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There have been some rumblings over the past week or so that Mick Gordon was not at all happy with how some aspects of the DOOM Eternal soundtrack were being handled. These issues were first brought up around April 19, 2020 after it was discovered that many of the audio tracks from the official DOOM Eternal soundtrack were severely lacking in dynamic range. Mick responded to the Twitter thread saying that he did not mix the tracks in question and that he "wouldn't have done that."
From what could be pieced together, the assumption is that someone else at id Software or even Bethesda were the ones to mix the majority of the tracks for the DOOM Eternal soundtrack. That is to say, they were mixed not by the composer, Mick Gordon. That usually isn't a good sign, especially when the result is a large number of tracks that lack definition. You can see the relevant tweets embedded below.
Mick Gordon even replied to a fan who had asked if he and id Software would ever work together again on a new DOOM game. To this, Mick responded simply, saying, "(I) doubt we'll work together again." A slightly longer response was provided to PC Gamer in late April.
"I take a lot of pride in my work," Gordon told me. "It’s all I do, it’s all I have and I pour my heart and soul into it." He added that he's still trying to understand the situation himself and has no further comments at this time.
As for the immediate future, we are at the point of moving on and won’t be working with Mick on the DLC we currently have in production
What we see today from Stratton and id Software is that id had to begin working on their own mixes of the OST in order to meet certain deadlines. They were forced into this because they were worried that Mick Gordon would not get his work finished on time.
In early April, I sent an email to Mick reiterating the importance of hitting his extended contractual due date and outlined in detail the reasons we needed to meet our commitments to our customers. I let him know that Chad had started work on the back-up tracks but reiterated that our expectation and preference was to release what he delivered. Several days later, Mick suggested that he and Chad (working on the back-up) combine what each had been working on to come up with a more comprehensive release.
The next day, Chad informed Mick that he was rebuilding tracks based on the chunks/fragments mixed and delivered for the game. Mick replied that he personally was contracted for 12 tracks and suggested again that we use some of Chad’s arrangements to fill out the soundtrack beyond the 12 songs. Mick asked Chad to send over what he’d done so that he could package everything up and balance it all for delivery. As requested, Chad sent Mick everything he had done.
On the day the music was due from Mick, I asked what we could expect from him. Mick indicated that he was still finishing a number of things but that it would be no-less than 12 tracks and about 60 minutes of music and that it would come in late evening. The next morning, Mick informed us that he’d run into some issues with several tracks and that it would take additional time to finish, indicating he understood we were in a tight position for launching and asked how we’d like to proceed. We asked him to deliver the tracks he’d completed and then follow-up with the remaining tracks as soon as possible.
After listening to the 9 tracks he’d delivered, I wrote him that I didn’t think those tracks would meet the expectations of DOOM or Mick fans – there was only one track with the type of heavy-combat music people would expect, and most of the others were ambient in nature. I asked for a call to discuss. Instead, he replied that the additional tracks he was trying to deliver were in fact the combat tracks and that they are the most difficult to get right. He again suggested that if more heavy tracks are needed, Chad’s tracks could be used to flesh it out further.
The next day, Chad informed Mick that he was rebuilding tracks based on the chunks/fragments mixed and delivered for the game. Mick replied that he personally was contracted for 12 tracks and suggested again that we use some of Chad’s arrangements to fill out the soundtrack beyond the 12 songs. Mick asked Chad to send over what he’d done so that he could package everything up and balance it all for delivery. As requested, Chad sent Mick everything he had done.
On the day the music was due from Mick, I asked what we could expect from him. Mick indicated that he was still finishing a number of things but that it would be no-less than 12 tracks and about 60 minutes of music and that it would come in late evening. The next morning, Mick informed us that he’d run into some issues with several tracks and that it would take additional time to finish, indicating he understood we were in a tight position for launching and asked how we’d like to proceed. We asked him to deliver the tracks he’d completed and then follow-up with the remaining tracks as soon as possible.
After listening to the 9 tracks he’d delivered, I wrote him that I didn’t think those tracks would meet the expectations of DOOM or Mick fans – there was only one track with the type of heavy-combat music people would expect, and most of the others were ambient in nature. I asked for a call to discuss. Instead, he replied that the additional tracks he was trying to deliver were in fact the combat tracks and that they are the most difficult to get right. He again suggested that if more heavy tracks are needed, Chad’s tracks could be used to flesh it out further.
