Lasse Lammert’s Alestorm Drum Fixes: Clean Toms & Tighter Overheads

Ever felt like your drum tracks, especially in a dense metal mix, just sound… well, a bit “stupid”? Muddy toms, washy cymbals bleeding everywhere, a snare that either vanishes or pokes out aggressively in your overheads – it’s a common frustration. But fear not, because legendary producer Lasse Lammert (known for his work with Alestorm, Gloryhammer, and many more) dropped some serious knowledge bombs on how to tackle these issues during his Nail The Mix session for Alestorm.

If your toms are getting lost in a sea of cymbal wash or your overheads feel uncontrolled, you’re in the right place. Let’s dive into some of Lasse’s go-to techniques for achieving clean, punchy, and professional-sounding metal drums. You can grab the multitracks and watch Lasse mix the entire Alestorm song right here on Nail The Mix.

Taming Your Toms: Banishing Cymbal Bleed for Cleaner Hits

One of the biggest culprits for messy tom tracks is cymbal bleed. After that initial satisfying thwack, the sustain of the tom can get completely masked by the lingering hiss and sizzle of nearby cymbals. The goal here is to preserve the glorious body and resonance of the tom while surgically removing that unwanted high-frequency noise from its tail.

The Old School Manual Slice & Dice

Before fancy plugins took over, producers did this the hard way – manually. And it’s still a valid technique! Here’s the gist:

1. Isolate the Hit: Zoom in on your tom track (let’s say Tom 4, as Lasse demonstrated).
2. Clean the Attack: Create a quick fade-in on the tom hit.
3. Target the Tail: Identify the section of the tom’s decay where the cymbal bleed becomes prominent.
4. Process with EQ: Select this tail section and use an AudioSuite EQ (your DAW’s stock EQ will do fine). Apply a steep low-pass filter – Lasse suggests around 400 Hz. This effectively strips out the high-frequency cymbal noise.
5. Smooth it Out: Create a short crossfade between the unprocessed attack and the newly EQ’d tail. Finish with a fade-out.

The result? You get the punch of the tom and its low-mid sustain, but the cymbal vanishes from the tail. It’s a bit tedious, but effective. For more foundational EQ strategies, check out our EQ hub page.

Smart Gating: Frequency-Dependent Control

A more modern approach involves using a gate that can treat different frequency ranges independently. The idea is to gate the high frequencies (where cymbals live) much faster than the low frequencies (the tom’s body).

Lasse showcased a gate with a frequency split (similar to what you might find on an SSL X-Gate or FabFilter Pro-G).

• Split Point: He set the split around 400 Hz.
• Low-End Release: For frequencies below 400 Hz, he used a longer release time (e.g., 700ms) to let the tom’s body ring out.
• High-End Release: For frequencies above 400 Hz, the release was immediate with minimal hold, shutting down the cymbal bleed quickly.
• Key Input: Using a clean key input (like a tom trigger track) helps the gate react precisely.

Lasse’s Pro Tip: Some gates (he mentioned the “gate in Tron,” likely referring to an SSL X-Gate feature) need to see some audio on the key input track to function correctly, even if it’s just noise. If your key tracks are perfectly silent, the gate might not engage. Lasse’s workaround? He sometimes adds an SSL channel plugin to his key tracks with the “analog” hiss turned on, just to give the gate something to “listen” to. Clever!

Intelligent Gating with Plugins like HORNET Silencer

These days, plugins like the HORNET Silencer (or Bx_Silencer which Lasse also mentioned using in the session) make this process even easier. They are designed to do exactly this – keep the low-end sustain while attenuating high-frequency bleed, often with fewer controls to fiddle with.

• How it Works: You can adjust the amount of bleed you want to let through and the length of the gate.
• Triggering: While these can trigger from the tom track itself, using a key input from a tom trigger track can offer more consistent results, especially with softer hits.
• Fine-Tuning: Lasse usually copies his settings across the toms, then adjusts the length – longer for floor toms, shorter for rack toms.

Why This Tom Trick Works So Well

As explained in the session, a tom hit has two main components: a bright, transient-rich attack and the resonant body (the fundamental frequency and its lower harmonics). The cymbal bleed primarily contaminates the tail after the initial transient. By letting the full-frequency transient through (which you can then EQ for attack) and then quickly rolling off the highs in the tail, you keep the tom’s powerful low-end resonance without the cymbal interference. It makes your live toms sound almost as clean and defined as samples.

