Christian Donaldson’s Cryptopsy Tom Mixing: Attack & Control

Nail The Mix Staff

Let's face it, getting toms to sound massive and clean in a blistering metal mix is a serious challenge. Tom bleed, especially with a drummer as relentless as Cryptopsy's Flo Mounier, can turn your mix into a chaotic mess faster than a blast beat. But fear not, because legendary producer Christian Donaldson (Cryptopsy, The Agonist, Shadow Of Intent) dropped some serious knowledge in his Nail The Mix session for Cryptopsy, revealing how he wrangles those beastly toms into submission.

If you've ever battled cymbal wash in your tom mics or struggled to get that perfect balance of attack and decay, Christian's techniques are pure gold. We're talking precise gating with key spikes, surgical EQ, and a killer "split tom" trick that will give you unparalleled control.

Taming the Beast: Initial Tom Cleanup & Gating

Before you can even think about making toms punchy, you gotta deal with the unholy amount of bleed. Christian’s approach is methodical and highly effective.

From Stereo to Individual Toms (and Panning)

Christian starts by ensuring he has discrete control over each tom. In the session, he transforms what might have been a stereo pair into five individual mono tom tracks. This individual control is crucial. He then pans them logically across the stereo field to create a natural image of the drum kit – for instance, you can see Tom 4 panned to the right, mimicking where you'd hear it in a room.

The Power of Key Spikes and Gating

Here’s where the magic begins for tackling that insane bleed. Christian emphasizes that with Cryptopsy's speed and density, standard gating often isn't enough.

  • Key Spikes for Precision: He creates "key spikes" – super short, sharp audio or MIDI triggers perfectly aligned with each tom hit. These spikes act as the external key input for a gate plugin on each respective tom track.
  • Why It Works: Instead of relying on the tom's own signal (which is contaminated with bleed) to open the gate, the clean key spike tells the gate exactly when to open. This means the tom cuts through only when it's actually hit, and the gate slams shut immediately after, drastically reducing bleed from cymbals and other drums.
  • Heavy Gating: On top of the key spike system, he's not afraid to apply heavy gating to further clamp down on any unwanted noise between hits.

This surgical approach is a game-changer for achieving clean tom tracks in extreme metal.

Sculpting Each Tom: Dynamics and EQ

With the bleed under control, it's time to shape the tone and consistency of each tom.

Consistent Dynamics with Drum Leveler

To ensure each tom hit has a consistent impact, Christian employs a tool like the Sound Radix Drum Leveler. This plugin helps even out the performance dynamics, making the loudest hits more controlled and the softer hits more audible. This consistency not only sounds more polished but also helps the gates and subsequent processing work more predictably.

Targeted Gating with Multi-band Compression

Here's a neat trick: Christian uses a multi-band compressor to perform targeted gating, specifically on the treble frequencies of the toms. This is a clever way to deal with high-frequency cymbal spill that might still sneak through, without choking the body and fundamental tone of the tom itself.

EQing for Punch and Clarity

For EQ, Christian often relies on the tried-and-true sound of an SSL E-Channel (or a quality plugin emulation) and the surgical precision of FabFilter Pro-Q 3 for visual feedback and fine-tuning.

  • Finding the Fundamental: A crucial step is identifying and often boosting the fundamental frequency of each tom. This is what gives each drum its core voice and weight. In the video, he dials in:
    • Tom 1: around 195Hz
    • Tom 2: around 150Hz
    • Rack Tom 3 (similar to Tom 2): around 150Hz
    • Tom 4: around 119Hz
    • Floor Tom (Tom 5): around 87Hz
      Boosting these helps the toms resonate clearly. For more on effective frequency shaping, check out our EQ Strategies for Mixing Modern Metal guide.
  • Cutting "Cardboard": He’s quick to carve out any "annoying cardboard" frequencies – those boxy, unpleasant mid-range tones (often in the 300-600Hz range) that can make toms sound muddy or cheap.
  • Adding Stick Attack and Air: To ensure the toms cut through the dense mix, he adds some "stick" – a boost in the upper-mids/lower-highs to accentuate the initial transient – and some "extra air" with a high-frequency shelf for clarity and presence.

