Man of Doom Posted April 19, 2020 (edited) So I already posted about this in another thread, but then I figured that this news would be enough to warrant its own thread. So while someone was looking over the files of the Collector’s Edition release of the soundtrack, someone asked Mick Gordon about why there seemed to be so much compression with “BFG Division 2020” compared with the original BFG Division track: After a long thread of explanation, Mick himself gave an explanation of why it turned out to be this way (and the reason why is because Mick only did mixing for a small handful of tracks for the official release, while the rest of the soundtrack got outsourced to someone else): And in case what you’re wondering what this is all building up to, it’s that Mick may not be returning to score another Doom game for the foreseeable future (unless something gets radically changed): And as the proverbial cherry on top, he deleted a tweet that mentioned him doing a Doom-themed event at next year’s MAGFest. EDIT: Additionally, it appears that Mick’s recent history of liked tweets shows some kind of hard feelings or bad blood against id or Bethesda. I think this might partially explain why the official release for various outlets like iTunes and Spotify have been delayed for the next few weeks, and I think it explains why the collector’s edition OST release turned out to be messy. As a couple of examples: -every other track has a voiceover from characters like Samuel Hayden, VEGA, or King Novik prior to the start of the track -there are about three if not four variations of the same song, but mixed differently (“BFG Division 2020”, “You Can’t Just Shoot a Hole Into The Surface of Mars”, and I think “Acquiring the BFG” are all differently mixed versions of BFG Division) I mean, the official release of the soundtrack could be switched up to sound and feel more cohesive, but we’re only a few weeks out from said release and then we’d end up with two different soundtracks for one game. Either way, this situation is deeply fucked, to put it lightly. Mick didn’t sound too happy about what’s happened to his work, and I honestly can’t blame him if he decides to completely cut ties with id & Bethesda as a result of all this. Edited April 20, 2020 by Man of Doom 24 Share this post Link to post
bobbyfish Posted April 19, 2020 (edited) I don’t get why they would outsource it if he did such a good job with 2016. edit: it’s also a sequel to a hit so wouldn’t they have more resources? Again, don’t get why they would take away focus from one of the most praised aspects of 2016. Edited April 19, 2020 by bobbyfish 8 Share this post Link to post
⇛Marnetmar⇛ Posted April 19, 2020 (edited) My guess is Mick was too busy with other projects to mix the whole thing himself and since Zenimax knew that there was going to be an official soundtrack release, they had the other mix engineer slam the hell out of it, which Mick understandably wasn't very happy about. 0 Share this post Link to post
thewormofautumn Posted April 19, 2020 "doubt we'll work together again" has hints of something gone wrong. That's sad, if so. 6 Share this post Link to post
thewormofautumn Posted April 19, 2020 3 minutes ago, Marn said: My guess is Mick was too busy with other projects to mix the whole thing himself and since Zenimax knew that there was going to be an official soundtrack release, they had the other mix engineer slam the hell out of it, which Mick understandably wasn't very happy about. I've got the OST as part of the CE. There are 89 tracks... yes, 89 tracks I doubt he was too busy with other projects, he was probably too busy with this one. 6 Share this post Link to post
⇛Marnetmar⇛ Posted April 19, 2020 6 minutes ago, thewormofautumn said: I've got the OST as part of the CE. There are 89 tracks... yes, 89 tracks I doubt he was too busy with other projects, he was probably too busy with this one. Yikes. That's way too big of a workload for any one person to handle. 4 Share this post Link to post
The Civ Posted April 19, 2020 It's a shame that this is happening prior to the DLC releases because it means that they'll either just reuse campaign tracks, or have someone else try to ape his style. Not even sure what they'd do for another game aside from getting Hulshult or somehow managing to get Reznor back. 6 Share this post Link to post
