DOOM has a fantastic soundtrack – Mick Gordon's work on the game is second to none, and creates the perfect audio backdrop to rip and tear to. However, Gordon's contribution to the sequel DOOM Eternal – which launches on Switch later this year – has come under scrutiny from fans after it was discovered that parts of the soundtrack mix didn't feel right.
The blame was initially laid at Gordon's door, but he has since stated that he didn't mix all of the game's tracks.
Gordon has since stated that he's unlikely to work with id Software again, and his somewhat negative comments on the matter have led to some fans attacking id Software's audio lead for the poor mix – a situation which has spurred the game's executive producer, Marty Stratton, into action.
He has confirmed that Gordon and Bethesda have indeed parted company with one another, and has offered a timeline of events to better illustrate why DOOM Eternal sounds the way it does. Stratton has posted a lengthy statement on the matter, which, in the interests of clarity, we've reproduced in full below.
Over the past couple weeks, I’ve seen lots of discussion centered around the release of the DOOM Eternal Original Game Soundtrack (OST). While many fans like the OST, there is speculation and criticism around the fact that the game’s talented and popular composer, Mick Gordon, edited and “mixed” only 12 of the 59 tracks on the OST - the remainder being edited by our Lead Audio Designer here at id.
Some have suggested that we’ve been careless with or disrespectful of the game music. Others have speculated that Mick wasn’t given the time or creative freedom to deliver something different or better. The fact is – none of that is true.
What has become unacceptable to me are the direct and personal attacks on our Lead Audio Designer - particularly considering his outstanding contributions to the game – as well as the damage this mischaracterization is doing to the many talented people who have contributed to the game and continue to support it. I feel it is my responsibility to respond on their behalf. We’ve enjoyed an amazingly open and honest relationship with our fans, so given your passion on this topic and the depth of misunderstanding, I’m compelled to present the entire story.
When asked on social media about his future with DOOM, Mick has replied, “doubt we’ll work together again.” This was surprising to see, as we have never discussed ending our collaboration with him until now - but his statement does highlight a complicated relationship. Our challenges have never been a matter of creative differences. Mick has had near limitless creative autonomy over music composition and mixing in our recent DOOM games, and I think the results have been tremendous. His music is defining - and much like Bobby Prince’s music was synonymous with the original DOOM games from the 90s, Mick’s unique style and sound have become synonymous with our latest projects. He’s deserved every award won, and I hope his incredible score for DOOM Eternal is met with similar accolades – he will deserve them all.
Talent aside, we have struggled to connect on some of the more production-related realities of development, while communication around those issues have eroded trust. For id, this has created an unsustainable pattern of project uncertainty and risk.
At E3 last year, we announced that the OST would be included with the DOOM Eternal Collector’s Edition (CE) version of the game. At that point in time we didn’t have Mick under contract for the OST and because of ongoing issues receiving the music we needed for the game, did not want to add the distraction at that time. After discussions with Mick in January of this year, we reached general agreement on the terms for Mick to deliver the OST by early March - in time to meet the consumer commitment of including the digital OST with the DOOM Eternal CE at launch. The terms of the OST agreement with Mick were similar to the agreement on DOOM (2016) in that it required him to deliver a minimum of 12 tracks, but added bonus payments for on-time delivery. The agreement also gives him complete creative control over what he delivers.
On February 24, Mick reached out to communicate that he and his team were fine with the terms of the agreement but that there was a lot more work involved than anticipated, a lot of content to wade through, and that while he was making progress, it was taking longer than expected. He apologized and asked that “ideally” he be given an additional four weeks to get everything together. He offered that the extra time would allow him to provide upwards of 30 tracks and a run-time over two hours – including all music from the game, arranged in soundtrack format and as he felt it would best represent the score in the best possible way.
Mick’s request was accommodated, allowing for an even longer extension of almost six weeks – with a new final delivery date of mid-April. In that communication, we noted our understanding of him needing the extra time to ensure the OST meets his quality bar, and even moved the bonus payment for on-time delivery to align with the new dates so he could still receive the full compensation intended, which he will. In early March, we announced via Twitter that the OST component in the DOOM Eternal CE was delayed and would not be available as originally intended.
It’s important to note at this point that not only were we disappointed to not deliver the OST with the launch of the CE, we needed to be mindful of consumer protection laws in many countries that allow customers to demand a full refund for a product if a product is not delivered on or about its announced availability date. Even with that, the mid-April delivery would allow us to meet our commitments to customers while also allowing Mick the time he had ideally requested.
