Suicide Silence’s “Wake Up” Mix: Layering Guitars and Smashed Drums

Let’s be real, the sound of Suicide Silence’s “Wake Up” is pure, unhinged chaos in the best way possible. It’s dense, aggressive, and layered with so much texture that it feels like the track is about to explode out of the speakers. Ever wonder how a mix that intense gets put together without turning into a muddy mess?

We got to peek behind the curtain at the raw multi-tracks from the session, co-produced and mixed by the legendary Mark Lewis. The big takeaway? It’s a masterclass in creative layering and aggressive processing. Forget playing it safe; this mix is all about pushing boundaries to create something truly massive. Let’s break down a few of the killer techniques Mark used.

The “GTR Center Thingy”: Not Your Average Chug

When you first listen to “Wake Up,” you can feel this rhythmic, pulsing element driving the track forward, sitting right in the middle of the mix. Your first guess might be a synth or a filter gate, but the reality is way cooler and a lot more organic. It’s a track labeled “GTR Center Thingy.”

It’s not just another rhythm guitar track. It’s a production secret weapon. Mark Lewis took a guitar and had it play a single, muted chug, perfectly in time with the kick drum. The magic happens with the processing.

How to Recreate This Texture

This effect is all about turning a percussive guitar part into a rhythmic filter sweep.

1. Record a Muted Chug: Start with a clean DI recording of a single, palm-muted guitar note. The performance should be tight and lock in with the kick and snare pattern.
2. Add a Wah Pedal: Place a wah plugin (or a physical pedal if you’re re-amping) on the track.
3. Automate the Sweep: This is the crucial step. Instead of rocking the wah back and forth, automate the filter to open and close on each hit. This creates a “wub” or “wow” effect that gives the part movement and a synth-like quality.
4. Place it in the Mix: Tuck this track right up the center. By itself, it might sound a little strange, but layered underneath the main rhythms and bass, it adds a huge amount of groove and aggression without cluttering up the stereo field.

Building the Unhinged Drum Sound

The drums on “Wake Up” are an absolute force. The session reveals a ton of microphones—kick in/out/sub, multiple snare mics, top and bottom tom mics, and several room mic options. Having these options is great, but the real secret to that explosive sound lies in some clever parallel processing.

The Secret Weapon: The “Smashed Kit” Bus

Deep in the session lies a stereo track called the “Smashed Kit.” This isn’t just another room mic; it’s a parallel bus of the entire drum kit that has been utterly destroyed with compression. This is one of the most powerful techniques for getting larger-than-life drums using parallel compression.

The idea is simple: you create a copy of your main drum sound and compress it so hard that all the dynamics are gone. You’re left with a wall of sustained room tone, shell resonance, and cymbal wash. By itself, it sounds like a distorted, breathing mess. But when you blend just a little bit of that smashed signal back in underneath your main, punchy drum bus, something magical happens. It fills in all the gaps, brings up the energy of the performance, and makes the entire kit sound like it’s about to leap out of the mix.

To try this yourself, send all your drum tracks to a new bus and slap on an aggressive compressor. A FET-style compressor (like a UAD 1176 or Slate FG-116) in “all buttons in” mode is a classic choice for this. Crush it until it’s pumping like crazy, then slowly blend that bus fader up until the kit feels bigger and more aggressive.

Vocal Walls and Production Chaos

Modern metal, especially a track as frantic as “Wake Up,” demands more than just a single vocal track and a couple of guitar parts. The session is packed with layers of vocals and non-musical production elements that glue everything together.

Stacking for Size

The vocal performance is immense, and that’s because it’s not just one take. The session features the main vocal track, tight doubles, and then separate, dedicated layers for lows, mids, and highs. By capturing and mixing these different vocal registers as individual elements, you can build a vocal sound that is monstrous in size and can easily cut through the dense wall of guitars and drums.

The Synth and Sound Design Element

Beyond the band performance, the track is littered with what Mark Lewis calls “weird synth shit”—impacts, risers, reverse cymbals, and atmospheric pads. These sound design elements are critical for modern production. They add cinematic tension, accentuate big moments, and provide an industrial-style texture that complements the band’s raw energy. Carving out space for these sounds with careful EQ strategies is essential to keep the mix from becoming cluttered while maximizing their impact.

Bring the Chaos to Your Own Mixes

These techniques—the center wah guitar, the smashed drum bus, and intense layering—are incredible tools you can start using in your own productions right now. They show how creative thinking and aggressive processing can elevate a track from good to unforgettable.

But learning a trick is one thing. Watching it being used in a real-world mix, seeing how it interacts with every other element, and understanding why a producer makes a certain choice is where the real learning happens. That’s exactly what we do at Nail The Mix.

You can get your hands on the exact multi-tracks from this Suicide Silence “Wake Up” session and hundreds more from bands like Lamb of God, Gojira, and Periphery. Even better, you get to watch world-class producers like Mark Lewis, Will Putney, and Jens Bogren mix them from scratch, explaining every single move they make. If you’re ready to move beyond presets and get a real look at how to unlock your sound, this is how it’s done. Grab the multitracks and see how the pros do it.