Daniel Bergstrand is a Swedish producer and mixer who has been behind the board for some of modern metal’s most influential albums. His extensive discography includes landmark records like Meshuggah’s Destroy Erase Improve, Strapping Young Lad’s City, and Behemoth’s Demigod. He has also worked with bands such as In Flames, Soilwork, Dimmu Borgir, and Devin Townsend. Beyond his album work, he is the producer responsible for acclaimed Toontrack drum sample libraries including The Metal Foundry and Drumkit From Hell.
In This Episode
Daniel joins the podcast to talk about his incredible journey, from dropping out of school and sleeping in the studio at age 15 to producing genre-defining records. He shares some amazing stories about the making of Meshuggah’s Destroy Erase Improve, detailing the intense, around-the-clock work ethic he shared with the band. Daniel breaks down his production philosophy, explaining how he gets his signature sound that’s raw and organic yet still feels polished and modern. He gets into the technical details of his analog-heavy workflow, the crucial role room mics play in his massive drum sounds, and how he approaches the low-end relationship between kick and bass. He also offers a killer mindset shift for dealing with less-than-perfect musicians, viewing it as a fun challenge rather than a frustrating roadblock.
As we’ve said a million times, vocals are the most important part of almost every song – even in guitar-driven genres like progressive metal. It’s just a fact of human psychology that we’re drawn to the human voice, and therefore it’s always going to be the central element in a mix.
Which makes it kind of ironic that many mixers don’t spend nearly as much time on vocals as they do drums or guitar. Big no-no!!
Clean vocals are even more attention-grabbing than screams or growls because they’re easier to understand, and this actually makes them even more challenging to mix than harsh vocals. It’s a bit counter-intuitive, because you’d think that harsh vocals would be harder to mix because they’re more dense, but it’s actually the opposite: with cleans – especially when it’s a really strong singer – there’s nothing to hide behind, and every mix move counts.
Watch John Browne mix the vocals for “I, The Creator” by Monuments using the raw multi-tracks from the album. He uses Cubase, Waves CLA-76 compressor plugin, Waves H Delay, Waves Manny Marroquin plugin, Waves Desser, and Soundtoys Echoboy.
As an example, check out this clip of John Browne mixing the lead vocals of Monuments’ “I, The Creator” from his Nail The Mix session featuring their incredible vocalist Chris Baretto.
Obviously Chris absolutely nailed the performance, which is awesome – but working with really great tracks like this presents its own set of challenges as well, especially in a dense, complex arrangement like this one. Namely, that as the mixer it’s your job to highlight all the details of the performance with a subtle touch– to bring out the greatness and bring the vocal front and center without smashing it or overwhelming the rest of the song.
Nail The Mix is our online mixing school that gives you REAL multi-tracks from REAL bands, plus a mixing class from the producer who recorded it. Past guests include Periphery, Gojira, Meshuggah, Machine Head, A Day To Remember and State Champs. Join now for instant access!
This episode features the incredibly knowledgeable session drummer, producer, and drum tech Matt Brown. Known for his meticulous approach and deep understanding of the instrument, Matt has worked with a diverse range of artists including guitarist Pete Thorn, Starship, and Engelbert Humperdinck. He’s a go-to expert for getting world-class drum sounds straight from the source, long before any mics are placed.
In This Episode
Drum tech Matt Brown stops by for a masterclass on the art and science of drum tuning. He breaks down why developing your ear is the most crucial first step—even suggesting you learn to tune a guitar by ear before touching a drum. Matt explains the real-world physical limitations of tools like the Drum Dial and offers a systematic, ear-based method for finding a drum’s sweet spot, starting with the resonant head. He dives deep into the relationship between the top and bottom heads, how to control pitch bend, and how to get rid of nasty overtones while keeping the desirable ones. You’ll also learn his unique, symmetrical approach to muffling with Moon Gel and an awesome trick using cotton balls to act as a natural gate, shortening sustain without killing the drum’s initial attack and body. This is a must-listen for any producer who wants to stop guessing and start getting intentional, pro-level drum sounds at the source.
