Top 10 Resources for Music Mixing Online (Metal Edition)

It’s never been a better time to be a metal musician. Seriously. The old gatekeepers are gone. You don’t need a million-dollar studio budget or a major label deal to make a record that sounds absolutely devastating. Thanks to the internet, the tools, the tech, and the knowledge are all right at your fingertips.

The only thing separating you from a pro-sounding mix is your own skill and knowing which resources to trust. You can literally go from a raw idea in your bedroom to a finished, release-ready track without ever leaving the house. The modern metal producer is a bit of a Renaissance man—part musician, part engineer, part tech nerd.

So, if you’re ready to level up your production game, here are the 10 essential resources you need for music mixing online.

1. A DAW That Works For You (Your Command Center)

This is ground zero. Your Digital Audio Workstation is where the magic happens. The good news? The “best” one is the one you know inside and out. While old-school studios swore by Pro Tools (and many still do), the landscape is wide open.

• Reaper: Insanely customizable, affordable, and a massive favorite in the metal community for its powerful editing workflows and low CPU usage.
• Logic Pro X: A powerhouse for Mac users with a killer suite of stock plugins.
• Pro Tools: Still the industry standard in many big studios, but with a steeper learning curve and subscription model.
• Cubase: A long-time favorite with deep MIDI and audio editing features.

The truth is, you can make a world-class metal mix in any of them. Pick one and master it.

2. High-Quality Guitar and Bass Amp Sims

Let’s be real: most of us don’t have a wall of cranked tube amps and a million-dollar mic locker. We don’t need one. Amp sims have gotten so ridiculously good that they’re not just a substitute; they’re often the first choice.

Why Amp Sims Rule

You can dial in the perfect tone after you’ve tracked the perfect take. Need to re-amp? Just open a plugin. Want the tone from your record on stage? Load up the preset. This is the kind of game-changing tech that pros like Misha Mansoor and Buster Odeholm have built careers on.

Must-Have Amp Sims:

• Neural DSP Archetypes: From the crushing high-gain of the Archetype: Gojira X to the tight, articulate tones of the Archetype: Nolly, Neural DSP is a king in this space.
• STL Tones ToneHub & Amphub: An ever-expanding library of amp models from legendary producers like Will Putney and Howard Benson.
• Softube Amp Room: Gives you a modular “build your own rig” experience with stellar-sounding components.

3. Professional Drum Samples and VIs

Modern metal drums are powerful, consistent, and punchy. A huge part of that sound comes from drum samples. This isn’t about replacing a great drummer; it’s about enhancing their performance and ensuring every single kick and snare hit cuts through a wall of distorted guitars. Even the records you think are all-natural are often using samples.

The Heavy Hitters:

• GetGood Drums (GGD): Created by members of Periphery, GGD offers mix-ready drum libraries that sound incredible right out of the box. The Modern & Massive pack is a staple for a reason.
• Toontrack Superior Drummer 3: The ultimate drum production studio. It gives you raw, unprocessed samples and a massive suite of tools to build, process, and mix your own custom drum sound from the ground up.
• Slate Drums 5.5: Another industry standard known for its punchy, polished drum sounds that fit perfectly into rock and metal mixes.

4. Your Bread-and-Butter: EQ and Compression

Mixing is all about creating space and controlling dynamics. EQ and compression are your two most important tools for the job. Your DAW’s stock plugins are more powerful than ever, but having a few go-to third-party plugins can give you a critical edge.

Essential EQ Moves

It’s not just about the classic mid-scoop on guitars. It’s about surgical cuts to remove nasty fizz around 8-10kHz, high-passing everything that isn’t bass or kick, and making room for the snare to crack. A plugin like FabFilter Pro-Q 3 is a godsend here, letting you pinpoint and tame problematic frequencies with surgical precision.

Smart Compression

Compression in metal isn’t just about making things louder; it’s about shaping the attack and sustain of your instruments. It’s what gives your snare that explosive crack and your kick that consistent punch. You need to know how to use it to glue your drum bus together, control a wild vocal performance, and keep your bass sitting perfectly in the low end.

For a much deeper dive, check out our guides on EQ strategies for modern metal and the secrets of metal compression.

5. Specialty “Secret Sauce” Plugins

Once your core balance is solid, a few specialty plugins can add that final 10% of polish and character.

• Saturation: Plugins like Soundtoys Decapitator or Softube Saturation Knob are perfect for adding harmonic richness and aggression to bass, vocals, or even drums. It’s a great way to add perceived loudness without actually turning up the fader.
• Transient Shapers: A tool like SPL Transient Designer Plus or Native Instruments Transient Master lets you add more punch (attack) to a kick or snare, or push it back in the mix by reducing it.
• Taming Harshness: Sometimes, cymbals or distorted guitars can have a harsh, fizzy quality that’s painful to the ears. A plugin like Oeksound Soothe2 can dynamically find and turn down those harsh resonances, saving you hours of tedious EQ automation.

6. A Solid (and Affordable) Audio Interface

Gone are the days when you had to spend thousands on converters to get a pro-quality recording. The tech in today’s entry-level interfaces is lightyears ahead of the expensive gear from 15-20 years ago.

Something like a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 or a Universal Audio Volt gives you crystal-clear preamps and conversion that are more than capable of capturing professional results. You don’t need to break the bank to get your ideas into your DAW cleanly.

7. Monitors and Headphones You Can Trust

This one is non-negotiable. You can’t mix what you can’t hear accurately. You need a monitoring system that tells you the truth, not one that hypes up the bass or hides harsh high-end.

• Headphones: The Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (80 ohm) or DT 990 Pro are industry standards. They’re reliable, comfortable for long sessions, and reveal a ton of detail.
• Monitors: For a home studio, something like the Adam Audio T-Series or Yamaha HS Series provides a fantastic, relatively flat response that will translate well to other systems.

8. The YouTube Rabbit Hole

YouTube is an incredible free resource. You can find tutorials on literally anything, from dialing in a specific guitar tone to advanced drum editing in Reaper. Channels from guys like URM Academy, Glenn Fricker (SpectreSoundStudios) or Bogren Digital are packed with no-BS metal production advice. The only downside? It can be an unstructured mess of conflicting opinions. It’s a great place to learn specific tricks, but it’s not a complete A-to-Z system.

PS – Get some free stems from our friend Jens Bogren!

9. Online Communities for Feedback

Staring at the same mix for 10 hours will destroy your objectivity. Getting a fresh set of ears from people who know what to listen for is priceless. This is where online communities shine.

The URM/Nail The Mix Discord and private Facebook groups are full of thousands of producers, from beginners to pros, all dedicated to getting better at mixing metal. Posting a mix for feedback is one of the fastest ways to identify your blind spots and improve.

10. Structured Learning: Nail The Mix

When you’re ready to get past the random YouTube tutorials and learn a complete, professional workflow from start to finish, you need a structured learning path. That’s exactly what Nail The Mix was built for.

Imagine this: you get the actual, raw multitracks from a massive song by bands like Gojira, Lamb of God, or Meshuggah. Then, you get to sit in on a 6+ hour livestream and watch the original producer—the person who actually made the record—mix that exact song from scratch, explaining every single plugin, setting, and decision along the way.

It’s not theory. It’s not guesswork. It’s a direct look inside the minds and sessions of the best metal producers in the world. You learn their techniques on Monday and can apply them to your own mixes on Tuesday. It is, without a doubt, the single most powerful resource available for learning music mixing online today.

If you’re serious about making your mixes sound professional, this is how you do it. Unlock your sound and see how the pros do it with Nail The Mix.