Doom Eternal's composer doesn't approve of the soundtrack album's mixing

This mix is doomed

News by Lauren Morton Contributor

Published on April 20, 2020

Blood, guts, and chainsaws are integral parts of Doom, but so are its bangin' metal soundtracks. Australian game sounds man Mick Gordon was the composer for both Doom (the 2016 one) and Doom Eternal's soundtracks, winning multiple awards for the former back when it released. The Doom Eternal OST launched over the weekend and apparently something sounded off to those with an ear for it. It turns out that Gordon didn't have as much a hand in the final mix as he would have liked.

In a conversation on Twitter, Gordon gives a simple answer for why folks may think the new OST sounds a bit shoddy. Although he composed it, Gordon says that he only did the final audio mix for a "small handful" of tracks in the new OST. Apparently "Meathook" and "Command And Control" are two of the few that had his hand on the final product.

I didn't mix those and wouldn't have done that. You'll be able to spot the small handful of tracks I mixed (Meathook, Command and Control, etc...)
— Mick Gordon (@Mick_Gordon) April 19, 2020

This came out as a reply to "thatACDCguy," who posted two waveform screenshots side-by-side to illustrate the differences they found between the track "BFG Division" as it appears on the Doom OST and the Eternal OST. They explain that in 2016, the track's variance in waveform length gives the various instruments more "breathing room" instead of all being smushed together competing for your ear's attention.

Here's a comparison between the original BFG Division from Doom 2016's official soundtrack (left) vs. the BFG 2020 remix on Eternal's soundtrack from today (right).

Notice how the wavelengths in BFG 2020 form a nearly perfectly straight bar vs. the original with more definition pic.twitter.com/TCJRdOe1Yf
— Doominal Crossing 4: Beyond (@DoominalCross) April 19, 2020

Whether or not you can hear the difference, it seems you can at least see it. Gordon doesn't sound too pleased with the situation. He tells PC Gamer that "I take a lot of pride in my work. It’s all I do, it’s all I have and I pour my heart and soul into it." They say he's still trying to understand the situation himself and didn't have anything further to say on the subject. It seems that even Gordon is unsure what happened, or at least isn't able to share.

Gordon hasn't made an official statement on his involvement in any future Doom games, but a screenshot of a supposed private message shared by one Reddit user quotes him as saying "doubt we'll work together again." Take screenshots of conversations with a healthy helping of salt, of course.

The Doom Eternal OST was released for owners of the collector's edition over the weekend. It'll come to platforms including Spotify and iTunes in the coming weeks, Id Software announced.

While bumbling around listening to Doom's 2016 OST on Spotify, I also found this sweet but spicy gem, another worthy sacrifice to the Doom and Animal Crossing fandom love affair right up there with this hardcore Doomguy and Isabelle fanimation.

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