Max Morton is one of the biggest metal producer/engineers in Ukraine. He’s worked with several internationally successful bands such as Jinjer, Shokran & Ignea, and doubles up as the incredibly powerful lead singer for his own band “Morton”.
MORTON – Divine Descent (Live)
In a recent interview I did with Max, I asked him if he would shed a light on his minimalistic approach towards capturing “mix ready” electric guitar tracks, and whether he could give me some insight into how he goes about treating them in a mix:
The guitar tones you achieved on the latest JINJER album are great! How crazy were your processing chains during mixing?
MAX:You don’t have to go crazy if you get a few things right at the source! If you have a tube screamer, your low-end doesn’t sound flabby anymore… If you have a great picking hand, and if you’re only using “just enough” gain, then you no longer have those huge dancing peaks at around 200Hz…
JINJER – I Speak Astronomy (R/P/M/M Max Morton)
In the mix, I don’t go below -2dB when I cut… because if you have to go below that, then there’s something wrong with the amp settings or the microphone placement, or maybe you’re just choosing the wrong speaker in the cab.
When you go in and eq-out every little thing, your tone ends up sounding like nothing. Your brain is designed to concentrate on the things which make up a tone, and all of those little peaks add character to your tone. The best thing you can do is to just concentrate on the worst frequencies and simply leave everything else be.
Were the guitars tracked live through an amp set up in the room?
MAX:I actually always re-amp, because it’s much easier to understand how your guitar behaves when dialing it in alongside the mixed drums, mixed bass, and rest of the arrangement.
With Jinjer, it was a single microphone about 1 inch from where the cap meets the cone.
I like to start with the microphone, because it affects the way I’ll tweak the knobs on the amp. I find that the real sweet-spot for metal is around where the cap meets the cone. If you go straight on-axis then it will always sound sharp, or if you’re mic’ing up the cone then it will sound soft.
Max Demo’s The Framus Cobra Amplifier (Used On The Jinjer Album)
It’s much easier to dial-in or dial-out a huge amount of mid-range by just turning a knob on the amp than it is to try and get the perfect mid-range through microphone placement alone.
How do you feel about digital amp simulation software?
MAX: Some things are changing. I think the margin between what you can achieve with “real stuff” and emulations is eventually going to disappear. Even now, with plugins like Mercuriall Audio’s “Spark” for example… I really love the plugin, I think it’s extremely natural and have used it in several mixes already. It sounds unique as you can move the mics and they blend really well together.
Max’s Excellent “Spark” Review:
When I record bands, I always just capture the DI and use plugins or a Kemper for monitoring. They sound and feel %95 identical to the real amplifier, and it makes it much easier for me to choose, comp and edit takes before reamping later on.
It seems like you’re really focused on getting things right at the source in order to simplify the rest of the process!
MAX: I like simplicity, because it often helps you bring complicated ideas to life.
Unfortunately it isn’t always an option within certain genres of music… Extreme metal, for example, is one of the most specific and difficult genres to record. You have a thinner window of things you can do to make it sound good, and everything beyond this window sounds bad.
Another band which I really like, and did a mix for recently are Shokran. They play oriental metal, and are getting pretty big at the moment.
SHOKRAN – Creatures From The Mud (M/M Max Morton)
They have a very powerful guitarist and bass player, and the tuning was quite low. With the bass guitar for example, you have to make it sound right and cut through the mix properly. That’s where you have to blend a couple of different distorted basses with high-passes before the distortion and make sure that these signals are all properly in phase.
My point is, simple moves often work way better for simple music, but don’t always sound best in genres where there are inhuman performance speeds going on!
Was there a specific “eureka” moment which led to you achieving the kind of tones you’d always been searching for?
MAX: That’s a difficult question…
I think at various stages, I came to the same conclusion: Great performances guarantee great results. If something is played really well, then you can throw an amp sim on it and it will sound good. If it’s played poorly, you’ll die by the hand of surgical EQ, editing and re-amping…
A Perfect Example of The “Great Performances” Max is Talking About:
IGNEA – Halves Rupture
What do you think is the biggest mistake of engineers who are struggling to get good tones in the studio?
