Mixing Knocked Loose Drums: Will Putney’s Raw Power Techniques

Let's face it, Knocked Loose's drum sound is absolutely monstrous. It’s a full-frontal assault that powers their aggressive sound. Ever wonder how that kind of intensity is captured and shaped in the mix? We got a peek into the process with acclaimed producer Will Putney (Fit For An Autopsy, Every Time I Die, Body Count) as he tackled the drums for a Knocked Loose track, and his approach is packed with actionable insights you can use in your own productions.

Forget overly complex signal chains; Will’s method focuses on solid fundamentals, smart preparation, and making sure every element serves the raw energy of the performance. If you're looking to get your heavy drums sounding punchy, clear, and undeniably heavy, you’ll want to take notes. You can learn even more from pros like Will Putney by checking out the full mixing sessions available on Nail The Mix.

H2: Laying the Groundwork: Initial Balance and Gating Strategy

Before any fancy plugins even get loaded, Will emphasizes getting the foundational elements right. This means listening critically to the raw tracks and establishing a solid starting point.

H3: Balancing Before Processing: The First Crucial Step

Will starts by simply listening to his drum tracks – the China, the ride, everything – to make sure they’re balanced with each other. The goal here is to get the individual close accent mics (like for cymbals) sitting well against the rest of the kit before any processing. Why? The more balance he can achieve at this stage, the less corrective work he’ll need to do later with EQs and compressors. This not only saves time but also helps preserve the integrity of the original audio, keeping it sounding natural and powerful.

H3: Taming the Chaos: Noise Gating with Key Spikes

Heavy drums, especially in genres like Knocked Loose's, come with a lot of bleed. To keep things tight and punchy, noise gates are essential. Will has a particularly effective method using key spikes.

So, what are key spikes? They're short, printed blips of audio – think tiny clicks – that correspond perfectly with each drum hit. Instead of the noise gate trying to analyze the complex, bleed-filled audio of the actual drum mic, it listens to these clean key spikes via its sidechain input.

Will often starts with Logic's stock Noise Gate, but this technique works with any gate that has a sidechain input. He sets a fast attack (or no attack) and a release time around 500-600 milliseconds as a starting point. For example, the snare gate might be sidechained to "audio track 54" where its key spike resides. The kick drum's gate would listen to its spike (say, "audio track 24"), perhaps with a slightly shorter release depending on the kick samples used later. Toms get the same treatment (e.g., spikes on tracks 55, 56, 57).

The beauty of this is its accuracy. The gate opens precisely when the drum hits (triggered by the spike) and closes reliably, without misfiring on quieter hits or getting fooled by cymbal bleed. It’s a "set and forget" approach that ensures clean, consistent gating.

H2: Sculpting the Core: EQing for Clarity and Impact

With the dynamics under control, it's time to start shaping the tone. Will begins with broad EQ moves to clean things up before getting into more detailed work.

H3: Broad Strokes: Global EQ Clean-Up

Will often reaches for an SSL-style EQ (plenty of great plugin emulations exist) to apply some initial high-pass filters. This is all about removing unnecessary low-end rumble that can muddy up the mix. For more strategies on taming frequencies, check out our EQ Strategies for Mixing Modern Metal hub page.

His starting points are generally:

• Snare & Toms: High-pass around 60Hz and down.
• Cymbals: High-pass starting around 125Hz.
• Room Mics: Especially with the powerful kick drum style in this track, he’ll kill the sub-bass, often high-passing everything below 60Hz. He notes it's rare to want anything below that in the rooms for this kind of mix.

These are safe, initial clean-up moves that make space for the important frequencies.

H3: Kick Drum Dial-In: Finding the Sweet Spot

The kick drum is a critical element, and Will spends time ensuring it sits right. He mentions an initial kick blend that sounded good in a slower section but revealed some buildup and an overly long decay when the double bass kicked in.

His philosophy here is to find a good average kick sound and blend that works across most of the song. This minimizes the need for excessive automation later. The less fader-riding, the easier the final mix will be. This initial balance also significantly impacts how downstream processors, like compressors, will react. It’s a "less is more" approach, aiming for that "band in the room" feel rather than a constantly shifting sonic landscape. He even identified a "boomer kick sample" that was a bit too loud in the initial blend and needed to be re-evaluated.

