EpiQuake - New ORIGINAL HQ Sound and Music Pak

[damage_inc]

Still on NIGHTMARE MODE... in the second episode... with my ole school Yamaha HTR-5450 paired with two Polk Audio floor standing speakers... CRANKED and loving it

I won't say it's "amazing sound system", but it delivers plenty for a PC video game I could imagine if I still had my sub, sadly it died and has since gone unreplaced

To put this all in perspective, I've PAID for games several times that didn't have this level of QUAILTY! That says it all regardless of personal critiques

[Syluxguy28O3]

eh, just roll with the blows and keep on trucking. i mean, what did you expect?

[rdmusic]

This wasn't meant to be trolling in the least... but rest assured after the elitist welcome here I'm not sure why the hell I'd ever feel the need to come back...so congrats, mission accomplished. You guys really truly know how to make a new contributor feel welcome. Had I posted this in the "works in progress" section, then all of this feedback would be welcome... but maybe you shouldn't always give (or feel the need to give) unsolicited advice / feedback unless the author requests it. Sometimes a project is what it is and an entire community giving advice isn't the best approach, especially when it comes to such subjective things as audio or level design.. too many chefs spoil the soup. A profound game designer once told me something you guys should really take to heart... a game is never done, it just ships.

The loudness is all part of proper sound design...and there is a huge difference between clipping and red lining. Clipping means the sounds distort... none of which do in this mod, red lining (which many game sounds do across many titles) simply means the sound was mastered slightly above 0 db.

Many of the games original sounds red line a bit and are super loud in an editor due to crazy amounts of hard limiting. You of all people should know that Spirit after your attempt at a sound mod.

And now a little unsolicited advice for you, You ALWAYS master weapon sounds as loud as possible.. and if quake had any sort of built in audio bus system then these sounds could be balanced a bit better.

I still say the sounds work extremely well within the context of the game.

lol.. isn't posting stuff on the web fun?

[Spirit]

When "ITS" was first released I d'loaded and played it, now... I didn't exactly care for it but did I rip it apart? Hell NO! Out of respect and admiration for sock, I just kept my opinion to myself. It would serve no good purpose to say what I actually think in as an honest opinion as you guys are showing rdmusic.

Trust me, sock wants you to rip it apart. Please leave him with feedback on what you liked and what not. He uses feedback to improve the quality of his mod.

-------

So this is not a perfect trolling attempt then?

In that case I will not waste my time on in-depth criticism of the inappropiate sounds but just say two things:

A) You increased the loudness of the sounds to insane levels. (Or is that the mysterious cinematic-ness?)

B) You have a lot of clipping. You should hear that on your amazing sound system or at least see it when looking at a waveform plot.

[seanstar]

Hello,

Tried this out today and it's pretty good, the sounds seem to fit nicely from what I've heard.

Nice work.

regards,

Sean

[Mindf!3ldzX]

Smith... thats all a matter of opinion man and frankly ALL of those criticisms were completely subjective. Many think these sounds work just fine. This started out as a personal project and when many of my friends started to hear this (most of which are huge fans of the original game) they urged me to release it... so I did. Figured at least a handful of people might enjoy it. The idea was to CHANGE the game a bit while retaining the same vibe, which I've done.

The only reason I brought up my career is to simply reiterate that my opinion is valid..and that the decisions I made within this mod are completely warranted...I get PAID to do this.

Yes I have an attitude... mainly because this project of mine was met with criticisms such as this. Criticisms I didn't ask for, nor do I think should be thrown out towards someones artistic vision. If you dont like it, you dont like it.... I'm cool with that. But damnit man, don't tell me my vision for MY mod is wrong and that the sounds I've come up with are horribly wrong for the game. That's insanely ridiculous.

Bottom line, everyone is most certainly open to their own opinion!

They just jelly brah

[_Smith_]

Writing that you are a pro, so cannot be wrong and that if someone doesn't like it, it's because he listen on pc speaker is what “activated” me.
I could have been more diplomatic and maybe my rough English is partially responsible for too rough tone of the post. Sorry for that.

I do not think you should redo everything according to sock's feedback, it would be too much work at this point.
Your vision is not for everyone and whatever you could do, wouldn't probably change minds of nay sayers. So it's fine as it is.

A lot of sock's observations had gone beyond “this is not faithful”, understanding what people disliked, could be useful for your next project.
I think that these sounds are interesting and well produced, just the way they are used in this game makes them tedious to listen too, for extended period of time.
Too much of a “shock value" in the sounds, that are meant to create an ambience.

The way you describe it, encourages newbies to replace originals without a second thought, but it's imo more of a “total conversion” than an “upgrade”.
Recommendation to save it for a replay, due to it being very different to original, could make “purists” feel less uncomfortable about it. That is all what I've meant.
Obviously a lot of people is going to really enjoy it and you have a reason to feel satisfied with this achievement.

Edit: I also like the music, like the others.

