Mixing Metal Kick - EQ and Compression Tutorial

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Here's an in-depth tutorial on how to get a tight, punchy kick drum with tons of attack and presence for metal and heavy rock.
This video walks through how to EQ, compress and use saturation on a live kick track to give it a modern metal sound.
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[@DD-ei7yi]

This is unreal, I've been so intimidated trying to mix drums myself, I had no clue where to start or what to do, but this and your other videos have made it so easy and I actually understand the logic of it thanks to your clear explanations. Can't thank you enough!

[@winstonmeyer596]

You mixed Auras too? You're my favorite mixer, I didn't even know that was a thing I could have a favorite of

[@MrDonkeykong321]

I know I'm like wtf I know this sound and then I saw the top

[@Kyyp3r]

I really can't thank you enough. As I'm sure many of us I cut my teeth on hip hop and electronic production tutorials just because those were more readily avalible, but you made me realise that if something works in those genres, it won't automaticly translate well into others (looking at you, super low subby kickdrums)

[@89tonstar]

Dude you have single handedly saved me hours of frustration I didn't even know where to start but you gave me hope. One thing I would mention. I took the lamb of god approach and blended in a clickly clappy MIDO sound into the channel with each kick hit. This not only added a diverse sound as compared to other kicks but almost gives it a type writer sound which is what I wanted.

[@ddjanji]

I love how much more focused and punchy the kick sounds when you turn on the REQ4, just by cutting the mud it actually sounds like if you boosted some frequencies. great tutorial!

[@DankoHidalgo]

Cutting frequencies is the exact same as boosting every other frequency by the same amount.

[@Atezian]

@@DankoHidalgo only if you turn it up afterwards.

[@DankoHidalgo]

@@Atezian …

[@Guitarmfig]

Not only is the kick amazing, the band, the sound, the mixing sounds amazing my man

[@hardcoremusicstudio]

☛ Grab your FREE mixing cheatsheet and get on my list for the best audio training on the web: www.mixcheatsheet.com

[@fivebyfivesound]

First time mixing metal. This is extremely helpful. Thank you!

[@kgrayson655]

The songs is "abverse condition" by Auras for those who are wondering

[@kgrayson655]

J Canan anytime mate

[@solarnewborn]

fucking THICC

[@davidxiu8020]

Haha thanks man. i was too.

[@Violins77]

This is the actual production of the song in the video? Not a cover?

[@Immorpher]

Nice, the placement of the compressor got me to get a snappier kick.

[@SterlingPrimeau]

Instantly revived my shitty sounding kick on a session I’ve been workin on for 4 days. Thank You!!!!

[@hummarstraful]

Old video now but really helped me. I followed along and copied you exactly in Albleton 10. Everything sounded good, but when I added saturation....whoa!! The kick shot threw the mix like a bullet. That was the most effective part of the chain that brought the kick out for me. Will use that a lot from now on. Thanks!

[@whanowa]

I´m currently recording my own metal album. Last year I worked so much on it and thought I was almost done. Now only the vocals are missing and I´m starting to realize how much more work the mixing is gonna be. My working mix is pretty neat so far, but I want better sound. Fuck me this is gonna be tough.

[@eddieademi]

whanowa you're not alone man. I get you, I also am recording and mixing my own metal album, at first I thought it was gonna be easy to make it as how I envision it to sound like, but fuck, i've spend 3 fucking years just learning how to mix, master and music production in general just so I can make my album sound to perfection.

[@armedwithmusic521]

I'm in the same boat as you guys. Just trying to improve! I thought my mix was great until I had vocals recorded and now I'm struggling to get the mix to feel right. I love the instrumental mix and I like the way the vocals sound isolated but I can't get them to play well together yet. Frustrating!

[@tyleroldenhoff4349]

I hear you all on that. Metal is hard to make everything around sonically appealing so it takes alot of time to learn the thing to make it really pop. I've been trying to get a studio going for the past 2 years and I'm still struggling with getting stuff to mesh in my mixes.

[@SidneyAugustoDaSilva]

Your videos are far the easiest, for beginners like me, to understand! Thanks!

[@shizumaruofficial]

2016 videos that has helped me a lot with this kick I've been working on for 2 weeks now. I thank you.

[@mcgarnacle21]

Thanks so much for this, this helped a lot with my kick in superior drummer after a few further small tweaks. Legend.

[@IamJAMD]

you definitely need to do loads of mixing videos, and possibly recording ones too!

[@PedroMau]

You should make a whole tutorial on your drum mix. Sounds really punchy! Also, which band are you showcasing? Thanks!

[@AkisM]

+Pedro Mau The band is Auras. Name of the song is Adverse Conditions.

