When Dan Malsch talks about mixing, it’s value listening.
It is a mixer and engineer whose work sits proper on the intersection of contemporary rock energy, traditional analogue workflow and severe main label credibility. Dan has labored with artists together with Ghost, Avenged Sevenfold, Gojira and Bowling For Soup, and has constructed a status for mixes which might be punchy, aggressive, polished and deeply musical. His work with Ghost alone locations him in uncommon firm, together with mixing on Skeletá, the band’s chart topping 2025 album, in addition to working throughout their catalogue in Dolby Atmos.
What makes Dan notably attention-grabbing is that his plug in decisions aren’t summary preferences. They arrive straight from the best way he works each day at Soundmine Recording in Pennsylvania, the place his Studio A is centred round a classic SSL 4000 E/G+ console. In different phrases, when Dan reaches for a channel strip, compressor, reverb, saturation software or EQ, he’s not merely on the lookout for one thing that appears good on display. He’s on the lookout for instruments that behave like the true world tools he is aware of intimately.
On this breakdown, Dan walks via 5 plug ins that reside in his classes. These aren’t flavour of the month decisions. They’re the form of dependable, combine shaping instruments that earn their place by being helpful each single day.
If you wish to see Dan take this precise form of considering right into a full fashionable rock combine, take a look at his Professional Combine Academy course, Mixing Monolith’s “Mom Martyr.” Dan opens up the whole session, that includes Mike Mangini on drums, and walks via the true choices behind the drums, bass, guitars, vocals, combine bus and general affect. You additionally get the multitracks, so you may observe alongside, research his strikes and blend the music your self: https://promixacademy.com/course/dan-malsch-mixing-monoliths-mother-martyr/
1. SSL 4K Channel Strip
Dan’s first alternative is the SSL 4K Channel Strip, and it’s simple to grasp why. He mixes on an precise SSL 4000 console, so the sound, structure and behavior of this fashion of channel strip is second nature to him.
The SSL 4K lives throughout his classes. It’s on buses, particular person channels, drum tracks, snares, kicks, sub kicks and anyplace else he would possibly need on the spot entry to that acquainted SSL sound.
Utilizing Bowling For Soup’s “Holding On To That Hate” for example, Dan exhibits the SSL 4K on his drum buses and particular person drum tracks. On the snare bus, he provides high finish at round 8k and one other carry round 5k, bringing out that acquainted SSL chunk and presence. When he bypasses the EQ, the distinction is evident. With the EQ engaged, the snare has extra snap, extra ahead movement and extra of that recognisable SSL zing.
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Nevertheless, for Dan, the true magic of an SSL channel strip is not only the EQ. It’s the mixture of EQ and compression.
On the snare observe itself, he leans into the compressor, utilizing a ratio round 3.5:1 with a medium launch and just a few dB of acquire discount. It isn’t about smashing the observe past recognition. It’s about shaping the transient, controlling the vitality and making the drum really feel extra completed.
That claims loads about Dan’s method. He isn’t utilizing an SSL fashion plug in as a result of it’s stylish. He’s utilizing it as a result of the SSL workflow is a part of his musical language. For a mixer who spends his life engaged on highly effective rock information, that immediacy issues.
2. UAD 1176 Blackface
Dan’s second alternative is the UAD 1176 Blackface. Once more, this isn’t a theoretical alternative. He owns classic Blackface 1176s in his studio and is aware of precisely what the {hardware} does when it’s being pushed.
Within the session, he exhibits a Common Audio 1176 on a vocal, though he makes it clear that he loves 1176s usually. His settings are traditional Dan, 4:1 ratio, medium assault, quickest launch.
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That quickest launch setting is essential. For Dan, it’s a part of how the 1176 creates urgency and pleasure. On the vocal, he’s hitting the compressor onerous. It’s clamping the efficiency down, retaining it tight and current, nevertheless it’s not killing the lifetime of the vocal. The truth is, it provides angle.
That’s the great thing about a superb 1176. It doesn’t simply scale back dynamic vary. It provides vitality. The Blackface model particularly has a ahead, aggressive character that works fantastically on rock vocals. It retains the singer proper in your face with out making the efficiency really feel flat.
Dan describes it as including pleasure, and that’s precisely what you hear. The vocal turns into extra managed, extra assured and extra pressing.
For mixers engaged on rock, punk, metallic or any vocal that should get up in opposition to dense guitars and heavy drums, it is a essential lesson. Compression is not only about management. In the proper palms, it’s a part of the efficiency.
3. DBVerb by David Bendeth, Metric Halo and Make Imagine Studios
Dan’s third alternative is DBVerb, the David Bendeth reverb from Metric Halo and Make Imagine Studios.
This one has turn into a continuing in his classes. As soon as he acquired it, it stayed. That claims loads, as a result of reverbs are deeply private. Most mixers have dozens of them, nevertheless just a few turn into a part of the default template.
DBVerb is constructed round a really sensible thought. It provides you a set of reverbs that really feel just like the form of results an skilled mixer would have prepared on a console, particularly in an SSL primarily based workflow. Small, medium and enormous areas are instantly accessible, and every has a thick, musical high quality.
Dan demonstrates it on snare, transferring between the small, medium and enormous settings. The small and medium verbs are those he tends to make use of most, particularly collectively. They add physique, area and density with out pulling the drum away from the observe.