[nahuel]

GREAT WORK!! I LOVE IT!! I especially love the ambient sounds and "pain". But i have a question: where is the shambler sounds? in the pk3 i only found sounds replacement for pak0.pak and sock spoke about a directory called "boss" i didnt found it!
Awesome work I also love the music, specially the "drama" samples hosted in your web!

[rdmusic]

Smith... thats all a matter of opinion man and frankly ALL of those criticisms were completely subjective. Many think these sounds work just fine. This started out as a personal project and when many of my friends started to hear this (most of which are huge fans of the original game) they urged me to release it... so I did. Figured at least a handful of people might enjoy it. The idea was to CHANGE the game a bit while retaining the same vibe, which I've done.

The only reason I brought up my career is to simply reiterate that my opinion is valid..and that the decisions I made within this mod are completely warranted...I get PAID to do this.

Yes I have an attitude... mainly because this project of mine was met with criticisms such as this. Criticisms I didn't ask for, nor do I think should be thrown out towards someones artistic vision. If you dont like it, you dont like it.... I'm cool with that. But damnit man, don't tell me my vision for MY mod is wrong and that the sounds I've come up with are horribly wrong for the game. That's insanely ridiculous.

Bottom line, everyone is most certainly open to their own opinion!

[damage_inc]

Ya know, they call it common sense, but I just don't see it as all that common! At least not in forums??? It's sad really.

rdmusic comes out with something that most likely took alot of time to create and he DELIVERED! And what is the reception here: BASHING and nit picking, really? That's how new Quake community contributors are to be received, FFS??

When "ITS" was first released I d'loaded and played it, now... I didn't exactly care for it but did I rip it apart? Hell NO! Out of respect and admiration for sock, I just kept my opinion to myself. It would serve no good purpose to say what I actually think in as an honest opinion as you guys are showing rdmusic.

Obviously others LOVE it, and rightfully so as it fits their desires in gaming.

Now, sure rd has alot of attitude, and what he made has that as well... he's very confident in his artistic talents, that's no big deal. If it's not for you, simply move along.
That's the way it should be. Discussion is fine, what's going on here, not so much.

IMHO,
- damage_

[rdmusic]

Lol... I guess I fit into that category myself... started making levels for Quake with QED back in college, and that was way back in '97. Damn, where does the time go!

Nope, no projects lined up.. but, time permitting, I'm definitely open to providing sound / music for any projects that may need it! So feel free to hit me up here or contact me via my webpage or moddb if you need some audio or music goodness to spice things up. When it comes to projects which I don't own, I'm definitely far more open to feedback and criticism. Hell, the audio has to fit whatever the high concept and/or vision is!

[_Smith_]

Wow, that's a TON of feedback. I appreciate it... but these sounds aren't supposed to be listened to separately outside of the game..

A ton of feedback you have not bothered to read with understanding, because it's all about how these sounds are interesting and well produced, but don't work well in game.

Just FYI and as a soft reminder.. I do music and sound professionally full time and have been doing so for 10 years.

How does it is even an argument ?

What a classic display of hubris... I am not a purist, but I still don't enjoy this pack, even when I don't compare it to the original.
I won't bother with an actual feedback, since it is clear that the author does not desire it...

What is important here, is that this is not an upgrade, this is just changing everything for the heck of it. Visual equivalent would be replacing NG with a submashine gun, SNG with an assault rifle, etc. There is nothing wrong with doing it and people enjoying playing with it. The way you describe / advertise this as an upgrade that is "consistent with the quake world" and recommend to overwrite sounds in original PAK file permanently is not nice, though. This pack is really in need of a disclaimer, for people who are going to play Quake for the first time, to stay away. You'll keep a lot of the hate outside of public space, if you add it and keep it as a separate PAK file, like the music addon.

***
It seems that rdmusic does not enjoy “thinker” kind of feedback
“defusion smilies”

[Syluxguy28O3]

Thanks for the kind words man. It's been kind of a rough crowd here at Q1... no doubt because many of you are purists, which I totally respect and get.

hehe, most people here are old codgers set in there ways. while the criticism is brutal, its honest (most of the time).

btw, any other quake projects you plan to work on/contribute to?

[rdmusic]

Thanks for the kind words man. It's been kind of a rough crowd here at Q1... no doubt because many of you are purists, which I totally respect and get.

Dear rdmusic... I came home from work, downloaded your music and sound pack, CRANKED my Yamaha receiver UP, and started a new game of Quake on nightmare!!!

Damage, you sir are playing EpiQuake the way it was intended to be played! Crank it and feel the bass! Have fun!

[damage_inc]

Dear rdmusic... I came home from work, downloaded your music and sound pack, CRANKED my Yamaha receiver UP, and started a new game of Quake on nightmare!!!

IT was absolutely AWESOME! And I'm not the biggest fan of single player, original levels, Quake.

Thank you very much for the release of this audio upgrade to Quake. I think I'll actually play the whole game again just to experience all the work and effort you put in

Thanks again,
- damage_