MAX: I think the biggest mistake would be to tweak and tweak while listening endlessly for hours and hours until you get so fatigued that you begin to feel like you’ve hit a wall.
I remember getting so frustrated in the past when I wasn’t making any progress, any I would just be trying the same things over and over again with no results to show for it.
Instead of that, the best thing would be to listen in short portions, think, and try to understand before quickly reaching to tweak things. Understanding won’t come immediately, because there are many things which you need to understand. At the very least, try to understand a little more each time you are going through the process.
Any current projects in the pipeline which you can tell us about before concluding this interview?
MAX:I’m currently working on finishing up my band’s (Morton’s) second album. It’s a huge 13-track, 80 minute album recorded on different guitars, different basses, in several different tunings.
MORTON – Through The Never (R/P/M/M Max Morton)
In this case it was quite an experience, as I was doing all of the composing, arranging, guitar/bass playing, vocals, lyrics and production myself. I didn’t want to edit the vocals or riffs at all, because that’s what I always do with clients. With my own project I really wanted to just play and sing everything without any tuning or timing correction… Which meant there was a lot of time spent learning.
CONCLUSION:
I’m extremely thankful to Max for taking the time out of his busy studio schedule to graciously share from his extensive knowledge and experience with me.
To sum up the most important tips I took out of our discussion in a few short sentences:
Don’t over-do your reductive EQ. Focus only on the stuff that’s truly bothering you, and try to leave anything which isn’t well-alone.
The ever-so-simple “cap-edge” position is a great starting point while mic’ing metal guitars. There’s a reason it’s been used on tons of awesome albums by guys like Max Morton, Andy Sneap and Colin Richardson. Don’t over-complicate your microphone decisions without a valid reason!
Capturing guitar DI’s can allow for a far greater level of editing flexibility than working with amped tones.
Simplify things wherever possible. Don’t automatically opt for the most complicated solutions for the sake of grandeur when there are far more practical options available to you.
True greatness comes from the performance, not the technical “studio magic” that we’re often too heavily obsessed with…
Do your research and truly learn your tools before blindly piling on a million plugins. Chances are it’ll probably sound better if you just bypass everything and go back to square one!
Final Words:
This concludes “The Key To Mix-Ready Guitars.” I hope that this article has given you some new ideas to try out during your next project. Be sure to comment below if any of this information has helped you out, or if you have any questions.
Stay tuned for more production/mixing related articles in the not-so-distant future!
Nail The Mix is our online mixing school that gives you REAL multi-tracks from REAL bands, plus a mixing class from the producer who recorded it. Past guests include Periphery, Chelsea Grin, Machine Head and State Champs. Join now for instant access!
Eric Guenther is the keyboardist and sound designer for the progressive metal band The Contortionist, joining full-time after providing synth work on their 2012 album Intrinsic. A musician who evolved from being a guitarist in bands like From Exile, he developed a unique approach to keyboards in a metal context, focusing on texture and atmosphere. He has also collaborated on projects like Däåth and the Levi/Wexler album Avalanche of Worms, becoming known for his ability to craft organic and sonically interesting synth tones that integrate seamlessly with heavy guitars.
In This Episode
The Contortionist’s Eric Guenther joins the podcast to talk all things synth. He shares his philosophy on the role of a keyboardist in a metal band, approaching it not as a lead instrument but as a textural tool to serve the song’s bigger picture. Eric gets into the nitty-gritty of his sound design process, detailing how he uses VSTs like U-He Diva alongside a formidable collection of guitar pedals and amps to create his signature organic tones. He discusses the classic mix battle of carving out space for synths in the low-mids without angering the guitar gods and explains how better arrangement is the ultimate solution. He also gives a look into The Contortionist’s evolved songwriting process, the importance of pre-production, and what makes their studio relationship with producer Jamie King so productive. This episode is packed with killer insights for anyone looking to integrate electronics into heavy music in a creative and effective way.