One attention-grabbing a part of Dan’s method is that he doesn’t at all times run the reverb utterly moist, even when utilizing it on a return. He usually retains a few of the dry sign coming via as a result of he likes the best way it interacts with the reverb. That could be a very mixerly transfer. It isn’t about following guidelines. It’s about listening to what makes the sound really feel higher.
The massive reverb is extra dramatic, nearly a complete world of atmosphere by itself, nevertheless Dan makes use of it extra sparingly. The small and medium settings give him the thickness and depth he desires whereas retaining the observe centered.
For drums, and particularly snares, DBVerb provides Dan a manner so as to add area with out dropping punch. That could be a large a part of fashionable rock mixing. The drums have to really feel enormous, nevertheless they nonetheless have to hit you within the chest.
4. MixHead by Make Imagine Studios and Metric Halo
Dan’s fourth alternative is MixHead from Make Imagine Studios and Metric Halo.
This plug in sits in an important place in his workflow. It’s the first plug in on his combine bus after his analogue combine bus chain comes again into the digital world.
Dan’s analogue combine bus consists of severe {hardware}, together with a DW Fearn, SSL Bus+, and BetterMaker EQ. As soon as the combination returns to the digital aspect on his print observe, MixHead is there as a digital tape saturation processor.
What does it do? In Dan’s phrases, it smooths out the sides. It provides pleasure with out making the combination harsh. When he bypasses and re engages it, the edges really feel wider, the combination feels just a little extra alive, and the general presentation has extra polish.
That’s precisely the form of factor an awesome combine bus processor ought to do. It mustn’t out of the blue change the identification of the combination. It ought to make all the pieces really feel just a little dearer, just a little extra glued, just a little extra completed.
Dan makes use of Rick Carson’s preset as a place to begin and retains the drive pretty managed. He likes the 30 ips tape velocity setting as a result of it provides him a extra hello fi sound. The 15 ips possibility provides extra backside finish, nevertheless 30 ips fits the polished, open sound he’s chasing.
This alternative additionally says loads about Dan’s style. He isn’t utilizing tape saturation to make the combination clearly distorted or classic. He’s utilizing it to create width, smoothness and pleasure. It’s delicate, nevertheless it issues.
In a world the place many mixers overdo saturation, Dan’s use of MixHead is a good instance of restraint. It’s about tone, not novelty.
5. Common Audio Pultec
Dan’s fifth alternative is the Common Audio Pultec.
That is one other alternative grounded in actual {hardware} expertise. Dan owned a stereo pair of classic Pultecs, nevertheless like many classic items, they weren’t completely matched left to proper. That made them tough to make use of throughout a stereo combine bus. Finally, he opened up the plug in model and located that it gave him the musical character he needed with the consistency he wanted.
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Within the instance, he’s utilizing a delicate enhance round 60 Hz, solely a couple of dB, with no attenuation. The consequence is not only extra low finish. It’s that traditional Pultec sense of weight, roundness and tube character.
Dan factors out that even simply inserting the EQ could make the observe sound higher. That is likely one of the issues folks love about Pultec fashion EQs. They aren’t purely corrective instruments. They’ve a tone. Even earlier than you begin boosting or slicing, the circuit itself can add one thing musical.
For Dan, the UAD Pultec does the “tubey” factor very effectively, and he finds it very near the {hardware}. Generally he is not going to even add backside finish. He’ll merely insert the EQ as a result of he likes what it does to the sign.
That’s the mark of a real color piece. It isn’t at all times about dramatic EQ strikes. Generally the sound of the field is the transfer.
Why These 5 Plug Ins Matter
What stands out about Dan Malsch’s high 5 plug ins is how sensible they’re.
There isn’t a try right here to impress anybody with obscure instruments or sophisticated chains. These are workhorse processors, chosen as a result of they get outcomes rapidly and constantly.
The SSL 4K provides him the console workflow and tone he is aware of inside out.
The 1176 Blackface provides him aggressive, thrilling compression, particularly on vocals.
DBVerb provides him thick, musical atmosphere that works fantastically in rock mixes.
MixHead provides his combine bus polish, width and clean saturation.
The UAD Pultec provides him tube fashion weight and tone with the reliability of a plug in.
Collectively, they reveal loads about Dan’s mixing philosophy. He’s a contemporary mixer with deep analogue roots. He understands the sound of traditional tools, nevertheless he’s not valuable about utilizing plug ins once they get the job completed. His decisions are all about velocity, familiarity, tone and musical affect.
That makes excellent sense while you have a look at his credit. Whether or not he’s working with Ghost, Bowling For Soup, Gojira, Avenged Sevenfold or breaking down a Monolith combine for Professional Combine Academy, Dan’s mixes must ship energy, readability and pleasure. These 5 plug ins assist him get there.
They aren’t magic bullets. They’re trusted instruments within the palms of somebody who is aware of precisely what he desires to listen to.
And that’s the actual lesson. Nice mixers don’t simply accumulate plug ins. They construct a language with them.
To go deeper with Dan’s workflow, watch his full Professional Combine Academy course, Mixing Monolith’s “Mom Martyr.” It’s a uncommon probability to sit down inside a full Dan Malsch combine session, hear how he builds dimension, punch and pleasure from the bottom up, after which apply these concepts your self with the included multitracks: https://promixacademy.com/course/dan-malsch-mixing-monoliths-mother-martyr/
Have a marvellous time recording and mixing!
Warren
