Fleshgod Apocalypse: Crafting Epic, Realistic Strings for Metal

Let's face it, getting orchestral strings to sound both massive and genuinely realistic in a wall-of-sound metal mix is a serious challenge. You want that epic symphonic grandeur, but canned, lifeless samples can kill the vibe faster than a misplaced blast beat. Italian symphonic death metal titans Fleshgod Apocalypse are masters of this delicate balance, and we got an inside look at how mixer Stefano Morabito (16th Cellar Studio) approaches string mixing for their monumental sound, straight from a Nail The Mix session. Forget just slapping a generic "orchestra" preset on your samples; Stefano’s method is all about building the sound from the ground up, instrument by instrument.

Setting the Stage: Order and Initial Balance

Before diving into fancy plugins or complex routing, Stefano lays a crucial foundation by organizing his string sections and getting a basic balance. This isn't just about tidiness; it’s about building a cohesive sound that makes sense sonically.

Lowest to Highest: A Solid Foundation

Stefano arranges his string tracks in a classic orchestral order: starting with the lowest instruments and moving to the highest. Think:

1. Double Basses
2. Cellos
3. Violas
4. Violins

This approach helps him build the orchestral body from the bottom up, ensuring each section has its space and contributes to the overall weight and texture before the higher, more melodic parts are layered on top.

Getting Clarity: The First Pass on Double Basses

With the tracks ordered, Stefano’s first move is often to lower all the string faders and then start bringing up individual sections, beginning with the double basses. He’s listening intently, trying to bring out the character and articulation of the instruments.

For the double basses, an early, critical step is to carve out some clarity. This often involves an EQ move to tackle problematic "low mids" – that muddy area (think 200-500Hz) that can make low strings sound undefined. He’s not trying to make them thin, just clearer. He also makes sure to control the very "extreme low end," ensuring the basses provide weight without unwanted sub rumble that clashes with the kick drum and bass guitar. This is all about making them "much more clear" as a "step one" before even thinking about adding more aggressive character.

The "Beef" Factor: Adding Weight Without Mud

Here’s where things get interesting. Many producers aggressively high-pass filter orchestral elements in metal, fearing they'll muddy up the mix. Stefano takes a more nuanced approach.

Counterintuitive Low-End Boosts?

After establishing initial clarity, Stefano isn't afraid to add some low-end "beef" back into individual string sections, like the double basses. Why? He wants each section to sound full and impactful on its own before it even hits a group bus. This isn't about adding booming sub-bass (he’s already tamed that), but about restoring warmth, power, and the natural body of the instruments. It’s about making the orchestra feel substantial.

Bus Processing: The Big Picture EQ

Stefano clarifies that any broader EQ decisions, like cutting lows from the entire strings bus, will come later – and only if needed. His philosophy is to let the overall mix guide these larger decisions. First, make the individual components sound great, then see how they fit together.

Achieving Realism: Beyond Perfect Samples

One of the biggest hurdles with sampled strings is making them sound human. Perfect tuning and robotic performances are dead giveaways of a "Nintendo orchestra," as Stefano puts it.

The Beauty of Imperfection: Francesco Reini's Viola Trick

To combat this, Fleshgod Apocalypse’s composer Francesco Reini has a clever method: program the parts perfectly, then introduce subtle "defects" to specific instruments. Stefano highlights this with the violas, which are intentionally programmed to be slightly out of tune. This touch of imperfection, when done tastefully, breathes life into the arrangement and prevents it from sounding sterile. It’s these small details that trick the ear into perceiving a more organic performance.

EQing for Instrument Character: Sweetening the Violas

Each string section has its own typical tonal character, and Stefano uses EQ to enhance this. For the violas, which often have a warmer, more mellow tone than violins, he aims for a sound that is "mellow," a bit "empty," and "sweet" simultaneously. This involved taming some "too much highs" and ensuring you don't hear too much aggressive bow scraping – a texture he feels might be better suited to violins or cellos in certain contexts. This might mean a gentle high-shelf cut or rolling off some of the very top-end frequencies.

Taming the Highs and Controlling Dynamics

With a large string section (the session features 18 violins!), managing high frequencies and dynamic spikes is crucial for a polished sound that doesn't get harsh.

Polishing the Violins: Taming Fizz

For the violins, especially in a large group, the high frequencies can easily build up into an unpleasant "fizz" or harshness. Stefano mentions using a spectrum analyzer as a visual aid to help identify and "cut the extreme part of the signal." This isn’t about making the violins sound dull, but surgically removing those overly bright, often unpleasant frequencies way up high (potentially 8-10kHz and above) that can make strings sound thin or grating, especially when combined with distorted guitars and cymbals.

Dynamic Control: Compressing Active String Lines

Some string parts, particularly fast runs or accented melodic lines (Stefano mentions "Fris Violin Reels," likely referring to fast, energetic violin passages), can have significant jumps in volume. These "increases in volume" are important for expression but can make the part poke out of the mix too aggressively at times.

To manage this, Stefano turns to compression. By applying a compressor to these dynamic lines, he can control the peaks and ensure the part sits more consistently in the mix, cutting through when needed without being jarring. This kind of targeted dynamic control is key to a professional-sounding orchestral balance. He even noted that one such violin part had given him trouble in past mixes, so he was ready with the compressor this time!

Stefano's Workflow Wisdom: A Quick Recap

Stefano Morabito's approach to mixing strings for Fleshgod Apocalypse offers some fantastic takeaways:

• Balance First: Get a good relative balance between the individual string sections before reaching for heavy processing.
• Individual Character: Use EQ on individual sections to enhance their natural tone and fix issues before bus processing.
• Controlled Weight: Don't be afraid to give string sections their necessary low-end "beef" once clarity is established.
• Embrace Imperfection: Subtle "defects" can make sampled strings sound more realistic.
• Process Later: Global effects like reverb and more general compression on the entire string bus often come after the foundational work is done.
• The Mix Guides You: Be prepared to adjust your string mix based on how it interacts with the rest of the metal instrumentation.

These techniques are the kind of gold you pick up from watching seasoned pros at work. Imagine seeing Stefano meticulously apply these principles, automate EQs, and perfectly meld these epic strings with pummeling drums and guitars on a full Fleshgod Apocalypse track.

If you're serious about taking your metal mixes to the next level, learning directly from producers like Stefano Morabito is a game-changer. Nail The Mix gives you exactly that opportunity every month: exclusive access to real multitrack sessions from huge metal bands, plus a full 6-8 hour livestream where the original producer mixes the song from scratch, explaining every single decision.

Ready to dive even deeper into the art of mixing modern metal and move beyond just relying on presets? Check out our comprehensive courses like Unlock Your Sound: Mixing Modern Metal Beyond Presets to build a rock-solid foundation.

Don't miss the chance to see all these string mixing techniques and more in action – check out the full Fleshgod Apocalypse Nail The Mix session and hear the orchestral madness come together!