The "Split Tom" Trick for Maximum Impact

This is Christian’s "special trick" – a technique that gives you incredible control over both the attack and the decay of your toms, separately.

Dividing and Conquering: Highs and Lows

He duplicates each processed tom track, creating two versions: a "Highs" track and a "Lows" track.

Processing the Highs for Attack

  • Aggressive Gating: The "Highs" tracks are gated extremely fast and tight. The goal is to isolate only the very initial crack of the tom hit.
  • Aggressive High-Pass Filter: He then uses a steep high-pass filter on these "Highs" tracks, rolling off almost all the low-end information. What's left is a very clicky, attack-focused sound, largely free of low-frequency mud or bleed.

Processing the Lows for Body and Decay

  • Normal Gating: The "Lows" tracks get a more standard gate setting, allowing the natural resonance and decay of the tom to come through.
  • Aggressive Low-Pass Filter: Conversely, these tracks are hit with a steep low-pass filter, removing the high-frequency attack and focusing purely on the tom's body, warmth, and sustain.

Blending and Phase Coherency

When you blend these "Highs" and "Lows" tracks back together, you get the best of both worlds:

  • The "Highs" track delivers a sharp, defined attack that isn't smeared by bleed.
  • The "Lows" track provides the full-bodied tone and desired decay without the attack portion being compromised.

Crucial Step: Phase Alignment! After splitting and processing, it's absolutely vital to check the phase relationship between your "Highs" and "Lows" tracks. Use a phase alignment tool or simply flip the polarity on one set. If they're out of phase, they can cancel each other out, leading to a thin, weak sound. Get this right, and your toms will be huge.

Adding Polish: Clipping and Bus Processing

With the individual toms (now likely a blend of their "High" and "Low" versions) sounding tight and punchy, Christian moves on to group processing.

Strategic Clipping for Control

Before they even hit the main tom bus, Christian applies a bit of clipping to the combined tom signals. He uses a plugin like the T-RackS Classic Clipper, but the specific tool isn't as important as the technique: very light clipping to transparently shave off the loudest peaks. This adds perceived loudness and control without needing heavy compression. Just a "mini bit," as he says.

Tom Bus Sweetening

All the tom tracks are then routed to a dedicated Tom Bus for some final cohesive processing.

  • Bus EQ:
    • A gentle low shelf to add a touch more collective weight.
    • A little top-end boost for overall air and definition.
    • A high-pass filter to clean up any accumulated "extra low rumble." Explore more bus EQ techniques on our EQ hub page.
  • Bus Compression:
    • "Just a bit" of compression is added to the tom bus. This isn't for slamming the toms, but rather to "glue" them together, provide a more cohesive sound, and further even out the dynamics. For more on how the pros use compression in metal, visit our Metal Compression Secrets hub.
  • More Clipping (Subtly!):
    • One last stage of subtle clipping on the bus, again, for that final touch of peak control and loudness maximization. It's all about layering small, effective moves.

The Result: Toms That Cut Through Any Mix

By meticulously applying these techniques – from initial cleanup and precise gating with key spikes, through surgical EQ and the ingenious "split tom" trick, to final bus sweetening with light compression and clipping – Christian Donaldson crafts tom sounds that are undeniably powerful. They're clean, punchy, possess a controlled low-end decay, and, most importantly, they cut through even the most brutal and dense Cryptopsy arrangements.

These are advanced strategies that can seriously elevate your metal drum mixes. Imagine watching Christian implement all of this, explaining his thought process every step of the way, using the actual Cryptopsy multitracks. That’s precisely what you get with Nail The Mix. You can dive deep into Christian Donaldson's full Cryptopsy mixing session and see these techniques, and many more, unfold in real-time.

If you’re ready to move beyond basic tutorials and learn how world-class producers achieve their signature sounds, Nail The Mix offers unparalleled access. Join a thriving community, get your hands on pro multitracks every month, and truly Unlock Your Sound: Mixing Modern Metal Beyond Presets.