because it is literally just white noise, especially when there's 100 of them.

[dmslr]

Can we all agree that the sound of charging lost soul is the worst one? I hate it!

Edited January 23, 2020 by dmslr

[Firedust]

The PSX sound effects are amazing :)

[Hitscanning_scumbag]

One thing that's always really bothered me: reusing the same "owwww" pain sound for almost every monster. I know this was a while ago but, really Id, really?! 

[Graf Zahl]

The ones I hate are

 

- dsbospit: Heard this in too many movies, it's only cheesy these days

- dsssdth: The voice doesn't match dssssit which is annoying.

- dsbarexp: Sounds neither like a rocket nor a barrel exploding

 

My favorites

 

- dsvildth: Most satisfying death sound

[NoXion]

5 hours ago, Eurisko said:

The SSG going off followed by a pinky's snort and hitting the ground is a pure eargasm.

That's a good one, but the sound of an Arachnotron dying to a super shotgun blast is better because it's encountered less frequently.

[xvertigox]

I use the revenant death sound as my notification alert on my phone.

[Joshua Schäferhund]

DSBRSDTH has always sounded like an irritated bear waking up from it's sleep from having a rock thrown at it to me for some weird reason, I think it sounds better reversed as it sounds more properly like a goat-like monster crumbling to it's death.

 

DSPLASMA I've never cared for due to it just being a modified pistol sound that gets ear rapey on certain source ports. I much prefer the Aubrey Hodges plasma rifle sound.

 

DSSLOP sounds really weak for gibbing enemies. It just does not sound like an entire body exploding into a pile of gore and bones.

 

The thud at the end of DSSGTDTH also does not sync up with the animation of the pinky hitting the ground after dying. (Which Doom Zero does fix.)

 

And like everyone else, I've never really cared for the chaingun reusing the pistol sound (and the chaingunners and spider mastermind using the shotgun sound). 

[galileo31dos01]

The nnn when you pick up an item, it's the only sound that my memory registers from my toddler days when I played shareware doom on a potato. Powerups sound too except only from maybe a soulsphere or a computer. I like to hear monsters having a conversation from inside the walls, imps and zombies in particular sound funny to me, archviles still give me the chills. Doors slowly opening/closing, teleport noise, and doomguy landing on ground are other favourites.

 

As for least favourites, idbeholdeME has a point, commandos and doomguy use the exact same copy of the chaingun, then there's no logic in degrading them upon picking one up, since anyone can optimize the use of chaingun better than commandos do. More so, doomguy's shotgun can do over the double damage than sergeants' and they share the same shoot sound, and not to mention spiderdemons actually carry a greater chaingun, so that inconsistency bugs me a little. Also, purely related to bad experiences, I hate every sound related to the icon of sin.

[Ashley_Pomeroy]

I've always felt that the big boom of the super shotgun is the best sound effect in any game, any genre, of all time, ever.

 

The boom and the ca-lunk-click of the locking action. It sounds like it means business. A close second is the revenant punching sound, which is a nice satisfying thwack. On the other hand I get irritated beyond belief by the "revenant running around" sound. Just shut up!

 

The peooww when you hit a pain elemental and the whoomp when they explode is satisfying, because they're so irritating. Conversely I hate the lost soul CAAAWWW because they're massive pests.

 

On the whole the sound design is surprisingly on-point for something made at a time when not every PC owner even had a sound card. That reminds me - there were PC speaker sound effects that make the game sound like a mid-80s arcade machine. They're horrible!

Edited January 23, 2020 by Ashley_Pomeroy
gout

[Super Mighty G]

I don't know what the demon roaming sound is supposed to be and I never have. Very perplexing. 

[Doomkid]

The original plasma rifle sound is total earrape because it’s so loud. Reducing the volume by 50% is a tiny fix with huge results, it’s still plenty loud but doesn’t completely and utterly trounce every other sound.

 

I remember playing on some old POS laptop where using the plasma rifle caused all sound, music and everything to just completely cut out. It’s like it had some kind of shitty noise gate or something that only the plasma could trigger.

 

2 hours ago, Patch93 said:

DSPLASMA I've never cared for due to it just being a modified pistol sound that gets ear rapey on certain source ports. I much prefer the Aubrey Hodges plasma rifle sound. 

