Evening Nolly! Was just wondering, is that you playing the solo on Graveless? The vibrato/phrasing sounded extremely familiar.
That's a Misha solo, I didn't play any solos on Juggernaut
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First, Happy new Year Nolly! Nolly, your vibrato is AMAZING! How do you make them so tasty ? Can you share a breakdown of your technique for us?
How are you guys achieve those guitar divebombs on Graveless and (I think) The Bad Thing? You used guitar with whammy bars?
We did those in real-time with an expression pedal hooked up to the Axe-FX II
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Do you have any tips for making drum hits sound more consistent without using samples?
Yes, the fairly "standard" way engineers do this is introduce an element of saturation or clipping at some point in the chain, which cuts off the tallest peaks, bringing them down to the level of the lighter hits. This is achieved in several ways, and sometimes engineers use several techniques at once. It can be achieved at the preamp end if using a preamp with a separate input and output trim controls so you can drive the input but trim down the output (Neve 1073 is a classic choice for this), by recording hot to tape, by driving a piece of analogue gear hard enough to clip the circuitry, by clipping the converter inputs, or by using a saturator or clipper plugin in the DAW. If you're doing the latter, experimenting with moving the plugin either before or after the compression stage can give you some options - if you want the compressor to react consistently to each hit, try saturating pre-compression, while placing them the other way around will give you more natural/less static compression behaviour while still controlling the peaks.
Bear in mind that any of these approaches will reduce the headroom of the track and you may find bleed to become problematic as a result, particularly on snare tracks. You are also taking a considerable risk committing to this during tracking, since you cannot reconstruct the lost transient information later if you find you've been heavy-handed. I've had several bad experiences with engineers overdoing this during tracking and found myself tearing my hair out trying to work around the problem during mixing.
I am currently trying out a plugin by Sound Radix called "Drum Leveller", that seems to be a very clever solution to all this, essentially altering the level of each hit within a threshold instead of lopping off peaks to achieve consistency. So far it's working really well, we'll see how it holds up with further use.
Bear in mind that any of these approaches will reduce the headroom of the track and you may find bleed to become problematic as a result, particularly on snare tracks. You are also taking a considerable risk committing to this during tracking, since you cannot reconstruct the lost transient information later if you find you've been heavy-handed. I've had several bad experiences with engineers overdoing this during tracking and found myself tearing my hair out trying to work around the problem during mixing.
I am currently trying out a plugin by Sound Radix called "Drum Leveller", that seems to be a very clever solution to all this, essentially altering the level of each hit within a threshold instead of lopping off peaks to achieve consistency. So far it's working really well, we'll see how it holds up with further use.
Hi nolly, i just check the Made of Metal test clip that you posted on soundcloud and it sounds really amazing. Another cool thing i realize is that you programming is really good as well. Any tips for reach this realism programming? Cheers.
Thanks, the best tips I can give are to really study how drummers play, and to record plenty of real drum sessions. I'm very lucky to get to hang out with and record some incredible drummers - geeking out over drum stuff with them and getting to see their playing up close is a very informative insight into what makes them sound the way they do. I also spend a lot of time watching videos of drummers, whether they are performance videos or instructional ones, and analysing records with great drumming.
While I can't actually play drums, I'm very aware of sticking patterns that drummers use and where hits will naturally fall lighter or harder in a part (for example, a single-footed kick double will normally start with quite a softer hit, then a harder one), so when I'm programming parts I bear that in mind. The Toontrack packs are so deeply multi-sampled that if you take the time to adjust velocities realistically they react extremely naturally.
While I can't actually play drums, I'm very aware of sticking patterns that drummers use and where hits will naturally fall lighter or harder in a part (for example, a single-footed kick double will normally start with quite a softer hit, then a harder one), so when I'm programming parts I bear that in mind. The Toontrack packs are so deeply multi-sampled that if you take the time to adjust velocities realistically they react extremely naturally.
Do you prefer to use a SM57 or Beta 57 (like in the Zyglrox drum video) on snare? Why?
I prefer the sound of the SM57 over a Beta 57 on a snare, but the hypercardioid pattern of the Beta gives you better rejection of the rest of the kit, which is a huge bonus that gives you more processing headroom when mixing the snare before bleed becomes obvious. It's especially helpful when recording kits that are fairly compact, where spill is often an issue. That same tighter pattern of the Beta, however, means that it helps to not get too close up on the drum since it will get less of the "bigger picture" of the drum's sound than a regular cardioid in the same position.
It is worth noting, however, that "hypercardioid", "cardioid", etc... doesn't necessarily tell the full story of a microphone's pick-up pattern - almost any mic is close to omnidirectional at low frequencies, and cardioid dynamic mics (SM57 included) generally tend towards a hypercardioid pattern at their highest frequencies. So, if you're using an SM57 and want to get the best high-frequency rejection of - say - the hi-hats, you're best off placing it with the hats roughly 120˙ off-axis rather than directly behind the mic, where you might actually be picking up a lot of high-end spill from the rear lobe of the hyper pattern.