[@hardcoremusicstudio]

+Pedro Mau Auras - Adverse Condition. This was the original version we recorded... we re-did the drums on this song for the EP later on (although I think these are cooler)

[@jonsmokal7930]

@@hardcoremusicstudio Yep, i really liked these. but damn this shit in the beginning made me cum

[@Xyu_TeBe_B_PoT_CyKa_CoCoK_228]

@@hardcoremusicstudio why you not use SSL console on all channels ?

[@BeatsAndMeats]

This was so freaking badass! I used this on my kicks and holy hot awesomeness!! Then I used FabFilter Pro-Q2 instead of REQ4 for the cut, since it has a great visual frequency thingy, SPL Transient Designer for precise attack and sustain control, a simple limiter and that was it!!!! Now do a snare tutorial pls pls pls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@DjentlyVISUALS]

I can´t thank you enough for this video! I started mixing in 2020 and my kickdrum always sucked. I watched many many tutorials, I bought tons of plugins as seen in the tutorials and in the end, all I needed was my SSL Channel (which I always was kind of... afraid of... in some way... all the knobs and gate and comp in one... xD). This will be my go to setting for kickdrums from now on!

[@fromaggio7654]

Same bro, went through tons of plugs just to realize that it was all a lack of knowledge, not gear.

[@rott3nr3cordings38]

Excellent overview. It's getting harder to find acoustic kick mix tutorials. Many thanks!!

[@consumer365]

I just made a cheat sheet can't wait to try this. Thank you

[@JirehAsis]

following your videos from the Philippines! Thank you a lot!

[@bassbullets4285]

amazing thanks

[@f67739]

these sound better than drum libraries, very good tutorial

[@Rageguitar]

Thank you man, this was great, worked perfect. Ok, and now I need to check the snare:)

[@QuincyKane]

I'm having problems balancing the click of the kick. I had my mix playing, and while I walked away to close the door I noticed the click really stuck out (when originally it seemed well balanced). I checked some references and their mixes seemed to remain balanced, even while standing in different positions in the room. I've tried turning the click EQ down, but no matter how much I turn it down, that particular frequency seems to stick out; plus my kick starts sounding dull. Any idea what's going on? (It is a sample kick, if that helps)

[@merlinzest]

Great video. It's amazing how relatively simple it is to take that flat boofy kick drum we all know and turn it into a punch machine.

[@sunblooom]

HOLY SHIT THATS SO COOOOOL. Thank you so much for this, this is such priceless information

[@xaosnox]

I'm new to the whole "adding samples to spice things up" thing. How exactly does one do that with a kick part like that? I mean, what exactly is the method for getting the samples to match the drummer so precisely that it is not noticeable? Never shy with that EQ! I don't know where people got that garbage. I've heard people selling courses saying things like "never EQ more than +/-3dB" and "only use reductive EQ". Um, okay, then why in the world do the knobs go both directions and have settings WAY higher than that? Love it. Keep it coming, Jordan!

[@GoldenProductions2019]

X S what you have to do is take the sample and move it over until it lines up with the kick drum and the other reason why people use sample drums is because sometimes there looking for different tones to use in the mix like maybe they want to use another tone on the kick drum so they have tow different tones going at once it’s a great trick to do and it makes your kick drum sound awesome hope that helped you out

[@czr7j9]

thanks a lot best kick drum tutorial i have seen

[@lucasbottner8897]

Holy fuck! That whole mix is incredible!

[@spencerb2631]

Awesome! I love this magic frequent series! Could you do one on room mics? I'm always just kind of shooting in the dark with those

[@GoldenProductions2019]

Hey man these tips really helped me out with my mixes and my kick drums so thank you so much your mixes sound great

[@joshuasizer1709]

those drums sound killer

[@santiagocampos7968]

sounds amazing!! really thanks

[@imnrax]

Well i learned how to get a metal kick sound using the SSL channel, not bad you never know what you might learn from a video. I got ssl channel on sale but i never used it for kicks(never bother to learn how to use it lol)

[@kennyschabow]

This was very helpful, thank you!

[@ascended8688]

Your actual opinion on your own mixing technique from 4 years ago would be very interesting to me focusing the low mid frequencies. Because in newer Videos, you told us you stopped cutting so much mid range because of the mix's translation on smaller speaker Systems. If I go back to watch you mix Snare and Basedrum, you take out every mid range that is possible, which is also sounding nice in the first place and even necessary. Sorry for my bad english, but thank you very much for all your Knowledge output to the community.

[@hardcoremusicstudio]

I mix drums the same way still! My comment about not scooping the low mids doesn't apply to drums,. You gotta scoop the kick and toms!

