Tallah’s Drum Sound: Josh Schroeder’s Dry Tracking & Sample Mastery

Nail The Mix Staff

Getting a killer drum sound, especially that all-important snare, is often the make-or-break for a heavy mix. Producer Josh Schroeder (known for his work with King 810, Lorna Shore, and of course, Tallah) has a specific approach to tracking drums that gives him incredible control in the mix. We dove into a session where Josh breaks down his techniques for tracking Tallah’s powerhouse drummer, Max Portnoy, focusing on his “dry tracking” method and clever sample integration. If you’re looking to get more punch, consistency, and command over your drum recordings, you’ll want to take notes.

This insight comes from a deep dive into his Tallah sessions. Check out the full session here on Nail The Mix. Let’s dive in!

The “Dry Tracking” Philosophy: Control is King

Ever struggled with a room sound you just couldn’t tame? Josh Schroeder sidesteps that issue by embracing “dry tracking.” Instead of relying heavily on room mics in a large, ambient space, he prefers recording drums in a smaller, more deadened, and controlled environment.

Why? Pure control. Josh finds that fussing with problematic room mics often doesn’t yield the exact sound he’s after. By starting with a tight, direct sound, he can then build the “room” and ambience himself using samples – either custom ones he creates from the drummer’s actual kit or select sounds from libraries. This way, the ambience perfectly serves the song, rather than the song having to serve the room.

Nailing Tallah’s Snare: Mics, MIDI, and Mayhem

The snare drum is central to any metal mix, and Josh has a meticulous process for capturing and enhancing it. It’s not just about the main hit; it’s about capturing every nuance, like a cool moment in one of Tallah’s songs where Max does a roll with one hand while flipping the snare chain on and off – a detail that adds unique character.

Mic Choices for Punch and Isolation

For capturing the snare, Josh’s go-to setup often includes:

  • Top Snare: An Audix i5 or, more commonly these days, a Shure Beta 57A. He prefers the Beta 57A over a standard SM57 because it offers a similar character but with better noise rejection from cymbals and other kit pieces, feeling more isolating.
  • Bottom Snare: Usually a Shure SM57, though sometimes a Sennheiser MD 609 might be used. The key is capturing that sizzle.

The Audio-to-MIDI Trigger Trick for Sample Reinforcement

Here’s a slick move for sample augmentation: Josh uses Reaper’s built-in JS: Audio to MIDI Drum Trigger plugin directly on the raw top snare track.

  • Crucial Placement: This trigger is placed before any EQ or compression on the snare track. Why? Because EQ and compression would alter the snare’s dynamics and transient shape, which could make the MIDI triggering inconsistent. By placing it first, the trigger receives the raw, unaffected audio.
  • MIDI Note Output: He sets the trigger to output a specific MIDI note (usually 38, which typically corresponds to D2 in most drum samplers) based on a threshold setting he dials in to catch all the intended snare hits.
  • Velocity Control: After the MIDI trigger, Josh often inserts a MIDI velocity modifier plugin. This acts almost like a “MIDI compressor,” evening out the velocities of the triggered notes for a more consistent output to the sampler, adding a bit more “stank” when needed.

Crafting Custom Samples with Reaper’s Sampler

The MIDI notes generated from the snare top then feed Reaper’s own sampler plugin, ReaSamplOmatic5000. Josh praises its simplicity and no-fluff approach – it’s straightforward if you understand basic sampler parameters.

  • Multiple Sample Sets: He creates different sample layers, sending the MIDI to multiple instances of ReaSamplOmatic5000. For example, one instance might load a “Snare Big Verb” sample for impactful moments, while another loads a more standard “Snare Verb” for general ambience.
  • Round Robin for Natural Sound: By using multiple sampler instances, potentially with slightly different samples or variations, he can achieve a round-robin effect. This avoids the dreaded “machine gun” sound of the same sample firing repeatedly, making the reinforced snare sound more natural.
  • “Over-the-Top” Samples: For those huge, impactful sounds, Josh and the band get creative after all the main drum parts are tracked. This involves capturing extreme velocity samples – like hitting the snare as hard as humanly possible, sometimes even with unconventional tools (he jokingly mentions a rake!). You can’t get this intensity during normal playing, but these samples are gold for accentuating big moments. This is done last to avoid damaging heads or the snare itself.

