How to get Pantera's drum tones

[@RyTube996]

Really respect the way you go about promoting your stuff man. No pretentious 'pick me' and fake content. Just top notch musicianship and fun vids. And the products are sick

[@JoshMiddletonOfficial]

For anyone asking about the guitar tone. These guitars were recorded back in 2009 maybe. The tone is the Triple XXX amp from Peavey Revalver 2 or 3 - a more primitive amp sim. I can't remember what cab it was. Basically, the tone was awful but I printed the tone and didn't keep the DI tracks. To get the guitars to sound similar to the FBD tone, I just did a TON of EQ. Sampled the guitars in the break before the 'breakdown' section and kept looking at the EQ on FabFilter to see what I needed to change and manually EQ match the tone

[@ErikAnders]

Gtr tone Sounds sick man is there limiting going on with all this ? What kind of lufs or rms are you at?

[@VasilisKoskinas]

I remember an interview in Modern Drummer mag back in the day, Vinnie said that in the studio his was using a 14 inches floor because he could get more attack.so the live kit with the studio kit was different.Might be the reason they tuned down the samples for the live kit that he had 18 inches floor.Great video thanks.There's always something to pick from your videos.

[@Longmanriffs]

So good, been messing around with the Southern Great Big Kit just jamming along to midi loops and writing tonnes of riffs. Having sounds like this is mega inspiring. Shotgun Snare Blast is king at the moment though!

[@valentinzwick5408]

Be awesome to make this a "how to dial in the tone of" series just like you did with guitar tones.

[@douggroulx1525]

Dame that’s killer dude

[@greegstelii]

Hi Josh I loved the video. Pantera is my favorite band and that is the drum sound. I wish I had access to the tilt eq because I would like to make the toms with a little more high end.

[@jdwdrums]

Can you do a video on how to get these pantera guitar tones? Sounds killer!

[@Lozek]

The rumour I always heard back in the day (and I don't recall where I heard it from) is that live, Vinnie was using a sample to keep the low end consistent, and then mics for the top end so he could have a bit more dynamic control on the click to fit the song section.

[@JoshMiddletonOfficial]

That may have been the case. What I meant to say in the video but didn't explain fully, is Vinnie toured with his own monitor system. He had stereo wedges either side of his kit and it was insanely loud onstage. Sounded like pure samples coming through there. Same when checking the PA at front of house each day. I'm sure there was probably a blend on snare

[@andrewjacobs5579]

Not a rumor. He used 421's inside the toms & 409's outside. Insides for the highs to reduce cymbal bleed & outsides for body & resonance. Kicks he used a [trig] sample for the low end & the mic for the highs. He spoke about it in the 94 Modern Drummer issue that can still be found online. Page 58 using MD's back issue PDF thing

[@apoplexiamusic]

@@andrewjacobs5579 but setups can change over 15 years

[@andrewjacobs5579]

@@apoplexiamusic That has nothing to do with the point. Dude said RUMOR is he used this for this & that for that & I took his own words from an interview saying dude's thought were fact. And he's used mic's inside & triggers on tours for the rest of his career so...

[@MASTERRIFFS]

🎸🎸🎸very cool man☠️☠️☠️ 👍

[@woodward_alan]

Would appreciate the guitar tone explained too :)

[@Durkhead]

Next you gotta make a reverb. One of things that makes terry dates mixes so great is how he used natural room reverb

[@ANGLofficial]

Dude, amazing drum sound, but shall we talk about the guitar and bass tone? 🤯

[@tomspring213]

Snagging a kick from 5ma is exactly what I did for some old demos using Beatcraft, lol.

[@anthonymckinney8173]

brilliant!!!

[@raygringo]

Great video, Josh! Peerhaps in a future update you could tweak the tilt eq to have a more extreme/aggressive range/effect, which would make getting that last bit of high-end bite/sheen out of things without having to use exterrnal plugins? To me, most modern metal drum mixes still lack that outright bite and viciousness that I loved from bands such as Pantera, or .the ..And Justice For All album, or the mid to late 90s Napalm Death albums that Colin did - which are still my favorite Napalm albums. I'm of the belief that those classic albums sound killer because they were sonically "incorrect" according to todays standards and common mix techniques. Also, what's up with so many modeern metal albums having the cymbals and hi-hats buried in the mix? Doing that effectively eliminates sheen/vibe/presence from the mix. All this said, I'm very much looking forward to buying your drum plugin in a few days when I start demoing ideas for our next album. Pretty sure I'm going to love it! Love your work, keep at it!