Chubzdoomer Posted April 19, 2020 (edited) 6 minutes ago, The Civ said: It's a shame that this is happening prior to the DLC releases because it means that they'll either just reuse campaign tracks, or have someone else try to ape his style. If we're lucky, he already composed a whole bunch of music ahead of time for the "planned" DLC. If not, you're right--it won't be a good situation at all. 3 Share this post Link to post
The Civ Posted April 19, 2020 Honestly more than anything this makes me wonder why id seems to have this curse with musicians. First pissing off Reznor and making him ditch Doom 3, now pissing off Mick and making him ditch after Eternal? What the hell goes on with their audio direction. 10 Share this post Link to post
Tony_Danza_the_boss Posted April 19, 2020 (edited) Yet another reason Eternal is such a huge step down from 2016. Soundtrack was meh at best and as the OP put it, Mick is capable of such better work than the mediocre tracks we got in Eternal 3 Share this post Link to post
Chubzdoomer Posted April 19, 2020 (edited) 6 minutes ago, The Civ said: Honestly more than anything this makes me wonder why id seems to have this curse with musicians. First pissing off Reznor and making him ditch Doom 3, now pissing off Mick and making him ditch after Eternal? What the hell goes on with their audio direction. What exactly went down with Trent Reznor anyways? I've never been able to find much info by way of Google. It always bummed me out that they ditched his work, because those early Doom 3 sound effects were awesome. 0 Share this post Link to post
Caffeine Freak Posted April 20, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, thewormofautumn said: I've got the OST as part of the CE. There are 89 tracks... yes, 89 tracks I doubt he was too busy with other projects, he was probably too busy with this one. Who the fuck was in charge of the tracklist and what kind of shit were they smoking? 89 tracks is beyond absurd, you may as well just extract all the chopped up music clips from the game files themselves with a tracklist like that. Edited April 20, 2020 by Caffeine Freak 6 Share this post Link to post
chemo Posted April 20, 2020 5 minutes ago, Caffeine Freak said: Who the fuck was in charge of the tracklist and what kind of shit were they smoking? 89 tracks is beyond absurd, you may as well just extract all the chopped up music clips from the game files themselves with a tracklist like that. It's actually about 59 tracks. Still absurd though, especially when some of it is filler. 0 Share this post Link to post
Flytrap Posted April 20, 2020 Ehhh, not sure what to say. I liked 2016 a lot. Eternal? Ehh, not so much. It wasn't bad.... but... Its not as good as Doom 2016.... This applies to the music too. Eternal's music just never grabbed me, unlike Doom2016's. That being said, i feel bad for Mick, its clear he loves his work and that he's upset, and i totally get his feelings. Whatever happens im going to support him. Bethesda? Ehh, one more nail wont seem to make a difference when I've stamped so many into them already... 4 Share this post Link to post
thewormofautumn Posted April 20, 2020 1 minute ago, chemo said: It's actually about 59 tracks. Ahahahaha I'm a noob. I added the track list numbers up across both files :) Sorry about that, my bad. 59 is correct 3 Share this post Link to post
Caffeine Freak Posted April 20, 2020 3 minutes ago, chemo said: It's actually about 59 tracks. Still absurd though, especially when some of it is filler. Someone else tweeted the supposed handful of tracks Mick mixed. Does anyone have a link to the full tracklist they can post here? 0 Share this post Link to post
chemo Posted April 20, 2020 4 minutes ago, Caffeine Freak said: Someone else tweeted the supposed handful of tracks Mick mixed. Does anyone have a link to the full tracklist they can post here? Here you go 5 Share this post Link to post
AtimZarr1 Posted April 20, 2020 Wow, that sucks. Both 2016 and Eternal's soundtracks did a lot in getting people interested in Doom again. A new Doom game without Mick Gordon involved will leave a lot of people skeptical. 3 Share this post Link to post
oCrapaCreeper Posted April 20, 2020 (edited) He’s also asked a YouTuber who has been uploading the official tracks to delete the ripped versions from the game he uploaded before because they sounded so bad. So there’s clearly some level of control Mick lost over his own work and doesn’t like it at all. Whoever ended up doing the audio mixing for the tracks on the game wasn’t on the same page. Edited April 20, 2020 by oCrapaCreeper 2 Share this post Link to post