[@NicoOrtizDrums]

Absolutely amazing video! Thank you brother

[@kdsz944]

This sounds brutal!!! Out of this world but…..can you show us what can you do with a recording like the one Waren - mix it like a pro was put into contest? Can you download those trax and mix them and put them up on you channel so we can hear all your craft in action? ❤ No Im not a spammer but a metal producer for 20 years…so let’s see, it’s all about fun 🤩

[@jameshetal6826]

good tutorial! thanks! keep posting more!

[@aaronabramov7141]

this sounds absolutely amazing! what is this song? Is it publicly released somewhere?

[@jwcorcoran9838]

"abverse condition" by Auras

[@tfwnoyandere]

thank you

[@AlleGomesOficial]

Mannn you're awesome! thanks for this uncredible tutorial. Helped me a lot!

[@DiegoFlores-sm5nx]

ARUAS!! nice tutorial man!

[@rockerdonovan0120]

Great mix!!

[@RLDWEBER]

I was experimenting with parametric eq on midi drums and discovered something kind of cool... i boosted a resonant freq but just enough to where you can't hear it unless you turn up the velocity on a hit, then boom instant 808 rumble without having to add it with another sample and it sounds pretty natural. It's kind of stupid but I'm going to just go with it

[@sendingunit5678]

this was awesome thanks

[@sebastianshinobi8280]

awesome bro... thanks a lot

[@GaunCochran]

Dude your channel is awesome.Thanks for the amazing content. I think I'll sign up for the course once work winds down a bit.

[@ElTrejoOficial]

Make a tutorial on Eq and compression of that snare please

[@victorolsson7202]

Drums sound fantastic! I think it's super that you don't rely on triggers/replacement drums which always sucks the soul out of the drum sound/performance. Would love to see a video of the whole drum mix you got going on there :)

[@JeremyVarao]

Thanks for this!

[@IFDH777]

amazing! thanks!

[@ZilnichProductions]

How do you eq bass to fit and make room for the kick? Do you do the standard cut one at a certain freq and boost the other at the same freq?

[@hardcoremusicstudio]

Nope, check out my video on low end mixing mistakes

[@snapascrew]

excellent stuff. don't know if i dig the cut at 180 on the REQ tho...

[@AnthonyLambson]

Is this your band?? The music is sick!

[@theblackstoneconspiracy4745]

thank you jordan

[@tmmmedia731]

do u have a bass lesson for this track I can't seem to get mine right for lower tuned stuff

[@freddylawyer]

I love your channel , quick question , do you mix parallel or just insert ? ; And if you do , what is the difference? Best regards , thanks 🙏🏽

[@TheJayboin]

Hey Jordan! Thanks for doing this video, I did followed everything you did in this video. But my kick was still clipping. Im practicing on Brian Hood's recorded track. The drums are coming out bad and I'm not liking it. Im not used to recording heavy metal drums. Im not sure what to do. Could it be the way the drums were recorded?

[@s.t.754]

Any Windows alternative to the massey tapehead plugin? I have decapitator but it never seems to work properly when it comes to taming high end on my kick drums?

[@01left]

Hi Jordan ..awesome tutorial. Which D4 Kick sample is this? Thanks

[@xsonicassassinx]

i was surprised by how much bleed you left in there and how that wasn't a bad thing. I've spent a lot of my life trying to keep a kick drum super isolated, and that seems to be time wasted. It seems i was concerned about nothing. your kick sounds huge even with bleed.

[@xsonicassassinx]

+xsonicassassinx and thats ALL the compression you used? i've been using WAY too much haha

[@hardcoremusicstudio]

+xsonicassassinx yup, but there is some parallel drum bus compression that also adds to the kick down the road.

[@DaveThomson]

And probably some compression on a kick bus and a little more on the drum bus and 2bus

[@cipher7craft]

Thanks for the vid and tips Jordan. Do you have any processing on your mix buss while mixing drums?

[@ElTrejoOficial]

Or you can make a guide to the complete battery mix.

[@blairthomastoews]

Hi Jordan, why not make EQ boosts after the compressor? Do you always EQ first and then compress?

[@trevorbolin7819]

Can you show us how you did the Toms on this song?

[@brylner]

Great thank you! ;)

[@Newschoolcovers]

How did you get the Midi Notes for the Second kick? Is it recorded with a trigger or is there a possibility to convert the original Kick to midi?

[@codykilla3702]

soo cool

[@mikehughes17]

Jw Where is the ASL plug in located under?

[@being5238]

Nathan is a god! haha

[@KingFyyah]

Blessings

[@uesleimenezes9489]

Por favor alguém traduz esse vídeo!!!

[@herrfriedrich2332]

How to make the guitarsound, is very fat, Amp recording or Axe FX??? Im from Germany greetz...