For EQing the kick itself, Will mentions he recorded it fairly dark, anticipating he'd brighten it up. Using a Heritage Audio EQ (though any quality analog-style EQ plugin can work), he made a few key moves:

• A boost around 3.2kHz to add presence, helping it cut through without sounding overly clicky.
• A high shelf at 10kHz for more top-end clarity.
• A gentle 60Hz shelf boost to add some sub weight and fatness.

The result? A brighter, more defined real kick. This is great because it means he can often turn down his kick samples a touch, allowing more of the natural kick's dynamics to shine through, again leading to less automation later.

H2: Building the Beast: Snare Layering and Room Ambience

The snare drum in a Knocked Loose track needs to be an absolute cannon. Will’s approach involves a thoughtful combination of the real snare and carefully chosen samples.

H3: The Knocked Loose Snare: A Symphony of Attack and Body

Will’s tracking strategy for the snare involved tuning it high to get a distinct "ring" and attack. The gate on the real snare mic is set very short, capturing that initial crack. Then, samples come in to fill out the rest of the sound.

His snare sample layering strategy includes:

1. Main One-Shot: A sample that sounds similar in character to the real snare, often a bit brighter or more "hi-fi," to reinforce the attack and even out the performance.
2. Body Sample(s): These are chosen to add weight and extend the decay of the snare. These samples might not sound amazing on their own but work perfectly when blended underneath the main snare and the real snare.
3. Dynamic/Room Sample: He mentions using a dynamic snare, possibly from a library like Superior Drummer, that was printed with its own overheads and different room mic perspectives (e.g., a closer room and a far, "gunshot" style room). This gives him options to blend in natural-sounding ambience and length.

The goal is to blend these elements – the short, real snare and the various samples – to create a cohesive, powerful snare sound that has both impact and appropriate sustain.

H3: Crafting Space: Blending Room Mics

To bring the kit together and give it a sense of space, room mics are crucial. Will uses a busing system that allows him to control the balance of "real" versus "fake" (sampled) elements. He has buses for the real kick, sample kick, real snare, sample snare, and so on.

Crucially, he also has a separate bus for the room mics. This allows him to control how much of each real instrument versus its sampled counterpart is feeding into the overall room sound. He’ll listen to the kick, snare, and the room mics together, adjusting the blend until he achieves a believably real-sounding drum kit with just the right amount of ambience to start incorporating other song elements. This often involves tweaking the levels of the samples in relation to the real drum mics within the room bus.

H2: Beyond the Basics: Will Putney's Mixing Philosophy

A few core ideas underpin Will Putney's approach to mixing these Knocked Loose drums:

• Minimize Automation Early On: By getting sounds balanced and working well together at the source and in the initial processing stages, he reduces the need for complex automation later. This makes the mix process smoother and often more natural sounding.
• Impact on Compression: The balance and EQ choices made early on directly affect how compressors will react. A well-balanced source will hit the compressors more predictably and musically.
• The "Band in the Room" Vibe: Will strives for a sound that feels like the band playing together, rather than an overly processed or constantly shifting collection of samples.
• Less is More: If a simpler approach achieves the desired result, that’s the way to go. This focus on fundamentals helps preserve the raw energy of the performance.

H2: Get the Full Knocked Loose Drum Mix Experience

Will Putney's techniques for mixing Knocked Loose drums are all about establishing a powerful, clear, and aggressive foundation. From meticulous gating with key spikes to strategic EQ and thoughtful sample layering, every step is designed to enhance the raw energy of the performance.

Want to see Will Putney build this Knocked Loose drum mix from scratch, explaining every single decision and plugin choice in detail? Dive into the full, unabridged session on Nail The Mix where you get to be a fly on the wall.

You can unlock even more advanced metal mixing techniques with our comprehensive guides and courses, like the popular "Unlock Your Sound: Mixing Modern Metal Beyond Presets". For more in-depth drum mixing strategies just like these, and to get your hands on the actual multitracks from this session to try these techniques yourself, check out the full Knocked Loose Nail The Mix session today!