Stop Ruining Guitars: Russ Russell’s The Haunted EQ Tips

Ever finish an EQ pass and wonder if you’ve gone too far? You jump in, make those big, satisfying cuts to banish the mud and harshness, but then a nagging thought creeps in: "Am I losing some of the good stuff too?" If you're nodding along, you're not alone. Many of us, in the quest for clarity, can get a bit heavy-handed with the EQ. But what if the secret to a powerful, professional-sounding metal mix lies in more delicate, surgical moves?

We got a front-row seat to exactly this approach during a recent Nail The Mix session where legendary producer Russ Russell (Napalm Death, Dimmu Borgir, SikTh) mixed "Preachers of Death" by The Haunted. Forget brutal EQ carving; Russ demonstrated how subtle tweaks can make all the difference, especially when dealing with killer source tones. Let's break down how he tackles guitars and bass without "neutering" them.

Taming The Haunted's Guitars: Less is More EQ

When Russ Russell first loaded up The Haunted's guitar tracks, his approach wasn't about reinventing the wheel. The tones were already solid, a testament to the band's sound and performance. The goal? Refinement, not reconstruction.

The Perils of Over-EQing Metal Guitars

It's tempting to make drastic EQ changes, especially when you first encounter tools like dynamic EQ or multiband compressors. You can hear them working, so it must be better, right? Not always. Aggressive cuts can quickly suck the life and power out of guitars, leaving them thin and weak. The key is to identify specific problem areas and address them with precision. If your guitars need massive EQ surgery, there might be an issue with the original guitar tone recording itself.

Russ Russell's Surgical Strikes on Guitar Frequencies

Russ's method for The Haunted's guitars was all about subtle control, ensuring the aggression and body remained intact.

Dynamic EQ for Problem Spots

He first reached for what appeared to be a FabFilter Pro-Q 3. Instead of broad static cuts, he zeroed in on a resonant frequency that was poking out a bit too much.

• The Move: A gentle, dynamic dip. He mentioned the EQ was just "tickling a little bit," using the auto function on the dynamic band initially, then fine-tuning the threshold.
• The Goal: To smooth out an unevenness without drastically altering the guitar's character. This is a prime example of effective EQ strategies for modern metal.

Multiband Compression for Polish

Next up, a FabFilter Pro-MB was placed after the Pro-Q 3.

• The Move: A "little tickle on the top there," focusing around a similar high-mid/treble area as the dynamic EQ but with a slightly broader band. The reduction was minimal – around 1dB.
• The Goal: To even out the attack just a touch, ensuring no harsh transients jumped out, but crucially, without losing the aggressive pick attack essential for metal. He stressed that you don't want to lose any of the attack.

The beauty of this approach is its subtlety. You might not hear a massive difference when A/B-ing each plugin individually if you're not listening critically, but the cumulative effect is a tighter, more controlled guitar tone that sits better in the mix without sounding processed or weak. As Russ put it, if the source tone is great (which it was, thanks to "the amount of time and effort that went into getting this tone"), you don't need to do a great deal. "If it sounds great, don't fuck with it."

Want to see Russ Russell apply these techniques and more to The Haunted and At The Gates? Check out the full Nail The Mix session HERE.

Dialing in The Haunted's Bass: Clarity and Weight

A killer metal mix needs a bass that not only holds down the low end but also cuts through and complements the guitars. Russ's approach to The Haunted's bass was, again, about enhancing what was already there and ensuring it played nice with the guitars.

Building the Bass Foundation

The bass sound for "Preachers of Death" was a combination of tones.

• The SansAmp: A classic choice. Russ mentioned he’s used the SansAmp Bass Driver DI (whether pedal or plugin) for a long time and, while sometimes feeling "bored of it," acknowledged its effectiveness in combination.
• The SVT Rig: The other key component was an Ampeg SVT sound, apparently achieved with a UAD SVT plugin paired with a Rat-style distortion. This was described as the bassist’s core live sound, developed over years – a solid reason not to mess with its fundamental character too much.

The pre-mix work in dialing these tones was crucial. Russ noted they "spent quite a while matching up the bass tone just to make sure it had all the necessary bits and not too much of anything to sit with the guitars." This upfront effort means less aggressive processing is needed later.

Surgical Bass EQ and Dynamics

Even with well-crafted source tones, some refinement is usually necessary.

Tackling "Quack" and Noise

• Problem 1: "Quacky" High Notes: Some higher notes on the bass had a slightly resonant, "quacky" quality.
  • Solution: A precise EQ cut to "kill the duck," smoothing out those pokey frequencies without affecting the overall definition.
• Problem 2: The "Blanket of Noise": A common issue with distorted bass is a layer of noise or fizz in a certain frequency range (often high-mids) that can obscure clarity and clutter the mix.
  • Solution: Russ identified this "annoying thing" and used targeted EQ cuts on both the SVT and SansAmp tracks to eliminate it. Once you notice this kind of noise, you can't ignore it!

Managing Low-Mid Buildup

Using Pro-Q 3 on the bass, Russ also addressed a familiar culprit:

• The Move: A gentle dip in the low-mids, around the "same kind of little buildup area where that guitar was."
• The Goal: To prevent this common problem area from accumulating when both bass and guitars are playing, ensuring clarity and preventing muddiness.

Multiband Magic for Bass Control and Punch

The FabFilter Pro-MB made another appearance on the bass, this time for broader shaping and control, particularly in the low end.

• Taming Top-End Spikes: Similar to the guitars, a band was used to tame a few "little spikes on the top" of the bass.
• Controlling the Super Lows: Russ used a band on the very low frequencies. He highlighted that the default attack and release settings on Pro-MB often work perfectly for these kinds of subtle metal compression applications, especially when not doing a huge amount of reduction. This helped control the sub frequencies.
• Adding Sub Back: After ensuring the low end was controlled, Russ then subtly added some sub-bass back in, likely with a low shelf or another Pro-MB band, for that foundational weight.
• Taming Fizz: A final touch involved notching out a little more of that "fizzy fizz area" on the bass, always being careful not to lose the essential bite and aggression.

While not demonstrated in this specific clip, Russ also mentioned his intention to use sidechain compression, sending the kick drum to the bass and the snare to the guitars (as he did with the At The Gates mix), to further enhance separation and punch.

The Art of Subtle Enhancement

The big takeaway from watching Russ Russell work on The Haunted's tracks is the power of restraint. When you have well-recorded, well-performed source material, your job as a mixer shifts from "fixing" to "enhancing." Those small, surgical EQ moves and delicate multiband compressions add up to a polished, professional sound that retains the raw energy of the performance.

It’s a powerful reminder that sometimes, the most impactful mixing decisions are the ones you almost don’t hear. It’s about nudging frequencies into place, controlling dynamics transparently, and letting the inherent quality of the tracks shine.

If you’re ready to go beyond presets and learn how pros like Russ Russell craft incredible metal mixes, explore everything Nail The Mix has to offer. You can get your hands on the multi-tracks for this very song, "Preachers of Death" by The Haunted, plus an incredible At The Gates track, and watch Russ Russell mix them from scratch by joining Nail The Mix today!