Emmure’s Crushing Bass Tone: A Multi-Track DI Mixing Strategy

Ever cranked an Emmure track and wondered how they get that absolutely devastating bass tone? It’s thick, it’s aggressive, and it perfectly glues the low-end foundation to their signature heavy sound. While a killer performance from bassist Josh Travis is paramount (his hands make any instrument sound immense!), the mixing techniques play a massive role. Forget just one bass track; the real power comes from a clever multi-track DI strategy. We got a peek into how Jeff Dunne and Drew Fulk sculpt these tones, and it’s a goldmine for any metal producer. Let’s dive into how they build that monumental Emmure bass sound, layer by layer.

If you’re ready to see these techniques in action, you can watch the full mix session over at Nail The Mix with Emmure.

The Core Concept: Splitting Your Bass DI

The foundation of this massive bass sound isn’t one single amped track, but rather a DI signal split into multiple, distinct layers. Typically, this involves duplicating the primary DI bass track two or three times, resulting in dedicated channels for:

• Base Fuzz: For that aggressive, distorted top-end character.
• Base Mid: For the core tone, articulation, and melodic information.
• Base Sub: For pure, solid low-end weight.

Why Triple Up? Fuzz, Mid, and Sub Explained

This multi-track approach offers incredible flexibility. Think of it like multi-band EQing your bass using different amp characteristics for each band. You can dial in the perfect amount of distortion without it turning into a muddy mess, ensure the basslines cut through with clarity, and have complete control over the sub frequencies. It’s like having individual distortion pedals and EQs for different parts of your bass tone, all working in harmony.

One super useful trick with this setup is automating the fuzz track. You can bring it in only during the heaviest sections, much like kicking in a distortion pedal for a chorus or a breakdown. This provides a nice visual representation in your DAW of when that extra aggression hits.

Dialing in the Aggression: The Fuzz Track

This is where a lot of the bass’s attitude comes from. The goal here is to create a “fucked up,” ratty, and angry sound that adds bite.

Amp Sim & Pedal Power

For Emmure, the fuzz track often starts with a Pod Farm setup.

• Amp: A really ratty-sounding Powerball emulation.
• Pedal: An emulation of the legendary Boss HM-2 “Heavy Metal” pedal – famous for that Swedish “chainsaw” death metal tone. The classic HM-2 approach? Turn every knob to 10. This pedal just sounds like the world is ending when cranked.

The HM-2 is run into a fairly clean amp model within Pod Farm, so the pedal is doing most of the heavy lifting for the distortion character.

EQing for Grit, Not Mud

With such an aggressive tone, EQ strategies are crucial.

• The focus is on the gritty high-mids and presence. You don’t need much information above 8-9kHz for this particular layer, so a high cut here cleans things up.
• Similarly, a low cut is applied because the low-end responsibilities lie with other tracks. You’re really just focusing on the “rattiness” and “sandpapery” texture.

Compression for Consistent Rage

To keep this aggressive fuzz consistent and impactful, compression is key.

• A go-to is an 1176-style compressor (like the Waves CLA-76 or UAD 1176LN).
• Crucial Tip: Place the compressor after the distortion. Compressing a pre-distorted signal accentuates pick attack. Compressing after distortion makes the whole thing more staticy and fuzzy, which is exactly what’s desired for this track. Dive deeper into how the pros use metal compression secrets beyond just making it loud.

Articulation and Melody: The Mid Track

While the fuzz track brings the chaos, the mid track is all about definition, the actual notes, and the melodic content of the bassline.

The Classic Mid-Range Engine

This track leans on a more standard, cleaner bass tone, again often achieved with Pod Farm.

• Amp: An emulation of an SVT classic head.
• Cab: An 8×10 cabinet model.
• This setup is driven with a significant amount of gain, but because the extreme lows are handled elsewhere, the “square and blocky” character that a driven SVT might develop in the low end isn’t an issue.

EQ for Clarity and Guitar Cohesion

The EQ on the mid track is about carving space and ensuring it works with the guitars.

• Low Cut: The subs are heavily rolled off here.
• Notching: Problem frequencies, often around 3kHz (for “grossness”) and the 800Hz region (for “honk” or “ness”), are notched out.
• High Boost: Interestingly, the top end might get a slight boost. This helps the bass “marry” with the guitars, especially since on Emmure records, Josh Travis often plays everything. The goal is to make the bass and guitars sound like one cohesive “power instrument.” This bass mid track essentially acts like a center guitar channel.

The Foundation: The Sub Track

The sub track has one job: deliver clean, powerful, and consistent low-end.

Pure Low-End Power

This track often utilizes a specific Pod Farm model.

• Amp: The “Sub Dub” model from Line 6. This amp sim is great for rounding out the low end.
• Cab: No cabinet is used here. The aim is pure sub, without any cab coloration or articulation from higher frequencies.

