PC Doom sound effects VS PSX Doom sound effects

[RightField]

Jaxxoon R said:

I don't see what you mean.

I do. Making something dark doesn't make it scary. The D64 PE looks really dated. The PC one seems more timeless, because it doesn't try too hard to look scary, it's just a monster.

[Jaxxoon R]

I still don't see it.

[jazzmaster9]

RightField said:

I do. Making something dark doesn't make it scary. The D64 PE looks really dated. The PC one seems more timeless, because it doesn't try too hard to look scary, it's just a monster.

the Doom 2 PE doesn't even look monstrous. it looks like something you would make a plushie out of.

[Koko Ricky]

Doom 2's PE consistently reminds me of a sassy black woman.

[june gloom]

jazzmaster9 said:

the Doom 2 PE doesn't even look monstrous. it looks like something you would make a plushie out of.

Correct.

[fraggle]

dethtoll said:

I think a lot of it also had to do with Adrian Carmack's art style. There's a clear resemblance between his Doom spritework and his Wolfenstein 3D spritework -- humanoid enemies all have the same kind of blocky heads.

While there are inevitably going to be similarities because it's the same artist and it's ultimately pixel art, I'd argue that Doom's monsters are significantly less "cartoony" than those in Wolf3D. I think a lot of that comes down to the fact that many of them are captured from actual models - when I think of "cartooniness" I think of the detailing added to the sprites as "pure" pixel art after photo capture, such as the faces on the zombies for example.

It kind of makes sense if you think of it in the context of light and shadow - no matter how good an artist you might be, you're not going to beat "real life" shading that comes from photographing a real model. Actually, Doom 64's zombies look visibly inferior in this regard (all the shading looks flat), possibly because they're pure pixel art and not derived from models (some of Doom 64's sprites are derived from models, but I'm not sure which ones).

[BaronOfStuff]

fraggle said:

(some of Doom 64's models are derived from models, but I'm not sure which ones).

Models derived from models, you say? What a time to be alive! ;)

On a serious note, renders based on models in Doom 64 include the "Bull Demon" and... er, I think that's about it.

[Shadow Hog]

I'd thought pretty much all the sprites in Doom 64 were rendered off of 3D models.

[pfr_77]

PC all the way. Those sounds are Doom to me.

The other ones remind me of Quake for some reason tbh

[Gez]

BaronOfStuff said:

Models derived from models, you say? What a time to be alive! ;)

On a serious note, renders based on models in Doom 64 include the "Bull Demon" and... er, I think that's about it.

Sprites based on renders of 3D models based on physical models based on 2D concept art.

[DoomzRules]

The PC sound effects are more iconic and recognizable.

But the PSX sound effects do a good job of instilling fear in those who play.

Particularly PSX Doom and Doom 64 do a good job of making you feel isolated, scared, and downright terrified.

IMHO Playstation Doom still has the best ambient soundtrack and atmosphere. I really recommend playing PSX Doom. If only there were more PSX inspired wads out there. :P

[Avoozl]

I wouldn't really say PSX Doom has the best ambient atmosphere but I would say that it does have the best soundtrack.

[DoomzRules]

Avoozl said:

I wouldn't really say PSX Doom has the best ambient atmosphere but I would say that it does have the best soundtrack.

I disagree with the ambient atmosphere. Some of the Lost Levels (an excellent mod that this community made) are very atmospheric and moody. Not to mention that Deimos Anomaly and some of the Final Doom levels are pretty atmospheric as well.

All around PSX Doom has some of the best ambient atmosphere I've seen in a video game thus far (unless we are counting the swamp level in Hexen *shudders*)

[Avoozl]

But what you are talking about is the mod for PSX Doom not the original PSX Doom on the actual hardware. The original PSX Doom on the hardware has awful distance shading which kind of ruins the ambient atmosphere.

It's not entirely fair to compare a game to mod which improves over its original game counterpart.

[DoomzRules]

Avoozl said:

But what you are talking about is the mod for PSX Doom not the original PSX Doom on the actual hardware. The original PSX Doom on the hardware has awful distance shading which kind of ruins the ambient atmosphere.

It's not entirely fair to compare a game to mod which improves over its original game counterpart.

That's true. Perhaps I should have clarified. =P I meant the PSX Doom mod, not the original game on the original hardware.

I also like to run through Scythe 2 with my custom monster randomizer and the Diablo soundtrack just to get a real Diablo-Doom esque feeling.

It works, and since it's the Diablo 1 soundtrack, it is pretty creepy and scary at times. =3

[Mattfrie1]

I like both equally. That said, I've found that the PSX SFX pop up in way too many 90s sci-fi shows. I can't hear the PSX item pickup sound now without thinking of Seaquest...

[DoomzRules]

Mattfrie1 said:

I like both equally. That said, I've found that the PSX SFX pop up in way too many 90s sci-fi shows. I can't hear the PSX item pickup sound now without thinking of Seaquest...

I think about X-Files more often for some reason. :3

[Space Marinara]

On 2/19/2016 at 1:10 AM, Jaxxoon R said:

I don't see what you mean.