It is worth noting, however, that "hypercardioid", "cardioid", etc... doesn't necessarily tell the full story of a microphone's pick-up pattern - almost any mic is close to omnidirectional at low frequencies, and cardioid dynamic mics (SM57 included) generally tend towards a hypercardioid pattern at their highest frequencies. So, if you're using an SM57 and want to get the best high-frequency rejection of - say - the hi-hats, you're best off placing it with the hats roughly 120˙ off-axis rather than directly behind the mic, where you might actually be picking up a lot of high-end spill from the rear lobe of the hyper pattern.
Since you're often recording and/or mixing in different studios do you use any reference tones/tracks for finding out the 'sound' of the room you're in?
I have reference tracks that I keep on a hard drive, but mainly I just make sure to take along a pair of headphones I know pretty well (useful in general to be able to check details you might miss on monitors), and try to stick to mics and positions that I know work well the majority of the time rather than being too experimental. Most studios have experienced house engineers who can be very useful to help you quickly find an approach that will work for the result you want.
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Any chance you can shed some light on the reverbs you used and how you used them on Juggernaut?
Most of the time I use Logic's Space Designer reverbs, you'll hear it them all over the record - soft spring reverbs on certain guitars, zingy small room reverb can contribute to a lo-fi "in the room" effect, then there are a few long hall presets that I like to use for very spacey guitars and vocal throws. The only other reverb plugin I use regularly is Verbiage by Stillwell Audio, which is a great algorithmic verb for non-natural sounding spaces (great on drums in particular).
How do you keep drum heads in tune when recording drums with a hard-hitting drummer like Matt Halpern?
Unfortunately this is one of the perennial problems with recording great rock and metal drummers! Up until recently I would have to go into the live room every 10-15 minutes or so to check and retune the snare in particular, but on recommendation of a few drummers I used Tuner Fish luglocks on the last drum session I recorded, and found they improve things drastically - only one minor tune-up was required in a whole day's tracking.
Equipment aside, how do you usually go about achieving a bass tone similar to the one you've been using on Juggernaut?
If you're eliminating the equipment side of things, then essentially it comes down to the playing style - I pick hard and flat to the string to try and get a nice snap to the front end of the note without the "scraping" sound you can get on bass strings if your pick contacts the string at an angle. I'm not sure if the setup of the instrument falls within the bounds of "equipment", but if not, try using medium to high tension strings for your tuning and keep the action low enough to get a metallic attack but without sustained buzz and rattle during the sustain.
2 things, are there any samples over the natural drum sounds on juggernaut? Also, the mixes you ended up with are probably the best I have heard in a very very long time! You did an amazing job Nolly!
Thanks, there is a varying amount of kick sample from section to section and song to song, but never more than about 40% and mostly about 25%. Everything else is natural, there was a snare sample that I took out for the final mix iteration since I didn't feel it was adding anything.
What amp did you use for the guitar tones on Juggernaut, or was it Axe-FX? All of the different sounds you guys used are just incredible
The tones on the record are all Axe-FX II using a custom IR profile of Misha's Zilla Fatboy 2x12 cab (2 x Vintage 30s), with the exception of the solos, which were tracked with my KSR Orthos amp through Mark's Fatboy (1 Vintage 30, 1 Creamback H). The cabs had various mics on them, which I blended together after making sure everything was phase-accurate to get the final tone. The Axe-FX patches used many different amp models, including the "6160 Block", "Friedman HBE", "Shiver Clean", "Boutique 1" and several others. I'm a big fan of changing up tones for various parts, and using analogue effects pedals to get unique sounds that are essentially unrepeatable and very specific to the part being played.
If you blended a reamped with B7K signal on top of your already existing bass, didnt you have phase issues?
Yes, but you can simply time/phase-align the tracks in your DAW afterwards to compensate.
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Go on, spill the beans on the Juggernaut bass tone. Everyone is asking about it, and you're not giving any clues!
Sure, I used my Dingwall NG-2 and Afterburner 6 basses, and I tracked through a Palmer tube DI straight into Logic, then used a software amp chain to monitor. I actually liked that tone a lot, and with a bit of tweaking it got me most of the way to where I wanted, but for the final mix I also blended in tracks reamped through a Darkglass B7K and a VFE Triumverate, to further shape the character of the distortion.
I can't get over how massive Psychosphere sounds in the "Periphery - Juggernaut Tour" video you guys just posted. I like how it is not very bright and compressed like many records in the genre, was that deliberate when you guys were mixing?
Thanks, I'm glad you like it. Yes, with so much material to listen through across both albums we were very keen to aim for a darker, non-fatiguing mix so listeners wouldn't find themselves tiring out too quickly. A smoother and darker sound with plenty of low end also seems befitting for a concept record with a very dark storyline, hopefully the package as a whole will make sense when you get to hear it.
Have you ever tried an Evertune bridge? Thoughts???
We used two Evertune-equipped Mayones guitars all over Juggernaut in the studio. It really is an amazing invention and drastically speeds up the recording process since it can eliminate most tuning issues - which are so often the biggest headaches when recording guitars. I look forward to future iterations where I'm sure they will slim down the design further, it's already a great product so I can't wait to see where they take it.
