Will Putney’s Knocked Loose Drum Mix: Gating & EQ Workflow

Alright, let's talk about getting absolutely monstrous drum sounds, the kind that hit you in the chest and define a heavy track. We’re diving into the techniques of none other than Will Putney as he tackles the drum mix for hardcore heavyweights Knocked Loose. If you're looking to elevate your own metal productions, understanding how a pro like Will approaches the foundational elements of drums – specifically gating and EQ – is pure gold. This isn't about magic presets; it's about smart, deliberate moves that build a powerful and clear drum sound.

We got a killer look into his process, and we're breaking down some of the key strategies he uses. These are the kinds of insights you can apply to your own mixes right now. And if you want to see the whole thing unfold, you can check out the full Knocked Loose mixing session on Nail The Mix.

Setting the Stage: Initial Drum Balance

Before even thinking about reaching for a plugin, Will emphasizes the importance of getting a solid initial balance. He starts by just listening to how all the raw drum tracks sit together.
A key focus here is the relationship between the individual close mics on the cymbals (like China and ride) and the rest of the kit. The goal is to ensure these accent pieces are balanced against the core drum sounds before any processing begins.

Why bother with this pre-processing balance? Will’s philosophy is simple: the more balance you can achieve upfront, the less processing you'll generally need later. This not only saves time but also helps preserve the natural integrity of the audio. A well-balanced raw recording is the best foundation for a killer mix.

Precision Gating: The Key Spike Technique

Once the initial levels feel good, it’s time to tackle bleed and tighten things up with noise gates. For drums, especially in metal, clean and punchy individual hits are crucial. This is where Will employs a super effective method using "key spikes."

Why Standard Gating Can Fall Short

Traditional noise gates listen to the audio on the track itself to decide when to open and close. This can be tricky with drums due to bleed from other kit pieces. A quiet snare hit might be softer than the cymbal bleed picked up by the snare mic, causing the gate to misfire or chop off the tail of the hit.

Enter Key Spikes: Your Secret Weapon

This is where key spikes become invaluable. These are essentially pre-printed, short audio blips, perfectly timed with each drum hit (kick, snare, toms). Think of them as clean, unambiguous trigger signals. Will uses these spikes to sidechain his noise gates.

Here’s how it works:

1. Instead of the gate analyzing the often messy audio of the actual drum track, it listens to the clean, isolated key spike on a separate audio track.
2. When the gate "hears" a spike, it opens, letting the audio from the actual drum track pass through.
3. When the spike ends, the gate closes.

Will often starts with Logic's basic Noise Gate for this. The beauty of this sidechain setup is that the gate's triggering is incredibly accurate, unaffected by bleed on the source track. Since the key spikes are derived from MIDI or meticulously edited audio, you know every intended drum hit will open the gate reliably.

Dialing in the Gate

For settings on his Logic Noise Gate when using key spikes, Will typically starts with:

• Attack: Zero (or as fast as possible) to let the transient through instantly.
• Hold/Release: Around 500-600 milliseconds total time for snare and toms to allow the natural decay of the drum. The kick drum gate might get a shorter release, depending on how it interacts with samples later on.

This "set and forget" nature of key spike gating is a huge timesaver. You’re not constantly tweaking thresholds to catch soft hits or prevent false triggers. It’s a precise way to ensure your gates work perfectly every time.

Sculpting with Broad Strokes: Initial EQ Clean-Up

With the drums gated and clean, the next step is some foundational EQ. Will focuses on broad, global filters to clean up unwanted low-end rumble and mud before getting into more detailed tonal shaping. This is a crucial step for clarity in a dense metal mix. For more on how EQ can define your metal sound, check out these EQ strategies for mixing modern metal.

Taming the Lows with High-Pass Filters

Will often reaches for an SSL-style EQ for this task, appreciating its musical filters. He makes sure to turn off any "analog" emulation on the plugin if his mix rig is already providing that character (and hiss!).

Here are some typical starting points for his high-pass filters (HPF):

• Snare & Toms: HPF around 60Hz and down. This removes sub frequencies that can muddy the low-end without sacrificing the drums' body.
• Cymbals: HPF starting around 125Hz to cut out low-frequency rumble picked up by the overheads and cymbal mics.
• Room Mics: Again, killing some sub, often with an HPF around 60Hz. He notes it's rare to want anything below 60Hz from the room mics in a mix like this, especially with the style of kick drum used.

These are safe starting points that clear out unnecessary low-end, making space for the kick and bass guitar.