As we hit April, we grew increasingly concerned about Mick delivering the OST to us on time. I personally asked our Lead Audio Designer at id, Chad, to begin work on id versions of the tracks – a back-up plan should Mick not be able to deliver on time. To complete this, Chad would need to take all of the music as Mick had delivered for the game, edit the pieces together into tracks, and arrange those tracks into a comprehensive OST.
It is important to understand that there is a difference between music mixed for inclusion in the game and music mixed for inclusion in the OST. Several people have noted this difference when looking at the waveforms but have misunderstood why there is a difference. When a track looks “bricked” or like a bar, where the extreme highs and lows of the dynamic range are clipped, this is how we receive the music from Mick for inclusion in the game - in fragments pre-mixed and pre-compressed by him. Those music fragments he delivers then go into our audio system and are combined in real-time as you play through the game.
Alternatively, when mixing and mastering for an OST, Mick starts with his source material (which we don’t typically have access to) and re-mixes for the OST to ensure the highs and lows are not clipped – as seen in his 12 OST tracks. This is all important to note because Chad only had these pre-mixed and pre-compressed game fragments from Mick to work with in editing the id versions of the tracks. He simply edited the same music you hear in game to create a comprehensive OST – though some of the edits did require slight volume adjustments to prevent further clipping.
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.
After considering his recommendations, I let Mick know that we would move forward with the combined effort, to provide a more comprehensive collection of the music from the game. I let Mick know that Chad had ordered his edited tracks as a chronology of the game music and that to create the combined work, Chad would insert Mick‘s delivered tracks into the OST chronology where appropriate and then delete his own tracks containing similar thematic material. I said that if his additional combat tracks come in soon, we’d do the same to include them in the OST or offer them later as bonus tracks. Mick delivered 2 final tracks, which we incorporated, and he wished us luck wrapping it up. I thanked him and let him know that we’d be happy to deliver his final track as a bonus later on and reminded him of our plans for distribution of the OST first to CE owners, then later on other distribution platforms.
On April 19, we released the OST to CE owners. As mentioned earlier, soon after release, some of our fans noted and posted online the waveform difference between the tracks Mick had mixed from his source files and the tracks that Chad had edited from Mick's final game music, with Mick’s knowledge and at his suggestion.
In a reply to one fan, Mick said he, “didn’t mix those and wouldn’t have done that.” That, and a couple of other simple messages distancing from the realities and truths I’ve just outlined has generated unnecessary speculation and judgement - and led some to vilify and attack an id employee who had simply stepped up to the request of delivering a more comprehensive OST. Mick has shared with me that the attacks on Chad are distressing, but he’s done nothing to change the conversation.
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.
If you’ve read all of this, thank you for your time and attention. 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. As I’ve mentioned, his music is incredible, he is a rare talent, and I hope he wins many awards for his contribution to DOOM Eternal at the end of the year.
I’m as disappointed as anyone that we’re at this point, but as we have many times before, we will adapt to changing circumstances and pursue the most unique and talented artists in the industry with whom to collaborate. Our team has enjoyed this creative collaboration a great deal and we know Mick will continue to delight fans for many years ahead.
Comments 52
Switch release date and gameplay footage please that’s all we want
"He had creative freedom"
"We don't know why he didn't make deadline"
You didn't stick to deadlines! You all botched it. Fess up and move on. I just don't care for people that don't have enough empathy to solve their own problems.
Mick sounds like an entitled d.....
@sandman89 Agreed. It's time, Panic Button!
As much as I would usually default to the side of the artist rather than the mega corporation hiring them, this is a pretty comprehensive and likely series of events. As someone who has written and composed music in different forms for most of my adult life, I know exactly how it feels to have something you wrote taken and worked on by someone else, often having results that are far from what you originally intended, it can be disheartening and you often have to suck up those compromises. But ultimately that's part and parcel of working collaboratively on projects, especially when people have to step in to help you meet deadlines. Mick is an amazing writer and producer, DOOM would not be the same without his contribution and I really hope he gets to work on more soundtracks in the future!
It is a pity this has happened regardless of the reasons why.
Mick Gordon's Doom 2016 soundtrack was stellar but his work on seasons 1 and 2 of Killer Instinct was on a whole other level of greatness.
Well Mike sounds useless. Probably for the best he gets left behind!!
That's a very fair and transparent statement without pointing out a bad guy or finger pointing in general. Chapeau!