Consistent Drums: From Tracking to EP Remixing

Josh’s approach ensures a consistent and powerful drum sound across an entire project, even when incorporating older recordings.

Mixing as You Go: The 90% Rule

A key part of Josh’s workflow is that he essentially mixes and masters as he tracks. He’ll arrive early to tweak things, and by the time a band like Tallah finishes their month-long tracking session, the mix they leave with is already about 90% complete. This iterative process allows for real-time adjustments and ensures the production is heading in the right direction from day one.

Matching Old and New: Preamp Emulation for Cohesion

A fascinating challenge Josh faced was integrating Tallah’s older EP drum recordings (which were heavily sample-replaced and had a more “generic metalcore” sound Max wanted to move away from) with the new, organically tracked material.
To do this, he used a Universal Audio 610 preamp plugin on the older drum tracks. His own Neve preamps naturally clip transients in a pleasing way, resulting in a “bar across the top” waveform. The older EP snare waveforms were much more dynamic and spiky. The UA 610 plugin was used (and bypassed for his newly recorded tracks) to emulate this clipping, nipping the top end and shaping the bottom to bring the EP snares into a similar sonic ballpark as the new recordings.

In-Session Samples for Tuning and Fixes

Beyond ambience, Josh records samples of Max’s kit (snare, toms, etc.) directly within the session. These serve a couple of crucial purposes:

  • Tuning Check: Periodically, he’ll play back a recorded sample and have Max hit the corresponding drum. This allows him to quickly check if the drums are maintaining their tuning throughout the recording process.
  • Hit Replacement: If an accidental rim hit or a poorly executed fill occurs, having these clean, well-tuned samples on hand makes it easy to replace or layer the problematic hit without disrupting the performance. This is especially useful for maintaining consistency if you need to punch in a fill later and the drum tuning has drifted slightly.

Taming the Bleed (Without Killing the Vibe)

While dry tracking reduces initial bleed, some will always exist. Josh uses smart processing to control it.

Smart Gating with FabFilter Pro-MB

Instead of aggressive, all-or-nothing gates, Josh often employs FabFilter Pro-MB as a dynamic EQ or “smart gate.”

  • Snare Top: He’ll use Pro-MB to duck specific frequencies or overall level between snare hits, reducing cymbal bleed. He’s not aiming for zero bleed – a bit of China cymbal bleed through the snare mic can actually sound cool – but he wants to control it.
  • Snare Bottom: Similar processing might be applied to the snare bottom mic. Importantly, he stresses making these gating decisions in the context of the full mix. A setting that sounds good in solo might not work with all instruments playing. For more on using EQ as a problem solver, check out these EQ strategies for mixing modern metal.

Snare Bottom EQ for Snap

For the snare bottom mic, after ensuring the phase is flipped (critical for bottom mics!), he’ll use EQ to enhance its contribution. A common move is boosting around 5kHz to bring out the “snap” and articulation of the snare wires.

The dynamic control Josh applies, whether through MIDI velocity or smart gating with tools like Pro-MB, is a nuanced form of metal compression beyond just making it loud.

Putting It All Together (And How You Can Learn More)

Josh Schroeder’s method of dry tracking drums, combined with intelligent audio-to-MIDI conversion and custom sample layering, offers immense control and consistency. By focusing on a tight initial capture and then building the desired space and impact, he crafts drum sounds that are both powerful and perfectly suited to Tallah’s intense music.

Key takeaways from his approach:

  • Control your recording environment: A deader room gives you more options later.
  • Use audio-to-MIDI triggers before dynamic processing for reliable sample reinforcement.
  • Leverage stock DAW plugins: Reaper’s built-in trigger and sampler are powerful tools.
  • Create custom samples: Nothing beats samples from the actual kit for cohesive sound.
  • Mix in context: Solo buttons can be deceptive; always check decisions with the full track.

These techniques, from mic selection to advanced sample workflows, are the kinds of details you can see applied in real-time in this Nail The Mix session. If you’re ready to move beyond presets and truly unlock your sound in modern metal mixing, seeing pros like Josh Schroeder work their magic on real sessions is an invaluable learning experience. That’s exactly what you get at Nail The Mix each month. Give these dry tracking and sample ideas a shot in your next production!

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