Crafting the Kick Drum Impact

The kick drum is the heartbeat of a Knocked Loose track, and Will puts considerable effort into getting it just right. This involves balancing samples, careful EQ, and ensuring it works across different song sections.

Finding the Right Sample Blend

When dealing with fast double bass parts, a kick drum that sounds great in a slower section can suddenly become boomy or lose definition due to frequency buildup. Will aims to find a blend of kick samples that works well as an average across various parts of the song.

His philosophy here is to achieve a "band in the room" feel, minimizing the need for constant automation changes ("tap dancing," as he calls it). If the core sound is solid, less detailed automation is needed later. This balance is also critical for how the kick will eventually hit the bus compressors and contribute to the overall groove. He might identify a "boomer kick sample" that's a bit too loud or resonant and adjust its level in the blend.

Kick EQ: Adding Punch and Clarity

Will mentioned recording the kick drum a bit dark intentionally, knowing he'd likely brighten it up with samples or EQ. Even so, sometimes the raw kick needs more high-end presence.

For this, he patches in his outboard Heritage Audio EQ and makes some key adjustments:

• A 3.2kHz boost to bring out attack and presence, helping the kick cut through.
• A 10kHz high shelf to add some air and brightness without sounding overly clicky.
• A small 60Hz sub shelf to reinforce the low-end fatness.

These EQ moves significantly improve the kick's ability to be heard and felt in the mix.

Balancing Real Kick vs. Samples Post-EQ

After EQing the real kick, Will often revisits the balance of his kick samples. If the real kick now has more of the desired dynamic and tone, he might be able to turn down the samples slightly, allowing more of the natural performance to shine through. This again ties into minimizing automation later.

Building the Perfect Snare Sound

The snare is another critical element, and Will’s approach involves combining the character of the real snare with carefully chosen samples.

The "Real" Snare: High-Tuned Attack and Ring

The actual snare drum was tuned quite high during tracking. This was a deliberate choice to capture a prominent attack and a characteristic ring. This initial "crack" and resonance provide the realism and impact.

Sample Layering for Body and Character

To complement the real snare, Will layers in various samples:

1. Main One-Shot: A sample that sounds very similar in character to the real snare, reinforcing its attack and providing consistency. This often gives a more "hi-fi" attack.
2. Body Sample(s): These are samples chosen not necessarily for how they sound on their own, but for what they add when blended. They help fill out the decay and add weight to the snare, especially since the real snare might be gated relatively short.
3. Dynamic/Room Samples: Will also incorporates dynamic snare samples, sometimes generated from plugins like Superior Drummer with its multi-output capabilities. These can include overheads and various room mic perspectives (e.g., close rooms and far, "gunshot" style rooms).

This layering approach allows for a snare sound that has both the organic feel of the real drum and the power, consistency, and controlled decay of samples. The blend of these room samples can be adjusted throughout the track to give the snare different ambient characteristics in different sections.

Bringing it Together: Room Mics and Bus Strategy

With the individual drums taking shape, Will looks at how they interact with the room mics and how he can control these elements through his busing strategy.

Strategic Busing for Control

He utilizes a clear busing system, often with separate buses for:

• Real Kick / Fake (Sampled) Kick
• Real Snare / Fake (Sampled) Snare
• Toms
• Room Mics

This allows him to control the balance between the "real" recorded instruments and their sampled counterparts easily. For the room mics, he has a separate bus where he can blend how much of each real instrument versus its sample counterpart is feeding into the overall room sound.

Dialing in the Room Ambience

The final step discussed in this segment is listening to the kick and snare within the context of the room mics. He plays with the blend of real drums versus samples feeding the rooms to achieve a believable, ambient drum sound that glues the kit together before incorporating other instruments into the mix.

More Than Just Settings: The Pro Workflow

Will Putney's approach to mixing Knocked Loose's drums is a masterclass in building a powerful sound from the ground up. It’s about meticulous gating for clarity, surgical yet musical EQ decisions, and intelligent sample layering to enhance the natural performance. Techniques like key spike gating and strategic busing are game-changers for achieving professional results.

Want to see exactly how Will Putney puts all these pieces together, plus his compression, effects, and full mix automation for this Knocked Loose track? You can dive deep into the entire session over at Nail The Mix. It’s one thing to read about it, but watching a top-tier producer make these decisions in real-time, with the actual multitracks, is an unparalleled learning experience. If you're serious about taking your heavy mixes to the next level, exploring resources like Nail The Mix can truly help you unlock your sound and mix modern metal beyond presets.