CYMBALS in a METAL mix? You better TRY THIS! 

How do you like this little trick? And how do you like the DISAVOWED track? Let me know!🤘

Awesome stuff! Really nice to see how you produced the whole Disavowed album, Kohle! We had the best time! Best producer! Hope to make another album with you, Kristian! Cheers! Robbe/Disavowed!

Marvellous video! Cymbals can be the bane of our existence! Terrible blend into the snare or most often toms! Thanks for the great video!

TBH when you said "samples" my first thought was SuperiorDrummer or something, didn't expect recordings of the same exact cymbals, but it makes so much sense.

I love that trick! Especially if you can only mic cymbals via overheads and there are no inputs for any spot mics, this could really help to get the sound right. And like with your snare bottom sample trick, I love the fact that the samples are actually self-made and not just instances of drum software.

That drummer played very consistent.....and had a great touch all around the kit Very balanced player

I love the insight you provide in each video and within the entire kult! But nothing beats coming to your studio and see/hear you do your magic.

God I love Disavowed. Had no idea you worked with them! Super cool

Moin. The drums are usually the stand out component of your productions for me. You really know what you're doing. Thank you for this video

Wow this makes so much sense. I had also run into that close cymbal mix problem where it's got terrible warbly phasey effects as the cymbal physically moves closer to the mic after being hit. Fantastic drummer in that track too

The 'fast & dirty rules' we use at our little studio for miking cymbals is as follows: 1) Measure overhead mic diaphragms equidistant to the top center of the snare drum head regardless of their height position. As long as they are both firing toward the snare drum at the same exact distance, height, and axis, then the image will remain intact. 2) We use a very high gain on our Shure KSM32 overhead pair (depending on the situation, and drummer), so maybe a hi-hat and/or ride mic will be added depending upon the situation or if requested. The technique you showed with using just the kick/snare/overheads, then fill in the gaps of the cymbals is the perfect way to check what's missing. NEVER rely on 'rack tom mics' to give you cymbals, especially in metal. Those are supposed to be gated then 'gated reverb-ed' to taste for maximum effect. You're going to cut your cymbals right out doing that. If you're doing jazz (&^%$@#&^@!!) then you could probably leave 'em in. Here's a work in progress with just the two mic overhead action: drive.google.com/file/d/1bQk4Rb08H53i45U4lJv0NM4s7Pr31VKX/view?usp=drive_link

Timing is everything haha. Just set up this weekend to start new album. I'll definitely be recording some samples to use. 🤘

This is such a smart way to make the cymbals poke through the mix. I used to copy paste parts from the drum track where the drummer was inconsistent with other parts where the drummer didnt it like a wimp, but it was always risky. Cause i could run into phase issues or fuck up the feel of the drums.

Great video!

I also use volume up to 5dB for specific cymbal hits, and samples of the cymbals themselves also save the entire grove. Great video \m/

Great advice Kristian! This would be great for other types of tunes too!

I luv that you started with," its just a lot of work" Fantastically helpfull!!! Thank you!!!!!

I moved my splahes above the crashes to cut through better. My chinas are so loud Im trying to move them further away from the overheads. Interesting stuff 🤔🍻

Great trick!! Thanx!

Yap, talking about great timing, today we have drums recording day and this is definitely what we will do! Namaste!

Great trick !!! So simple yet never used it. Perhaps this is why it's great. It was under my nose all the time.

Sounds very great. When i recording drums i do the same sample recording. My spot for the ride spot mic is under the ride. Less phase issues and i can let them shine’s. In my last mix a have do cut a lot at the 6k range in the Overheads. Is it the choice if cymbals? Thanks Kohle 🤘. And nice to meet you at the Studio Szene in Hamburg 🍻

Great idea! Never thought of this

I just started the course and dragged the multitracks into my Cubase. I'm already excited! Thank you very much for that, that's really great! I love it!!! fiery greetings from hell,. 🔥🤘🔥

Wow i never thought about this i spend so much time micing OHds picking the right cymbals etc and then dealing with it as it got recorded this will change the whole thing for me

Thank you for this! Cymbals are one of my usual problems.

Ingenious solution, haha! At least the samples are from the same session and not a generic library 😄

Death Metal drummers loves their cymbals, and love they are present in the mix, and i too (even i don't be a drummer). And i love how really presents they are in your mixes, they have a nice brigth, sounds big, loud enough, clear and neat. Unlike most modern productions where cymbals sound too dark and weak, even sometimes almost imperceptible. I mean, c'mon cymbals are too necessary and important for the rhythm and the most important piece of the drummer (and song) expression.

This is great. I feel like I always struggle on cymbals.

Thanks man! Loved to learn here about audio part editor in cubase, it's like the lanes and comp tool in a dedicated window.

thanks for your tip :)

I used the Stereo Enhancer after a while of splitting and panning channels for cymbals to finish on the same group Bus. It's almost the same of panning but you'd save time and CPU power. Namastè.

