Redub: Doom Eternal Quakecon Trailer

Since the earliest installment, Doom has been a metal game. John Carmack and John Romero lived like rockstars in the early 90s (a book covers this development period: Masters of Doom). While watching the Doom Eternal footage for the first time, I knew I wanted to capture their design style by using a few elements to be over the top aggressive and gnarly. I was most excited to tackle the helmet boot-up sequence using bass design techniques I’ve gained over the years of working with electronic dance music, drum and bass, and dubstep. I will flex my electronic music sound design muscles using skills I’ve picked up after 15 years of producing.

I started this project like all previous projects. Creating a marker track within my DAW (Cubase/Nuendo), laid markers for every primary cue, and then transferred those markers into a Kanban where I could visually chart and track progress.

To create the “helmet boot sequence,” I went back to the basics, went frame by frame, and took hand-written notes on each visual element I wanted to incorporate into the design. One emotion-bending technique I’ve learned through music is to use rising pitches of synths and effects to create tension and release. I focused on using increasingly rising pitch and brightness throughout the sequence until the booting is complete and you are dropped back into the game. The most creative use of my sound effects library was repurposing a “3D Printer Warm-Up Sequence” recording, which ran through Melda’s MGranularMB to create a droning, mechanical, harsh, whooshing type atmosphere as I imagined the helmet pressurizing and coming to equilibrium.

I haven’t mentioned it in previous blogs, but shifting pitch and time stretching/warping are among the most frequent processes I do to execute a concept successfully. I used the experience I gained during my Escape From Tarkov redub to develop gun sounds and took inspiration from a test Sekiro redub to create melee, chain grapple hooks, and gore sounds. A ratchet and a chain on a wood table constructed the chain zip line (player action). It’s impressive what slight pitch shifting will do. Combined, they sound pretty weak without frequency, formant, and pitch shifting.

In my twitch.tv chat, we had conversations about the lack of footsteps in the Doom Eternal footage and game. The conclusion was that with so much action happening on-screen during the over-the-top combat, the footsteps might overlap and create a muddy experience with sounds playing on top of each other. Prioritization of sounds in a game engine is an important step. Not just for optimization but as a creative concept that can further the story and gameplay.

Overall I’m thrilled with the way this footage came out. I want to thank my twitch.tv community again for ideas and support, and I genuinely consider collaboration and the sharing of ideas a fundamental part of creating engaging and immersive art.