Noiser Posted April 20, 2020 Uhm. That may explain why some DE songs sound more simplistic than others. Or at least that was my impression. 0 Share this post Link to post
Caffeine Freak Posted April 20, 2020 (edited) @chemo Hmm, okay. Reviewing this tracklist, I'm starting to have second thoughts now about what I said earlier. Mick had said during his quarantine stream (on the eve of Eternal's release) that he wanted to make the soundtrack bigger and longer than the last one. 2016 was 31 tracks, so if he wanted to do something longer I can see why the tracklist would be huge. Still, 59 tracks seems a bit excessive. My first impression was that most of the tracks were ones Mick himself didn't even make, and they just outsourced that work to someone else. But it seems it's more that Mick didn't get a final say on the mixing of most tracks, or...? 3 hours ago, Man of Doom said: -there are about three if not four of the same song, but mixed differently (“BFG Division 2020”, “You Can’t Just Shoot a Hole Into The Surface of Mars”, and I think “Ripatorium” are all differently mixed versions of BFG Division) Yeah, this is really weird. It doesn't even sound like something Mick would do. I can't think of a soundtrack where he's put several remixed versions of one of his songs in the tracklist, so this makes me think again that he didn't have a final say over the tracklist, in addition to the mixing of most tracks. Chad Mossholder (id's principal audio guy) mixed one or two of the tracks in '16, but here, he's listed alongside Mick on most of the tracks. I wonder if the creative conflict here was between Mossholder and Mick, or someone else behind the scenes. This almost seems like a situation where id/Bethesda/whomever became impatient with the pace at which Mick was completing the project, brought in an outside guy (Mossholder) to help speed things along, and in the process pushed it out the door in a state Mick wasn't happy with. I dunno. This is all speculation for right now, hopefully we get more answers soon. 0 Share this post Link to post
jazzmaster9 Posted April 20, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, Tony_Danza_the_boss said: Yet another reason Eternal is such a huge step down from 2016. Soundtrack was meh at best and as the OP put it, Mick is capable of such better work than the mediocre tracks we got in Eternal The Gladiator theme and The Only thing fear is You says otherwise. we get it, you hate Doom eternal... 4 Share this post Link to post
Maximum Matt Posted April 20, 2020 Hopefully he's putting together a band 2 Share this post Link to post
SlayerOGames666 Posted April 20, 2020 Dear god, is this a John Carmack-styled incident (Mick sues Zenimax cos of contract reasons)? 2 Share this post Link to post
Mr. Freeze Posted April 20, 2020 (edited) You just don't fuck with other people's mixes. It's testament to sacrilege in audio production, especially considering how time-consuming mixing and mastering can get. Sounds like id wanted to expedite the mastering process so the farmed it out...shameful if true! EDIT: I really hope "unlikely to work with id again" doesn't impact future Wolfenstein titles. TNO and TNC had amazing scores. 4 Share this post Link to post
Quasar Posted April 20, 2020 All I can say is that this isn't shocking to me due to something I heard back in July '19. Sad but not surprising. 8 Share this post Link to post
The Civ Posted April 20, 2020 20 minutes ago, Quasar said: All I can say is that this isn't shocking to me due to something I heard back in July '19. Sad but not surprising. Granted, I trust you, but that's a real juicy sentence to drop with no context. 11 Share this post Link to post
Caffeine Freak Posted April 20, 2020 33 minutes ago, Quasar said: All I can say is that this isn't shocking to me due to something I heard back in July '19. Sad but not surprising. Not trying to be a dick, but unless you're trolling, this is kind of a pointless thing to say without elaborating. 3 Share this post Link to post
Edward850 Posted April 20, 2020 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Caffeine Freak said: Not trying to be a dick, but unless you're trolling, this is kind of a pointless thing to say without elaborating. Did you forget who Quasar is? He is one of the few people on this forum who obviously can't elaborate on any details. You may have heard of a thing called the Doom64 rerelease. 5 Share this post Link to post