urmadmin, Author at Unstoppable Recording Machine

Mixing At The Gates drums!

Soothe your overheads

In this clip from Nail The Mix, Russ Russell mixes the drums for “The Chasm” by At The Gates, focusing on the overheads. As he talks about, it’s all about making smart, strategic moves with EQ rather than simply high passing them and potentially losing much of the drums’ sonic character.

MIXING AT THE GATES DRUM TRACKS w/ Russ Russell
In this clip from Nail The Mix, Russ Russell mixes the drums for “The Chasm” by At The Gates, focusing on the overheads. As he talks about, it’s all about making smart, strategic moves with EQ rather than simply high passing them and potentially losing much of the drums’ sonic character.

He uses FabFilter Pro Q 3, Soothe, the UAD Pultec EQ and Metric Halo Channel Strip in Pro Tools, but the same approach should work with any plugins or DAW.

Get instant access to At The Gates multi-tracks and Russ Russell’s full mixing session ► http://nailthemix.com/russ

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 Bring Me The Horizon. Join now for instant access!

Killing your guitars with too much EQ?

The cause of death? Excessive EQ

For many mixers, the main approach to mixing metal guitars is to make aggressive EQ cuts, and while that can work, you may also be losing some of the nuances that give the tracks character.

RUINING YOUR GUITARS w/ TOO MUCH EQ?? The Haunted + Russ Russell
For many mixers, the main approach to mixing metal guitars is to make aggressive EQ cuts, and while that can work, you may also be losing some of the nuances that give the tracks character.

In this tutorial, Russ Russell shows his approach to mixing metal guitars with some very subtle but effective EQ and multiband compression using the raw multi-tracks for “Preachers Of Death” by The Haunted.

He uses FabFilter Pro Q 3, FabFilter Pro MB, and Refuse Lowender but the same approach will work with any plugins.

What metal drummers get wrong…

Is your snare too high?

One thing metal drummers almost always get wrong in the studio? The snare drum!

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The source of the confusion is simple and understandable: they want a tight, punchy sound that cuts through the mix. But the key to achieving that sound in a mix is NOT a small, tightly-tuned snare… it’s actually not what you probably think. Kristian Kohle (Aborted, Crematory, Powerfwolf) explains…

So… what do YOU think?

Are metal guitarists better (or worse!) than ever?

The great debate…

Are the metal guitarists of today better than ever? Ryan Wolanski tries to answer that question in this video essay.

ARE METAL GUITARISTS BETTER THAN EVER?

Are the metal guitarists of today better than ever? Ryan Wolanski tries to answer that question in this video essay.

A few of the things Ryan touches on:

Artists like Jason Richardson (Chelsea Grin, Born Of Osiris), Polyphia, and Tosin Abasi of Animals As Leaders who push metal guitar to new levels
Frank Gambale and the rise of sweep picking
The role of new tools like Guitar Pro and DAW editing
A look at greats from the past like Jason Becker and Michael Angelo Batio of Nitro

So… what do YOU think?

Have you tried programmed guitars??

Keep an open mind!

For many producers, programmed guitars are a dirty word, even though many of those same people use programmed bass (via plugins like Trillian) and programmed drums (via libraries like Drumshotz or Superior Drummer).

WHY YOU SHOULD TRY PROGRAMMED GUITARS! Solemn Tones Odin

For many producers, programmed guitars are a dirty word, even though many of those same people use programmed bass (via plugins like Trillian) and programmed drums (via libraries like Drumshotz or Superior Drummer). But in this video, we show how programmed guitar virtual instruments (in this case Solemn Tones Odin) can be a great addition to your workflow, especially during the pre-production or demo phase.

But in this video, we show how programmed guitar virtual instruments (in this case Solemn Tones Odin) can be a great addition to your workflow, especially during the pre-production or demo phase. Nick Pilotta shows how programmed MIDI guitars can help you by quickly changing the pitch or key of a part, the articulation (eg, open vs palm muted) using its velocity keyswitch feature, and how it can work with your existing Guitar Pro files.

To be clear, we aren’t saying that you SHOULD use programmed guitars– only that it’s a tool you should at least try. If it helps you, keep using it. Either way, you learned something!