Tag: john douglass

How to edit drums in Pro Tools: Advanced Tutorial

Holy CRAP this tutorial is good!!

We really shouldn’t even be giving this away for free because it’s THAT good – but here you go: John Douglass’ truly insanely great tutorial on editing drums in Pro Tools!

This is a clip from his Pro Tools Fast Track (part of URM Enhanced), and everybody who’s seen it agrees that it’s some of the very best stuff they’ve ever seen on the topic of drum editing– so strap yourself in and prepare to get your learn on 🙂

How to edit drums in Pro Tools: Advanced Tutorial

This might be the BEST Pro Tools drum editing tutorial on the entire internet– seriously! John Douglass is one of the very best metal drum editors around, and he shows you all of his secrets in this advanced tutorial.

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JOHN DOUGLASS: Mixing Opeth, Common Production Mistakes, Plugins vs. Analog Gear

On this Mixcritmonday episode, URM founder Eyal Levi is joined by producer/engineer John Douglass to critique user mixes of the Opeth classic “Heir Apparent.” Before diving into the critiques, they get into a killer discussion about the current state of music production. They cover how much easier it is for beginners to get decent sounds now, the incredible evolution of musician skill over the last couple of decades, and how digital tools like plugins and amp sims have finally reached a point where they can go toe-to-toe with high-end analog gear.

In This Episode

The main event features Eyal and John giving detailed, constructive feedback on three different student mixes. They tackle common but crucial issues like un-panned rhythm guitars, out-of-control low end in the kick drum, and over-compression that squashes the life out of beautifully recorded tracks. A major theme is that the source material is so good that it requires a delicate touch, not a heavy-handed template. They point out specific frequency problems, phase issues in the vocals, and highlight how dynamic balances between the song’s heavy and soft sections are key to getting the mix right. It’s a masterclass in objective listening and knowing when not to process.

Products Mentioned

Timestamps

  • [0:38] Do beginners realize how spoiled they are with high-quality multitracks?
  • [2:36] How production technology has advanced in just the last five years
  • [3:44] Why it’s easier than ever to get a “decent” recording
  • [5:02] How drummers’ relationship with click tracks has completely changed
  • [6:40] The rising technical skill of young musicians
  • [9:28] How streaming royalties are raising the quality of music again
  • [10:23] We’ve entered the age where plugins have finally caught up to analog gear
  • [11:14] The Taylor Larson NTM session: Amp sims vs. real amps
  • [12:39] Critiquing the first mix from Chris Uber
  • [15:58] The tell-tale signs of a mix done by a guitarist
  • [17:30] The importance of A/B referencing against the commercial mix
  • [19:24] Diagnosing phase issues between vocal tracks
  • [24:47] Critiquing the second mix from Ethan Layman
  • [25:04] The huge mistake of not panning the rhythm guitars
  • [31:24] How over-compression can make a good performance sound bad
  • [32:52] These Opeth tracks are so good you could just do a faders-up mix
  • [36:30] Critiquing the third mix from Marcus Stone
  • [39:49] When a snare sound is so loud it literally hurts your eyes
  • [42:39] Preserving ghost notes when you’re gating a snare
  • [44:51] Analyzing the low-end balance between the kick and bass