mixing CRISPY death metal guitars

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In this video, Christian Donaldson shows you how he mixed the guitars for DAATH's cover of Death's "The Philosopher."
NAIL THE MIX is an online mixing school created by Joey Sturgis, Joel Wanasek and Eyal Levi - the guys who produced bands like TDWP, Chelsea Grin, Blessthefall, Machine Head, Monuments, Miss May I, Of Mice & Men, Reflections, Born Of Osiris, Asking Alexandria and dozens more of this generation's best metal bands.
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[@Brandon-RZ]

This mix does sound insane. Most the modern ones do from the pros… but man, live the bands don’t come remotely close to the production. Not sure what a good in between is.

[@JUNKO____]

I mean, the idea is to get (according to the band/producer) the perfect version of the songs you're trying to record and live is.. live. Those perfect sounding songs are also getting listened to through streaming services at the end of the day so, what's it really matter? Live means expect less unless they're a massive act that can have all of the live accompaniment and processing done well enough for it not to be a hassle. Different flavors of the songs IMO.

[@deathmetalglenn]

Meshuggah, Periphery, Tesseract all come to mind that I've seen in the last decade that all had as close to a studio mix live that I've ever heard in my life! Just saw Meshuggah in March n Tesseract maybe a month or 2 before that n both shows i was blown away by the mix

[@Brandon-RZ]

@@deathmetalglenn meshuggah is so good live. It’s crazy, for how many guitar tracks they use in the studio it still sounds pretty damn close. I don’t want to throw any bands I really dig under the bus, but automation and a lot of that other stuff too when a drummer isn’t good enough to play the part in the first place is a total bummer when you see it live.

[@steamaom]

This is brutaaal mix

[@metalfather8139]

The guitars he did on suffocation hymns record.....would be insane if he showed us......but this helps allot ive been trying to get guitars as good all natural......no wonder 2yrs later still not there. But imagine after i add his tricks... stoked now

[@reylynx]

why won't you use the mix knob on the sooth?

[@Aniss_Chekikene]

I might really miss Emil being in Dååth , but god their riffs never disappoint.

[@3ngi_n33r]

Ducking the guitar with bass? Did I hear that correctly?

[@SoBeit777]

So is he saying he gets the snare out of the way of the guitars, or the guitars out of the way of the snare to make it 'pop'? I dont understand what he means, hes saying the opposite of what i thought he was doing with trackspacer..

[@captainconvulsion]

It looked like he was using a sidechain to drop the guitar when the snare hits.

[@mlaskhomestudio3583]

mixing metal is really becoming quite a bit ridiculous. million plugins on heavily distorted guitars, everything is gridded, overprocessed to shit,static and lifeless. It does sound "professional" though. So i guess good job

[@MartinNephilim]

I know and i get it that it gets overwhelming in some ways. But this is an approach. In past times this same thing would look different but its the same goal/idea. I.E. using onboard or analog gear for the same things like compression, eq, saturation, experimenting mic placements, different cabs, speakers, rooms, tape cutting and glueing, etc… This way (plugins, computers) you are saving a ton, lots of those methods are not affordable, nor necessary imho. Approach wise depends on what my vision is, if i want it tight or raw, those things are artistic preference now. It’s a choice now, me personally, I wouldn’t sacrifice my livelihood to not release something due to the way what I think what records should be… You can do things many different ways now, and I appreciate that!

[@boychris1947]

go outside

[@outofdinero]

Arguably these are all steps that were missing in older mixes but weren't possible with the available technology. Listen to the metal records of the 1990s and 2000s. They had huge major label budgets behind them and were mixed by top engineers but the guitars were very hissy and drums didn't pack nearly as much punch.

[@BrofUJu]

To be fair these are incredibly subtle moves. Tiny eq and compression moves. You need to hammer drums and bass and stuff sometimes but the guitars don't sound massively different after processing.

[@JasonRidesmoto]

I agree... I like minimum effective dose type approach!