Oceano Guitar Tone: Buster Odeholm’s Bass Amp String Trick

Nail The Mix Staff

Ever wrestled with getting that killer string definition on super distorted guitars? You know the sound – that aggressive pick attack and clear articulation that cuts through a dense metal mix, but without turning your guitars into a fizzy, overbearing mess. It's a classic challenge. Well, Buster Odeholm (Oceano, Humanity's Last Breath, Vildhjarta) has a slick technique for getting the best of both worlds, and it involves a bit of out-of-the-box thinking with a bass amp plugin.

In a recent session, Buster broke down how he achieves this for Oceano's guitars, giving you complete control over your distorted body and your stringy clarity. Let's dive into how you can try this yourself. And if you want to see Buster implement this and much more, check out his full mixing session for Oceano, available now on Nail The Mix.

Crafting the Core Guitar Tone: The Foundation

Before we get to the "stringy" magic, you need a solid foundation. Buster starts by dialing in a primary distorted tone. No fancy multi-amp setups here for the core, just getting one amp sim to sound great.

Choosing Your Amp Sim & Cab IR

Buster opts for a plugin he likens to a 5150 – a classic choice for heavy tones. He mentions, "I think this is supposed to be like a 51 50," as he tweaks its controls. The specific plugin isn't the star, but the 5150-style character is what he's after. He pairs this with a cab IR he already knows and likes, emphasizing the importance of a good speaker emulation. Remember, your cab IR is a massive part of your amp sim's sound.

He makes some typical adjustments to the amp's gain, bass, mids, treble, and presence, dialing it in by ear. One crucial check? "I'm double cabin right now. Let's not double cab," he notes, fixing a common mistake where both the amp sim's internal cab and a separate IR loader are active. This usually results in a phasey, filtered sound. Turning one off, as he does, "sounds way better."

Initial EQ Shaping

Once the basic amp tone is in a good spot, a bit of EQ is usually in order. Buster applies a high-pass filter around 80Hz to both his main amp track and the stringy track (more on that soon). This cleans up unnecessary low-end rumble and tightens the guitars, a standard move in metal mixing.

The String Definition Secret: Parallel Bass Amp Blending

Here’s where Buster’s cool trick comes in. He explains, "an amp usually removes a lot of the sheer amount of distortion in an amp. Usually removes that stringy quality of a guitar." So, instead of sacrificing gain on his main tone, he creates a separate, parallel channel dedicated purely to that stringy pick attack.

How? By using a bass amp plugin on the direct input (DI) signal of the guitar.

This is conceptually similar to the old-school "SansAmp trick" many engineers use on bass guitar to blend in grit and character with a clean DI. Here, Buster adapts it for guitar to emphasize string definition.

Setting Up the "Stringy" Channel

  1. Duplicate Your DI: Take your raw guitar DI track and create a parallel track.
  2. Insert a Bass Amp Sim: On this new track, instead of a guitar amp, load up a bass amp plugin. Buster doesn't specify which one, so experiment with what you have. The goal isn't a booming bass tone, but rather to find something that accentuates the percussive, metallic quality of the strings.
  3. Blend to Taste: You’ll blend this "stringy" channel underneath your main distorted guitar tone.

Taming and Focusing the Stringy Tone

This bass amp channel isn't meant to be a full-range guitar sound. It needs sculpting:

  • EQ: Buster mentions the stringy track initially "has a bit too much other frequencies other than the stringiness, so I'm just going to concentrate that a bit." This means using EQ to filter out unwanted lows and highs, likely focusing on the upper midrange and presence areas where pick attack lives. Think surgical band-passing or shelving to isolate just the "click" and "zing."
  • Soothe2: To further refine this stringy channel and prevent it from becoming harsh or introducing nasty resonances, Buster reaches for oeksound Soothe2. He applies it to the stringy channel to smooth out any problematic frequencies that might have been exaggerated by the bass amp or subsequent EQ boosts.

The Crucial Role of Phase Alignment

Whenever you're blending two different signals derived from the same source (like a DI processed two ways), phase alignment is absolutely critical. If they're out of phase, you'll get comb filtering, weak fundamentals, and a generally thin, weird sound.

Buster uses Sound Radix Auto-Align for this.

  1. Set the Source: On his main amp track, he inserts Auto-Align and sets it to "Send 1." This track becomes the phase reference.
  2. Set the Receiver: On the stringy bass amp track, he inserts another instance of Auto-Align and sets it to "Receive 1."
  3. Align: He then hits the detection button in Auto-Align, which calculates and applies the necessary delay and phase rotation to line up the stringy track with the main amp.

He notes that sometimes these tools can be finicky ("No, it's doing it wrong. I don't know why"), and if Auto-Align isn't cooperating, manually nudging the audio region or using a simple sample delay plugin (and checking polarity) is the old-school backup plan.

Bringing It All Together & Fine-Tuning

With the stringy channel EQ'd, Soothe'd, and phase-aligned, Buster bounces it down (commits the processing to a new audio file). He does the same for his main amp tone. This can save CPU and also prevent further plugin-related phase drift.

Then comes the moment of truth: blending them. He listens to the main distorted tone with and without the stringy bass amp channel mixed in. "Yeah, so listen to that without… yeah, that sounds good," he concludes. The goal is for the stringy channel to add that clarity and definition without being obviously audible as a separate "effect." It should just make the main tone feel more articulate and defined.

Why This Technique Works (And How You Can Learn More)

Buster's parallel bass amp trick is a fantastic way to achieve clear, aggressive guitar tones where the pick attack and string detail shine through, even with high amounts of distortion. It gives you independent control over the "chug" and the "click," which is invaluable in modern metal production.

This kind of creative problem-solving and detailed processing is exactly what you can explore deeper with Nail The Mix. Imagine watching pros like Buster Odeholm not only explain their techniques but demonstrate them in real-time, using the actual multitracks from massive songs. That's what NTM offers every month.

In the Oceano NTM session, you can see Buster apply this very string-definition technique and a whole lot more, mixing the song "WAKING TITAN" from scratch. It's a unique chance to go beyond YouTube clips and see the entire process unfold.

If you're serious about elevating your metal mixes, learning these kinds of advanced techniques directly from the source is a game-changer. And if you're looking to build a solid foundation beyond just presets, be sure to check out comprehensive courses like Unlock Your Sound: Mixing Modern Metal Beyond Presets.

So, grab a guitar DI, experiment with some bass amp sims, and get that string sound popping!