I just wanted to post a fairer comparison. The PC version appeared darker on CRTs (so I've compensated for that) and I've also brightened the D64 PE to match.

[kb1]

On 2/14/2016 at 5:32 PM, Doomkid said:

Though it would be cool if some of the demons could use their PSX sounds instead, hearing that "HAWWW" demon pain sound for 80% of the enemies gets a little repetitive but it never bothered me much.

That always bothered me too. To "solve" it:

1. Random pitch bend effect - especially useful when you kill a bunch of monsters at once
2. Perkristen's "restored" sounds with better dynamic ranges

[THEBaratusII]

I grew up playing PC versions of Doom, and I personally loved the 11kh SSG reload that was on the Xbox ports too. As for the PSX sounds, they were pretty cool and improved at the time, but if I have to choose.

 

It would be PC Doom due to nostalgia reasons.

 

Edited June 15, 2018 by Baratus 95
pressed send on accident.

[Dragonsbrethren]

I prefer the PSX sound effects for the most part, but I don't think it's just the sounds themselves, but how they play with the PSX maps' reverb effects. Loading them in vanilla Doom certainly isn't the same experience.

[kb1]

4 hours ago, Baratus 95 said:

I grew up playing PC versions of Doom, and I personally loved the 11kh SSG reload that was on the Xbox ports too. As for the PSX sounds, they were pretty cool and improved at the time, but if I have to choose.

 

It would be PC Doom due to nostalgia reasons.

Yep. It's the same reason hi-res texture packs never universally catch on, and why some people still play with 320x200 res, with vanilla bugs intact, etc. For every Doom fan, at some point in time, after having been exposed to Doom, love occurs :) Whatever resources happen to be there, when that happens, become baked into that experience, complete with emotion. This is when logic stops controlling the decision-making process, and nostalgia takes over.

 

I think that pursuit of that original feeling drives a lot of the modding efforts for many of us.

[Danfun64]

17 hours ago, kb1 said:

It's the same reason hi-res texture packs never universally catch on, and why some people still play with 320x200 res, with vanilla bugs intact, etc. For every Doom fan, at some point in time, after having been exposed to Doom, love occurs :) Whatever resources happen to be there, when that happens, become baked into that experience, complete with emotion. This is when logic stops controlling the decision-making process, and nostalgia takes over.

...either that or hi-res texture packs not gelling with PWADS that change the graphics at all.

 

[amackert]

I can deal with the PSX sound effects but it's never been my preferred sound package. Some of the sounds don't feel as well-defined and are muffled, whereas PC DOOM's sound effects are crystal clear in comparison. I also find that the combination of the new sound effects and the original "music" gives off this very repetitious, droning kind of vibe and it's more of a downer than not. I never get that feeling when playing the PC version.

 

I can see where people are coming from in regards to sound effects for things like the plasma gun (too irritating) and chaingun (too weak), but they've never bothered me.

[kb1]

On 6/16/2018 at 1:54 PM, Danfun64 said:

...either that or hi-res texture packs not gelling with PWADS that change the graphics at all.

 

Yep, that too :)

[Devils950003]

Been playing the Xbox Live (360) version of Doom lately, with the Bobby Prince tunes turned off (they just don't work for me at all, though I'm semi-tempted to give the 3DO remixes a go sometime).  I go with the far superior work of Aubrey Hodges playing through my laptop (the extended soundtrack, which are even better/longer versions of his PSX Doom work).  The Hodges tunes actually work very well with the XBLive version, though they do feel slightly more at home on the PSX.  As much as I still enjoy PSX Doom, now that I'm used to all of the "extras" (no missing textures, no truncated levels or missing animations, etc), and the incredibly and consistently smooth frame rate on the XBLive version, it's a little harder to go back to the PSX, even though overall I still the PSX atmosphere just feels more "right".  Fortunately I play PSX Doom on a PSOne with the LCD screen, which is a bit forgiving.  And I do like the "feel" on some of the PSX levels more than their PC counterparts...and in the case of the Containment Area, the PSX (well, Jaguar technically I guess) chop down of that level is actually welcome. 

 

I do wish I had the PSX sounds on the XBLive.  There may be a couple of PC sound effects that are as good or slightly better, but overall, the PSX effects are better by a landslide.  Too many PC sounds are just too weak. 

[scalliano]

I started out on the 32x version before migrating to Playstation. Hence my bias towards the PSX sounds as anything was better than that crap.

[Aubrey Hodges]

On 2/15/2016 at 1:44 PM, fraggle said:

PC. Sorry but I hate everything about the PSX sound and music design.

 

No soup for you!! Hehe

[Aubrey Hodges]

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 
 

[Fuzzball]

You did a great job Aubrey- many of the people here (not all of course) are just attached to their "baby" so if it deviates too much they jump on board and hate it because it's not "their Doom" . Thanks for the insights of course, you have every right to defend yourself! :D

Certainly is interesting to have played both later in my life to have the different comparisons, each have a different feel- and personally I feel that the PSX version of the game feels creepier thanks to the atmosphere and the soundtrack. PC for me would be more action and fast-paced.

Both are enjoyable in their own rights and different people have different feelings on each!