GetGood Drums Modern & Massive: A Guide for Metal Producers

GetGood Drums Modern & Massive has become a go-to for producers needing huge, punchy, and aggressive drum sounds right out of the box. Created by Adam "Nolly" Getgood, it’s designed to deliver that polished, "mix-ready" tone that defines the current metal landscape. But here’s the thing we all know: "mix-ready" can quickly turn into “robotic-sounding” if you’re not careful.

We’ve all heard it—programmed drums that sound like plastic toys in a vacuum. The blast beats are sterile, the fills lack energy, and the whole performance feels lifeless. The problem isn’t the samples themselves; GGD M&M is an incredibly powerful tool. The issue is how we use it.

Let’s break down how to take Modern & Massive from a great-sounding instrument to a living, breathing part of your mix that sounds human and hits like a freight train.

Beyond the Presets: Building Your Foundation

Before you even touch a MIDI note, your core kit sound makes all the difference. Modern & Massive gives you a ton of control, and glossing over these initial steps is a common mistake.

Shell Selection and Tuning

Don’t just load the default kit and call it a day. Nolly gave you options for a reason. Are you going for a modern prog sound or a deathcore vibe?

• Snare: The choice between the 14×6.5" brass and steel snares is massive. The brass shell offers a warmer crack with more body, while the steel gives you that high-end, aggressive bite perfect for cutting through dense riffing. Tune it up for a tight "ping" or down for a fat, impactful backbeat.
• Kick: The 22×18" kick is a monster, but its character changes dramatically based on the beater. The felt beater gives you a rounder, fuller low-end punch, while the plastic beater emphasizes the attack and click—essential for fast double bass patterns to be heard clearly.
• Toms: Experiment with the different tom sizes. Using the larger floor toms can add a thunderous weight to your fills.

The Mic Bleed Factor

One of the biggest giveaways of programmed drums is the lack of microphone bleed. Real drums exist in a room, and the mics pick up everything. GGD M&M’s mixer is your best friend here.

Instead of just using the close mics, make sure you’re blending in:

• Overheads: These are the key to a cohesive-sounding kit. They glue the cymbals and shells together.
• Room Mics (Near & Far): This is where the "massive" comes from. The room mics provide the space and depth that make the kit sound huge. Don’t be afraid to heavily compress your room mics for an explosive sound.
• Snare Bottom: A crucial element for snap and sizzle. Blending this in adds realism and helps the snare cut without just adding top-end EQ.

Pro Tip: Route these different mic groups to separate tracks in your DAW for ultimate control. This allows you to process your room mics differently from your close mics (e.g., adding saturation to the rooms with a plugin like Soundtoys Decapitator).

The Real Secret: Humanization and MIDI

This is where the magic happens. A killer kit sound is useless if the performance feels mechanical. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s controlled chaos. Human drummers are imperfect, and those imperfections are what create groove and feel.

Velocity Is Everything

MIDI velocity controls how hard a note is struck, and in a deeply sampled library like GGD M&M, it does more than just change the volume—it triggers entirely different samples. A snare hit at a velocity of 90 is a different recording than one at 127.

• Stop Programming at Max Velocity: A blast beat programmed with every snare hit at 127 will sound like a machine gun. It’s harsh and fatiguing. Pull those velocities down. A blast beat snare might sit around 110-120, while a huge backbeat on a breakdown could be your 127 moment.
• Program Ghost Notes: Add subtle snare hits at very low velocities (20-50) between the main backbeats to add groove and realism.
• Vary Your Cymbals: No drummer hits the hi-hat or ride with the exact same force every single time. Randomize your hi-hat velocities by 5-10 values to create a more natural, flowing feel.

Taming the Grid: Why 100% Quantize Kills Your Vibe

Quantizing everything perfectly to the grid is the fastest way to create a stiff, robotic performance. The "feel" of a great drummer is often in how they play slightly ahead of or behind the beat.

Your DAW's quantize function should have a "strength" or "tightness" setting. Never set it to 100%. Try starting around 90-95%. This tightens up the performance to keep it locked in with the guitars, but it preserves some of the original human variation. For fills, you might even pull it back to 85% to let them feel a little more frantic and live.

Remember, the goal is to enhance the performance, not erase it. A good editor needs a musician’s ear to know what’s sloppy and what’s "feel."

Processing Modern & Massive for Max Impact

Once you have a great-sounding kit with a human performance, you can use processing to take it to the next level.

Drum Bus Compression for Glue

Running your entire drum kit through a single bus compressor is a classic trick to make it feel cohesive and punchy. An SSL-style VCA compressor is perfect for this.

• Plugin Choice: Waves SSL G-Master Buss Compressor, Slate Digital VBC, FabFilter Pro-C 2.
• Starting Point Settings: Set a slow attack (around 30ms) to let the initial transients of the kick and snare punch through, a fast release (100ms or auto), and a low ratio (2:1 or 4:1). Aim for just 2-4dB of gain reduction to "glue" the kit together.

For more secrets on making things punchy, check out our deep dive on metal compression techniques.

EQ for Clarity in a Dense Mix

EQ is about carving out space so everything can be heard. A massive drum kit needs to coexist with massive guitars.

• Kick: Boost the sub-lows around 60-80Hz for weight and the beater "click" between 2-4kHz for definition. A surgical cut somewhere between 300-500Hz can clear up mud and make room for the bass guitar.
• Snare: Add body around 200Hz and crackle around 5kHz.
• Toms: Cut the same muddy mids as the kick to prevent your tom fills from turning into a wash of low-mid energy.
• Cymbals: Use a high-pass filter to roll off the low end below 300-400Hz. This cleans up cymbal bleed in the shell mics and prevents your overheads from clashing with the guitars.

Making your drums and guitars work together is an art. Understanding how to approach EQing modern metal guitars is just as important as how you EQ your drums.

Bringing It All Together

Using GetGood Drums Modern & Massive isn’t about loading a preset and calling it done. It’s about leveraging its deep sampling and flexibility to craft a performance.

To recap:

• Start by selecting the right shells and blending in mic bleed for realism.
• Focus on MIDI velocity and off-the-grid programming to create a human feel.
• Use bus compression and surgical EQ to make the kit punch and sit perfectly in your mix.

Knowing these techniques is one thing, but seeing them applied in a real session by a world-class producer is a total game-changer. That’s what we do at Nail The Mix.

Every month, you can watch pros from our list of world-class instructors mix real songs from bands like Gojira, Lamb of God, and Periphery from scratch. You get the raw multitracks to practice on and can see exactly how they approach drum samples, blending them with live kits, and using automation to create powerful, dynamic mixes.

If you’re ready to see how the best in the business build these massive metal sounds from the ground up, explore our full catalog of Nail The Mix sessions. It’s the ultimate way to level up your productions.