Cryptopsy Drum Mix: Christian Donaldson’s Tom Attack & Low-End Trick

Nail The Mix Staff

When you're dealing with the sonic onslaught of a band like Cryptopsy, every element in the mix needs to fight for its place. Toms, in particular, can get completely lost or, worse, turn into a muddy mess thanks to cymbal bleed in a fast, dense metal mix. But fear not, Christian Donaldson (Cryptopsy guitarist and renowned producer) has some killer techniques up his sleeve, which he revealed in a session for Nail The Mix. Let's dive into how he wrangles those ferocious Cryptopsy toms into tight, punchy, and clear beasts.

If you want to see Christian apply these techniques himself, you can check out the full Cryptopsy Nail The Mix session.

Taming the Beast: Initial Tom Control for Clarity

Before any fancy tricks, the foundation needs to be solid. In extreme metal, tom bleed is public enemy number one. Christian's first line of defense involves precise gating and dynamic control.

Key Spikes: The Secret to Clean Gating

Forget trying to gate toms solely off their own mic signal in a barrage of blast beats and crashing cymbals. The bleed will trigger your gates like crazy. Christian employs "key spikes" to ensure the gates only open when the toms are actually hit.

This involves creating a separate, clean trigger signal for each tom. You can do this by:

  1. Duplicating the tom track.
  2. Aggressively editing this duplicated track, cutting out everything except the very initial transient of the tom hit (the "spike"). You might use a transient shaper or heavy compression to emphasize this spike further.
  3. Feeding this "key spike" track into the sidechain/key input of the gate on your actual tom track.

This way, the gate listens to the clean spike, not the bleed-ridden main mic, giving you incredibly precise control over when the tom sound passes through. He also pans the toms to create a natural stereo image from the drummer's perspective.

The Initial Processing Chain

Once the gating is set up with key spikes, Christian applies a few more steps to each individual tom:

  1. Drum Leveler: To even out the dynamics of the tom hits, a plugin like Sound Radix Drum Leveler is used. This ensures each hit has consistent impact before further processing.
  2. Heavy Gating (Again): Even with key spikes, he applies further gating to tighten things up.
  3. Multiband Compressor for Treble Gating: To specifically combat cymbal bleed, which lives in the higher frequencies, Christian uses a multiband compressor to gate only the treble range of the toms. This helps keep the cymbals from washing over the tom sound when the gate is open.
  4. SSL EQ: A classic for a reason. An SSL-style EQ (like the Waves SSL E-Channel or Plugin Alliance SSL 4000 E) is used for initial tone shaping. We'll get more into EQ specifics next. For more on EQ strategies, check out Carve Your Core: EQ Strategies for Mixing Modern Metal.

Sculpting Individual Toms: Finding the Core Sound

With the bleed under control, it's time to shape the tone of each tom. Christian focuses on identifying the fundamental frequency and then enhancing the desirable characteristics.

Finding the Fundamental with Pro-Q 3

To pinpoint the core pitch of each tom, Christian uses FabFilter Pro-Q 3. By soloing a tom and looking at the Pro-Q 3 spectrum analyzer, he identifies its fundamental frequency. For example, in this session:

  • Tom 1: ~195 Hz
  • Tom 2: ~150 Hz
  • Tom 3 (similar to Tom 2)
  • Tom 4: ~119 Hz
  • Tom 5 (Floor Tom): ~87 Hz

Knowing these fundamentals is crucial for targeted EQ boosts or cuts.

EQing for Punch and Character

Once the fundamental is known, Christian uses the SSL EQ and Pro-Q 3 to:

  • Boost the Fundamental (Slightly): To reinforce the body and weight of the tom.
  • Cut "Cardboard": Scooping out boxy or resonant mid-range frequencies that make toms sound cheap. This is often in the 300-800Hz range, depending on the drum.
  • Add "Stick" Attack: A slight boost in the upper-mids/lower-treble (e.g., 3-7kHz) to bring out the articulation of the stick hitting the drum head.
  • Add "Air": A gentle high-frequency shelf boost (e.g., 10kHz and above) for a touch of brightness and presence.

He aims for consistency across the toms while respecting their individual pitches.