Thats an interesting read and to be honest, very fair. Sounds like Mick was too pushed for time and not meeting deadlines (twice) has got to pile on a bit of pressure for both parties involved.It sounds like Mick just wanted out by handing the OST back and then wasnt happy with what had been done. While this is understandable from a composers point of view he also needs to understand a deadline is called a deadline for a readon. Im no expert but thats just how i read it.
Im done waiting for DOOM Eternal on Switch might not even cone out this year anymore im just gonna buy it on PS4
I will normally buy the Switch version of Doom eternal as I did buy Doom on Switch at release at november 2017 and loved it. I am also a musician (guitar, vocals) in metal style of music. This shows us all struggles and difficulties involved at creating an entire videogame music library in both videogame format and OST format. This side of the story seems to show us that Mick Gordon did bot manage those deadline constraints all that well, but we don't know all. I was waiting for this "music soundtrack" in a sense that it would involde heavy metal choirs in some kind of way. But if Mick does not return to Doom future games, I am confident that another composer could fill the void nicely with a similar heavy metal style.
From now on we will be able to kick some demoniac ass while listening to christian rap as God always intended. What's not to like?
If Bethesda just released a volume 1 and promised a free volume 2 to purchasers this could have been avoided. I'm sure they considered it and decided against it because of the advertised pre-order bonus, but they already delayed it once. They've disappointed more fans than if they delayed it. Sure Mick Gordon could have been more timely but they hired him only 3 months before release. What were they expecting?
It's a pretty much a sad story where no one gets out unscathed.
Honestly, I’ll side with the artist 99 times out of 100 but the guy missed his deadlines multiple times. In any other job, that’s grounds to be fired as the company runs the risk of losing money, negatively affecting other employees.
I do not compose music but I have done quite a bit of spec writing and this explanation sounds very much like they changed things as it went along. If you read the composers response after the original agreement he expresses concerns with the amount of material he has to go through. If this material was present during the original discussions in January he would have raised it then. Instead a month later he brings it up.
It sounds like he he did some preliminary work and they made suggestions to align his work with their expectations. It put him behind at that point for whatever reason. I am highly doubtful they gave him "complete" creative freedom. id is part of a corporation and they keep tight reins on everything so their idea of complete freedom is within certain pre-defined parameters.
Sounds like Mick wasn't meeting the deadline on more than one occasion and these guys were even nice enough to accommodate that and adjust his bonus.
Also the way he's broken this whole thing down is really telling.
I hope people get off their backs now. DOOM Eternal is a great game, which brings me to more pressing news on that.
When do we get it????
Even in quarantine, nobody has time to read all that
I've played Doom Eternal and I can't complain at the music. It's crazy to hear about all the hate that the sound guy "Chad" received, just for working hard on it. Some people in the gaming community are just embarrassing and take things too far.
Some gamers are always looking for something to be angry about. I believe Marty Stratton's account of what happened and he did not bury Mick (which he easily could have)
Goes to show that you can't just take one side of the story and say it is true.
Id wrote complete details into how they hired Mike, even compensated because it was taking longer than intended and he still acted like it was all their fault and [insert evil corporate things].
I guess not every composer is as pure and humble as we think.......
But whatever, people attack employees because they dislike decisions is very childish and not called for
@KillerBOB It's not long at all.
@mazzel I agree, although it sounds like the bad guys were the unhappy fans who jumped to conclusions to soon
Reading through the whole thing above, I would have to say the fault here lies with Mick. He couldn't meet agreed upon deadlines. After the first deadline miss, ID was well within its rights to withhold the timeline bonus, but were generous enough to offer it at the end of the extension. Which the composer AGAIN did not meet. Also...if you read the whole thing...Mick never even met his actual contractual obligations of a minimum of 12 tracks (when he said he would be able to deliver 30 tracks). Instead, he delivered 9...then 2 more...before the OST had to be released. Not only did he not meet any of the deadlines he agreed upon, but he never even fulfilled the full MINIMUM for the contract. It sounds like ID tried to give him as much time as they could...and even offered assistance from Chad...and Mick wanted full and SOLE credit for a collaboration that he SUGGESTED. This is all really highly unprofessional.
So what happened is that Mick wasn't meeting his deadlines so ID was forced to hash out a subpar OST last minute to avoid getting in trouble with the law And yet people think this is somehow all Bethesda's fault
Man, I knew that id's audio engineer was in for a rough ride once he was revealed to have worked on the track.
