eyal levi Archives - Unstoppable Recording Machine

SLIPKNOT “Psychosocial” – Metal Mix Hall Of Fame

Deceptively simple (and brilliant!)

Welcome to Metal Mix Hall Of Fame, where Eyal Levi deconstructs important metal songs from a songwriting and mixing perspective with the goal of helping you level up your next song!

SLIPKNOT “Psychosocial” | Metal Mix Hall Of Fame

Slipknot’s “Psychosocial” is one of the most important metal songs of all time, and an absolute masterpiece of arrangement, with a deceptively simple mix that brings all the subtle details to life.

In this episode he deconstructs Slipknot’s “Psychosocial” from their 2008 album “All Hope Is Gone.”

While there are a million smart details in Slipknot’s “Psychosocial” that you can learn from, perhaps the biggest one is how Joey Jordison’s drumming is used as an arrangement tool that creates the massive and brilliant buildup that leads into “THE RIFF.”

What am we talking about?? Watch and find out 🙂

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!

DIMMU BORGIR “Vredesbyrd” – Metal Mix Hall Of Fame

A masterpiece of arrangement and automation

Welcome to our first episode of Metal Mix Hall Of Fame, where Eyal Levi deconstructs important metal songs from a songwriting and mixing perspective with the goal of helping you level up your next song!

DIMMU BORGIR “Vredesbyrd” | Metal Mix Hall Of Fame

Dimmu Borgir’s “Vredesbyrd” from their 2003 album “Death Cult Armageddon” is an absolute MASTERPIECE of automation and arrangement!

In this episode he tackles Dimmu Borgir’s “Vredesbyrd” from their 2003 album “Death Cult Armageddon” which is an absolute MASTERPIECE of automation and arrangement! It was mixed and mastered by Fredrik Nordström & Shagrath.

With a full orchestra in addition to the usual guitars, drums and vocals of a black metal song, there’s a LOT going on here, and it would be very easy for it to turn into mush without the masterful use of automation, balance and dynamics that keeps the song moving at all times — pay careful attention and you’ll notice that nothing stays static; something is always coming to the foreground or receding into the background.

It also displays some very sophisticated used of theme and variation which ties the brass/orchestra together with the guitars and again keeps the song from collapsing on itself with complexity.

Unboxing A Day To Remember raw multi-tracks

Take notes on this arrangement!

Eyal Levi takes you on a guided tour of the raw multi-tracks for “Right Back At It Again” by A Day To Remember, as seen on Nail The Mix in 2017.

A Day To Remember “Right Back At It Again” raw multi-tracks [UNBOXING]

Eyal Levi takes you on a guided tour of the raw multi-tracks for “Right Back At It Again,” by pop-punk legends A Day To Remember. The song was originally recorded by Andrew Wade and mixed by Ken Andrews from their 2013 album “Common Courtesy.”

Here’s a few things to note as you watch the unboxing:

Lots and lots of layers of vocals, as you’d expect from a Jeremy McKinnon and Andrew Wade production. There’s a LOT of interesting details about the vocal arrangement in this song, and you’d be smart to pay close attention to them.
Several layers of effects/post-production for the bridge (marching band, beatboxing, etc). Take notes on this part!
Guitars are provided both amped and DI – Bass is provided amped and as MIDI, if you want to use a virtual instrument in addition to/instead of the performed track (for example, to use as a sub-bass track)

Want more? Click here to get instant access to these multi-tracks and Andrew Wade’s full mix session!

Unboxing Periphery “Prayer Position” raw multi-tracks

These drums!!!

Eyal Levi takes you on a guided tour of the raw multi-tracks for “Prayer Position” by Periphery, as seen in Nolly’s Nail The Mix from 2016.

Periphery “Prayer Position” raw multi-tracks [UNBOXING]

No Description

Here’s a few things to note as you watch the unboxing:

Some truly sublime drum tracks courtesy of Matt Halpern. And note that (as far as we can recall) no drum samples were used in the final mix of this song. So if you are thinking about adding a bunch of drum samples to this one, consider instead watching Nolly’s Nail The Mix and see how he got that tight, super punchy sound without samples!
Nolly’s bass tracks come as DIs and amped tone – Spencer Sotelo’s vocals have some processing done on the way in (recorded with the help of Taylor Larson), but there’s still lots to work with
And of course, plenty of guitars to work with from Misha Mansoor, Jake Bowen and Mark Holcomb
Some fun extra stuff including a little Moog and viola

Want more? Click here to get instant access to these multi-tracks and Nolly’s full mix session!

Set up delay the RIGHT way! [URM Enhanced]

Aux? Insert? Both can work!

Learn how to set up delay as an insert or aux/send in this clip from Eyal Levi’s “Using Delay” Fast Track from URM Enhanced.

How to set up delay the RIGHT way [URM ENHANCED preview]

Learn how to set up delay as an insert or aux/send in this clip from Eyal Levi’s “Using Delay” Fast Track from URM Enhanced. He demonstrates how to do it in Pro Tools using Soundtoys Echoboy, but the same concept applies in any DAW and any delay plugin.

He demonstrates how to do it in Pro Tools using Soundtoys Echoboy, but the same concept applies in any DAW and any delay plugin.

Get instant access to over 50 hours of tutorial like this one in URM Enhanced!