Stratton's overall account seems to suggest that Mick Gordon was on a tight deadline and failed to deliver the entirety of the tracks that he promised. The two had seemingly come up with a new working relationship that would see Mick submit a smaller number of tracks while the rest would be handled internally. A compromise that Mick had apparently agreed to by way of an updated contract. Despite this, Mick obviously voiced his ire about the tracks he didn't master himself after the soundtrack was released. Stratton goes on to say that he reached out to Mick after those statements were made in order to figure out what was going on.
After reaching out to Mick several times via email to understand what prompted his online posts, we were able to talk. He shared several issues that I’d also like to address.
First, he said that he was surprised by the scope of what was released – the 59 tracks. Chad had sent Mick everything more than a week before the final deadline, and I described to him our plan to combine the id-edited tracks with his own tracks (as he’d suggested doing). The tracks Mick delivered covered only a portion of the music in the game, so the only way to deliver a comprehensive OST was to combine the tracks Mick-delivered with the tracks id had edited from game music. If Mick is dissatisfied with the content of his delivery, we would certainly entertain distributing additional tracks.
I also know that Mick feels that some of the work included in the id-edited tracks was originally intended more as demos or mock-ups when originally sent. However, Chad only used music that was in-game or was part of a cinematic music construction kit.
Mick also communicated that he wasn’t particularly happy with some of the edits in the id tracks. I understand this from an artist’s perspective and realize this opinion is what prompted him to distance from the work in the first place. That said, from our perspective, we didn’t want to be involved in the content of the OST and did absolutely nothing to prevent him from delivering on his commitments within the timeframe he asked for, and we extended multiple times.
Finally, Mick was concerned that we’d given Chad co-composer credit – which we did not do and would never have done. In the metadata, Mick is listed as the sole composer and sole album artist. On tracks edited by id, Chad is listed as a contributing artist. That was the best option to clearly delineate for fans which tracks Mick delivered and which tracks id’s Lead Audio Designer had edited. It would have been misleading for us to attribute tracks solely to Mick that someone else had edited.
First, he said that he was surprised by the scope of what was released – the 59 tracks. Chad had sent Mick everything more than a week before the final deadline, and I described to him our plan to combine the id-edited tracks with his own tracks (as he’d suggested doing). The tracks Mick delivered covered only a portion of the music in the game, so the only way to deliver a comprehensive OST was to combine the tracks Mick-delivered with the tracks id had edited from game music. If Mick is dissatisfied with the content of his delivery, we would certainly entertain distributing additional tracks.
I also know that Mick feels that some of the work included in the id-edited tracks was originally intended more as demos or mock-ups when originally sent. However, Chad only used music that was in-game or was part of a cinematic music construction kit.
Mick also communicated that he wasn’t particularly happy with some of the edits in the id tracks. I understand this from an artist’s perspective and realize this opinion is what prompted him to distance from the work in the first place. That said, from our perspective, we didn’t want to be involved in the content of the OST and did absolutely nothing to prevent him from delivering on his commitments within the timeframe he asked for, and we extended multiple times.
Finally, Mick was concerned that we’d given Chad co-composer credit – which we did not do and would never have done. In the metadata, Mick is listed as the sole composer and sole album artist. On tracks edited by id, Chad is listed as a contributing artist. That was the best option to clearly delineate for fans which tracks Mick delivered and which tracks id’s Lead Audio Designer had edited. It would have been misleading for us to attribute tracks solely to Mick that someone else had edited.
For whatever it's worth, those audio tracks that are included in the DOOM Soundtrack will probably still sound amazing to most listeners. Even with the lack of definition in the waveform, I assume that only true audiophiles will even notice a difference.
Mick Gordon's soundtrack and audio credits include DOOM Eternal, DOOM (2016), Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Prey (2017), and Killer Instinct just to name a few titles.
I was initially put off because i thought maybe Chad would deliver a different composition of the music, which would be bad because it's not his music, but i don't see any evidence that he has.
I'm very interested to see if the next composer attempts to copy Mick's style or comes up with their own electronic metal sound, but when it comes people are going to be judging it pretty hard.
Now, If you are listening to them in like... uncompressed WAV or lossless FLAC, on a pair of expensive studio quality headphones, you'd probably notice it if you knew what to listen for.
But you're right though, most people aren't going to notice a difference. I really doubt most people would even know nor care if that tweet comparing the waveforms wasn't made by that one user. Just sucks that this is what drove a wedge between the two parties.