The Game-Changer: Donaldson's High/Low Tom Splitting Trick

This is where things get really interesting. To achieve maximum attack and a full low-end decay without the bleed issues that usually plague long tom sustains, Christian splits each tom signal into two separate tracks: one for "highs" and one for "lows."

The Setup: Duplicating Tracks

Each processed tom track (after the initial gating and EQ) is duplicated. Let's call them "Tom 1 Highs" and "Tom 1 Lows," "Tom 2 Highs" and "Tom 2 Lows," and so on.

Processing the "Highs" for Attack

The "Highs" tracks are all about capturing the clean, sharp attack of the tom:

  1. Aggressive High-Pass Filter: Christian high-passes these tracks significantly. He mentions "high-pass the f*** out of them," indicating a steep filter cutting out most of the low-end body. This focuses the track on the stick impact and upper harmonics.
  2. Very Fast Gating: The gates on these "Highs" tracks are set with a very fast attack and release, and a high threshold. The goal is to get just the initial crack of the tom and then shut off immediately, preventing any sustain or bleed from coming through.

Processing the "Lows" for Body & Decay

The "Lows" tracks are designed to provide the resonant body and decay of the toms:

  1. Aggressive Low-Pass Filter: Conversely, these tracks are heavily low-passed ("low-pass the f*** out of them"). This removes most of the high-frequency attack and focuses purely on the fundamental tone and its decay.
  2. Normal Gating: The gates on the "Lows" tracks are set more traditionally – still tight, but allowing for some natural decay of the tom's low frequencies.

Blending and Critical Phase Coherency

Now, the "Highs" and "Lows" tracks for each tom are blended back together.

  • The "Highs" track provides a clean, bleed-free attack that cuts through the mix.
  • The "Lows" track provides the satisfying low-end "oomph" and decay without the attack portion being muddied by cymbal wash.

Crucially, you MUST check the phase relationship between the "Highs" and "Lows" tracks. Since you've split the signal and filtered it differently, phase cancellation can occur, thinning out the sound. Flip the phase polarity on one of the tracks (usually the "Lows") to see which position sounds fuller and more cohesive. Christian demonstrates this and immediately finds one polarity sounds "totally out of phase" while the other locks in.

Final Polish: Tom Bus Processing

With individual toms (now a combination of their "High" and "Low" counterparts) sounding tight and punchy, Christian sends them all to a Tom Bus for some final group processing.

Strategic Clipping

To add a bit more perceived loudness, aggression, and control over peaks, Christian uses clippers. He mentions using one "for Joey," likely referring to a clipper like Joey Sturgis Tones JST Clip or StandardCLIP. This is applied subtly to the combined High/Low tom tracks and then again on the overall tom bus. It’s about "doing a lot of moves, but just a mini bit."

Bus EQ and Compression

On the Tom Bus, he applies:

  • EQ: Gentle shelving boosts for weight, a little top-end for air, and a high-pass filter to clean up any residual low-end rumble.
  • Compression: A touch of bus compression to glue the toms together and further control dynamics. This is applied lightly, just to "compress them a bit." If you're looking to master drum bus compression, explore resources like Metal Compression Secrets: Beyond Just Making It Loud.

Bringing It All Together (And How to Learn More!)

Christian Donaldson's approach to mixing Cryptopsy's toms is a masterclass in problem-solving for extreme metal. By combining:

  • Precise "key spike" gating
  • Individual tom EQ to enhance fundamentals and character
  • The innovative "High/Low" splitting technique for clean attack and full decay
  • Subtle but effective bus processing with clipping and compression

He achieves toms that are not only audible but also powerful and defined, even in the most chaotic musical passages.

These techniques are potent, and you can start applying them to your own metal productions. But imagine seeing Christian Donaldson himself dial in these settings, explaining every decision live, and letting you mix the very same Cryptopsy multitracks. That’s exactly what Nail The Mix offers. You get to learn directly from the pros who mixed legendary albums, using the actual session files. It's an unparalleled way to elevate your mixing skills beyond presets and generic tutorials.

If you're serious about modern metal mixing, check out programs like Unlock Your Sound: Mixing Modern Metal Beyond Presets to truly transform your productions.