Locking it Down with Compression

To ensure the sub track is incredibly stable and solid:

• EQ: Extreme high and low frequencies that aren’t contributing to the core sub are filtered out.
• Compression: This track gets hit hard with an 1176-style compressor. Think aggressive settings like 10dB of gain reduction at an 8:1 ratio. This really locks the sub-bass in place.

(A quick note on 1176 plugins: Jeff and Drew mention they often grab whichever 1176 emulation comes to mind first – UAD or Waves. While there might be subtle differences, in the heat of a mix, both are excellent tools for the job!)

The Crucial Starting Point: The Avalon U5 DI

Before any of this processing, the quality of the DI signal is paramount. For these sessions, the bass was tracked through an Avalon U5 DI box.

• The Avalon U5 has a fantastic “Tone” knob with several presets. For bass, Tone 2 is a common choice. This setting naturally scoops some of the muddy frequencies around the 200-300Hz range, giving you a cleaner, more mix-ready DI from the get-go.
• (Interestingly, for guitars, Tone 6 is often used, which high-passes more aggressively.)
• Tracking with a quality DI like the Avalon U5 gives you a head start, as these incremental good decisions add up to a better final tone.

Unifying the Beast: Bass Bus Processing

Once the individual Fuzz, Mid, and Sub tracks are dialed in, they’re typically routed to a master bass bus for final shaping and control.

Tonal Shaping and Control

• EQ (Renaissance EQ – REQ): A bit of overall EQ shaping might happen here. For instance, adding some “readiness” in the top end and a little in the upper midrange, while also attenuating some low end. This can be like a Pultec-style gentle boost and cut.
• SOOTHE2: This dynamic resonance suppressor is great for taming any remaining harshness or problematic frequencies that pop out, acting like “bumper lanes” to keep the bass in line.

Low-End Consistency

• MaxxBass: This plugin is often used to enhance perceived low-end and ensure consistency in the sub frequencies, which can be a tricky area to get right.

Dynamic Control

• Limiter: A limiter is often placed on the bass bus, primarily to catch any chaotic peaks that might occur when the aggressive fuzz track is brought into the mix. This helps maintain a consistent level feeding into further processing.
• Sidechain Compression: This is a classic trick for clarity. The bass bus is often sidechained to the kick drum. This means that every time the kick hits, the bass ducks slightly in level (or just in specific conflicting frequency bands using a multi-band compressor or dynamic EQ). This creates space for the kick drum and tightens up the low-end relationship immensely.

Finally, a bit more surgical EQ might be applied to notch out any remaining “beachbally” or resonant frequencies that become apparent when all bass elements are combined.

The “One Power Instrument” Philosophy

A key takeaway from Jeff and Drew’s approach to Emmure’s bass is the idea of blurring the lines between bass and guitar. Since Josh Travis handles all stringed instruments, the goal is often to make them sound like one massive, unified power instrument. This informs EQ decisions, like boosting the high-end on the mid-bass track to help it blend seamlessly with the guitars. The bass isn’t just a low-end support; it’s an integral part of the overall distorted wall of sound.

Bringing It All Together (And Learning More!)

So, crafting that crushing Emmure bass tone involves:

• Starting with a great DI signal (like one from an Avalon U5 on Tone 2).
• Splitting the DI into Fuzz, Mid, and Sub tracks.
• Using distinct amp sims (like those in Pod Farm) and processing for each layer:
  • Fuzz: HM-2 style distortion, EQ’d for grit, compressed hard after distortion.
  • Mid: SVT-style tone, EQ’d for clarity and guitar cohesion.
  • Sub: Clean sub-focused amp sim, heavily compressed for stability.
• Strategic bass bus processing including EQ, dynamic control (SOOTHE2, MaxxBass, Limiter), and sidechain compression from the kick.
• Automating elements like the fuzz track to add impact to specific sections.

These techniques provide a powerful framework for building a modern metal bass tone that is both aggressive and controlled. They are fantastic starting points you can implement in your own productions right away.

But let’s be real, hearing about these techniques is one thing. Seeing them meticulously applied by the pros who mixed the record? That’s a whole different level of learning. Imagine watching Jeff Dunne and Drew Fulk dial in these Pod Farm settings, blend the fuzz, mid, and sub layers, set up that sidechain compression, and make that Emmure bass sit perfectly with bone-crushing drums and guitars. With Nail The Mix, you get exactly that. Every month, you get real multi-tracks from huge metal songs and watch the original producers mix them from scratch, explaining every single decision. You can even grab the Emmure Nail The Mix session to see these exact bass techniques (and many more) unfold. If you’re serious about taking your metal mixes from “pretty good” to “pro-level,” understanding how to build tones like this from the ground up is essential. Consider checking out resources like Unlock Your Sound: Mixing Modern Metal Beyond Presets to further deepen your knowledge.