Unboxing OCEANO “Lucid Reality” Raw Multi-tracks

Oceano’s sound is absolutely crushing. It’s dense, it’s aggressive, and it hits with the force of a tectonic plate shift. But how do you actually mix a track like their song “Lucid Reality” to achieve that level of sonic violence? We got a chance to dive into the raw multitracks from the Nail The Mix session with legendary producer Buster Odeholm, and the session reveals a modern approach to building a massive deathcore sound from a deceptively lean starting point.

Forget a hundred-plus track count. This session is a masterclass in efficiency and building from the ground up, relying heavily on MIDI and pristine DI tracks. Let’s break down what’s inside.

The Foundation: Building a Rhythm Section from MIDI

Right off the bat, the biggest takeaway from the “Lucid Reality” session is that the entire rhythm section—drums and bass—is pure MIDI. This isn’t a crutch; it’s a strategic choice that gives the mixer ultimate control over the core of the song’s power.

Choosing Your Drum Arsenal

There are no pre-recorded drum shells here. You get the raw MIDI performance, which means the first major decision is yours: what drum sampler and shells will you use? This is where the mix gets its unique fingerprint. You’re not just mixing drums; you’re casting the perfect kit for the song.

• Creative Freedom: This is a huge advantage. You can audition endless kicks, snares, and cymbals from your favorite libraries (like Drum Forge, GetGood Drums, or Superior Drummer) to find the perfect combination that cuts through the wall of guitars.
• No Guesswork: To make it easy, the session comes with a MIDI drum key map. You just load it into your sampler of choice, and you’re ready to go—no need to spend hours re-mapping every articulation.
• Tempo is Key: This track throws a major tempo change at you, jumping from 80 BPM to a double-time feel at 160 BPM. The session files include the tempo map data, and importing it into your DAW is non-negotiable. It ensures your MIDI performance stays perfectly locked to the grid, exactly as it was programmed.

Crafting a Demolishing Bass Tone

Like the drums, the bass is a single MIDI track. Again, this hands all the tonal power over to you. The host in the unboxing video put his money on Buster Odeholm using his own “Nuclear Bass” virtual instrument, a solid choice known for its mix-ready, aggressive tone.

Working with MIDI bass gives you a perfectly clean and tight performance to build on. You can experiment with different amp sims, layer in sub-bass synths, and dial in distortion without ever worrying about fret noise or room bleed. It’s the ultimate blank canvas for a devastating low end.

Dialing in Brutal Oceano Guitar Tones

The session provides two guitar DI tracks—a stereo left and right. This is where you get to play virtual amp god. For the unboxing, the host fired up the Fortin Nameless Suite, a plugin Buster Odeholm is known to use frequently. It’s a fantastic choice for this style, delivering a tight, articulate, and aggressive high-gain sound right out of the box.

EQ for Clarity and Punch

With DIs, you have total control over the EQ shaping process, both before and after the amp sim. This is where you can apply fundamental metal EQ strategies to make the guitars sit perfectly.

• Pre-EQ: Use a high-pass filter to clean up low-end mud before it even hits the virtual amp. This tightens up the chugs and prevents flabbiness.
• Post-EQ: This is where you carve out space. The classic mid-scoop is a starting point, but pay close attention to the high-end “fizz.” Find those harsh, static-like frequencies (often above 6kHz) with a narrow EQ band and pull them down. This cleans up the tone without sacrificing aggression, allowing the “bite” of the guitar to come through without the ear fatigue.

Taming The Vocal Beast

Adam Warren’s vocal performance on “Lucid Reality” is nothing short of monstrous. When you look at the raw vocal tracks in the session, you’ll notice one thing immediately: they look like solid bricks. The waveforms are heavily “sausaged,” indicating a huge amount of compression was applied during tracking.

The Sound of Aggressive Compression

This wasn’t an accident; it’s a core component of the modern deathcore vocal sound. By hitting the vocals hard with a compressor on the way in—likely a high-end unit like a Distressor, or maybe even two chained together—the engineer captures an incredibly consistent and aggressive performance.

This technique keeps every guttural low and searing high locked in place, ensuring the vocal sits on top of the dense, chaotic mix without needing a ton of automation later. It’s one of the most powerful metal compression secrets for achieving a professional, in-your-face result. Most of the tonal work is already done for you; your job is to make it sit right with effects and reverb.

Bringing It All Together (And Making It Your Own)

Beyond the core instruments, the session is sprinkled with production “candy”—layers of synths, impactful 808s, and shakers that add atmosphere and reinforce the big moments. These elements are the final glue that makes the track feel massive and modern.

Deconstructing a session like Oceano’s “Lucid Reality” shows that a world-class metal mix isn’t always about having hundreds of tracks. It’s about making smart, decisive choices from the ground up, from sample selection to DI processing.

Want to try your hand at mixing this beast yourself? When you join Nail The Mix, you get access to the actual multitracks for “Lucid Reality” and get to watch Buster Odeholm himself build the entire mix from scratch, explaining every single plugin, setting, and decision along the way. Stop guessing and start learning the techniques that the pros use on real-world records. Better yet, enter your mix in our monthly contest for a chance to win thousands of dollars in prizes from brands like Cali Audio, JZ Microphones, and Neural DSP.

Ready to move beyond presets and truly start crafting your own sound? It’s time to learn how to mix modern metal from the best in the business.