Dave Otero mixes "Liminal Cypher" by Archspire

Dave Otero of Flatline Audio is the engineer behind this wall of sound. Dave is renowned for his ability to translate extreme velocity into polished and punishing records. In this Nail The Mix session, he breaks down his specific process for keeping a mix lean and articulate while maintaining immense power.

When you open these multitracks, you are faced with the challenge of extreme BPM and surgical transients. Traditional compression strategies often fail at these speeds because the release times cannot recover fast enough. Dave demonstrates how to use soft clipping and specific saturation stages to preserve the punch of the drums without destroying the dynamics of the performance.

The vocal production is equally demanding. Oli Aleron’s rapid delivery functions like a percussion instrument. You will learn how to use aggressive serial compression and precise EQ to ensure every syllable is intelligible against the dense guitar layers. The bass guitar tracks require a careful balance of sub frequency weight and mid range grit to sit perfectly between the kick drums and the high gain guitars. From managing complex orchestration to carving space in a crowded frequency spectrum, this session provides the technical blueprint for modern extreme metal production. Download the multitracks and see if you can handle the speed.