Why do Doom's sound effects sound better than Quake's sound effects?

[BigMetalhead]

This is a bit of a weird topic, and I could be wrong here.

 

But for some reason, after playing Quake remastered, I feel that Doom's sound effects are better than Quake's sound effects. It's hard to describe it perfectly, but for some reason, Quake's sound effects feel weaker, softer, and more blurred than Doom's sound effects even though Doom's sound effects are compressed pretty heavily.

 

In some cases, it's weird because some sound effects are used in both games, but Doom's version sounds much better in general. For example, Doom's super shotgun sound effect is used in Quake also. But for some reason, Doom's super shotgun sounds much stronger and much more satisfying than Quake's.

 

Am I the only one who feels like this, or is there an actual explanation for this?

[OniriA]

You've already answered your own question. 

[BigMetalhead]

Just now, OniriA said:

You've already answered your own question. 

Well, I'm hoping someone would give a more technical insight on it lol.

[Murdoch]

You are possibly overthinking it.

 

Most of the sounds in Doom came from commercial sound libraries, with some tweaks and edits. Likely Quake did too. Both the original sounds were the same quality as well. If you simply like Doom's effects better then well, that's just subjective taste. Personally I think Quake has always sounded at least on par with Doom as far as it's sound palette goes.

 

If you mean a more technical thing, like the sounds all sounding somehow off in comparison to Doom, well then the only way you could truly and fairly judge that would be to compare both game's original executables on the same hardware. Various remasters and ports may have done different things to how the sounds are played that are affecting how you are perceiving them.

[BigMetalhead]

5 minutes ago, Murdoch said:

You are possibly overthinking it.

 

Most of the sounds in Doom came from commercial sound libraries, with some tweaks and edits. Likely Quake did too. Both the original sounds were the same quality as well. If you simply like Doom's effects better then well, that's just subjective taste. Personally I think Quake has always sounded at least on par with Doom as far as it's sound palette goes.

 

If you mean a more technical thing, like the sounds all sounding somehow off in comparison to Doom, well then the only way you could truly and fairly judge that would be to compare both game's original executables on the same hardware. Various remasters and ports may have done different things to how the sounds are played that are affecting how you are perceiving them.

I see.

 

I am aware that both Doom and Quake used an existing sound library for most of their sound effects, but I could never really get myself to like Quake's sound effects for some reason.

 

I guess it really is just a subjective thing.

[Shepardus]

Quake's rocket launcher sounds way cooler than Doom's, though, and in Quake that's the weapon that matters.

[BigMetalhead]

31 minutes ago, Shepardus said:

Quake's rocket launcher sounds way cooler than Doom's, though, and in Quake that's the weapon that matters.

I think it's okay. I actually prefer Doom's rocket launcher for some reason, but Quake's is good too.

 

The one thing Quake absolutely has over Doom, though, is the grenade launcher. That bouncing noise is way too iconic lmao.

[msx2plus]

it's subjective, like anything else. generally i prefer quake's sounds, especially all the bespoke enemy and gib sounds and whatnot. the mostly stock stuff in doom is fine, but largely uninteresting since it's everywhere. it lacks personality but is confident as the Sound Ideas guys have been doing what they do for a long time. quake's sounds have loads of personality, what with Trent being more hands on in terms of sound design than Bobby was. Trent isn't as technically proficient a sound designer as somebody like Mike McDonough (designer of the classic sci-fi hatch sounds used for doom's doors, lifts, etc), but being a musician, the sounds tend to express an interesting and unique mood.

Edited February 18, 2022 by msx2plus

[roadworx]

cuz doom is better, duh

[Grain of Salt]

I generally prefer quake sound effects to doom ones. The grenade bounce, the nailgun firing, scrag active noises, the gib sounds, doors and lifts, monsters landing on the floor, the various player pain sounds... these are all great imo.

 

Quake does have less memorable monster wakeup sounds though, and some of the death sounds for monsters sound more like pain sounds -- vores, shamblers and knights iirc just go "ugh" when they die, which is much easier to miss than doom's death sounds generally.

 

Edit: just remembered the quad damage sound. I mean, come on. If you don't like the quad damage sound, what's your problem.

Edited February 18, 2022 by Grain of Salt

[msx2plus]

1 minute ago, Grain of Salt said:

just go "ugh" when they die

same, i feel a great kinship with dying quake monsters

[Sonikkumania]

I have to disagree. I think Doom's sound effects, even though legendary, can sound off as bland at their worst, for example, the pistol/chaingun sound is just so very lame. The enemy sound effects sound much better, though, but I still like Quake more.

