Recipe
A metal mix with room for everything
How to keep drums, bass, guitars and vocals from becoming a confused wall: the frequency split, the working order and the checks.
Distorted guitars take up almost the whole spectrum, with no pauses. If every instrument sounds huge alone, together they cover each other through masking. For the mix to sound big, each one has to give something up. This recipe brings those decisions together on one page.
Step 1: balance before plugins
With tracks at a working level of −12 to −10 dBFS, build the balance with faders and panning. Then group into buses: drums, bass, guitars and vocals. Many frequency problems are really volume problems.
Step 2: who leads in each area
These are starting points. Move them based on what you hear in your track.
Low end: kick and bass
The wall: guitars
High-pass at 100–120 Hz: it sounds odd in solo and everything falls into place in the mix. Real double-tracked takes, panned to the sides, not copies of the same take.
The air: cymbals
High-pass the overheads at 300–500 Hz and the hi-hat at 200–300 Hz. If the cymbals fight with the guitars, give up some highs before turning everything down.
Up front: snare and vocal
The vocal needs a pocket in the guitars, with a gentle cut in the area where the words live. Look for it with the track playing, not in solo.
The split between kick, bass and guitars shapes everything else, including how far the master can rise. It's hard to fix afterward.
Step 3: dynamics, without killing the hit
- Drum bus: 2–4 dB of reduction. If you need more body, parallel compression.
- Guitar bus: 1–3 dB, to glue them. Distortion has already compressed them heavily.
- Bass: slow attack, to keep the pick.
Step 4: space, in moderation
With this much density, reverb fills up fast. Use short reverbs with the lows filtered for drums and vocals, and delay on solos and phrases. Leave the rhythm guitars almost dry: that’s what keeps them up front.
Step 5: the checks
- Mono: bass and kick don’t lose weight, and the guitars are still there, if further back.
- Low volume: the vocal, snare and riff should still be clear.
- Phone: you should hear the bass. If not, saturate a layer.
- Reference: at matched volume, comparing the balance.
- Output: −6 dBFS peaks, with no limiter on the bus.
What NOT to chase yet
Quick path: metal mix
Quick path
- Balance with faders and panning, no plugins.
- Buses for drums, bass, guitars and vocals.
- Kick and bass: choose who leads in each area.
- Guitars: high-pass at 100–120 Hz and double-tracked takes to the sides.
- Overheads at 300–500 Hz and hi-hat at 200–300 Hz.
- A gentle pocket in the guitars for the vocal.
- Drum bus 2–4 dB and guitar bus 1–3 dB.
- Short reverbs, with the guitars almost dry.
- Check in mono, at low volume and on a phone.
- Output with −6 dBFS peaks, no limiter.
Expected result
Expected result
A mix that’s dense but clear: kick and bass are distinct, the guitars are wide without covering anything, and the vocal is clear, on a phone too. Each track may sound worse in solo. What matters is how they sound together.