Mixing Brutal Suicide Silence Drums: Machine’s Panning & Pumping Tricks

Let’s talk about a classic problem in modern metal mixing: you’ve got insanely fast, pummeling double kick drums, but the second they kick in, your guitar tone turns to absolute mud. The definition vanishes, and the whole mix feels choked. How do you get that aggressive, in-your-face drum sound without sacrificing the clarity of the rest of your track?

Legendary producer Machine (Lamb of God, Clutch, Every Time I Die) has a few killer, and surprisingly simple, solutions. While mixing Suicide Silence for a session on Nail The Mix, he broke down his approach to building a kick drum sound that’s both powerful and intelligent—a sound that has feeling and strategically works with the mix, not against it.

Let’s dive into how he tames the beast.

The Foundation: Why You Should Separate Your Kicks

First things first, this whole approach hinges on one smart programming decision: separating your kicks onto different tracks. Even though Machine used one killer kick sample he made at Ocean Way Studios, he split the performance into three distinct tracks in his DAW:

1. Main Kick: This track handles the primary, groovy kick hits—the ones that happen during a standard rock beat.
2. Double Kick L: The left foot’s performance during fast double-kick sections.
3. Double Kick R: The right foot’s performance.

This isn’t just for organization; it’s the key to unlocking massive mixing power. It allows you to process the main kick differently from the rapid-fire double kicks, which is crucial for clarity. Even if you’re working with recorded audio, you can achieve this by simply cutting the double kick sections and moving them to their own tracks.

Adding Feel: The Human Touch with Panning and Pitch

A single kick sample, played perfectly on the grid, can sound sterile and lifeless. Machine’s next move is to inject some humanism and create space in the mix, and he does it with two subtle but game-changing tricks.

Breaking Up the Mono Field

Think about what “mono” actually means for your speakers. For a sound to be truly mono, both your left and right speakers have to do the exact same thing at the exact same time. When you have a flurry of super-fast kick drums hammering away in the center, you’re demanding a ton of energy from your speakers to reproduce that identical information. This can smother the stereo elements of your mix, like your guitars.

The fix? Subtly break the mono signal.

Subtle Panning

You don’t want your kicks to sound like they’re obviously on one side of the room, but a tiny bit of panning on the double kicks goes a long way. Machine pans the ‘left’ double kick track slightly left and the ‘right’ track slightly right. It’s not something you BOLDLY hear, but it creates just enough separation to open up the center.

Subtle Pitching

To further enhance this effect, he also applies a slight pitch shift to each double kick track—one is pitched up a tiny bit, and the other is pitched down. Now, the left and right kicks are not only in slightly different positions, but they’re also slightly different tonally. This simple combo frees up a surprising amount of sonic real estate for your guitars to shine through, even during the most chaotic blast beats.

Smart Processing for Maximum Impact

With the kicks separated and given some stereo life, it’s time for processing. Here’s where having separate tracks becomes a massive advantage, as you can tailor the EQ, compression, and ambiance to serve different purposes.

EQ: Different Kicks, Different Curves

• Main Kick: For the main, groovier kick, you want that thick, pillowy low-end. Machine boosts the sub frequencies to give it weight and impact. However, he also carves out a little bit around 80-90Hz to prevent that “wolfy” sound that can muddy up a mix.
• Double Kicks: This is the crucial part. If you apply that same sub-boost to fast double kicks, the low-end frequencies will build on top of each other and turn your mix into a sub-bass disaster. To prevent this, Machine does the opposite: he uses a high-pass filter or a low-shelf to cut some of the deep sub frequencies from the double kick tracks. They still have plenty of punch and click, but they don’t overpower the mix.

Compression: Shaping the Hit

For kick drum compression, one of Machine’s go-to tools is the classic DBX 160. He’s not looking to completely smash the transient, but rather to put a nice “shape” on it, controlling the dynamics and adding a bit of punch. A pro tip he uses is to carefully set the makeup gain so that the volume is the same whether the compressor is on or off. This allows you to A/B the effect without being fooled by a simple volume change.

Ambiance: Taming the Reverb

Since this Suicide Silence production didn’t use room mics, Machine added reverb via a plugin to give the drums some space. He found a nice, realistic small room sound for ambiance. Critically, he applied less reverb to the double kick tracks. He kept them a little drier and shorter to ensure they remained tight and articulate, preventing the reverb tails from washing everything out during fast passages.

The Real Magic: Creative Summing and Bus Compression

Here’s where it all comes together. This is the fabled trick that lets you have an aggressively pumping mix without the danger of it falling apart. It’s all about how you route your kicks to your mix bus.

The ‘Inside’ and ‘Outside’ Bus Concept

Machine sets up two primary busses for his drums:

1. The ‘Inside’ Bus: This bus feeds his main sum compressor. Anything sent here will cause the compressor to react, “ducking” the entire mix.
2. The ‘Outside’ Bus: This bus bypasses the sum compressor and goes straight to the master output.

Making the Main Kick Pump

The main “rock” kick is sent to the ‘inside’ bus. Every time that kick hits, you can see the compressor’s meter bounce, ducking the guitars and other constant elements down by a few dB. This creates that classic, aggressive, breathing “pump” that makes a track feel powerful and glued together. It’s the sound of fucking rock.

Keeping Guitars Clear with the Double Kicks

Now for the magic. The fast double kicks are sent primarily to the ‘outside’ bus. This means they hit with full force and clarity, but they don’t trigger the main bus compressor. The result? The guitars aren’t being ducked and slammed with every 16th-note kick hit. Their definition remains intact, and you can clearly hear the notes in the riffs, even during the most intense blast beats.

This is how you get the best of both worlds: a musical pump from the main groove and brutal clarity during the fast parts.

Putting It All Together (And Seeing It in Action)

By combining these techniques, Machine crafts a drum sound that’s dynamic, powerful, and intelligently integrated into the mix. To recap the core ideas:

• Separate your kicks onto different tracks (main vs. doubles).
• Humanize samples with subtle panning and pitching on the double kicks to create space.
• EQ differently: Boost the sub on the main kick, but cut it on the doubles to avoid mud.
• Use smart routing: Send the main kick to your bus compressor for pump, and send the double kicks around it for clarity.

These are actionable tips you can apply to your productions right now to get a more professional and powerful drum sound.

But watching a master like Machine explain his philosophy is one thing—seeing him apply it in real-time is another. In his full Suicide Silence Nail The Mix session, you can watch him dial in every single plugin, make every routing decision, and mix the entire song from scratch. Plus, you get the multitracks to practice on yourself. If you’re ready to move beyond presets and unlock your sound, seeing how the pros do it is the ultimate shortcut. Check out the full Suicide Silence session and hear the difference for yourself.