 

Both games have nailed their sound design very well though, Quake's atmosphere which is more gritty and nether really enjoys from that "heavy" punch of Quake's weapons. The powerup pickup and fade off sounds are also legendary.

 

So in the end it's all about personal preferences and for me I still love both to this very day. I just prefer Quake. Maybe because I've been playing it more recently lol.

[Kinsie]

2 hours ago, msx2plus said:

it's subjective, like anything else. generally i prefer quake's sounds, especially all the bespoke enemy and gib sounds and whatnot. the mostly stock stuff in doom is fine, but largely uninteresting since it's everywhere. it lacks personality but is confident as the Sound Ideas guys have been doing what they do for a long time. quake's sounds have loads of personality, what with Trent being more hands on in terms of sound design than Bobby was. Trent isn't as technically proficient a sound designer as somebody like Mike McDonough (designer of the classic sci-fi hatch sounds used for doom's doors, lifts, etc), but being a musician, the sounds tend to express an interesting and unique mood.

The Id guys were also involved in the sound design, for that extra dose of personality. I recall something about the grenade launcher sound incorporating elements of a recording of illegal fireworks being launched off of American McGee's roof...

[Biodegradable]

17 minutes ago, Kinsie said:

The Id guys were also involved in the sound design, for that extra dose of personality. I recall something about the grenade launcher sound incorporating elements of a recording of illegal fireworks being launched off of American McGee's roof...

 

Yeah, from what I remember from reading both The Masters of Doom and several interviews, American McGee was actually the one who was behind the bulk of the sound design for Quake. He created some of the sounds at home and heavily-edited heaps of other stuff from sound fx library CDs he could find similar to what Bobby Prince did for Doom. Besides the music and the iconic Ranger screams/grunts/"Hup", Trent Reznor is often incorrectly credited for doing all of Quake's sound effects.

[Old-Doomguy]

Quake sure has some wierd sound effects. The "chainsaw scraping on the ground" from the Ogre sounds nothing like what it's supposed to ;D

Ranger's screaming, I've always found his slime/lava pain sounds a bit wierd. "huawei, huwaei, ahh ahh" hehe

[Major Arlene]

Having gone through many of the sounds from Quake when working on sounds design for DITA, Quake's SFX have a lot more... depth? At least for things like items, monsters are less memorable as said above, but there's a layered feeling to them that's noticeably absent from Doom's, at least when listening to them in isolation. 

[Gez]

9 hours ago, BigMetalhead said:

But for some reason, after playing Quake remastered, I feel that Doom's sound effects are better than Quake's sound effects. It's hard to describe it perfectly, but for some reason, Quake's sound effects feel weaker, softer, and more blurred than Doom's sound effects even though Doom's sound effects are compressed pretty heavily.

Have you tried playing through Quake with a different port? I vaguely remember people complaining about the sounds in the remaster.

 

2 hours ago, Old-Doomguy said:

Ranger's screaming, I've always found his slime/lava pain sounds a bit wierd. "huawei, huwaei, ahh ahh" hehe

He's just complaining about 5G cell phone networks.

[BigMetalhead]

2 hours ago, Gez said:

Have you tried playing through Quake with a different port? I vaguely remember people complaining about the sounds in the remaster.

No, actually. I just played it off of steam.

 

If a different source port actually produces better sound somehow, my opinion on this would definitely change lol. I'll check it out for sure.

[DCasali]

I agree with the OP. I think Quake's weapons sound good - nice and crisp and go well with the mechanics of the weapon, but the characters always sounded muddy to me. They're far less distinct than the Doom ones and have less character. They're like muffled grunts, and they all live within a similar spectrum, a criticism I'd level at their appearance and behavior too. On the flip side, I think Doom's monsters have sounds that are as varied as their appearance and behaviors. They have crisp, unique sounds that take advantage of different frequency ranges so they can exist together and not blend into one muddied soundscape. 

 

To me, Doom's character SFX are the result of thoughtful design, inspiration and professional soundscaping. Quake's feel very much more rushed and less inspired. 

[ChopBlock223]

I'm biased towards Doom to a fault, just because of how much it shapes me as a person, but I'll freely admit that I adore the snot out of Quake's sound design, it does a lot of things perfectly, just maybe not all the same things as Doom's sound design.

 

It's a lot more gothic than Doom, and gothic shit just makes me shiver with joy, thankfully much of the sounds and textures in Quake can be borrowed for if someone wants to make for a more gothic Doom experience. The assets can often be adapted easily for Doom's visuals, but also one can basically use just Quake and similar textures to have a visual more distinct from the base game.

