Deconstructing August Burns Red’s “Coordinates”: Inside the Raw Multi-Tracks

August Burns Red has a reputation for crafting intricate, technically demanding, and sonically massive metalcore. Tracks like “Coordinates” are a perfect example—a nearly five-and-a-half-minute journey that shifts from brutal heaviness to twangy, dark surf-rock, all while layered with orchestral and electronic elements.

Ever wonder what the raw, unprocessed session for a song like that actually looks like? We’re diving deep into the Pro Tools session for “Coordinates,” as mixed by the legendary duo Carson Slovak and Grant McFarland, to show you what you’re working with when you get these tracks inside Nail The Mix. This isn’t just a simple set of stems; it’s a complete production toolkit.

The Rhythmic Foundation: Matt Greiner’s Drum Kit

Let’s start with the engine room. If you’re not familiar with Matt Greiner, you should be. He’s easily one of the most precise and powerful drummers in modern metal, and this session is proof. Watching him track in the studio is a lesson in consistency and raw power.

The Mics and Shells

The session gives you incredible control right from the source. You get:

• Kick: A standard kick-in mic.
• Snare: Top and bottom mics for blending punch and sizzle.
• Toms: Close mics on the rack and floor toms.
• Cymbals & Overheads: Individual mics for the hi-hat, bell, left/right crashes, and splashes, plus a set of stereo overheads.
• Rooms: Stereo room mics to capture the natural space and explosive sound of the kit.
• The “Attic” Mic: This is a cool one. It’s a mono mic that sounds exactly like its name—distant, raw, and full of character. It’s a perfect secret weapon for adding unique texture or creating dramatic, roomy effects during breakdowns or intros.

The Producer’s Secret Weapon: Pre-Lined MIDI and Triggers

Here’s where a good session becomes a great one. Carson and Grant have already done the heavy lifting for you. Alongside the raw audio for every drum, you get:

• Kick Trigger Track: A pre-made audio track of the trigger signal, ready for you to feed into your favorite drum replacement plugin like Slate Trigger or Superior Drummer.
• Full MIDI Map: This is the goldmine. There’s a dedicated MIDI track for the kick, snare, and every tom. This saves you hours of tedious work and opens up a world of possibilities for sample layering, creative gating, and reinforcement without ever having to manually create the MIDI yourself.

These are some of the tightest, most powerful drum tracks you’ll ever get to mix, and with the MIDI provided, you have a perfect foundation to build upon.

The Low-End Theory: Bass Tones That Ground the Mix

A killer metal mix needs a bass that can hold its own between the frantic kick drums and the wall of guitars. The approach here is a classic and effective one: two distinct bass tracks.

• Bass DI: The clean, direct signal. It’s full of fundamental low-end and attack, perfect for shaping from the ground up.
• Bass SansAmp: The gritty, distorted track, likely from a Tech 21 SansAmp pedal or plugin. This provides the midrange growl and aggression that helps the bass cut through on smaller speakers and glues it to the distorted guitars.

Just listen to the raw SansAmp tone—it’s thick, meaty, and mean. The key to a great bass performance is the player’s intent, and you can hear the tight, consistent picking in these tracks. This level of precision is what allows the bass to lock in perfectly with the kick and guitars. To make it sit just right, you’ll need to use some smart compression techniques to control the dynamics without losing the aggression.

Building the Wall of Sound: Guitars & DIs

Of course, it wouldn’t be August Burns Red without a formidable guitar tone. The session includes two rhythm guitar tracks, panned hard left and right. The raw distorted tones have a certain sweetness and clarity to them—they’re not overly saturated, which means they have tons of potential. With the right EQ strategies for mixing modern metal, you can easily carve these into a mix-ready tone.

But what if you want to craft your own sound? No problem. Every single guitar track in this session comes with a corresponding DI track. That includes:

• Rhythm Guitars
• Lead Guitars
• Clean Guitars
• Ebo Guitars

This gives you the ultimate flexibility. You can use the phenomenal tones the band and producers captured, or you can re-amp everything through your own amps, modelers like the Axe-Fx or Kemper, or an endless array of plugins.

Just as important as the tone is the performance. When producers talk about “tight” guitars, this is what they mean. The left and right channels are played so precisely that they sound like one massive instrument, which is essential for a clear and powerful mix.

Beyond the Metal: The Orchestral & Synth Layers

This is where an August Burns Red track truly becomes an epic. The session is loaded with melodic and textural elements that take “Coordinates” to another level.

Real and MIDI Instruments

You get a mix of both real and synthesized instruments, including cellos, choirs, and multiple pads and synths. Some of the cello tracks sound completely real, while others are clearly MIDI-based, giving you different textures to play with.

But here’s the game-changer: unlike most sessions where you just get a printed stereo file, you get the MIDI for all the synths, pads, and orchestral parts. This is incredibly rare and unbelievably powerful. It means you can:

• Change the synth patch entirely.
• Layer the MIDI with your own virtual instruments.
• Edit the performance, fix notes, or even rewrite parts.

The Art of a Subtle Layer

One of the biggest challenges in a dense mix is knowing how to use these layers effectively. Take the “Warm Pad,” for example. It plays long, droning notes under a heavy, busy riff. If you mix it too loud, it will clash with the guitars and drums and muddy up the part. But if you tuck it in just right—making it almost subliminal—it adds incredible sonic complexity and emotional depth that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. It’s a masterclass in arrangement.

Another cool trick is the lead synth that doubles a guitar melody. Blended carefully with a touch of saturation (like from a Soundtoys Decapitator) and the right effects, it can transform a great guitar lead into an unforgettable one.

Get Your Hands on This Session

Diving into a session this packed is a producer’s dream. You get everything:

• World-class drum performances with mics, triggers, and MIDI.
• Mix-ready bass tones with a separate DI.
• Tight guitar performances with DIs for complete tonal freedom.
• A treasure trove of orchestral and synth layers, complete with their MIDI files.
• 12+ layers of raw vocal tracks, from brutal screams to clean harmonies.

This isn’t about using presets; it’s about having all the raw ingredients to create a professional mix from scratch. If you’re ready to stop guessing and start learning how the pros do it, it’s time to Unlock Your Sound: Mixing Modern Metal Beyond Presets.

Ready to mix this exact song yourself? You can. When you join Nail The Mix, you get the actual multi-tracks from “Coordinates” and a full, 8-hour masterclass from producers Carson Slovak and Grant McFarland, where they walk you through how they mixed this monster track from start to finish.

Get the “Coordinates” multi-tracks and learn from the pros at Nail The Mix today.