[@slayabouts]

I love drum sound on The Great Southern Trendkill. But as a different sound, I’d love for you to try and replicate the drums on Refused’s The Shape Of Punk To Come using your library As far as the kontakt library, i feel like the faders don’t react as quickly as they should; they’re too exact. I’d much prefer for the faders to move quicker and have the option of holding shift or ctl to have the fader be more precise. Maybe that’s just me

[@declanwhite]

This is sick

[@JimLewis.guitar]

The way to get that kick sound is to only tighten the bassdrum heads just past finger tight so you push on the head until the wrinkles go away. Your kicks are super clicky with no ring at all, its a full snappy sound. He used remo muffle rings, remo doesnt make them anymore but ive used them & it gives you super attack & no sustain, that with a super loose head & it gives you that sound & he also used wooden danmar beaters (the red ones), see the 5 minutes alone vid, giving him even more of that click. I dont think theres much sampling if at all on the albums atleast on the first 3. Yeah he used triggers live but that snare hit is super huge on the recordings because he would do massive smacking rim shots constantly & he used his sticks backwards so it was the butt end, not the tip & its a fat sound every time. Its also why his bell hits on his ride are so huge too. Allot of the sound is a result of his playing, the sticks & the kits tuning & the the mic choice & placement. Both vinnie & Terry date mixed the drum sounds until the last album when it was vinnie & sterling & vinnie knew what frequencies to cut & boost. What a great player he was. I've got one of his sticks from the reinventing the steel tour that he threw out in the crowd during the show. Total pro player, 1 of a kind. R.i.p. big fella \m/

[@JoshMiddletonOfficial]

There's no denying you can get that sound from the real drums. But the samples he had loaded onto this drum module were all sounds from his kit. When we toured with Vinnie, his drum tech Peking was telling me how he collected those Alesis drum modules (as they had been long discontinued, and with time they all kept breaking). All the sounds he was using were samples of his own drums he had recorded himself. But there's a certain mechanical feel, no matter how tight the player, that you get from hearing samples in a mix. And from 1994 onwards is when he started to incorporate samples in recordings as well as onstage

[@JoshMiddletonOfficial]

I also think (and I'm guilty of this), that a lot of producers downplay the amount of sample that gets used and talk about the 'real' gear on the record. Terry Date is awesome. But there are certain samples that if you're super familiar with the Alesis samples (particularly the D4 module), you instantly recognise them in a mix. If you listen to the kick sound on a lot of the tracks on Around the Fur by Deftones it sounds like a heavy amount of either 'kik004-Spiked-36' or 'kik028-Reggae-36'. Also, a fun fact to add on. Machine Head sampled the kick from 5 Minutes Alone and used it for The More Things Change (maybe did a blend or just added more low end back in)

[@juicekicksup]

@@JoshMiddletonOfficialDude I love when you drop these bits of album info.

[@tomspring213]

To my ear, it always sounded like there was a flange effect on his cymbals. Not sure about every album but on Reinventing the Steel for sure.

[@robsstrengtharising7775]

Is there a setlist for your us tour????

[@ErikAnders]

Please make a flam for the snare on UHD

[@YsAbTones]

did you use your stl plugin for the guitar tone?

[@metalfather8139]

So close man little more on the kick and a little more level on the drum buss but you still nailed it

[@eurosnuke1678]

Pretty accurate sound the snare gives it away tho different is vinnie / computer

[@tomspring213]

Pretty sure he used the red Ddrum triggers and the DM5. Only reason I bought both back in the day.

[@FernandoAburto-nk9di]

Preset vinnie on your website?

[@wcarballeira]

Please please helpme, routing the drum on kontakt but i cant see how to route the reverb so i can control it as a individual track.

[@obsidy5072]

Did you think about your own ampsim plugin?

[@devendasmusic]

He has one with stl

[@Durkhead]

I dont think he used samples on far beyond driven as an experiment i sampled the snares on 5 min alone and each one sounded way different

[@JoshMiddletonOfficial]

There's definitely real snare in there. But it sounds like a sample blended in. If you listen to the song 'Where You Come From' on the live album, it sounds like the sample outweighs the real snare. Either way, I'm not declaring to know everything about those recordings. Just having fun trying to replicate those types of tones

[@aserabus]

Josh! Please let us know your set list, for when you come to U.S.A. Are you only going to play your new stuff? Or are you going to incorporate your older material? You have a lot of fans that like your older material, and have never seen it live. Honestly Sylosis should be headlining. You guys blow away the other bands you're touring with. I'm only going to buy tickets to see you, then head out.