Spiritbox’s Massive Toms: Daniel Braunstein’s Mix Workflow

Ever crank a Spiritbox track and get blown away by those massive, punchy toms? They cut through the mix without overpowering everything else, adding serious impact to Zev Rose’s killer drumming. We got an inside look at how producer Daniel Braunstein (who mixed Eternal Blue) wrangles these behemoths, particularly when working with drum libraries like Superior Drummer. Forget painstakingly processing each tom individually; Dan’s got a streamlined approach that’s all about cohesive power. You can check out the full Nail The Mix session here. Let’s dive in!

The “One Bus to Rule Them All” Tom Strategy

One of the first things that might surprise you is that Daniel Braunstein often processes all his toms—rack toms, floor toms, the whole gang—on a single stereo track or bus. This is especially true when he’s using drum samplers.

Why Bus Toms Together?

For Dan, particularly with libraries like Superior Drummer, routing all toms to one bus is about efficiency and sonic cohesion. He explains that drum samplers already offer powerful tools to tweak individual drums. If a specific floor tom has a weird resonance, he can easily notch that out with the sampler’s built-in EQ before it even hits his main processing chain. Why create tons of separate aux tracks when the tools are right there in the VSTi?

This approach also helps the toms sound like a unified part of the kit, rather than a collection of disconnected sounds. They interact more naturally, especially when compression and transient shaping are applied to the group.

Setting Up in Your Drum Sampler

Inside Superior Drummer, Daniel has his toms panned as desired (e.g., rack tom slightly to one side, floor toms further to the other). Then, he routes all of them to a single stereo output pair (in his example, outs 11 & 12), completely unprocessed from the sampler. This stereo track in his DAW then becomes his dedicated “Tom Bus” where all the magic happens.

Sculpting the Core Tom Sound with EQ

Once the toms are bussed, it’s time to shape their fundamental character. Dan admits that, raw, the toms might sound “pretty weak,” but that’s where a “kitchen sinky EQ” comes into play – think a versatile parametric EQ like FabFilter Pro-Q.

The “Kitchen Sink” EQ Approach

Daniel’s EQ process is intuitive. He’ll often loop a section with a tom groove and start pulling frequencies up and down until it feels right in the context of the full mix. He’s not afraid of significant boosts to bring out the life in the toms.

• Big Lifts: He mentions adding substantial gain – remembering the old adage that +6dB equals roughly double the perceived loudness.
• Key Frequencies: For the Spiritbox toms, he found himself adding some energy around 5kHz for attack and cut, and also some 2kHz to help them resonate and be heard.
• Strategic Adjustments: If an overall boost becomes too much in one area, instead of pulling down the entire curve, he’ll often add a new EQ point to subtly reduce just that problematic part of the boost, maintaining the overall shape he likes.

This initial EQ stage is crucial for getting the toms to speak clearly. For more deep dives into EQ strategies for metal, check out our EQ hub page.

Adding Punch and Attack with Transient Shaping

To get that defined “thwack” from the drum shells, Daniel reaches for a transient shaper. He mentions using “Transify,” so think something along the lines of an SPL Transient Designer, Native Instruments Transient Master, or similar plugins.

Getting That Shell Sound

The goal here is to accentuate the initial hit of the tom, making it pop. However, Dan cautions that transient shapers can quickly destroy toms if you go overboard. He aims for a more conservative application, enough to get that “nice high-mid pop and high pop” from the shell without making them sound unnatural or overly clicky.

The “Secret Weapon” for Tom Aggression: Harmonic Excitement

Next up is what Daniel calls a “secret weapon plugin” for toms. While he doesn’t name it directly in this clip, his description points towards a sophisticated harmonic exciter or saturation tool, perhaps something like the Sheps Omni Channel or a similar processor that adds harmonic content rather than just equalizing.

Beyond EQ: Adding Harmonics

This plugin isn’t a typical EQ. It adds new harmonic information in specific, pre-chosen frequency areas.
Daniel highlights a few key controls:

• “Subpoint” at 62.9Hz: This adds an R-Bass-like quality to the sub-frequencies, giving the toms serious weight and rumble by generating lower harmonics.
• “Thick” control: This seems to target the midrange, adding body and warmth through harmonic distortion.

Bite and Character

The effect of this plugin is described as “aggressive,” “not smooth,” and “bitey.” It imparts a distinct character that helps the toms cut through a dense metal mix. Interestingly, he also notes it feels like it compresses the signal, almost like a multi-band compressor combined with a harmonic frequency exciter. The ability to link input and output gain also allows for driving it harder or softer, acting like a built-in mix knob.

This kind of dynamic harmonic processing can really bring elements like toms to life. If you’re curious about how compression and dynamics play a role in heavy mixes, our metal compression hub page has plenty of insights.

Creating Space and Depth with Reverb

To give the toms a sense of space and to help them sit nicely in the overall drum sound, Daniel uses reverb – specifically, ValhallaRoom (or a similar Valhalla DSP reverb).

Choosing Your Reverb

For the Spiritbox toms, he opted for:

• A more aggressive high-cut: He trimmed off more high frequencies on the tom reverb compared to what he might use on a snare, keeping it from sounding too washy.
• “Large Room” mode: This gives a sense of size and environment.

Reverb for Length and Blend

He admits the reverb might sound “a little sloppy in solo,” but it works perfectly in the context of the full track. The “slap” or early reflections from the reverb also help to subtly increase the perceived length of each tom hit, giving them a bit more sustain and tail.

The Philosophy: Why Group Tom Processing Works

Daniel reiterates his preference for processing all toms together on a bus, even if he were working with a real acoustic drum kit. He loves the way the toms interact when treated as a single unit. When using tools like transient shapers or compressors on the tom bus, each tom hit can subtly affect the others, almost “taking over” the processor for a moment and ducking out the sustain of previous hits. This prevents what he calls “tom soup” – where multiple tom resonances build up and muddy the mix. Bussing helps them coexist more cleanly and musically.

Final Polish: EQ and Level

Even after all this processing, there are a couple of final touches.

Clearing Mud and Making Space

A “classic” EQ (perhaps something clean and surgical, or an API-style EQ for character) is used for a final tonal shaping. In this case, he noticed the toms were a “little too cloudy,” so he dipped some of that muddiness out. This not only cleans up the toms but also leaves space for other key elements, like Courtney LaPlante’s vocals, which might occupy a similar frequency range.

Balancing with the Mix

Finally, a simple trim plugin is used to set the overall level of the toms in the mix. For certain sections, especially where vocals are the main focus, he made sure the toms weren’t too loud, ensuring they supported the song without overshadowing its most important parts.

Nail That Spiritbox Tom Sound (And More!)

Daniel Braunstein’s approach to mixing Spiritbox’s toms is a masterclass in achieving powerful, modern drum sounds efficiently. By bussing toms, using smart EQ, transient shaping, harmonic excitement, and well-chosen reverb, he creates toms that are both impactful and sit perfectly in a dense metal mix.

These techniques are things you can start applying to your own productions right now. But imagine seeing Daniel himself dial in these sounds, explaining every plugin choice and every subtle move in real-time, using the actual multitracks from a Spiritbox song. That’s exactly what you get with Nail The Mix.

Each month, members get access to raw multitracks from huge artists and watch world-class producers like Daniel Braunstein mix them from scratch. If you want to go beyond presets and truly understand how to craft professional metal mixes, you can learn directly from the pros who worked on albums like Eternal Blue. Get the Spiritbox multitracks and Daniel’s full mixing session here and start nailing your mixes!