Wow! That snare sounds great. I find it always a challenge to get the snare sounding this good without samples when mixing fast music.

I highly recommend the tc plethora. Awesome workhorse do everything pedal. Only thing it doesn’t do is drive

Hi Kristian, I recently purchased your high gain guitar tone course and I just wanted to say that so far the multitracks have been excellent, and stellar D.I. tracks as well! I've been mainly using the Neural DSP Archetype Nolly & Soldano SLO-100 Amp Sims, and have gotten some very cool results! Best regards. 👹

Ehh, I guess many of us do that :) Sometimes, when I get tracks into the mix without recorded overheads for sampling, I use automation up to +5dB at a specific moment, for example on splashes, but only at the moment of impact

Using lin MB from waves also helps since it has the adaptive thing that prevents masking of lower hits from louder hits

great stuff Kriss, as for the spot mics on certain cymbals such as ride, do you cut it off (edit off) in the track when it's not playing or you keep the whole track in the mix with all the bleed there anyway?

Feels like a video of the performance could be really helpful for this! But yeah really nice trick.

Thankyou

If you haven’t done this arlready, I’d love to see a video or course on phase relationship / alignment on drums. It seems like everyone has a different approach to dealing with phase on drum mics and I’d love to get your perspective!

I have the opposite problem of my cymbals being too piercing in my mix.

Are the sample files a stereo file of the overheads ? Or a stereo file of all the overheads and rooms mics blended together ? Since I record myself a lot for people I want to give sampling my own drums and cymbals a try.

I was just gonna comment that I would use samples before you did that in the video. When you record the sample yourself in the same session, it doesn't become unnatural because it's the same setup, just separated. Of course if you sample the main crash, hi-hats or rides that get hit often it might end up sounding robotic, but for stuff that gets hit a few times during the song, I would absolutely do that. But what about the kick drum, is the sample also self recorded at the beginning of the session or do you use a pre-made one?

"Digitech RP12". Surprised to see a 30 year old unit. Is this routed through a cab, or an IR?

Hi Chris, machst du dir Gedanken um das Stereoimage des Shellsets bei der OH Positionierung? Snare? Phase issues?

Paiste signatures 😍

I have to know: What is that "toilet" track? By the way, this info is gold!

I also see the problem as a drummer problem as well; it cannot be solely the engineer's job, drummers must also critically listen to their drumming recorded without much magic. Say if you add tiny splash into a whoosy, full of cymbal part, then it is an arrangement mistake. Or if you hit the china harder than you hit the snare it is again going to be near impossible to fix the recording. So drummers have to learn the type of drumming that can be worked with. (Just like string players must learn muting the strings that are not played, regardless if they are bass or not.)

HP at 7400kz and shelve it there as well usually fixes the problem

Did you also cut out all of the tom tracks whenever the drum isn’t being played? Interesting idea!

Probably gonna get flamed but...does anyone know of any sort of course for 90s grunge production? So many different options for metal but nothing for 90s grunge.

Still waiting for that Black Metal course with the song that was featured in the original Kohle Audio Kult promo video. Just saying…

I was wondering... how do you mic the ride?

This is actually a nice drum sound, still sounds like an actual drum kit lol. The problem I have with most metal productions is that they just sound way too artificial. And the cymbals especially are usually the biggest victim of the common over-compression in the genre. There are few things that turn me off more to a mix than clinking, clipping cymbals.

How about rude series? In one of your videos you said that heavy cymbals don't fit for recording

Man Hi hats are the worst for me! But Cymbals are very hard too!

I like it when the drummer only has a ride cymbal, bass drum, and a snare. (I like my mixes dense and brutal)

The hi-hat is the worst thing to mix. They either sound bad or you can't hear them. I intentionally write them out of my music. 😅

You said it yourself, sometimes the drummer hasn`t got the time to properly hit the cymbal. Well, then either he should practice more or change the drum part because then you listen to the record and it sound very good and when you go to see the live show they sound like it`s their first rehearsal. I NEVER work with samples. Get your sh together and play properly and the rest comes naturally after.

oh man, i’ve had so many drummers over the years lecturing me about using drum samples and how ‘unnatural’ it is or whatever... most of them have no idea what they are talking about, just criticizing a tool

Sexy tone!

hi-hat belongs to the left 😜

see you in heaven lover

With most of the viewers, this is a phase disaster waiting to happen.

Now be honest - are you so used to wearing a beanie that you need to cover your ears at this point or the mixes come out different?

You could make a million dollars just by selling online the t-shirts you wear in your videos.

boys...and...GIRLS

Cymbals are annoying. I hate listening to cymbals when I want to enjoy some metal.

Never trust anyone with colourful slamcore tats and a hipster sock in their head. Chances are they know nothing about heavy metal