Mixing Architects’ ‘Gone With The Wind’ – A Look Inside Henrik Udd’s Session

The first time you hear “Gone With The Wind” by Architects, it hits you. It’s a track loaded with immense power, intricate layering, and a staggering amount of raw emotion. Penned by the late Tom Searle about his struggle with cancer, the song is as heavy thematically as it is musically.

Behind the scenes, the raw tracks—produced and mixed by the legendary Henrik Udd—reveal a masterclass in modern metal production. We’re diving into the multi-tracks from the June 2017 Nail The Mix session to see what makes this mix so powerful, from the drum prep to the bass tone that fuels the guitars, and the “synth” sounds that aren’t synths at all.

If you’ve ever wanted to get your hands on these files, this is your chance. You can download the raw multi-tracks for “Gone With The Wind” and follow along.

The Foundation: Flawless Drums with Room for Ambience

Right off the bat, the raw drum tracks are absolutely pristine. This isn’t a case of “we’ll fix it in the mix.” The performance is incredibly tight, with a relentless forward momentum that drives the entire song. The kit itself consists of two bass drum mics, snare top and bottom, three toms, overheads, and a selection of cymbals including a China, ride, two splashes, and a bell.

Noticeably absent? Room mics.

Engineered for Effects

This isn’t an oversight; it’s a strategic production choice. The source tracks are exceptionally tight, punchy, and short. The toms, for example, are already cut and gated, leaving you with pure, unadulterated transient impact.

Why track them this way? It creates the perfect clean canvas for time-based effects. Henrik Udd is known for his massive soundscapes, and he actually spends the first hour of his mix session building out reverbs and delays. By starting with ultra-tight, dry drums, he has complete control over the sense of space. He can send the shells to a massive hall reverb for size while keeping the transients clean and aggressive. It’s a powerful approach to mixing modern metal beyond just using presets.

The Hidden Weapon: A Viciously Tight Bass Performance

So, what’s the secret to a crushing heavy guitar tone? More often than not, it’s the bass.

In this session, you get two bass DI tracks, and the performance is just vicious. The sheer force and precision of the playing are what truly elevates the guitars. When a bass player digs in this hard and locks in perfectly with the drums, it adds a layer of percussive low-mid aggression that you simply cannot replicate with plugins or studio tricks. It makes the entire rhythm section feel heavier and gives the guitars a solid foundation to sit on.

The raw DI tone here is fantastic and has all the information you need. You can feel the attack of the pick and the growl of the strings. With a performance this solid, you don’t need to do much—just shape it to sit right under the guitars, apply some focused compression to control the dynamics without losing power, and let it do its job.

Balancing Brutality and Beauty in the Guitars

The guitars in “Gone With The Wind” are a perfect storm of killer a player, a killer amp, and a killer riff. The session includes four rhythm guitar tracks (plus DIs, if you want to re-amp your own tone), and they sound incredibly mean right out of the box.

But the complexity doesn’t stop there.

The “Synth” Deception: Creative Guitar Effects

One of the most interesting parts of this session is the guitar effects. Many of the lush, atmospheric sounds you might assume are keyboards or synths are actually heavily processed guitars. There are ambient lead layers drenched in modulated reverb and other effects, creating pads and textures that float over the crushing rhythm section. It’s a brilliant example of using the guitar as a sound design tool, pushing it far beyond its traditional role.

The Core Mixing Challenge

Herein lies the main challenge of this mix: balancing the vicious, chugging rhythm guitars with the gorgeous, ambient layers. You can’t sacrifice one for the other. The track needs to feel brutal and beautiful at the same time.

This is where surgical EQ becomes your best friend. The key is to create pockets of space for each element. You need to let the ambient tails of the lead guitars breathe without washing out the attack of the rhythms. Smart EQ strategies for modern metal will allow you to carve out specific frequencies so the heavy parts punch through while the melodic and atmospheric parts soar above them. It’s a delicate balancing act, but the stellar arrangement in the recording gives you a huge head start.

Get Inside the Session and Mix It Yourself

Deconstructing these raw tracks reveals just how much thought and skill went into the production of “Gone With The Wind” before the mix even began.

• Pristine Performances: The foundation of any great mix is a world-class performance.
• Strategic Tracking: The tight drums were deliberately recorded to make room for massive effects.
• Bass Is Key: A powerful bass performance is the secret ingredient to a heavy guitar tone.
• Creative Layering: Guitars were used for both brutality and atmospheric sound design.

Reading about these concepts is one thing. But getting your hands on the actual files and seeing how it all fits together is a whole other level of learning.

At Nail The Mix, we give you exactly that. You can get exclusive access to the original multi-tracks from bands like Architects, Gojira, and Spiritbox and watch the original producers mix them from scratch.

Ready to take on this mix? Click here to get the “Gone With The Wind” multi-tracks and watch Henrik Udd’s full 8-hour mixing session today. Happy mixing