 

On 2/18/2022 at 9:34 AM, Biodegradable said:

 

Yeah, from what I remember from reading both The Masters of Doom and several interviews, American McGee was actually the one who was behind the bulk of the sound design for Quake. He created some of the sounds at home and heavily-edited heaps of other stuff from sound fx library CDs he could find similar to what Bobby Prince did for Doom. Besides the music and the iconic Ranger screams/grunts/"Hup", Trent Reznor is often incorrectly credited for doing all of Quake's sound effects.

 

I never knew that, Masters Of Doom certainly doesn't cover it.

Still, I'll give Trent credit for the screams and ambient tracks, they're very good.

 

[Biodegradable]

28 minutes ago, ChopBlock223 said:

I never knew that, Masters Of Doom certainly doesn't cover it.

Still, I'll give Trent credit for the screams and ambient tracks, they're very good

 

Yeah, here's the interview I remember reading where McGee talks about him fucking around with the sound effects. He even mentions that he got told off for spending too much time on it instead of making levels more than a few times hehe. He was having too much fun!

[ChopBlock223]

2 hours ago, Biodegradable said:

 

Yeah, here's the interview I remember reading where McGee talks about him fucking around with the sound effects. He even mentions that he got told off for spending too much time on it instead of making levels more than a few times hehe. He was having too much fun!

I get him, it's pretty damn fun to just fuck around with sounds, I've wasted a lot of time on that.

[blackthorn]

I have to concur with the points some others have made and agree that although I prefer Doom as an overall game, I've always felt that Quake has some of the best sound design ever. Everything in Quake just sounds... brutal. The weapons in particular are just fantastic - unleashing with Quake's SSG or super nailgun really feels like you're dishing out some serious devastation, particularly when you add on the quad damage powerup. Or the combination of sounds as you gib a low-tier enemy with a direct rocket launcher hit? Fantastic.

 

Don't get me wrong - Doom's SFX are exceptionally good as well, but for me Quake has the edge in that department.

[Koko Ricky]

Doom's sound effects are very harsh, with lots of high frequencies and compression artifacts. This makes them in a way more "clear" sounding despite the very low sample rate. Quake's sounds have a bit more bass and less compression, and are thus less harsh. I'm reminded of why I prefer the Sega Genesis soundchip over the SNES; because despite the latter having more channels and fidelity, the former's grit introduces high frequencies that make the attack of each note or hit very clear.

Edited February 21, 2022 by Koko Ricky

[xdarkmasterx]

Are you sure about that?

Spoiler

 

 

[onetruepurple]

On 2/18/2022 at 4:05 PM, BigMetalhead said:

No, actually. I just played it off of steam.

 

If a different source port actually produces better sound somehow, my opinion on this would definitely change lol. I'll check it out for sure.

 

The KEX remaster features remastered sounds. Most other source ports will play the original sounds unless you really go out of your way to have the remastered sounds included.

 

I'm speaking from 20 years of bias but I always found the original sounds to be just fine at 11kHz, and upping the frequency jerks me right out of my comfort zone.

 

As for the OP - Quake has the grenade bounce sound and the Super Nailgun firing sound, so Quake wins.

[MemeMind]

Quake is better because of Trent Reznor ( I am not biased) 

 

In seriousness I think it may be the remaster. I mostly play Quake via source ports and so Im not too familiar with the nitty gritty changes it makes. I can see that slight changes with how audio works in Quake compared to Doom may change how they are perceived. 

 

Personally Quake's Effects are just as Iconic as Doom's effects.  The only thing I have a problem with is the shotgun, but because its meant to be Quake's Pistol, I can forgive it being weak.

[amackert]

This isn't a topic I ever really thought about, but now that I am, I am going to say the sound packages are very different and that's the main takeaway. I don't think one inherently sounds "worse" than the other. They each fit for the games they support. I can't imagine DOOM without its existing sound package, and I 100% cannot imagine Quake without its sounds.

 

That said, if I had to pick absolutely one over the other as a subjective, opinionated thing, I'd personally go with Quake's sound effect package. Considering the game was a move to full 3D, its sounds complement its environments better overall and makes it a more compelling 3D experience. Certain guns have quality reverb effects, distant audio is handled much more convincingly, and many enemy sounds have smooth fade-ins and outs, which allows its sound package to feel a lot more organic than DOOM's.

[Biodegradable]

I love using PerK's old hi-res sound pack that he made back in 2009 and updated in 2012. It fixes some sounds that are broken like the Archvile's flame burst, the shotguns have greater clarity (SSG even has more THUD hehe) and the pistol/chaingun sounds much more like a gun and less like you're making popcorn. Everything just sound clearer overall.