Tag: Getgood Drums

Break the rules of drum programming

If it sounds good, it IS good – period.

You know what drives me nuts? The idea that there are rules to music (or art of any kind, for that matter). It’s kind of ridiculous, especially when the self-appointed authorities making and enforcing the rules are a bunch of random people on Facebook. The fact of the matter is that there are NO rules to music – the only that matters is whether you and the audience like the sound coming out of the speakers!

One of the best examples is drum programming: we all assume that the “right” way to program drums is to mimic as closely as possible the way in which a human plays drums. Nobody questions this – and I’ll admit that I’ve always thought of this as an unbreakable rule. You never program parts a human couldn’t play (for example, hitting two cymbals and the snare at the same time), you don’t use 127 velocity for every hit, and so forth.

But the truth is that (like most “rules” in music), that isn’t a rule at all – it’s just a guideline. Sometimes your music sounds better when you break the rules, so why not go for it? If you think it sounds better with everything at 127, then do it!

Break the rules of MIDI drum programming w/ WZRD BLD, Jeff Dunne & Emmure

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For a real world example, check out WZRD BLD and Jeff Dunne programming drums on the latest EMMURE album in this clip from their Nail The Mix session. As they point out, some of these parts are physically impossible to play, but they just went with it because it sounded better that way.

Remember: the goal isn’t to please a bunch of nerds on Facebook by slavishly following their made-up “rules,” the goal is to make great music 🙂

Nail The MixNail 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!

 

Nolly from PERIPHERY dials in a bass tone

Wanna know the dirty secret of mixing metal? Here it is: 75% of “guitar tone” = bass tone

Guitar tone is obviously a huge part of part of mixing metal, and you’ve probably spent many, many hours chasing “that” tone. What’s not so obvious to many beginning mixers is that a huge part of what you think is “guitar tone” is actually bass tone. When you think of the punch, thickness and attack of a great guitar tone, that’s probably coming from the bass. And it’s not just the low end– the right bass tone usually has some distortion in it that fills in some areas where the guitars are weak.

But as you probably know, getting that bass tone is easier said than done. It’s very, very easy to go overboard with the low end, turning your mix into a soupy mess. And while distortion adds the presence and grit that’s key to a good bass tone, it will also kill the low end. So, how do you get both low end and distortion, since these two things don’t want to get along?

The solution is that most metal mixers use two layers of bass: one clean layer for low end (high passed), and a distorted layer for grit (low passed)– some people even add a third layer for sub-bass.

Nolly from Periphery dials in a bass tone – Nail The Mix preview

In this clip from his Nail The Mix class, Adam Nolly Getgood from Periphery and GetGood Drums mixes his bass tone from “Periphery III: Select Difficulty” in Cubase using a DI track, FF Saturn and Slate VMR. Get the Periphery multi-tracks and Adam Nolly Getgood’s full mixing session ► https://goo.gl/25BAK3

In the below video, Nolly from Periphery shows a really elegant alternative to the above, recreated the amazing bass tone on their most recent album “Select Difficulty” using a DI track, Fabfilter’s Saturn and Slate VMR. If you’re like most of us, you were wowed by the incredible bass tone Nolly got on the album, so you probably want to take notes on this (and try to find a bassist who plays as well as Nolly… good luck with that).

Pay special attention to the multi-band saturation trick at around 4:30, which uses Saturn as an alternative to splitting your bass track into clean + distorted layers– very slick solution that we haven’t seen too often!

 

Nail The Mix

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, Chelsea Grin, Papa Roach, Machine Head and State Champs. Join now for instant access!