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I noticed you said you tune Matt's snare drum to a certain note. Do you tune toms to any specific note as well? Sorry if you've answered this before!
Yes, I use pitch references for the snare and toms so I can quickly and easily get a kit tuned up and consistent from show to show, or song-to-song in the studio. It also has the handy side-effect of allowing you to get the drums ringing in key with the song (or at least not out of key).
With the standard 2-ply batter, 1-ply reso, I always tune the resonant head 3 semitones higher than the batter - this gives an excellent tone with minimal pitch dive (I see some people talking of tuning both heads identically, but that only works when both heads are the same type in my experience). When tuning with this approach, the note of the tom when struck will be exactly one tone higher than the resonant head's pitch. For example, on a 10" tom I might tune the reso to a D, the batter to a B and the result would be a clear E when the drum is struck.
The pitches I choose for each tom depend on how many the kit features, and what suits the vibe of the track. For example, with a standard 10,12,14,16 setup, I might start with the 10 around an E and descend in 4ths through the toms - if I start much lower than the E, both the 12 and 16 will start having to be pushed to the lower end of their range where the sustain and body will suffer (and will sound inconsistent with the 10 and 14). With fewer toms you can afford be more creative with your tuning decisions since there are less drums to worry about keeping in their optimal ranges.
With the standard 2-ply batter, 1-ply reso, I always tune the resonant head 3 semitones higher than the batter - this gives an excellent tone with minimal pitch dive (I see some people talking of tuning both heads identically, but that only works when both heads are the same type in my experience). When tuning with this approach, the note of the tom when struck will be exactly one tone higher than the resonant head's pitch. For example, on a 10" tom I might tune the reso to a D, the batter to a B and the result would be a clear E when the drum is struck.
The pitches I choose for each tom depend on how many the kit features, and what suits the vibe of the track. For example, with a standard 10,12,14,16 setup, I might start with the 10 around an E and descend in 4ths through the toms - if I start much lower than the E, both the 12 and 16 will start having to be pushed to the lower end of their range where the sustain and body will suffer (and will sound inconsistent with the 10 and 14). With fewer toms you can afford be more creative with your tuning decisions since there are less drums to worry about keeping in their optimal ranges.
What do you think of the new Colin Richardson Toontrack pack?
I think Made of Metal absolutely fantastic, even better than I had hoped for - incredible sounding, immaculately tuned drums, and one of the biggest room sounds I've heard. I can't wait to try it out in the mix, either with programmed drums or even just supplementing live drums with the ambience tracks.
How do you make a bass tone fit in a metal mix? I can't get the low end to sound good without it being muddy.
It depends entirely on the source tone - basses vary hugely in sound, and fresh strings are definitely a prerequisite for the style. It will also depend massively on the tuning, since you want to make sure the fundamental is well represented. In general, you probably won't want there to be that much frequency information between about 150-180Hz up to 350-500Hz, and it's worth leaving some space for the kick drum between 50-80Hz depending on tuning and the way the two interact. It's always a tricky balance to find, and often it's helpful to use a frequency spectrum analyser to see visually how the bass tone relates to the rest of the mix elements.
I read that you tune Matt's drums before shows? How do you tune his snare? When I saw you guys at Winston Salem it sounded incredible
I'm glad you liked the sound, I tune Matt's reso head to a G or thereabouts, with the batter tuned to an E. In some rooms that can be a bit too high (all crack without much body) in which case I'll loosen off the batter to an Eb or D. Matt's preference is for the higher tunings though.
I remember you spent a lot of time in Melbourne this year and last, would you ever consider moving here?
If Australia in general wasn't so remote and far from my family I would move to Melbourne in a heartbeat
Which famous guitarists would you love to record?
Andy Timmons, Guthrie Govan, Brett Garsed, Paul Gilbert, John Petrucci and many others
How can I get in touch to employ you to mix my band's album?
Contact either Mike Mowery at Outerloop Management, or Johnny Minardi at Self-Titled Management.
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I just recorded drums and found out that there's almost no tone (there's only attack) in my floor tom because we probably muted it way too much. Should I go straight for a drum replacement plugin like drummagog? or is there anything else you recommend trying?
If the recorded sound is nowhere close to the sound you want, you may well have difficulty bringing out the sustain you want without cymbal bleed becoming an issue. Perhaps try sampling your floor tom with less muffling, then combining that with your natural track and using it to provide the body/tone you're after, while the original track gives you the attack with all the playing dynamics and nuance preserved.
I'm trying to invest some money to get "out of the box" with my mixing. What's the first hardware unit you should buy to get a more professional result in terms of quality?
I believe that with the quality of plugins these days, the only limitation on achieving a professional result in your mixes is your own ability and experience. Outboard gear is great, and some of the units out there can accomplish things that would require several stages of processing in the box, but to me it's a luxury, and one I almost never use apart from during tracking, rather than while mixing. If you are set on outboard, a versatile compressor like a Distressor would be my recommendation.
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