A Word From Eyal Levi –

This Fast Track covers what in my opinion is one of the most difficult, if not THE most difficult type of production: Extreme Metal Drum Production. This is an incredibly detail oriented method of producing and mixing drums. While I do believe that someone unfamiliar with the genre can get a lot out of this Fast Track, there are some URM resources that I would suggest you either start with, or take in parallel in order to maximize your results. This is the genre that I cut my teeth in. I know the material in here intimately and these supplemental learning suggestions are what I personally believe will help you understand the big picture on creating amazing sounding drums, within the Extreme Metal genre. This Fast Track will show you how to deal with what's actually being recorded, as well as how to approach the session in advance, and also what to do once the drums are tracked, however if you take it in conjunction with the following you will really go all the way.

Eyal's Supplemental Learning List:

1 – Ultimate Drum Production w/ Matt Brown – This is our full scale drum production course which will teach you the ins and outs of head selection, tuning, miking, setups, and literally everything involved with getting great sounds out of a drum kit. If you already own it, now is the time to take it again. If you don't already own it, you can get more info here: Ultimate Drum Production

2 – Introduction To Cubase with Jeff Dunne -or- Introduction To Pro Tools with John Douglass. Dave Otero's Fast Track is in Cubase and therefore all the examples are Cubase centric, but there is an equivalent function for just about every technique in Pro Tools. I highly suggest going through either of these in detail, with special emphasis on the drum editing sections so that you can come to the table at the top of your DAW game.

3 – You will only get great at mixing this genre with repeated exposure. The good news is that we have covered it on Nail The Mix a few times. There is no better way than to be able to watch a master at work on a "best case scenario” session. It will give you a standard to strive for in your own productions, and an opportunity to try lots of what's covered in this Fast Track on sessions that you know have the capability of sounding great. You won't be able to blame the drummer if the drums don't sound good. I suggest Archspire Nail The Mix with Dave Otero, Aborted Nail The Mix with Kohle, Gojira Nail The Mix with Logan Mader, and Cognizance Nail The Mix with Joel Wanasek.

4 – Download the practice tracks! Use them! We have included practice drum tracks for MOST of the examples. Use them to practice editing. Use them to practice mixing. Use them to follow along. Click here to download the practice tracks! Remember, none of this works if you don't work it.

Good luck and happy learning to you!

Eyal Levi

URM Founder

Hello everyone-

I'm the owner of Flatline Audio in Colorado, and you may know me for working with bands like Archspire, Cattle Decapitation, Cephalic Carnage and labels like Metal Blade, Relapse and Season Of Mist.

This Fast Track will help you with one of the most challenging parts of producing extreme metal: drums that sound modern, tight and punchy yet still human. In my personal opinion, we oftentimes go too far with editing and sample replacement and end up stripping out the emotion that makes the listener really connect with the song. So with that in mind, I'll be showing you some of my process for finding the balance between perfection and imperfection.

I'll go over my ENTIRE process for working with drums, from big picture philosophy to editing, mixing, and dealing with some of the unique challenges presented by extreme metal like blast beats and ultra-intense double bass parts.

Let's get into it!

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