Nail the Mix Announces Classes with Machine/Lamb of God and Kurt Ballou/Converge

I know we’ve discussed Nail the Mix here on MetalSucks before, but in case you’re still not hip to it: it’s an educational website dedicated to teaching the art of — duh — mixing, especially as it pertains to heavy music. The site allows you to sit in on live 6-8 hour mixing classes with some of the top professionals in that field, and it provides you with actual raw multi-tracks from some huge bands on which to practice and learn. Seriously, not messing around when I say big names are involved: past classes have included Jens Bogren and Opeth, Daniel Bergstrand and Meshuggah, Adam “Nolly” Getgood and Periphery, and Logan Mader and Gojira. So it’s really an amazing resource for anyone who wants to get into the recording and mixing game, or even anyone who just wants to learn more about how their favorite metal bands make their shit sound so goddamn good.

If you haven’t tried out Nail the Mix before, the site’s next two offerings ought to entice you: on September 1, Kurt Ballou (High on Fire, Skeletonwitch) will teach a class centered around Converge’s “I Can Tell You About Pain”…

…and then, on September 15, Machine (Clutch, Suicide Silence) teach a class centered around Lamb of God’s “Redneck.”

It goes without saying that Machine and Ballou are both at the top of their game, and that these songs are both neo-classics. Missing these classes would be a mistake.

Don’t make that mistake: join Nail the Mix before September 1, and you’ll get access to BOTH sessions.

In case you’re somehow still not convinced, here’s Mr. Ballou on his class…

I’m stoked Nail The Mix has asked me to break down my approach to mixing loud, abrasive, organic music.  In this session, I’ll walk the students through the mix of Converge’s song “I Can Tell You About Pain.”

…and here’s Mr. Machine on his class:

“I am very excited to finally join Nail The Mix. It was important to me to come out for the first time with the right song, and I feel we made the right choice with Lamb Of God’s ‘Redneck.’ My goal as your teacher is not just the technical but even more important the attitude that I put into my approach. And how that mind set has defined my success with all kinds of bands.

“Things to Know:

• “This was the first time I got Chris Adler to fully agree to deconstruct his drum parts in his mind and record drums as overdubs (like how anyone would do in a studio with guitar parts, vocal parts, etc.). I saw how many crushing badass benefits there were to this method and we got to fully see it through.
• “There is no real kick drum ever recorded on this and believe me, that was not short of trying. At the time I was very envious of how the band Meshuggah had their own signature kick sound. The kick drum is so important in LOG, so I wanted very bad for us to have our own signature sound as well. We must have tried dozens of ways to get it from a kick drum itself, like duck taping metal plates and other materials to the drum. It was all a fail, so in the end I put a couple of samples together that I thought did the trick. To this day over a decade later, I still think of ways we could have pulled it off from the drum itself.
• “This was the first time we recorded all rhythm guitars with the intention that they were all going to be reamped. I learned big lessons on the right and wrong ways of working this method. The main guitar Di’s are included and I would love to hear your re-amps for this song. I would even like to use one of your reamp tones when I get to remix the song live.
• “There were many times I immersed Randy (vocals) in a method acting approach to getting the right emotion out of his vocal takes. If it was pissed off lyrics, I wanted him really pissed off. He hated me at the time for this, but thanked me later.”

Stop dicking around. Join Nail the Mix now!!!