Mixing Tallah’s Gnarly Guitar Tones with Josh Schroeder

Tallah’s sound is pure chaos in the best way possible. It’s raw, aggressive, and feels like it’s constantly on the verge of collapsing—held together by vicious, razor-sharp guitar tones. That “animalistic” vibe, as producer Josh Schroeder calls it, isn’t an accident. It’s the result of smart-but-brutal production choices designed to capture the band’s raw energy without sacrificing clarity.

Diving into his mix session for Tallah, Josh Schroeder revealed the methods behind the madness. It’s a masterclass in preserving a player’s performance while using powerful mix tools to make every riff hit as hard as possible. Let’s break down some of the key techniques he uses to craft these gnarly guitar tones.

The Foundation: Capturing Viciousness at the Source

Before a single plugin is opened, the core tone has to be right. For Tallah, much of that character came from getting the sound right on the way into the DAW. This philosophy of “capturing it at the source” is a recurring theme for pro mixers, and it was crucial here.

The Pedalboard is Your First EQ

Josh mentions that guitarist Derrick had a big pedalboard, and a lot of the tonal shaping happened before the signal ever hit the amp. One particular star of the show was the legendary Boss HM-2 pedal. Known affectionately as the “Japanese buzz saw,” this pedal is the key to that iconic Swedish death metal chainsaw guitar sound.

Josh points out that not all HM-2s are created equal; the Japanese-made models are highly sought after for their specific, gnarly character. When you hear that nasty, grinding distortion on parts of the record, that’s the HM-2 doing its thing. It’s a great reminder that your tone starts with the player, the guitar, and the pedals. An amp that sounds like a 5153 provides the punch, but a pedal like the HM-2 provides the unique texture.

Pre vs. Post-Distortion Pitch Shifting

On the track “Murder Seed,” Josh adds a sick low octave to the guitar riff. But how he does it is key. Instead of using a pedal like a DigiTech Whammy before the amp, he adds the effect after the distorted tone has already been recorded, using a pitch-shifting plugin inside Reaper.

Why does this matter?

• Pre-Distortion (Whammy Pedal): The pedal shifts the clean guitar signal down an octave, and then that new, lower-pitched signal gets distorted by the amp. This creates a specific, classic sound.
• Post-Distortion (Plugin): The plugin takes the already distorted, high-gain guitar tone and creates a lower-octave copy of it. This results in a completely different, almost synthetic texture that sounds incredibly heavy and modern. It’s a great trick for adding weight and a unique character to a specific riff.

Sculpting the Beast: EQ and Stereo Processing

With a killer source tone recorded, Josh moves to the mix, where he uses processing on the guitar bus to shape the tones and make them fit in the mix.

EQ for Clarity and Bite

Even a great tone can be improved with some targeted EQ. Josh’s approach isn’t about drastic changes, but rather enhancing what’s already there and fixing problem spots.

He starts by adding a high-shelf boost to bring out clarity and aggression. However, this often brings up unwanted harshness. He identified a nasty, high-frequency “whist toothbrush” sound that became more apparent after the boost and used a narrow EQ band to surgically cut it out. This is a classic example of balancing additive and subtractive EQ.

His sweet spots for this track included:

• A boost around 4.7kHz to add presence and bite.
• A touch of “air” with a boost way up around 14kHz to add a sense of openness.

Subtle Stereo Widening

To give the rhythm guitars a bit more width and space, Josh uses a simple, stock stereo enhancer plugin on the guitar bus. The key here is subtlety. He warns that pushing these tools too hard can quickly lead to phase problems that make your guitars sound thin and weak.

His approach is to move the dial until it just sounds a little wider and more immersive, then stop. It’s a perfect example of trusting your ears over obsessing about the technical details. If it sounds good, it is good.

The Master Stroke: Dynamic EQ for a Cohesive Mix

Here’s where things get really interesting. Josh uses multi-band dynamics—essentially a dynamic EQ—to solve two of the biggest problems in a dense metal mix: vocal clarity and low-end mud. This move is all about making different elements work together seamlessly.

Making Room for the Vocals

Tallah’s vocalist, Justin, has an incredibly aggressive, high-frequency scream that can sometimes occupy the same frequency range as the guitars. To ensure the vocals cut through without having to sacrifice the guitar tone completely, Josh uses a clever sidechaining trick.

He places a multi-band filter on the main guitar bus and sets it to be triggered by the main vocal bus.

1. The Setup: A band in the high-mids/treble range of the guitar bus is set to duck down by a few dB.
2. The Trigger: This ducking only happens when the vocal signal from the sidechain is present.
3. The Result: When Justin screams, the guitars get a slight, transparent cut in the exact frequency range where they might clash. When the vocals stop, the guitars return to their full brightness. This automatically creates space and clarity for the vocals, making the entire mix feel more focused.

Taming the Low-End Mud

The same principle is applied to the low-end. Heavy, palm-muted chugging can create a massive buildup of low-mid frequencies (around 150-300Hz), resulting in mud that clouds the kick drum and bass.

Instead of a static EQ cut that would thin out the guitars all the time, Josh uses another dynamic EQ band. This one is set to clamp down on those muddy frequencies only when they cross a certain threshold—like during a particularly heavy chugging section. The moment the chugging stops, the low-end returns to normal. This keeps the guitars sounding full and powerful but cleans up the mud automatically and transparently. Using this kind of dynamic compression is a pro move for a clean, punchy mix.

Putting It All Together for the Raw Tallah Sound

Crafting a guitar tone as wild as Tallah’s is a balancing act. It’s about capturing raw energy at the source with tools like the HM-2, then using precise, modern mixing techniques like dynamic EQ and post-distortion effects to make it all work in a professional mix.

These are just a handful of the techniques Josh Schroeder uses to mix this monster of a record. Watching him apply these concepts in real-time, explaining why he makes every single move, is the kind of insight that can transform your own productions.

At Nail The Mix, you get to be a fly on the wall for exactly that. Grab the actual multi-tracks from Tallah’s song “Overconfidence” and watch Josh build this entire mix from the ground up, explaining every plugin, setting, and decision along the way. If you’re ready to move beyond presets and learn how the pros get their signature sounds, this is your chance.

See everything you get in the Tallah NTM session with Josh Schroeder.

Watch Josh Schroeder mix “Overconfidence” from scratch HERE.