The virtual metal band thread

[bill45]

This topic was inspired by my friend progtronic! A ground breaking virtual metal artist!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDvBBRy1pEA

Let's discuss al things virtual metal!

[bill45]

Here's a great tune Featuring some vsti guitars compared
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtV6V62mk_Q

[bill45]

A new Progressive Metal tune by Hozo Okazaki using V-METAL & SR5 Rock Bass. Awesome!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f2QFbxZYns

[bill45]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f2QFbxZYns

[bill45]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oeAMsCiMcY

[bill45]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-VMLalz_as

[progtronic]

\m/.

[DSmolken]

I know a girl who does death metal vocals. Been thinking about sampling her doing various syllables and putting that together into a "virtual death growls" sample pack. So virtual metal bands wouldn't need to be instrumental, and I figure it'd come in real handy for horror movies and stuff too.

Not sure if that idea isn't just a bit too crazy, though.

[Numanoid]

Usually metal bands have prided themselves in putting stickers on their albums like "No synthesizer on this record"

Iron Maiden almost got butchered when they dared to use a little bit of synths for textures on "Somewhere in time"

How are the metal fans gonna react when they find out that songs are made by a computer?

[Shangsean]

https://soundcloud.com/shangsean/vir-vi ... ental-rock

This was my first attempt at a virtual metal/rock track. The amp sounds are just using the stuff built into Evolution Electric Guitar. The bass is just standard Kontakt factory bass. The drums are Superior Drummer. I've managed to get a much better guitar sound recently though and have been working on some tracks with Shreddage II this time and Orange Tree Samples Rick Bass (which is awesome). I've also been trying out NI Studio Drummer which I didn't like when I first played it, but it sounds surprisingly good in a mix. I still love Superior Drummer more overall though.

As Numanoid said though, I really do wonder if people will accept a virtual metal band. It's fun doing it anyway.

Congrats to progtonic on completing an album. I hope I get there one day.

[idfpower]

How are the metal fans gonna react when they find out that songs are made by a computer?

The trick is: don't mention it There's a lot of digital/virtual stuff used in nowadays metal (because you need very clean raw tracks in order to obtain that thick wall of sound), but most bands and studios don't reveal exactly what's done and how. Metal fans (especially when it comes to the extreme genres) tend to reject anything even remotely digital related - throw a synth line in a song and it will be labelled as "dance" The funny thing is that when you do actually record everything with real musiciands and put everything together the classic way, they complain about the dusty bad production Go figure

IMO we will see more and more of this, simply because it's difficult to find ppl to work with and maintain a steady band line up. Thanks to today's technology you can be a one man metal band right out of your own bedroom. And it's a good thing - give to the creative minds the tools to build their vision I am actually working on and off on an industrial metal project and most likely will use virtual instruments - it's simple and way cheaper (plus time and cost effective) to go this way

PS: regarding the OP - I still don't know how he manages to get that sound from those plugins. I've tried them and sounded nothing like that...must be a well kept secret or something I'm still waiting for a plugin (guitar emulator/library in particular) that would be easy enough to work with without demanding good keyboard playing skills...something like Rob Papen's "RG", but more focused on metal style guitar tones and a tad simpler

[Numanoid]

How are the metal fans gonna react when they find out that songs are made by a computer?

The trick is: don't mention it

But this thread?.....the cats out of the bag

Remember Milli Vanilli

[bill45]

Thanks for the replies, we are off to a good start.

AS far as how will metal fans react? I don't care, I couldn't please all metal fans,
even if I stared a band with guys playing real instruments.The black metal fans don't like
death metal ect.... I'm a composer producer. I'll do anything to get a tune from my head to
the final master. If I can play the part on my guitar or bass I'll do it. If I find a guitar player
that I like working with, I'll use him. Rush triggers parts that they can't play live, instead of hiring another keyboard player, because they don't want to mess up their chemistry.

[bill45]

idfpower, which video are you refering to?
progtronic uses guitar rig. he shared lots of presets.
If you have vmetal.They allow you to download midifiles of the demos and
the presets.In the vsti guitar comparison video, he tells what he uses in the description.
Ther are some good shreddage and ots guitar tutorials too.

[idfpower]

But this thread?.....the cats out of the bag

Not really There are plenty of one man bands - most of them rely on programmed drums and synths (at least). Virtual guitars won't change anything as long as the tone is fairly believable. On the other hand, every now and then all sort of weird experiments gain popularity - take a look at SID metal (yup, as in metal bands backed up by a SID machine)

The truth is that a lot of known bands use samples and additional tracks coming out of a laptop live nowadays. An additional guitar track to thicken up the sound, or additional vocals are common practice. They wouldn't be able to bring the same studio quality on stage otherwise. Rammstein's guitars are MIDI wired, same goes for Killswitch Engage and a lot more others.

Personally I love the fusion of metal and electronic music. It's the way to go if you want to think & sound out of the metal box. I love "traditional" metal played by real people on real instruments (I'm a bass player myself), but I also like to hear new ideas and experimental music created made in a non conventional way It's doesn't matter how you do it, as long as it results in good music.