Buster Odeholm: Mixing Silent Planet’s Crushing Guitar Tones

Silent Planet. The name alone conjures images of intricate, atmospheric, and bone-crushingly heavy music. A huge part of their signature sound is the guitar work – weaving between ambient textures and devastating riffs. Ever wondered how Buster Odeholm, the mastermind behind Vildhjarta and mixer for this Silent Planet track, sculpts those massive and articulate guitar tones? Well, you’re in luck. We’re diving deep into his guitar mixing chain, pulling insights directly from his workflow. Get ready for some serious knowledge bombs, because Buster isn’t afraid to show his cards.

This isn’t just about slapping on a preset; it’s about a meticulous chain of decisions, from pre-amp shaping to intricate bus processing, ensuring both the heavy chugs and the melodic lines sit perfectly. If you’re looking to elevate your own metal productions, there are some gold nuggets here. Check out the full session here. Let’s dive in!

The Foundation: Crafting the Heavy Guitar Tone

It all starts with the source, and in this case, Buster mentions working with a 30-inch Fender Jazzmaster Baritone guitar – perfect for those low-tuned, seismic riffs. But the real magic begins in the DAW.

Pre-Amp Sculpting: Early Compression and Targeted Boost

Interestingly, one of the first things Buster does is compress before the amp sim. This can help even out the dynamics hitting the virtual amp, leading to a more consistent distortion character.

Following that, it’s boost time. He uses a boost pedal plugin with a very specific setting: Mids cranked to 60%, while other controls sit at 50%. This isn’t just a random gain boost; it’s a targeted push in the mid-frequencies, helping the guitar cut through and adding that aggressive bite before it even hits the main distortion stage. The result? A noticeably brighter and more present tone.

Amp & Cab: The Core Sound

For the amp itself, Buster loads up Pod Farm. He clarifies he’s not using any of the fancy “booster lights” or extra effects from Pod Farm here – just the raw amp model. This is paired with a specific cab setup: a blend of two impulses, one being a GGGD Kelly cab (likely a GetGood Drums Zilla Cabs impulse response) and another from his Pod Farm collection. This combination forms the fundamental character of his heavy tone.

Parallel Processing Power: The 808 Edge

Here’s a trick many pros swear by: parallel processing. Buster uses Patchwork to load a virtual Tubescreamer (808-style) drive in parallel with the main distorted signal. He doesn’t go full-bore, though; he blends it in at 40%.

Why do this? He notes that many American metal bands use a 5150-style head with a Tubescreamer slamming the input. By blending in the 808, he can introduce that familiar mid-focused grind and tightness without completely altering his core tone. It’s a subtle way to add aggression and help the guitars speak, a common goal when you’re trying to carve your core EQ strategies for mixing modern metal.

Taming the Fizz and Enhancing Punch

Distorted guitars, especially baritones, can get a bit wild in the high frequencies. Buster addresses this with some surgical EQ, specifically cutting away the excessive “stringiness” and fizziness that can make a tone sound harsh.

Then comes more dynamics:

• Compression: He applies a compressor with a slow attack and fast release. This isn’t about squashing the life out of the signal; it’s about letting the initial pick attack (the transient) pop through before the compression clamps down, then quickly releasing to maintain energy. This is a classic move when aiming for punchy, metal compression secrets beyond just making it loud.
• Transient Designer: To further emphasize that attack, he follows up with a transient designer, adding even more snap and definition to each chug. You can really hear that percussive element shine through.

The Melodic Counterpart: Articulation and Clarity

Silent Planet isn’t all about relentless heaviness; their melodic passages are just as crucial. For these sections, Buster crafts a separate tone, but with a key goal: it needs to have a similar overall frequency response to the heavy tone. He achieves this using tone matching, ensuring that any processing on the main guitar bus will affect both tones cohesively.

This melodic tone is, as you’d expect, less distorted and more “regular” sounding, but it shares the same cab setup as its heavier sibling.

Amp and EQ Strategy for Melodic Lines

For the melodic amp sound, Buster turns to Neural DSP’s Archetype: Plini. He uses the built-in compressor within the Plini suite (with no drive engaged on the amp model itself). The amp’s EQ is tweaked to cut some mids and super-high frequencies.