Don’t go overboard, though! Remember, your overheads and room mics will still have some natural bleed, so a tiny bit from the close tom mics isn’t the end of the world. If a specific fill has an unavoidably nasty cymbal clash right after a tom, Lasse isn’t afraid to cut out a clean tom hit from elsewhere and paste it in.

Controlling Overheads: Getting Snare Bleed Under Wraps

Snare drum bleed into overhead (OH) microphones can be another headache. Too much snare in the OHs can make your cymbals sound less distinct, reduce the stereo width, or just make the overall drum kit sound less direct and punchy. The goal is to gently reduce the impact of the snare in the overheads, giving you more control.

Dynamic EQ: Surgical Snare Reduction

One effective method is using a dynamic EQ. Lasse referred to a plugin he humorously calls “Big Beautiful Door” for this, but the principle applies to any capable dynamic EQ (like FabFilter Pro-Q in dynamic mode).

• Sidechain is Key: Feed a sidechain input to the dynamic EQ from your main snare track(s).
• The Action: When the snare hits, the dynamic EQ automatically ducks specific frequencies in the overheads. Lasse demonstrated using it to trigger a high-pass filter (low-cut) on the overheads only when the snare hits. This helps remove some of the snare’s low-mid body from the overheads, as he noted, “the cymbals only lose the low end for a tiny amount of time.”
• Frequency Focus: You’d typically target the fundamental or boxy frequencies of the snare. Lasse mentioned working around 765 Hz in his example, but this will vary depending on the snare.
• Phase Awareness: Be mindful that filters can introduce phase shifts, especially around the crossover frequency. Listen carefully!

This trick can significantly clean up your overheads without making them sound unnatural. For more on EQ, our EQ strategies guide has you covered.

Selective Ducking with Drum Levelers (e.g., Sound Radix Drum Leveler M)

Another powerful tool Lasse employs is the Sound Radix Drum Leveler M. While often used to even out drum performance dynamics, he uses it here for selective ducking of the snare in the overheads.

• Not for Leveling (this time!): Instead of making everything one volume, the goal is to reduce the snare’s volume in the overheads.
• Internal Sidechain EQ: Lasse uses Drum Leveler M’s internal sidechain EQ to focus on the snare’s fundamental frequency within the overhead track itself (no external key input needed for this specific trick).
• Settings for Ducking:
  • Target Level: Set the target level lower than the incoming snare hits in the OHs.
  • Threshold: Adjust the threshold so it primarily grabs the louder snare hits.
  • Compression/Reduction Amount: He doesn’t go for 100% reduction, which would sound artificial. A gentler setting (e.g., 15-20% reduction) subtly pushes the snare down in the overheads.
• The Result: The snare in the overheads becomes softer and less prominent, allowing the cymbals to shine more and giving the overall kit a more direct, punchy sound when blended with the close mics. This technique often leaves softer snare hits or ghost notes relatively untouched if the threshold is set carefully. This is a great way to use compression principles for cleanup.

The Big Picture: Why These Details Matter for a Pro Metal Mix

You might think these are minor tweaks, but clean, controlled drums are the bedrock of any powerful metal mix. Techniques like these for managing tom bleed and snare spill in overheads aren’t just about fixing problems; they’re about sculpting a drum sound that has clarity, punch, and impact. When each part of the kit can be heard distinctly, your entire mix benefits.

These methods give you the control to make your drums sit perfectly, whether you’re aiming for a natural sound or a highly polished, modern metal production like Alestorm.

Want to see Lasse Lammert apply these techniques and many more, transforming raw Alestorm tracks into a finished metal anthem? You can! With Nail The Mix, you get to watch world-class producers like Lasse mix real songs from bands like Alestorm, Periphery, Gojira, and Meshuggah, explaining every step. You even get the multitracks to practice on yourself!

Dive deeper into the Alestorm session with Lasse Lammert here and start transforming your own drum mixes. And if you’re ready to truly elevate your productions, explore our comprehensive guide on Unlock Your Sound: Mixing Modern Metal Beyond Presets. Join the NTM community and take your mixes from “stupid” to “stellar”!