Deconstructing Attila’s Chaos: Production & Mixing Tips from ‘Three 6’

Let’s be real, Attila is a band that knows how to make an impression. Their sound is a raw, heavy, and often hilarious mix of pummeling riffs and Fronz’s unmistakable vocal delivery. It’s the kind of music that’s a blast to listen to and even more of a challenge to mix. Getting that much aggression, humor, and chaos to sit right in a mix is no small feat.

So when we got our hands on the raw multi-tracks for their song “Three 6,” produced by the legendary Andrew Wade, we knew we were in for a treat. Peeking inside the 96-track session reveals some seriously clever production decisions that are key to the song’s power. Let’s dig in and break down some of the killer techniques Andrew Wade used to capture Attila’s sonic assault.

The Andrew Wade Drum Production Hack

Right off the bat, one of the most interesting things in this session is how the drums were recorded. Instead of a single drum performance, Andrew produced two distinct sets of drum tracks. This isn’t an accident; it’s a pro-level technique for maximizing tightness and control.

Splitting Kicks and Shells for Ultimate Control

Looking at the tracks, it’s clear what’s happening: one performance was recorded focusing solely on the kick drums, while a separate pass captured the snare, toms, and cymbals—essentially, everything played with the hands.

Why do this? For brutally fast and technical metal parts, this approach is genius. It allows the drummer to focus 100% of their energy and concentration on nailing the intricate kick patterns without having to worry about their hands, and vice-versa. The result is a tighter, more precise performance than might be possible when playing everything at once.

For the mixer, this opens up a world of possibilities. You have discrete control over the room sound of the kicks versus the snare. Want to tighten up the room ambience during a ridiculously fast double bass section to avoid muddiness? You can do that without affecting the room tone of the snare hit. It’s an incredible amount of flexibility that’s baked right into the recording.

Analyzing the Room Sound

These drums were tracked in the A-room at Andrew’s Audio Compound, and you can hear it. The room has a fantastic character—it’s a nice medium size that sounds big and vibrant but remains incredibly tight and controlled. It doesn’t have a super long decay, which is a massive advantage for a song this fast. An overly cavernous room would just turn those rapid-fire kicks into a washed-out, muddy mess. Instead, you get punch and size without sacrificing clarity. The overheads are also beautifully balanced, with an excellent cymbal-to-shell ratio, giving you a clean, crisp picture of the cymbals without excessive bleed from the snare and kick.

Crafting a Versatile and Aggressive Bass Tone

Andrew’s approach to the bass is just as detailed. The session includes a classic setup: the main DI track is duplicated, with one clearly intended for the low-end foundation and the other for the high-end grit and distortion. But the real magic is in the details.

The Automated High-End Trick

If you look closely at the high-frequency bass track, you’ll notice it’s strategically muted during certain bass fills. This is a slick production move. The main distorted bass tone, which works perfectly for the heavy riffing, would likely sound cluttered and messy on a more melodic, standalone fill. By automating the high-gain track to turn off during those moments, the fill cuts through with clarity and punch, and then the full-force aggressive tone slams back in right on time.

The “Bass Low” Overdub for Supreme Tightness

This is a production trick more people need to know about. Alongside the main performance, there’s a separate overdub track called “Bass Low.” On this track, the player recorded a simplified, single-note version of the fast, chugging parts.

When you have a player going a million miles an hour, the fundamental low-end can sometimes get lost in the sea of pick attack and fast transients. By blending in this simplified “Bass Low” track, you get the best of both worlds. You get the aggressive attack and performance feel from the main DI, but you reinforce it with a rock-solid, consistent low-end foundation from the overdub. This is a secret weapon for keeping the bass powerful and present, especially under dense guitars.

For a mixing approach, you could filter the main performance DI to just focus on the midrange and attack, then blend in the “Bass Low” track to provide a fat, unwavering bottom end. It’s a great way to use compression and filtering to build a bass tone that is both aggressive and massive.

Guitars: A Hybrid Approach to Tone

The rhythm guitar tones in the session sound killer right out of the box—balanced, aggressive, and ready to go. They sound like a well-dialed-in amp sim, which means they don’t need a ton of surgical work to sit in the mix. But Andrew gives the mixer options.

The Power of Providing DIs

Alongside the processed rhythm tones, the session includes the raw, clean DI tracks for everything. This is the ultimate gift to a mixer. You can use Andrew’s excellent provided tone as your guide, or you can take the DIs and re-amp them through your own gear or suite of plugins to craft a completely custom tone. It’s maximum flexibility.

Leaving Leads to the Mixer

Interestingly, while rhythm tones were provided, the lead guitars are only present as DIs. This is a deliberate choice. It leaves the sonic character of the leads entirely up to the mixer. This allows you to sculpt a lead tone with EQ and saturation that cuts through the dense wall of rhythm guitars and vocals in just the right way, ensuring it serves its specific purpose in the song.

Leveling Up with Post-Production and FX

Great post-production is what separates a good mix from a great one. The bass drops, risers, screeches, and impacts add an extra layer of energy and excitement. This session is loaded with them, and studying how Andrew Wade uses these elements is a masterclass in itself.

Creative Sound Choices

Instead of a generic snare build, the song kicks off with a weird, metallic “water phone” sound. It’s a small detail, but it’s unique and immediately catches your ear. Throughout the track, you’ll find perfectly placed screeches to add tension to breakdowns and huge, rumbling impacts to give transitions more weight.

The Value of “Baked-In” Effects

In one transition, there’s a cool lo-fi/filter effect on the music. Critically, Andrew Wade printed this effect directly to a track in the session. This is an incredibly smart and time-saving move. It removes all the guesswork for the mixer. You don’t have to waste hours trying to replicate an effect from a rough mix; the producer’s exact vision is right there, ready to go. It prevents frustrating revision notes and ensures the final product is exactly what the artist intended.

Taming the Vocal Beast

Attila is defined by Fronz’s vocals, and this session shows just how much goes into that sound. With around 14 tracks for leads and doubles, plus an additional 30 tracks of gang vocals, it’s a beast to manage.

The gang vocals are all provided as individual tracks, allowing you to pan them out for a massive wall of sound. A classic approach is to pan them hard left and right to create an immersive, wide stereo image that envelops the listener.

Mixing Fronz’s main performance is a unique challenge. He switches styles on a dime—from rap-screaming to guttural lows to piercing highs. Each one of these vocal textures requires its own specific processing chain to sound its best and feel cohesive with the others. You’ll be balancing huge stacks of six or more vocal layers in some sections and then stripping it back to just one or two. It’s an exercise in careful automation and balance to make it all flow.

Mix It Yourself and Learn from the Pro

Reading about these techniques is one thing. But what if you could take the driver’s seat? What if you could get your hands on these exact same multi-tracks and mix them yourself?

With Nail The Mix, that’s exactly what you get. You can download the raw multi-tracks for Attila’s “Three 6” and then watch a full, 8-hour session where Andrew Wade himself mixes the song from scratch, explaining every plugin, technique, and decision along the way. It’s your chance to go beyond presets and see how a world-class producer builds a massive metal mix from the ground up.

If you’re ready to see how an absolute pro handles insane track counts and injects this much power and personality into a mix, then get access to the Attila session and more today. It’s time to unlock your sound and learn from the very best in the business.