Overall, I don't exactly blame anyone here, it just seems like an unfortunate case of production deadlines limiting an artist, although, like Marty said, Mick could have said something to stop the abuse his audio engineer was receiving online but I suppose he might not want to be involved any further in this controversy.
People are STILL disparaging people in the comments? This is how work and projects work, it's complicated. Sounds like a rough time for everyone involved, it's very considerate to put the full story out there. Notice they aren't insulting Mick - unlike some people here - workloads can often be unpredictable and difficult.
@Highlar Well, he still deserves full writing credits - he wrote the songs. The other individuals deserve mixing/production credits. It doesn't say that Mick is upset with that aspect?
@KillerBOB Ever read a book there brother? This is baby material.
This is bad news. From what I have heard on youtube Mick Gordon's Doom music is truly great. Might be hard to find somebody that can make music as great for the next Doom games.
@PcTV
Don't worry, you can get injections to plump it up
@Mince Useless? He has created some of the best game soundtracks of all time? The useless thing here is you misspelling his name.
@Wolfgabe Yep, because it's cool and popular to hate on publishers who do one, or a few bad things. Bethesda still has good games regardless of their work ethics, but it's not cool to say that. Oh! And remember EA has never made a good game before.
bethesda is a joke and will always be a joke people never learn why do people continue to buy garbage games?
@ivory_soul jedi fallen order says hi
@Elvie no its bethesda, they always treat people terribly
@arekdougy
From the article above:
"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."
It doesn't necessarily say so outright, but I took it as sounding like Mick wanted full and sole credit for the score...which is not the case. He WAS listed as main composer, and Chad as contributing, which is as it should be...as that is what happened. Maybe the quoted part is up for interpretation, but that's the way I took it.
@Highlar Yes, I did read that. For me, the key word here is "Mick was concerned" - not upset or on some warpath, like the keyboard jockeys out there. I think people are extrapolating a lot from Mick's tweets, and the one thing I would fault him for is not clarifying things, but perhaps he does not do well with public relations while under stress. Probably should delete Twitter!
@NintendoPok Well, they imposed this deadline yeah but they at least gave id several extra months to work on Doom Eternal so I wouldn't say this was incompetent decision making in comparison to anything related to Fallout 76.
That's the problem with commercial products that ride upon the output of visionaries and creators, it's highly unstable because of the rulings made by businessmen and expectations set by the public. Prime example, "The Thief And The Cobbler".
@KillerBOB My comment was not too long either, just enough for you to be able to read, it seems.
It's really a shame because Mick and DOOM was a match made in heaven (or hell, I suppose; I didn't even intend to do this lol).
By the way...they're making DLC for Eternal?! How did I not know?!
@ss213 yeah, I really like how he addresses the fans that they should behave if they wish to have this open communication in the future. Criticism is ok, as long as it is healthy and reasonable. But it sounds like they were kind of threatening the id soft sound engineer. I really hate what people try to pull in the shadows not the internet, hiding behind an avatar...
The music in the new Doom games is absolutely horrible so hopefully this will lead to the new game having actual METAL in it instead of the skrillex wub dub stuff we have now.
@ivory_soul thats not a misspelling, I got his name wrong! Either way that is literally irrelevant.
To say hes created some of the best in the industry is a stretch, granted he's worked on a few blockbuster games like wolfenstein or need for speed, that hardly encompasses the best games in the industry let alone best music!
End of the day my original comment was obviously not overly serious!
But he did fail to meet a deadline twice at the end of the day!
And then proceeded to stir the pot on the internet, which is just a bad idea when it comes to gamers looking for drama!”
No don't make assumption’s. You just come to the wrong conclusions half the time.
@NintendoPok EA has a huge backlog of great games, even today. I mean to say that other people say that not me. I don't like their practices, but their games are mostly really good. Battlefront 2 was damn good after the loot boxes were taken out. People will complain left and right as their sitting there watching the end credits roll on a game they swore they'd never buy.
@KingBowser86 But isn't "fess up and move on" just what they are doing with this email? For me the issue is now solved.
@Mr_Horizon I certainly hope so, though Mick doesn't sound as content.
As someone who listens to the doom 2016 soundtrack a few times a month... I barely noticed it in the actual game beyond starting and ending riffs.
Even listening to the soundtrack for 2 hours each time there are no highs and lows. Nothing stands out beyond the voices from the game.
@sandman89 I find this comment pretty rude. If you did not care about the content of the article, why drop that heedless complaint here?
@COVIDberry Sorry
@COVIDberry I find you offensive for finding me offensive 😤😆
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