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Ninja trick for mixing small drum rooms!

No drum room? No problem!

Learn this simple trick to take drums recorded in a small drum room and process them so they sound just like drums recorded in a huge drum room!

Joel shows how to do it in Cubase using the stock EQ, Roomworks reverb, envelope shaper and Waves L1 Limiter, but the same techniques should be easily applicable to any DAW and equivalent plugins.

How to turn small drum rooms into MASSIVE drum rooms! ( Tutorial )

Learn this simple trick to take drums recorded in a small drum room and process them so they sound just like drums recorded in a huge drum room! Joel Wanasek shows how to do it in Cubase using the stock EQ, Roomworks reverb, envelope shaper and Waves L1 Limiter, but the same techniques should be easily applicable to any DAW and equivalent plugins.

This tutorial is from Mix Lab, our library of bite-sized mixing tutorials exclusively for Nail The Mix members– get instant access to 50+ tutorials like this when you join 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, Meshuggah, Machine Head, A Day To Remember and Bring Me The Horizon. Join now for instant access!

Andrew Wade’s legendary DREAM GATE for drums!

The PERFECT gate?! It just might be…

Drums are every mixer’s worst enemy and best friend – they’re the foundation of the mix, but can also be incredibly difficult to work with because it’s really like mixing a dozen or more instruments in one, with each piece of the kit and each mic presenting its own challenges.

The key is to have total and absolute control over every single note of your drum tracks to bring out the best of a great performance, or address problem parts of a performance that isn’t so great.

Here’s how our friend Andrew Wade does it in this gamechanging clip from his recent Nail The Mix session where he walks you through his “dream gate:”

Mixing metal drums: Andrew Wade’s legendary “DREAM GATE”!

Learn Andrew Wade’s trademark process for drum editing that will turn almost any drum track into the raw materials for a great drum mix! This method is done in Pro Tools using a combination of Beat Detective, AudioSuite to normalize each hit, and editing the velocities to be consistent, using the multi-track session for “Three 6” by Attila.

Boom! There you go – Andrew’s top secret, ridiculously powerful process for turning almost any set of drum tracks into the raw materials for a great mix. You’re welcome 🙂

If you’re dying for more of Andrew’s knowledge bombs, you’re in luck! You can get instant access to these multi-tracks AND the full, 6+ hour living mixing session right here.

Mixing one of the best drummers in metal [ft August Burns Red]

This man is a straight up BEAST!

Shells, rooms, mics, heads… all of that stuff definitely matters, but when it comes to drum sounds, the biggest factor is and always will be one thing: the player. There’s simply no substitute for a great player laying down a great performance – all the samples and editing in the world can’t replicate it!

I’m not gonna say that a session like this mixes itself, because that it’s true, but it DOES change your job as a mixer. Instead of being a turd-polisher who spends a huge chunk of your time and energy on cleanup, editing, samples, and the usual workarounds that we use to make the most of a subpar performance, you’re spending your time on CREATIVE DECISIONS – on taking something that’s already awesome and bringing out the best of it to turn it from good to great.

Mixing metal drums ft/ Matt Greiner of AUGUST BURNS RED + Carson Slovak

Mixing metal drums is a lot of fun, especially when you are working with tracks from Matt Greiner of August Burns Red — one of the very best drummers in metal! Aside from getting great source tones, the key to getting powerful, punchy, modern metal drum sounds is in making the RIGHT mix moves – not piling on plugin after plugin.

And AUGUST BURNS RED’s Matt Greiner is without a doubt one of the best in the business – this man hits HARD, with the kind of fury few drummers can bring, and all with the kind of tight, super clean performances that sound better than most people’s edited tracks. See for yourself in this clip from Nail The Mix with Carson Slovak and Grant Mcfarland…

Anyhow – my point here is not to fangirl over Matt, the point is that I want you to understand a) how critical the player is in drum sound, and b) to underscore the thing we’ve said so many times, which is to GET IT RIGHT AT THE SOURCE.

Of course you should feel free to use samples, editing, and whatever other tricks you have in your arsenal, but never try to fix it in the mix — because the truth is that just doesn’t cut it when you want to deliver a truly world-class mix!

Mixing MESHUGGAH lead guitars w/ Daniel Bergstrand

Dissecting one of the most iconic solos of all time

Heavy music can essentially be divided into two categories: before Meshuggah and after Meshuggah. They completely changed the game with not only their songwriting, but also the groundbreaking and unique production on “Destroy Erase Improve” courtesy of the one and only Daniel Bergstrand.

Mixing “Future Breed Machine” lead guitars w/ Daniel Bergstrand + Meshuggah

Watch Daniel Bergstrand mix the lead guitars in the iconic Meshuggah song “Future Breed Machine”! He uses Pro Tools, Brainwork Shredspread and Soundtoys Echoboy.

We consider ourselves insanely fortunate to have Daniel on Nail The Mix to take us through one of Meshuggah’s most well-known songs “Future Breed Machine,” and for those who may have missed it, here’s a little peek at the pure awesomeness of this session – check it out as Daniel mixes the iconic solo from the bridge!

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, Monuments, Machine Head, A Day To Remember and State Champs. Join now for instant access!

Overheads: your misunderstood friend

Looking for more presence, punch and depth in your drums?

Many of us (including me when I was starting out) don’t really appreciate the nuances and power of overheads. All too often you see mixers just high pass them and call it a day! *horrified face emoji*

But the truth is that while they aren’t as straightforward as close mics or shells, they’re oftentimes the key to giving your drums the kind of size, presence and depth that makes the difference between good and great – so don’t let yourself get away with half-assing them!

Take your drums from good to GREAT [w/ Henrik Udd + Architects]

Overheads can be a tricky beast – it’s not as simple as HPF + forget! Henrik Udd brings out the overhead magic in Architects’ “Gone With The Wind.” Want this session and the full mixing class?

As one example, check out this clip from Henrik Udd’s Nail The Mix session featuring “Gone With The Wind” by Architects – he spends quite a bit of time painstakingly notching out these overheads, and while the dummies in the YouTube comments think it’s “just basic subtractive EQ,” this is the kind of attention to detail and patience it takes to really get the most out of your drums (or anything else in your mix). If it’s so basic, why don’t your drums sound this good? 🙂

Challenge yourself to really listen to the overheads and ask yourself if you’re getting everything you possibly can out of them before reaching for reverbs or samples!