If by this you mean the sound that Aubrey Hodges took from Dwango5.wad - which Aikman took from The Terminator - then yes, I’d agree fully. 😛 

 

The Dwango5/PSX shotgun sound is way better too, on that note. Has a lot more bass and a much more satisfying reload sound! The original shotgun sfx never sounded much like a gun at all, at least to my ears..

 

1 hour ago, galileo31dos01 said:

The nnn when you pick up an item, it's the only sound that my memory registers from my toddler days when I played shareware doom on a potato.

I LOVE this sound so much! When I was young I called armor and health bonuses “little buddies” because I thought they were by far the cutest sprites in the game, and the little noise they make is just so tiny but rewarding. I can’t really explain it. My old school books used to be covered in doodles of Doom items..

 

3 hours ago, zaszthedestroyer said:

One thing that's always really bothered me: reusing the same "owwww" pain sound for almost every monster. I know this was a while ago but, really Id, really?! 

It’s less like “owww” and more like “HAWWWWWWW!!!” but yes I agree with this too and always have. A simple fix that goes a long way is having Hell Knights and Baroni use their PSX sounds, but leave the Cacos and Pinkies alone. It’s just enough extra variety to help prevent irritation, especially in maps populated mainly by demons. Since the zombies, imps and revenants all share pain sounds, I also like to give imps their PSX sounds for the same reason.

 

We’ve got two libraries of great sounds for Doom and when used in a blend, the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts, since each set suffers from “too many enemies share sounds” syndrome.

[Doomkid]

9 minutes ago, Super Mighty G said:

I don't know what the demon roaming sound is supposed to be and I never have. Very perplexing. 

I think it’s meant to be an extra loud, drawn out and echoey “pig snort” sort of sound. Maybe I’m just assuming that because the pinkies are so pig-like, though.

 

edit: Shitty double post, my apologies. Editing on mobile is too much trouble to be worth it..

Edited January 23, 2020 by Doomkid

[Rainne]

I always liked the Arachnotron death sound. Very impactful and satisfying compared to all the repurposed animal noises. The Mancubus attack sound is kinda cool too, like it's a curse or battlecry or something.

 

In PlayStation Doom (and I think Doom 64 uses the same sounds), I like the Rocket Launcher and Plasma Rifle sounds. And really, all the sounds in that version. They took a game with iconic audio, redid all the music and sound effects from scratch, and did better.

 

Meanwhile, I like the Elven Wand firing sound in Heretic. The Pistol is clanky and loud and fires off-center, but the Wand has a soothing pew-pew-pew that makes it nice to use. It's one of my favorite weapons and I use it whenever I can get away with it. The door sound is nicer too; sounds smooth and mechanical.

 

Plenty of annoying sounds in those games though! The Dragon Claw sounds like a guitar snapping all its strings at once and is a rapid-fire weapon. Nitrogolems' skull attack isn't a bad sound but means bad news. (It's basically like a Revenant's homing missiles but screams at you.) Meanwhile in Hexen, the Sapphire Wand is loud and twangy compared to the Elven Wand, but it's one of the best starter weapons in any game (ranged, pierces enemies, and uses no ammo) so I got used to it.

 

But, wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?

 

 

Edited January 23, 2020 by Rainne

[Roofi]

Current favorite : Plasma gun fire sound despite a lot of people don't like it because of its loudness. I feel like a true warrior when I'm spamming it contrary to the Doom 3 plasma gun's sound which sound too weak for me.

 

Least favourite : Maybe shotgun fire sound maybe because it's the most boring weapon in the game

[Solmyr]

I like the door sounds the most, my favorite is the closing sound, too bad it sounds out of place when it comes to hell themed doors. Other sounds i like but not as much are the rocket launch sound, BFG firing sound, Cyberdemon see sound and its mechanical stomping, Archie's flame, SSG sounds and Arachnotron's see and death sounds.

Sounds that are my least favorite; revenant see sound, Mancubus pain and death sounds, chaingunner and shotgun fire not because of the weapon itself, but because chaingunners and spider mastermind uses it as it's attack sounds.

 

[D. Whiskey]

I first played Doom with no music, so my nostalgic memory is creeping through the halls of episode 1 and just hearing the zombies' and imps' roaming sounds.  I especially like the Imps' weird gurgling, and I used to think it was the soulsphere that was making that noise as it sat there out of reach in E1M3.