Tag: Monuments

Recording Metal Guitars: Dual mic setup w/ John Browne of Monuments

Blend those mics!

Learn how to record metal guitars using a dual mic setup with John Browne of Monuments.

Recording Metal Guitars: Dual mic setup w/ John Browne of Monuments

Learn how to record metal guitars using a dual mic setup with John Browne of Monuments. He is using a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier with Two Rock cabinet, Shure SM57 and Se Electronics Voodoo VR1 ribbon mic into an API 3124 preamp.

He is using a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier with Two Rock cabinet, Shure SM57 and Se Electronics Voodoo VR1 ribbon mic into an API 3124 preamp. He fine tunes mic placement, listens with headphones to check for proper phase alignment, then dials in a blend of the tones in the mix.

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Unboxing Monuments “I, The Creator” raw multi-tracks

World class musicians!

Eyal Levi takes you on a guided tour of the raw session for this song off the second Monuments album, originally mixed by John Browne and featured on Nail The Mix back in 2017.

Monuments “I, The Creator” raw multi-tracks [ UNBOXING ]

Eyal Levi takes you on a guided tour in Pro Tools of the raw session for this song off the second Monuments album, originally mixed by John Browne.

This session is a textbook example of what a difference truly great players and performances make: John Browne and Olly Steele are absolute savages on guitar and quad track almost everything, this is a MONSTER drummer who hits ridiculously hard, and vocalist Chris Baretto is very simply one of the best in all of progressive metal.

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

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 Bring Me The Horizon. Join now for instant access!

Dial in punchy and powerful clean vocals

It’s a bit counterituitive…

As we’ve said a million times, vocals are the most important part of almost every song – even in guitar-driven genres like progressive metal. It’s just a fact of human psychology that we’re drawn to the human voice, and therefore it’s always going to be the central element in a mix.

Which makes it kind of ironic that many mixers don’t spend nearly as much time on vocals as they do drums or guitar. Big no-no!!

Clean vocals are even more attention-grabbing than screams or growls because they’re easier to understand, and this actually makes them even more challenging to mix than harsh vocals. It’s a bit counter-intuitive, because you’d think that harsh vocals would be harder to mix because they’re more dense, but it’s actually the opposite: with cleans – especially when it’s a really strong singer – there’s nothing to hide behind, and every mix move counts.

Dial in powerful + punchy clean vocals w/ John Browne of Monuments

Watch John Browne mix the vocals for “I, The Creator” by Monuments using the raw multi-tracks from the album. He uses Cubase, Waves CLA-76 compressor plugin, Waves H Delay, Waves Manny Marroquin plugin, Waves Desser, and Soundtoys Echoboy.

As an example, check out this clip of John Browne mixing the lead vocals of Monuments’ “I, The Creator” from his Nail The Mix session featuring their incredible vocalist Chris Baretto.

Obviously Chris absolutely nailed the performance, which is awesome – but working with really great tracks like this presents its own set of challenges as well, especially in a dense, complex arrangement like this one. Namely, that as the mixer it’s your job to highlight all the details of the performance with a subtle touch– to bring out the greatness and bring the vocal front and center without smashing it or overwhelming the rest of the song.

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!