# WARNING: Symphonic Metal ahead! (Albion I, LASS and tonnes of headbanging!)



## Wibben (Dec 18, 2012)

Not sure how many of you are into metal/rock and stuff, but I want to share this tune I've been slaving away at.

I'm working on a EP-ish thing with this almost Metal-Opera/dramatic feel which I'm calling Nightmare At The Theatre. Aiming for 3-4 songs, we'll see if I ever complete it.

Mixing this piece was insanely hard... Let me know how it sounds! 

:shock: 

https://soundcloud.com/wibben/nightmare-at-the-theatre-the[/url]


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## Walid F. (Dec 18, 2012)

Simply awesome. I would skip the intro though, would give a lot more effect if you started directly at 9 sec.

W


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## Resoded (Dec 18, 2012)

Sounds great Wibben, I liked the guitars especially!


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## Wibben (Dec 18, 2012)

Hmm.. my reply seems to have been eaten by the Forum monster.. anyways...

Walid F.: Tackar!
I wanted the intro to be sort of juxtaposed to the big epic "Live-on-stage" mood when the song gets going. I imagine a huge and very old theatre, the curtains closed on the dark stage and a small, unidentified music box playing in the dark. Then the curtain is dropped and a nightmarish theatre troupe and orchestra joins in, sort of... whatever.. I'm tired... :D

Resoded: Tack du!
Cool that you like the guitars, I'm not entirely sold myself.. but that might be from the many, maaany hours of mixing them... 

Cheers!


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## Darthmorphling (Dec 18, 2012)

I have to agree that the guitars sound really great, especially around 58 seconds in. What did you use as far as amps?

Artwork on CGHub is excellent as well!


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## Dan Mott (Dec 18, 2012)

Yo. This is Rockin =o 

I also would like to know what guitar libs you are using, aswell as what sims AND what drum libraries are you using. I'm looking for some drums my self.


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## Wibben (Dec 19, 2012)

Thank you, guys!

Well, the guitars are real, it's my trusty Gibson SG going through a Line 6 Pod HD300 into Cubase. 
Same goes for Bass.

Drums are a combination of Toontrack Superior 2 and Steven Slate Drums 4. Both are great drum libs, but if I had to choose only one of them, I'd go for Superior. Slate is pre-mixed stuff, which sounds fantastic, but I like the flexibility of Superior.

Darthmorphling: Glad that you like my cghub stuff! I rarely get to update it


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## Cruciform (Dec 20, 2012)

Love the guitars. :D


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## Wibben (Dec 20, 2012)

I'm thinking of doing a walkthrough thing on my youtube channel of the guitars. It would be very short, but it might be fun


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## JoKern (Dec 20, 2012)

Love the endpart especially - with the more quiet part and then this cool solo in the guitar. 



Wibben @ Thu Dec 20 said:


> I'm thinking of doing a walkthrough thing on my youtube channel of the guitars. It would be very short, but it might be fun



I would watch it. :D


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## Darthmorphling (Dec 20, 2012)

JoKern @ Thu Dec 20 said:


> Love the endpart especially - with the more quiet part and then this cool solo in the guitar.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




I 2nd this. Please show hour effects chain. Including any compression/limiters youse have used. That is always the weak link in my guitar sound.


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## Marius Masalar (Dec 20, 2012)

Really fun track. Please do complete the project and show us the other tracks as you do!

And +1 on wanting to see that video. Guitar processing is always a challenge, especially for those of us who aren't good at playing the instrument and knowing its subtleties.


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## Wibben (Dec 20, 2012)

Wow! Thanks guys, for the show of interest. Now I pretty much have to, hehe
We'll see if I manage to put something together before monday, otherwise it will have to wait until early january, with christmas and all


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## Wibben (Jan 13, 2013)

So, I finally managed to make a walkthrough of the guitars in this song, which you can find here!

It's my first ever attempt at this, so expect a lot of confusion and helplessness, haha

Hope it gives you some idea of what I did, anyways  

http://www.vi-control.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3674484


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## wst3 (Jan 13, 2013)

I'm not, generally speaking, a metal guy - but I am a guitar lover, and your tones, and the composition in general are wonderful.

First, I found the opening sequence to be very evocative - I pretty much envisioned the grand reveal even before reading your description. It is very theatrical, which may not be everybody's cup of tea.

Second, you probably should share your recording secrets. I'm still mired in the world of putting microphones in front of cabinets... not that there's anything wrong with that!

I think perhaps most amp-sims are geared more towards over-the-top sounds, such as one might find in a symphonic metal piece?

Lastly - the composition really works for me. It progresses through an arc, and it keeps my attention for the most part. There was one repeat of the rhythm guitar part that, upon a second or third listen, I could have skipped<G>! 

And I think you did a very good job on the mix - it worked on my studio monitors and my laptop speakers.


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## Wibben (Jan 13, 2013)

Thank you so much! Means a lot coming from a VI veteran, as you, good sir 

I do have a newly produced walkthrough of the rhythm guitar tracks on the YouTubes, which I link to in the post above yours. It's my first one, though, so it definitely leaves much to be desired, hehe, but heck, it's a start!


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## christianhowes (Jan 13, 2013)

The mix and the composition are both top notch. It might be interesting to try a filter sweep on the intro to build up to the first part of the song.

But that's really just something little, and it works well how it is.

Great work!


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## Wibben (Jan 13, 2013)

Thank you, very much! 
A sweep might be cool, might try it later


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## vlado hudec (Jan 14, 2013)

nice track man !

I like the guitars too, one thing I dont like is the intro, maybe I would try to add some reverb, filter, distortion to make the sound more interesting.

V


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## wst3 (Jan 14, 2013)

Interesting... I think the intro works because it is so simple. Horses for courses...


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## Wibben (Jan 17, 2013)

It's very subjective I guess  I like the dry sound for the intro, even though many different ideas would probably work as well


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## David Soltany (Jan 18, 2013)

Very cool man !


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## Ned McPhie (Jan 18, 2013)

WOW, I enjoyed that so much... I am still fairly new to the Virtual Instruments scene (and have mostly been drooling over orchestral libraries), and the sound of those drum samples just blew my mind! 

Fantastic track, great mix. It has inspired me with my current film, so thank you very much for posting 

Edit: Also, this was my first post EVER on these forums! Woohoo!


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## Wibben (Jan 20, 2013)

Thank you so much, guys! :D It's always encouraging to hear such kind words! Can't wait to get some time to continue the project


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