[@marijandesin8226]

Basically just make a smile on EQ :)

[@user-ze9ot3yg9w]

Hi. How to make guitar effects? 0:47

[@JesseFurtadoMDM]

AURAS FUCK YEAH

[@Kopadinho]

Sorry, but could you please clarify what you say at 3:40? I understood that you say "AK". Does "A" represent some number? Your video is not full HD so I can't see what you are doing there :)

[@Kopadinho]

Sorry for the stupid question. Of course it's eight. For others: here is a picture of the plugin: www.waves.com/1lib/images/products/plugins/full/ssl-e-channel.jpg

[@louiecabasi7324]

How about the lead guitar, instrumental I have a struggle to fix my lead and to make sounds better? And also the vst plugins where do I download!This is free vst?

[@GoldenProductions2019]

Louie Cabasi you can download free VST Plugins off the internet and a great trick to cleaning up your lead guitar tracks is using EQ carving its a great trick if you double your lead guitar tracks and then do some lead guitar EQ carving it will make your guitar a lot more cleaner and a lot more wide

[@DemonEmbarasser]

The demo version of Tapehead only works in mono. Does that matter if I'm using it on the kick since the kick is mono anyway?

[@adamnesbitt11]

That's absolutely fine if it's a mono signal anyway dude

[@saftovooey4569]

No. Mono plugins don't work on mono tracks. Ever.

[@EliPorterMahn]

Whats the song name

[@JorgeGarcia-ld4oy]

Hey Jordan Thanks for your awesome advices and book!, i have a problem with the kick, the first hit of a sequence sounds too loud but the next ones sounds quite week, then again a part of the song dont have kick drum, the first is loud, in a mix with fast double kick sounds blurry, what am i doing wrong, its something about the attack and release of the comp?

[@hardcoremusicstudio]

sounds like more of a problem with the drummer's performance. Hard to fix it in mixing unless you replace with a sample.

[@littlebrookstudio]

I've had some REALLY good results with Sound Radix Drum Leveler for that problem. It's never going to be as good as getting a better actual performance, but it's close!

[@user-lr3fn5ij2z]

@@hardcoremusicstudio I would limit the fuck out of everything fuck dynamics

[@VineMusic91]

when you recorded the kick, what kind of mic did you use and how you placed it?

[@hardcoremusicstudio]

D112 placed inside the drum

[@codycreepcore]

@@hardcoremusicstudio why do i hate that mic so much for kick

[@GAVALL47]

please name music?

[@hamfistTBHP]

What mic was used to capture the kick?

[@codycreepcore]

akg d112

[@GoldenProductions2019]

Hey man great tips I just did a mixing drums tutorial on my KZbin channel

[@sean_tristan31]

what software do you use

[@wwjd52099]

Pro tools

[@DonutDroid]

where I can find that song??

[@ProPetter]

Adverse Condition - Auras

[@TonyMacaroni69_]

how did you get that good of a kick sound to begin with? my kick sounds waaay to boomy even with a lot of dampening and a really low tuning.

[@kennyschabow]

How are you mic-ing it?

[@TonyMacaroni69_]

@@kennyschabow I think the mic is the issue, probably. I put it in my kick's porthole, which should give me a nice sound, but I think the mic has a very bottom-heavy frequency response with very little high end, so I'm guessing that's the issue. But it doesn't bother me too much since I don't record drums very often

[@kennyschabow]

@@TonyMacaroni69_ I got much better attack and tone once I stuck the mic inside the drum. You may have to fight the reso head if there's too much echo. But if you want a modern attack from the kick drum, you should try it out.

[@TonyMacaroni69_]

@@kennyschabow will do, thanks a lot!

[@Captain1Planet]

Do you have any idea how the Live kick is recorded in this track? mic's, position? Great vid

[@hardcoremusicstudio]

D112 inside the kick, just about in the middle.

[@jasonfontaine7072]

Oh fuck did you mix Auras too?

[@TheRhalf]

my bass mutes the kick always :C

[@blackjackmcgack]

Try cutting some 80hz on the bass to give the kick some room! And try side chain compression with kick and bass or you could try parallel compressing your drums to make them punch!

[@MrRingdig]

what is this song fuck its sick

[@Insideranon]

Who the hell is this monster band???

[@fiveringsproductions2104]

heavy

[@buenmin799]

Im just curious. Are these live recorded drums?? Or is the bleed on the kick signal artificial from a very realistic drum sampler?

[@hardcoremusicstudio]

Live drums, not programmed

[@buenmin799]

@@hardcoremusicstudio impressive. Did you also record it or were you just the one booked for mixing? If you did record it, will you make a tutorial for micing heavy drums in the future? :)

[@conorchambers2061]

FUCK WHAT IS THAT SONG MY GOD