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Trent Reznor Clarifies Involvement

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In the latest NIN Access, Trent Reznor explains how he was involved with the Doom 3 project:

john carmack and i had established a friendship while working on quake. he came to see up playing during the last tour and wanted to get my feelings on a remake of doom with a new advanced engine he was working on. we discussed how cool it would be to create a place that was immersive to the point it wouldn't need a "soundtrack" -- the technology was advanced enough to visually and aurally to create a rich environment you could truly explore and inhabit. we discussed my involvement as the overall sound producer -- from foley and voice over to ambient world noise.

later, i started work on what would be used at the e3 show 2 years ago. it was exciting working in a totally new way with new tools. i was working directly in the game editor and with the programmers refining the sound code and helping the environment come alive. tried "tuning" various environmental sound sources so they'd cohesively interact with on another in a "musical" way. the advanced technology provided enough horsepower to give me a seemingly limitless amount of freedom. it was a lot of work, a lot of thinking in a different way, and a lot of fun. i was working with the best guys in the field -- true geniuses.

our idea was to have no music, apart from a main theme i'd write for the intro. no rock, nothing current sounding, nothing to date the game.

well... eventually time and money and bad management came into play and it didn't work out. disappointing on a number of levels for me, but that's the way it went.

I have seen the engine at work and it is great. i'm looking forward to seeing what they've done with the game.

and i guess tool did the theme song.

This doesn't really answer the question as to how much of Reznor's work might be remaining in the final product, if any.

Update: Note that the "Doom 3 Theme" was created by Chris Vrenna and Clint Walsh. Chris Vrenna was a founding member of Nine Inch Nails and has released a couple of albums under the name Tweaker. Here's a link to a press release, but it might be broken because I wasn't able to access it.

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The theme song is fucking rubbish. But I guess they went with that pile of lowest common denominator DUNG since they want a broad audience and such PR nonsense. The problem is, teen-angsty pseudo-metal isn't going to scare anyone. I get a bigger adrenalin rush riding escalators.

There, I'm done.

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Agreed, a much better theme song might be something haunting and 'etheral', something like the music on said E3 trailer in fact...

The best 'horror' music i have ever heard is the music on the 1990 re-make of Night of the living dead, pity zombie films are usually more funny than scary

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Mmmm, I'm kind of neutral on the theme song. Good, but less rock would make it better...

Anyway, is there a soundtrack? I hope not. :D

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I haven't heard the Doom3 Theme song but I have heard other music by Chris Vrenna. Namely his soundtrack for American McGee's Alice. And that's very very good.

Ok now I've heard it.. and I can't say I'm impressed.. They should've gone with Fanatic. ;) Or my pet favorit AFI.. But I'm mostly alone with that preferation. ;)

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a main theme i'd write for the intro. no rock, nothing current sounding, nothing to date the game.


...Guess they scrapped that idea.

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AirRaid said:

...Guess they scrapped that idea.


hehhe yeah

edit: someone on bluesnews was suggesting that the management problems that reznor mentioned were with his manager, john malm, and apparently they're in a bit of a legal struggle right now over a couple million.. i guess that doesnt rule out a total falling out between reznor and id but it gives a bit of hope

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.....they should have hired JOHN CARPENTER! His synth music kicks ass, especially the music from Escape from New York.

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kristus said:

I haven't heard the Doom3 Theme song but I have heard other music by Chris Vrenna. Namely his soundtrack for American McGee's Alice. And that's very very good.

Ok now I've heard it.. and I can't say I'm impressed.. They should've gone with Fanatic. ;) Or my pet favorit AFI.. But I'm mostly alone with that preferation. ;)


Believe me, if there is a full soundtrack and it's all like that crappy theme song, I *will* be doing a full soundtrack replacement for DOOM 3 that everyone can download and enjoy in their expierences, DM, co-op, or SP missions. I can't stand by and let such crap tarnish the glory that DOOM 3 will soon be!

Sadly, I did apply with id for a sound guy and music position, but as expect, I got no reply.

But if it's just a "theme" song, then I'll just get to playing the game as quick as possible. :)

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kristus said:

Or my pet favorit AFI.. But I'm mostly alone with that preferation. ;)


I'd back you on that if they hadn't released 'sing the sorrow'.

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The theme music in Doom 2 was terrible as well; they're simply following the tradition. I just hope if there is music in the first level, it isn't as annoying as D_RUNNIN.

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NiGHTMARE said:

The theme music in Doom 2 was terrible as well; they're simply following the tradition. I just hope if there is music in the first level, it isn't as annoying as D_RUNNIN.


Seconded

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sgtcrispy said:

Doom2 Theme music? D_RUNNIN?

You mean D_DM2TTL.


ahem


D_DM2TTL wasn't really a theme 'song' per se, in my book*. All it was was really a 'ditty'. (badabadaba...boom boom...badabadaba...Boom Boom....badabadaba...BOOM BOOM) Same with the Doom 1 title music. I thought that the first level music was more of a 'theme'.

* Disclamor: I do not give two shits what your defenition of music is, so lets not start an argument about if it's really 'music' or not.

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sgtcrispy said:

Doom2 Theme music? D_RUNNIN?

You mean D_DM2TTL.


ahem

LOL, I was clearly talking about two seperate pieces of music; I mean since when is the theme music used in a level? And if the Doom 3 theme music were used in the first level, I'd already know how annoying it was, because we've already heard it.

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NiGHTMARE said:

The theme music in Doom 2 was terrible as well; they're simply following the tradition. I just hope if there is music in the first level, it isn't as annoying as D_RUNNIN.


I bet you hated D_runnin when you first heard it too.

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Hey some of the Doom2 music is great-- it's just poorly composed midi. I don't remember the level numbers or names, and doom 2 (blasphemy) is not on this computer so I can't poke around the wad at the moment.

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Am I the only one here who actually likes this song? It's not going to be playing throughout the entire game, dammit, and I like it enough to not mind listening to it while setting my controls and video settings. :)

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I say it's pretty boring. Trent Reznor himself would not have done a better job, though. It seems like the id guys don't do much research for things like the music... had they done so they could have without a doubt found something really dark and fitting. They seem to go by friendships and stuff like that here; maybe American McGee or Carmack were in touch with the Tweaker guy.

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myk said:

It seems like the id guys don't do much research for things like the music... /B]

Trent Reznor said:

Bad management/B]

It seems idsoftware are just a couple of very talented guys doing their thing. I think they are unmanagable. Is there an overall project manager for projects like DOOM3 at all?

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ukiro said:

The theme song is fucking rubbish. But I guess they went with that pile of lowest common denominator DUNG since they want a broad audience and such PR nonsense. The problem is, teen-angsty pseudo-metal isn't going to scare anyone. I get a bigger adrenalin rush riding escalators.

There, I'm done.

Fucking Seconded.

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Zoost said:

It seems idsoftware are just a couple of very talented guys doing their thing. I think they are unmanagable. Is there an overall project manager for projects like DOOM3 at all?

I think he's talking about his management, not ID Software. And I'd assume that their CEO (Todd Hollenshead) is responsible for the managemenet of ID products.

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