Cubase 5 and Progressive Metal

Steinberg Lounge
#1

Hey everyone!

I’ve been a Cubase user since version…1 I guess? All I remember is that it was in monochrome, on an Atari :] Still using it at version 5 and loving it. It’s been at the heart of a solo instrumental progressive/metal project of mine “Chimp Spanner” which started as a bedroom project and has become…a somewhat recognised bedroom project :laughing: You can check out a video of me playing a song from my album “At the Dream’s Edge” here:

http://www.youtube.com/chimpspanner#p/a/u/0/jPS3OMgSOhE

It’s even come out on the road with me running my fx and keyboard parts for live shows! Sorry the audio quality isn’t better. I used to have full songs online, but not any more.

Anyway I hope you enjoy. Cubase rocks!!! \m/

#2

Amazing! Put me down for one copy, Paul! :sunglasses:

Nice to see you here. Haven’t seen you around these parts since you posted Clarity in Chaos several years ago.

Lenny

#3

WOW

That was masterful. Brilliant.

All the best
Glyn

#4

Thanks guys!! Yeah it’s been a long time since I’ve posted here for sure :] I think I was using like, SX at the time!

There’s a lot of cool stuff in C5 I didn’t get around to using on this album, but I’ll be looking to really explore more of the features next time around. My favourite so far is being able to humanize/randomise MIDI. Robotic drums have always been a problem for guys like me doing it all on their own. I know the feature has probably been there for a long time but I only just found it haha. Whoops!

#5

Wow - fantastic song, performance and mix!

What are you playing you’re guitar through - Real or virtual amp? Sounds really good.

#6

I’ll third the ‘WOW’. Enjoyed watching you play, had to turn it up and feel the power.

Regards,
John

#7

Thank you! For the album I used a POD X3 for all guitar and bass tones. Now I have the HD500, which I will use on the next CD. It’s pretty damn cool :]

#8

Actually, I mostly use the POD X3 as well, but man I can’t get THAT tone. Is that your own patch?

I also purchased the HD500 as soon as it came out but returned it. The “metal” amps on the HD500 were limited and sounded really brittle to me. The X3 sound much better and has much more variety of amps IMO.

#9

Yeah… that’s some pretty sweet stuff. I’m a big fan of progressive and thematic metal and like to hear all those pretty harmonics put in the right places. Great work!

Cheers

#10

Nice work. The intro reminds me a lot of my favourite guitarist, a guy called Dave Bainbridge from the UK, who does a lot of prog/celtic rock rather than metal.

Interesting to read about the Pod stuff too… I’m considering a HD500.

Great visuals as well. Cheers.

#11

Cheers for listening :slight_smile: Yeah the HD500 is weird in that it’s not reeeeally an outright replacement for the X3. In fact I kinda regret having sold it purely because it would’ve made a nice alternative set of tones, plus all the bass cabs and the whole POD Farm dealy too.

That said, the core sounds of the HD are - IMO - stronger, and more natural. Here are a couple of quick and dirty tests using the high gain amps. The first is just a riff for riffs sake, and the second is a shootout between the Uberschall, JCM800, Dual Rec and Fireball using the riff from Perpetual Black Second by Meshuggah.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2996036/HD500%20Test%201b.mp3
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2996036/HD500%20Amp%20Tests.mp3

These are untweaked. Just gate -> eq -> amp -> sequencer. So with some work I think they could be cool!

Only thing that really sucks ass about it? No power switch. Massive fail.

#12

Simply, very coool :sunglasses:

#13

Yep, those samples sound just like what my HD500 sounded like - brittle Buzzy top END and muddy bottoms on most the heavier amps, although somewhat more responsive to personal dymamics. The JCM800 is the only good amp in the lot. I really hated the Ubershall, Dual Rec and Fireball, especially as compared to the X3 alternatives. None of the HD500 sounds are even close to being as good as your X3 guitar tone on the video.

Line 6 discontinued the X3 Live for some reason, although I have a feeling it’ll make it’s way back in some form. The POD 2 software used the X3 models and is just as good.

Bottom Line - you should repurchase your X3 even if you like the HD500! :slight_smile:

#14

This is great material, and great sound, thanks for pointing us to it. Thanks for describing the guitar sounds. What did you use for drums? I loved both pieces that you put up on YouTube.

#15

All round good and good to here you having some success.

Cheers