Crafting Jason Richardson’s Intense Guitar Tones with Taylor Larson

Jason Richardson. The name alone conjures images of mind-bending fretwork, blistering solos, and a guitar tone that’s both aggressive and articulate. Ever wondered how those intricate, high-gain guitar parts are shaped to sit perfectly in a dense modern metal mix? We’re diving deep into the techniques used by acclaimed producer Taylor Larson, as he walks through his approach to mixing Jason Richardson’s guitars. Get ready for some serious insights into layering, phase, and a powerhouse guitar bus chain.

While Taylor mentions he used the JST Toneforge plugin to achieve killer sounds for this project, his walkthrough for Nail The Mix members focused heavily on the intricate bus processing he applied to the DI tracks he reamped. This is where much of the magic happens. You can check out the full session here. Let’s dive in!

The Foundation: Layering and Phase Cohesion

Before a single plugin touches the main guitar bus, Taylor emphasizes the importance of a solid foundation built from multiple, well-blended guitar tracks. For Jason Richardson’s sound, this involved a strategic combination of different amp tones.

Blending Multiple Amp Tones

Taylor’s approach involved three core guitar track layers:

1. High-Gain: The main muscle, described as having a “fizzy, crazy high gain Marshall kind of sound.” This forms the bulk of the distorted tone.
2. Mid-Gain: A secondary layer to add complexity and fill out the sound.
3. Clean/Low-Gain: This track wasn’t about distortion but about capturing the “pick attack.” It received a little boost to accentuate this percussive element.

Blending these distinct tones provides a richer, more complex sound than a single amp track could offer.

The Art of Phase Alignment by Ear

With multiple microphone signals or layered amp tones, phase alignment is crucial. Taylor stresses using your ears over just looking at waveforms. His process involves:

• Soloing different combinations of the guitar tracks.
• Experimenting with flipping the phase on one or more tracks.
• Minutely shifting track positions (nudging) until all three layers sound cohesive and powerful together.

A neat trick Taylor employed to maintain perfect phase relationships across all guitar tracks, even when some plugins weren’t active, was to clone his primary phase/latency-inducing plugin (like a phase alignment tool or even a specific EQ he was using for its latency) to all other guitar tracks. He then bypassed this cloned plugin on tracks where its processing wasn’t needed. This ensures that every track in the guitar group has the exact same amount of plugin-induced latency, keeping everything perfectly locked in time.

Dialing in the Blend

Once the tracks are phase-coherent, the blend is key. For Jason’s guitars, Taylor’s blend was:

• Primarily the high-gain track.
• Secondly, the mid-gain track.
• Finally, a touch of the low-gain/clean track for that essential pick attack.

These blended tracks are then routed to a stereo guitar bus, where the real heavy lifting in terms of processing begins.

Sculpting the Beast: Taylor Larson’s Guitar Bus Processing Chain

This is where Taylor Larson meticulously shapes the combined guitar tone. He walks through a chain of plugins, each serving a specific purpose.

Subtle Sweetening with Tilt EQ

First up, Taylor often reaches for a Tilt EQ. If you’re not familiar, imagine the graph on your favorite parametric EQ. A Tilt EQ takes that entire line and, well, tilts it. You can make the entire signal brighter or darker with one simple control, without drastically altering the inherent character of the sound. For Jason’s guitars, Taylor used a Tilt EQ to gently nudge the overall tone towards the brighter side, getting the high-end exactly where he wanted it.

Surgical and Broad Strokes: The Core EQ Work

Next comes more detailed equalization, using a combination of surgical cuts and broader tonal shaping.

Taming Harshness and Adding Air

Initially, Taylor uses an EQ to notch out any specific notes or frequencies that sound harsh or resonant in an unpleasant way. He also mentioned a “little bit of an air boost,” often a very gentle high-frequency slope, to add a touch of presence without becoming shrill.

The SSL Channel Strip Power Moves

A cornerstone of Taylor’s guitar EQ is an SSL-style EQ plugin. He hasn’t found anything better for guitars since he started mixing. Here’s a breakdown of his typical SSL EQ settings:
Get more EQ strategies for modern metal here.

