How to Mix your Metal Drums in Cubase | Metal Recording Basics in Cubase

hey what's up guys mendel here so in a previous video we talked about routing drums like in cubase and balancing them and now we'll get to the good stuff we're gonna mix some metal drums so uh let's dig right in all right so here we are again in a beautiful program called cubase maybe you've heard of it um so we're gonna take off where we left in the last video let's just take a listen to the balance of the drums together with the bass and the guitars and then we'll we'll dig into the drum mixing so here we go [Music] [Music] okay so that sounds uh pretty decent so before i started mixing before i hit record on a camera i listened to some of my favorite mixes to calibrate my ears which is something i always do before i go mixing and the best thing to do as well is to start mixing early in the morning like when your ears are really fresh so i'll listen to some of my favorite mixes there's an album called resurrection from a band called chimera which is mixed by andy sneap i listen to the strong needle because that song to me is like one of my favorite mixes of all time it's perfectly balanced this all comes to taste but that's um that's the kind of mixes i like also all hope is gone from slipknot it's a record i really like and one of my favorite mixes of all time is uh from the album shogun from trivium mixed by colin richardson that album to me is the holy grail of mixes anyway so when i start mixing drums i always just my way of working start with the symbols because when i start filtering on the symbols i instantly get clarity also a disclaimer i'm gonna do a lot of soloing so just soloing the swords i'm working on which is not something i do very often while mixing but i'm gonna solo a lot so i can for demonstration purposes and show you guys what i'm working on what i'm hearing and stuff so like i said let's um let's start with the symbols and i want to get a loop section should be good i'm going to mute the guitars and bass okay so i'm going to filter off till well let's see uh around 500 hertz like when i'm mixing um like a band that's like very fast very aggressive like brutal death metal like going 280 bpm i could filter off to 800 hertz or even one kilohertz because most of the time there could be kick drum in there or a lot of snare bleed and if i want to have like a clear punchy mix that's not gonna help but for this tempo around 400 hertz that's what i like yeah it cleans out the kick like it removes the kick a bit bit of the body of the snare but i have enough body in the clothes mics so this is how i like it so the symbols are pretty bright so i'm gonna like mellow them down if it makes any sense [Music] and i hear a whistly kind of tone [Music] that there hopefully you can hear the difference with like good speakers or on good headphones [Music] so and when i press here it's going to be in bypass so let's take a comparison [Music] okay let's take a listen okay so that's pretty cool and now i'm gonna use a compressor to even out the hits and what i like to do is do a very quick attack very quick release and then about i don't want to name numbers but i aim for like three or four db so hopefully you can hear that like instead of like the symbols like one hit like a peak dynamically and down now it's more like like the compressor is pushing that down so that wash is like more continuous if it makes any sense [Music] yep sounds good so now let's go to the rooms this is really depends on taste like again with fast metal bands brutal death metal grind curry like really fast stuff with room tracks i could like filter everything up to 500hz or maybe even 800 depends but with this kind of tempo i really like the kick drum in the room mics and uh the the kick drum in the room mics could help the the close mic of the kick like give it a bit more body around like 50 hertz so hearing it with this kind of tempo i think i'm not gonna filter everything off perhaps about maybe 100 hertz maybe lower like think about kick drum and just do a mid dip but here we go so i really like that kick thump around good headphones are good speakers then you can hear it like when i'm gonna unsolo it and compare with the kick i like that a lot i'm gonna reduce a tiny bit of that [Music] harshness yeah i like it way more with room tracks most of the time i do a lot more compression [Music] so quick attack quick release like the cool thing with the cool thing with the compressor on room and room mics um to my ears it makes the room sound bigger because of the compression the tail is more audible more compressed so it makes it appear as more bigger okay let's hear it with the drums okay i like that so now i'm going to the kick drum first thing i'll do is filter off the unwanted frequencies i don't need with the kick drum around 50 hertz then i cut like around between 100 and 200 some sort of boxy area am i cutting this area like it depends fully on on the kick sample or kick like maybe it could be 200 hertz you get the desired effect maybe even below 100 it depends really on the source but for this kick sample it works around this frequency area and then like to boost around 50 60 hertz okay that sounds good for now and so now i'm going to add some some highs on the kick so a more clicky clicky sound so let's check it with the rest and i boosted a lot of higher frequencies which makes the signal louder so that's why i'm turning the volume fader a bit down okay so good to me let's check the snare [Music] so here's some nasty ringy thing i don't want and be careful with this and it also depends like if i would like cut out the ring on a grindcore record people would sue me probably that kind of thing [Music] and i'm gonna probably boost a lot for some brightness [Music] okay that's pretty good [Music] let's check it [Music] now it depends on the project sometimes i put a compressor on a channel but 9 out of 10 times i just let parallel compression do the work which i'll turn on later and i probably would have to turn down the volumes of some of the the shells but let's go to the snare sample now filter off stuff i don't need it's already processed pretty much but i still hear some mids that i don't like and can use some body so over here see this peak the body of the snatch i like to boost that or a bit below it let's check it together with this knife because this snare also has a bit of body so they complement each other but it could also be a bit too much here we go [Music] so i do notice i probably cut a bit of too much mids on the rooms let's check it now okay and now i'm going to add some of the room sample i'm not using the snare bottom on this one because normally i don't like the snare bottom like it a lot filter stuff i don't need [Music] i hear like a frequency like popping out [Music] okay so let's check that perhaps a bit of too much body lowered a bit like i said in my previous