Something was a bit off about the Doom Eternal soundtrack when it was released in April: the OST mixes of some songs were heavily compressed, as audio expert thatACDCguy explained on Twitter. They wrote, "The music itself is phenomenal, but this mix of the official soundtrack is frankly terrible." Composer Mick Gordon responded that he did not mix the majority of the songs on the OST, and later hinted that there was some friction with id Software, telling fans that he would not be working with the studio again in the future.

It all seemed odd. Gordon is a prolific video game composer who has had a long and fruitful working relationship with Bethesda on "Doom," "Wolfenstein," and "Prey," and his soundtrack for 2016's "Doom" earned multiple awards and nominations. Gordon himself has not commented further on the matter, but Marty Stratton, executive producer of "Doom Eternal," posted a lengthy "open letter" on Reddit today, explaining his side of the story and and defending the audio designer.

In his statement, Stratton praised Gordon as a composer, saying that "his unique style and sound are synonymous with our latest project" and that he "deserves every award he has received." But he also said the studio has had a difficult working relationship with him: "We have struggled to connect on some of the more production realities in development, and communication over such issues has undermined trust. For Ido, this has created an unsustainable pattern of uncertainty and risk for the project."

According to Stratton, Gordon was contracted in January to produce the Doom Eternal OST, which was to be delivered in early March so that it could be included with the Doom Eternal collector's edition at launch. However, in late February, Gordon contacted id Software and informed them that he would not be able to meet the deadline. He requested and was granted an extension to mid-April to allow him to expand the OST to more than two hours.

According to Stratton, id Software also extended the deadline for a "bonus payment for on-time delivery," even though the original deadline was not met.

"It is important to note at this point," he writes, "not only that we regret that we were unable to deliver the OST at the same time as the CE launch, but also that we needed to be mindful of consumer protection laws in many countries that allow customers to request a full refund of the product if it is not delivered on or around the announced launch date." He writes.

But even with the delays, things did not come together.

"In April, I became increasingly concerned about whether Mick would deliver the OST on time. I personally asked id's lead audio designer, Chad [Mossholder], to begin work on an id version of the track as a backup plan in case Mick couldn't meet the deadline," Stratton wrote.

"To complete this, Chad would need to take all the music Mick had provided for the game, edit it into tracks, and arrange those tracks into a comprehensive OST.

This is why the OST mix for Doom Eternal is heavily compressed: not because Mossholder failed, but because it consists of music clips mixed specifically for this game. Normally, soundtracks are mixed separately from the source material so that highs and lows are not clipped, but this was not possible in this case because id did not have access to the original source material.

According to Stratton, he contacted Gordon in early April to let him know about the "backup plan," and Gordon then suggested that he and Mossholder combine what they had been working on "to come up with a more comprehensive release." At that stage, Gordon had promised a minimum of 12 songs for the OST, but was only able to provide nine, and according to Stratton, they did not live up to expectations: "Only one song was the kind of heavy combat music people would expect, and most of the others were ambient," he wrote. Gordon suggested that Mossholder use the mixed tracks to "flesh it out further" if necessary.

"After reviewing his suggestion, I let Mick know that we would proceed with an integrated effort to provide a more comprehensive collection of game music. I informed Mick that I had ordered Chad's edited tracks as a chronology of game music, and that in order to create an integrated piece, Chad would insert Mick's tracks into the OST chronology and remove his own tracks containing similarly themed songs.

"I told him that if his additional battle track was coming soon, I would do the same and either include it in the OST or offer it later as a bonus track. Mick eventually provided two tracks and we incorporated them. I thanked him and told him I would be happy to provide his last track as a bonus at a later date and reminded him of our plan to distribute the OST first to CE owners and then on other distribution platforms.

Apparently that was the end of it, until the soundtrack was released and Gordon publicly commented on the role he played (or didn't play) in the soundtrack's creation. According to Stratton, in subsequent conversations, Gordon expressed dissatisfaction with some of the content and editing of the soundtrack, and said that Mossholder was credited as a co-writer on the soundtrack, which he denied.

"In the metadata, Mick is listed as the sole composer and sole album artist; on the tracks edited by id, Chad is listed as a contributing artist," he wrote. "This was the best choice to clearly distinguish for fans between tracks contributed by Mick and tracks edited by id's lead audio designer. It would have been misleading to attribute tracks edited by someone else to Mick alone."

Indeed, the "direct and personal attacks" on Mossholder over the game-based soundtrack mix were the main cause that prompted Stratton to issue a statement: "Mick told me that the attacks on Chad were painful, but he did nothing to change the conversation He has done nothing to change the conversation," he wrote.

Stratton added that Gordon's "doubts" about working with id Software again in the future were surprising because it had not been discussed previously and characterized the "complicated relationship" between the two. Bethesda also revealed

that it is ready to take the next step, starting with the Doom Eternal DLC, in which Gordon will not be involved.

"As for the immediate future, we are in the process of moving forward and will not be working with Mick on the DLC currently in production. As we have mentioned, his music is excellent and he is a rare talent, and we hope that at the end of the year he will receive many awards for his contributions to DOOM Eternal," he wrote.

"We regret this situation as much as anyone, but as we have done so many times before, we will adapt to changing circumstances and pursue collaborations with some of the most unique and talented artists in the industry. Our team has greatly enjoyed this creative collaboration and we are confident that Mick will continue to delight his fans for years to come."

We have asked Gordon for comment and will update if he responds.