• Filters: A high-pass filter set around 150 Hz to clean up low-end rumble and a low-pass filter around 8 kHz to tame excessive fizz. He notes that 150 Hz is a bit low and 8 kHz a bit high, showing his willingness to push boundaries.
• High-Shelf Boost: A significant 10 dB boost with a high shelf at 8 kHz. This is a bold move that adds serious air and aggression.
• Mid Boost: A boost around 3 kHz to bring out the “bite” and articulation of the guitars.
• Mid Scoop: A gentle scoop in the mids to create space for other elements like vocals and snare.
• Low-End Trick: Sometimes, to make the slope of the low filter more dramatic, Taylor sets a bell filter at 50 Hz and scoops it by around -6 dB.

He finds this SSL plugin consistently delivers the presence he’s looking for. While this is his go-to, he also mentioned exploring the EQ within JST Toneforge, noting its API-style curves are “nice and broad” and sound really good.

The “Misha Tweak”: Refining Definition and Clarity

A particularly interesting EQ move Taylor shared is a custom setting he developed with Misha Mansoor during the Periphery II sessions. This EQ setting was originally designed to clean up some “weird stuff” happening with the Axe FX at the time, but it proved to be a fantastic general-purpose guitar polisher. He uses this specific plugin and setting on about 90% of the guitars he mixes.

The “Further Tweaked” settings are:

• A -1 dB dip at 4.3 kHz.
• A boost right below that, at 1.5 kHz.
• A high shelf starting at 18 kHz.

This combination subtly cleans up the tone, enhances definition, and adds a pleasing top-end sheen.

Aggressive Compression for Punch and Impact

Next in the chain is a compressor, dialed in with settings Taylor originally came up with for the band Veil of Maya (or Vale of Pnath, he mentions both). These settings are dramatic.
Learn more about metal compression techniques.

The goal here isn’t subtle dynamic control; it’s about enhancing pick attack and making the guitars feel explosive. Taylor describes the effect as making the guitars “pump and hit hard,” and “fly out of the speakers.” He adjusts the threshold to get more or less of this effect.

This aggressive compression helps the guitars sound bigger, wider, and more spread without actually taking up more space in the frequency spectrum that needs to be reserved for vocals or snare. It’s a key part of his strategy to make guitars audible and exciting without being offensive or overly dominant.

Adding Width with Stereo Imaging

To give the guitars a bit more width, Taylor sometimes uses the Waves S1 Stereo Imager. He uses it subtly, just to “move ’em just a tiny bit,” and finds that with guitars, slight pushes don’t tend to cause significant phase issues.

He mentioned that while some engineers use more complex stereo widening techniques (like Dan Korneff’s method of bussing to a filtered track), he hasn’t found that necessary for his guitar workflow. Taylor also gave a nod to the JST Side Widener, praising its mono-compatibility, and the BX Hybrid widener as another cool, perhaps more neutral-sounding, option.

Beyond the Plugins: The Mixer’s Mindset

Throughout the walkthrough, Taylor Larson’s philosophy shines through. He admits that guitars are often the hardest thing to mix because they can take up so much sonic space. His goal is to find ways to make them “audible but not offensive,” often by taking a “small window” in the mix and using techniques like aggressive compression and careful EQ to trick the listener into thinking they’re bigger and more powerful than they sonically are. It’s about crafting a guitar sound that is impactful and exciting, yet sits well within a dense, modern metal production.

Want to See This in Action? Go Deeper with Nail The Mix

Hearing about these techniques is one thing, but imagine watching Taylor Larson apply them in real-time, explaining every decision as he mixes Jason Richardson’s actual multitracks. That’s exactly what you get with Nail The Mix.

If you’re serious about elevating your metal productions, Nail The Mix offers unparalleled access to the world’s top producers. Each month, you get:

• Full multitrack sessions from iconic metal bands.
• Live, interactive mixing sessions where the original producer mixes the song from scratch.
• A massive library of past sessions and tutorials.

Stop guessing and start learning the exact workflows that create professional, release-ready metal. See how Taylor Larson meticulously balanced these layered DIs, dialed in the reamps, and applied this powerful bus processing chain to achieve Jason Richardson’s signature guitar assault. You can dive into the full Jason Richardson NTM session here.