video i always had my first mixes my kicks and snares are probably too loud cool so i'm gonna quickly check it with the bass and guitar just to see where it sits [Music] so i hear the symbols are a bit too bright so i'm going to get back to that in a bit but now let's focus on the hi-hat first which normally i do right after the symbols but always seem to forget for some reason i'm going to loop this section [Music] like i don't like it's harsh and i hear like a whistle [Music] so that's a bit more controlled [Music] okay so the hi-hat on the cinema mics are kind of annoying me so i'm gonna use a de-esser to kind of duck like when the hi-hat pops up because the hi-hat because it's like metal clashing on each other the highest frequencies on those mics [Music] that sounds better to my ears [Music] okay so now i'm gonna focus on the toms now i think i'll do oh let's be honest 100 of the time almost i think is a cut mids on the toms so let's do this one [Music] so i almost never cut this part because that's like the tone of the tom so i really want to have that pop out [Music] all right and now we'll do the second floor tom i'm just doing in this order because those are the towns being hit at the intro [Music] like you hear this frequency that really willingness that's not pleasant for a metal record [Music] let's take a listen so i really like how those tops are blending with the rooms my opinion gives a bit more of a natural feel [Music] okay so now erectile one [Music] basically with all the toms i'm doing the same thing but it shifts because the note light gets lower on its tom so i feels rough be like before the the fundamental you could say and then i cut a bit of mids well like say 60b a bit of mids right after it [Music] and boost a bit [Music] for the clarity and now we need floor tom one as last [Music] like it gets more clarity like really modern and thick that's how i like it okay let's search from beginning [Music] that sounds pretty good i forgot to turn up the chinas and the splashes i'm not using any splashes but turn up the china see how that sits cool and now get to my favorite part which is parallel compression so i have a compressor here the vintage compressor from cubase these settings sound phenomenal in my opinion so what it does parallel compression like you have all these channels they go to the instrumental then go to to the stereo out and parallel to that makes any sense i have a compressor which is going to the drums group if i'm correct yes to the drums group so it's compressing pretty heavy like around -20 db so then i can blend that in so we'll take i like this fill and then with a bit of a beat so let's do it around here so what i'll do is i'll slowly up the fade of the parallel compression and because it's so aggressively aggressively compressing it's probably going to make the shells louder because this parallel compressor is only on a kick snare snare sample bottle stands for being used and the toms and that's a bit less on the kick if i'm correct yeah than the rest and before i forget i'll do the same on the full second floor tom because they're really bass heavy and they can like really push the compressor too much but let's take a listen i love this part because it makes it more sound like a record i'm going to lower the output of the parallel compressor a bit [Music] and i'll turn down the sample track a tiny bit [Music] so i'll solo the drums or just mute this and i'll do the same thing again so you can hear the difference so i'll just play the beat and then just slow that fade in okay so that sounds pretty good let me just listen one more time with the band [Music] okay so sounds pretty good and there i say it i think i could use a bit more compression just on the drums group so i'm just going to grab the regular compressor and do the attack around 30 let's see how that sounds and a pretty quick release let me just shuttle the drums like for a lot of people that would be way too much compression but i'm sorry i like that it really rock radio rock compressed sound so what i'm doing now is i'm a being like back and forth and i touch the makeup gain so my ears won't get fooled that like it's louder so it's better to be honest i like it around rachel 2 like we had it [Music] so if i compress too much i can hear like when the kick drum is like like like beating the compressor the symbols get faded away too much because the ducking but i like the the pushing effect for this though i i think i would not do this like on a death metal record but for this kind of like modern like swedish metal kind of vibe it works maybe a bit too much [Music] okay so let's check it in the mix i love it i i really love it how it's like almost too much compressed but to my ears it sounds like radio rock fat [Music] like i really like that that pushing effect like i was listening to the nothing from corn it's also like really open but also compressed it reminds me like when using this compressor it gives me that a bad impression one thing i'll do automation wise like you have this double kick part around here [Music] it's automated so the volume goes down so cool tool is that using this one the range selector is called and i'm just going right before the kick all the way to the last kick and just turn it down maybe two decibels let's see how it feels that's a bit too much so maybe one decibel [Music] so one last listen from the top [Music] okay so one thing before i forget what i always do is i route the hi-hat to the reverb i route the ride to the reverb and the toms so let's see how that sounds so that sounds pretty cool depends on the song sometimes i like a lot of reverb sometimes a bit less also depends on the part of the song okay the snare is real really loud now and usually i will take breaks after like every 15 minutes or so to like recalibrate my ears [Music] cool i really like how that sounds it's a nice modern and thick and i'm actually very surprised how much i like this compressor now just the basic compressor of cubase on the drum group the drums group like okay so let's a beat it one more just for fun [Music] all right so uh that's it that's um that's some drums uh some metal drums mixing so i really hope you guys like this video um please please let me know in the comments if you guys have any questions i'll i love to help you guys out if you have any questions so that's no problem so that's it for now see you next time stay safe cheers [Music] you

Channel: Cubase

Views: 12,374

Keywords: how to mix metal drums, mixing metal drums in Cubase, metal recording, metal recording in Cubase, metal drums, heavy metal, metal, drums, recording, mixing, DAW, mixing heavy metal, mixing metal, balance drums in your mix, Cubase 11, mixing drums into a heavy metal song, snare, bass drum, toms, cymbals, hi hats, a to b comparison

Id: aS6Nk1hWDMQ

Length: 31min 29sec (1889 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 25 2020