Custom sounds don't sound as punchy / sound degradation

[Amaruψ]

My current task in my ongoing project is to create custom sound effects for the firearms. I got my hands on the Sound Ideas Series 6000, considering this to be the easiest part of the project, but turns out that I lack even a hint of knowledge in this field. I cobbled together some sound effects from the library, and I'm not sure why, but they seem to lack a certain pizazz that the original ones possess. They sound terribly weak in comparison, and noticeably quieter in the game. But that isn't where my problems end. Whenever I'm converting the audio through SLADE to a format that the original game would recognize, it seems to be going through some sort of degradation. They develop pops and very audible cracks. Here's an example. 

 

This is the SFX that I created to replace the SSG's:

https://files.gamebanana.com/bitpit/dsdshtgn_c2ddb.wav

 

And this is how it sounds like after being converted via SLADE:

https://files.gamebanana.com/bitpit/dsdshtgn.wav

 

I'm at a lost here. Not sure what's going wrong exactly and how can I get around creating decent sounding SFX. Any help would be appreciated.

[Xaser]

To fix the crackling, open the sound in an audio editor of your choice (e.g. Audacity) and save a copy as 8-bit mono (any sample rate up to 44khz should work) -- then SLADE ought to convert the 8-bit copy to Doom's sound format just fine. The sound you posted is 16-bit, which SLADE has trouble with.

 

[This is probably worth reporting as a SLADE bug if it hasn't been yet -- the workaround exists but it's inconvenient and a bit of arcane knowledge.]

[Gez]

1 hour ago, Xaser said:

[This is probably worth reporting as a SLADE bug if it hasn't been yet -- the workaround exists but it's inconvenient and a bit of arcane knowledge.]

All I remember is that many years ago I tried to implement converting 16-bit or higher sounds to Doom sounds, and tests were conclusive that it was beyond awful, so I gave up and instead put some error messages about how it can only convert stuff that's already 8-bit and mono if trying to convert 16+ bit or stereo sounds.

 

Generally, SLADE is not really meant to be used to downsample data to Doom's format, as that's a purpose better left to dedicated sound and image tools. I put in a whole colorimetry shinding to try to get better RGB-to-paletted conversions and still never felt like it was doing a good enough job in the end.

[Shepardus]

DoomTools has a sound conversion utility called DMXConv that you may find useful.

[redEYE]

For me the older Slade 3.1.5 caused crackles but with 3.2.5 the converion worked allright: dsdshtgn.zip

 

It looks like in the converted sound some max amplitude peaks have changed their sign, which results to the crackles. Here's the converted 8-bit sound on top, the apparent original 16-bit below: 

Spoiler

 

 

 

> They sound terribly weak in comparison

 

Changing a sample from 16-bit to 8-bit or 44100 kHz to 11025 does affect to the audio quality. It's depth and boost.

 

But if the sound volume is radically different compare them in an audio editor or in game. Make a test wad for GZDoom (or any port that support the unchanged sound sample) where the original sample replaces DSSHOTGN and the converted sample replaces DSDSHTGN and then compare them with IDFA/shotguns how different they really are.

[Amaruψ]

7 hours ago, Xaser said:

To fix the crackling, open the sound in an audio editor of your choice (e.g. Audacity) and save a copy as 8-bit mono (any sample rate up to 44khz should work) -- then SLADE ought to convert the 8-bit copy to Doom's sound format just fine. The sound you posted is 16-bit, which SLADE has trouble with.

 

[This is probably worth reporting as a SLADE bug if it hasn't been yet -- the workaround exists but it's inconvenient and a bit of arcane knowledge.]

 

This actually worked. I passed the file off to a friend who did the conversion to 8-Bit mono, and SLADE got through this time without any sort of hiccups.

 

3 hours ago, redEYE said:

For me the older Slade 3.1.5 caused crackles but with 3.2.5 the converion worked allright: dsdshtgn.zip

 

It looks like in the converted sound some max amplitude peaks have changed their sign, which results to the crackles. Here's the converted 8-bit sound on top, the apparent original 16-bit below: 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

 

 

 

> They sound terribly weak in comparison

 

Changing a sample from 16-bit to 8-bit or 44100 kHz to 11025 does affect to the audio quality. It's depth and boost.

 

But if the sound volume is radically different compare them in an audio editor or in game. Make a test wad for GZDoom (or any port that support the unchanged sound sample) where the original sample replaces DSSHOTGN and the converted sample replaces DSDSHTGN and then compare them with IDFA/shotguns how different they really are.

 

I should try updating my version. I downloaded the update a few months ago and promptly forgot to install it.

[maxmanium]

The simplest fix for me was to put the .wav into Audacity and just normalize it.

[Doom-X-Machina]

21 hours ago, redEYE said:

It looks like in the converted sound some max amplitude peaks have changed their sign, which results to the crackles. Here's the converted 8-bit sound on top, the apparent original 16-bit below: 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pushed the peaks beyond the 0 decibel mark where it becomes digital distortion or a digital click. Once that's there, you can't get rid of it. One of the disadvantages of digital sound. Any digital wayform with peaks above 0db sounds like garbage... hence the "brickwall mastering" phenomenon of the 21st century that's made modern album production sound so 1 dimensional, dynamically lifeless and harsh to the ear compared to albums recorded and mastered on analog.

FWIW to the discussion, my custom sound effects/audio are put together in Reaper and I output to 44.1hkz/16bit (CD sound standard clarity) at 320kpbs MP3 to keep the file sizes small. They work and play perfectly in-game in full intended quality.

Edited May 27, 2024 by Doom-X-Machina