He then applies an initial EQ plugin to further shape the sound, focusing it up. Interestingly, he notes a bit of a contradiction where he cut super-highs in the amp EQ only to boost them later with another EQ – a relatable moment of “it’s a preset I liked and then that happened!” Sometimes, if it sounds good, it is good!

Intelligent EQing with Gullfoss

To refine the melodic tone, Buster employs Gullfoss, an intelligent dynamic EQ. He mentions being surprised to see he’d used it here, with settings like Tame at 50% and Recover at -26 (or perhaps -2.6, the specific value can be subtle). Gullfoss works to continuously adjust the frequency balance, smoothing out resonances and enhancing clarity. In this context, it helps the melodic guitars sit nicely and work well with the heavy tones by ensuring a more balanced and focused presentation.

Blending with the 808 (Again)

Just like with the heavy tone, the melodic guitars also get a touch of the parallel 808 drive. This helps glue the two distinct tones together, making the transition between heavy and softer parts feel more natural and unified.

Bringing It Together: Guitar Bus Magic

Once the individual heavy and melodic tones are dialed in, Buster routes them to a guitar bus for final collective processing. This is where the guitars really start to sound like a cohesive unit, ready to sit in a dense mix.

Gate and Tone Shaping EQs

First up on the bus is a gate, which he notes makes a subtle difference, perhaps tightening up the decays a little. This is followed by another tone match EQ, likely to conform the overall guitar sound to a preferred reference or to smooth out the combined response of the heavy and melodic tracks.

Then, more strategic EQ carving:

• Cutting some more low-mids to prevent boominess and create space for the bass.
• Taming any harsh peaks that might have emerged from the cab impulses or distortion.
• Generally making the combined guitar sound more mid-focused, which is crucial for presence in a metal mix.

Dynamic Control and Width

For dynamic consistency and punch on the bus, Buster uses FabFilter Pro-MB (a multi-band compressor). He sets it to bypass the low-end, allowing the fundamental frequencies to “bloom” a bit more naturally. The active bands get that familiar slow attack, fast release setting to enhance transients. This is a powerful way to apply compression in metal for impact without sacrificing the low-end weight.

To give the guitars that impressive stereo spread, he uses a transient widener, a standard tool in his arsenal for achieving wide, immersive guitar sounds.

Making Space: Kick Sidechain Compression

Finally, to ensure the kick drum punches through, Buster applies sidechain compression to the guitar bus (and the bass). He dials in about 3dB of gain reduction on the guitars, triggered by the kick drum, with an attack of 64ms and a fast release. This subtly ducks the guitars out of the way of the kick transient, enhancing the overall punch and clarity of the rhythm section.

Key Takeaways from Buster’s Silent Planet Guitar Approach

So, what can we learn from Buster Odeholm’s meticulous guitar mixing for Silent Planet?

• Pre-Amp Shaping is Key: Don’t just rely on the amp sim; boosts and even pre-amp compression can define your tone early on.
• Parallel Processing Adds Flavor: Blending in effects like an 808 drive can add character without overhauling your core sound.
• Transients are King: Multiple stages of transient enhancement (slow attack compression, transient designers) create punchy, articulate guitars.
• Cohesion Across Tones: Tone matching ensures different guitar parts (heavy vs. melodic) work together seamlessly under bus processing.
• Bus Processing Glues it All: Strategic EQ, multi-band compression, widening, and sidechaining on the guitar bus are vital for a polished, mix-ready sound.
• Specific Plugin Choices Matter: From Pod Farm and Archetype: Plini to Gullfoss and Pro-MB, knowing your tools is essential.

These techniques are powerful, and you can start applying them to your own productions right now. Imagine getting to watch Buster Odeholm mix this entire Silent Planet track, explaining every plugin, every setting, every decision from start to finish. That’s exactly what you get with Nail The Mix.

Each month, Nail The Mix members get access to raw multitracks from massive metal songs and watch the original producers and mixers craft the final product live, in real-time. You’ll see precisely how they dial in tones, tackle challenging mixes, and make the thousands of micro-decisions that lead to a pro-sounding record. Plus, you get access to a massive vault of past sessions and tutorials to truly Unlock Your Sound: Mixing Modern Metal Beyond Presets.

If you’re serious about taking your metal mixing skills to the next level, seeing how pros like Buster Odeholm work on real-world sessions is invaluable. Dive into the full session right here and start transforming your mixes today!