Loopy Pro: Create music, your way.
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Anyone composing rock / metal?
My goal with iPad music software is to be able to sketch music, in particular rock and metal. I’m also interested in orchestral, but everything at a pretty beginner level 😅
Anyway for sketching purposes I found quite good virtual instruments (e.g. think swam violin) and there are also some decent drum kits, but on iPad there isn’t something like shreddage
After a long time I think I came up with an acceptable setup / template - far from perfect, but hopefully enough to sketch and experiment:
Not many details in the video, but if someone is interested I’m happy to share more.
I’d be also curious to hear your experience / setup, but something tells me I’m probably one of the very few attempting this 😝 (most people into these genres would probably just record real guitars, but I see it as the equivalent of composing in guitar pro on desktop I guess)
Comments
@richardyot does mostly Post-Rock (and brilliantly at that may I add), and @dreamcartel can play the guitar like a god. I hope tagging both of these talented musicians helps mate.
I love the YT example. Really awesome.
Also, you ever listen to Leo Moracchioli on YT before?
I do sometimes, but I haven’t really put anything together like that in a while.
Many thanks @jwmmakerofmusic !
Yes I watched quite a few of Leo's videos! He's great; I also listened to some of his covers on Spotify. Really creative and talented
Yes! People who try and say "rock is dead" obviously never listened to Leo before. Absolutely brilliant!
Aww Jim’s just being overly kind, while I greatly and humbly appreciate the wonderful compliment! I’m ok, lets just say i can handle myself lol
IDK, METAL is dead; Rock isn’t though, it keeps evolving. Rock is the parent genre so I’m glad it tries to persevere despite lackluster corporate offerings, But metal isn’t metal anymore, its something else, but it works with electronic music so I’m trying to figure out how to combine them …that’s actually interesting you found a way to use Drambo with it. I’ve tried to figure out but I can’t. What are you doing, sequencing your drums? That’s a great idea
Not just the drums 😝 all you hear in that video is MIDI using just a couple of soundfonts (including the guitar; I'm using a soundfont with a DI signal into an amp sim)
That approach should work pretty much with other DAWs; for example I did give it a go also on Zenbeats covering for whom the bell tolls 😅
Are you F*in with me man!? You must let @DMan see this. So you dont play guitar but you’re using AUdio units? i mean it’s fantastic either way, great cover.
Haha now you're the one being too kind 😝 sure that MIDI sounding guitars are hurting your ears! and yep, can't play guitar.. but if I ever manage to write something decent I can ask someone to record it with a real instruments. (I can play bass guitar but wouldn't say I'm good)
However as I mentioned if someone else is interested in my setup for similar reasons just ping me and I'd be happy to share it here
Share whatever you can. I am curious to hear both experiences, particularly the drums, in zb3 and Drambo. If you wanted to detail in general, or get into minutia, I’m all ears. Im extremely interested in knowing how you arranged things, how you found leveling and mastering, and since we use the same DAWs I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to share more. Literally, I’m all ears. Have you done anything industrial metal ala fear factory or anything with synths too? I am very interested so please by all means, share whatever you feel like , I wouldn’t know where to ask you to begin besides drums lol (if you want, check out the December SOTMC thread for my latest/last creation upload - pure shred)
I would recommend Riffler https://apps.apple.com/us/app/riffler/id1556225557 for guitars and Rock Drum Machine https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rock-drum-machine/id725234217 for drums. I also use AudioLayer https://apps.apple.com/us/app/audiolayer/id1381478666 with a dry guitar sound sample into different guitar amp sims.
I made the music for this video using those apps
For those saying metal is dead, I humbly submit Jared Dines' latest shred collaboration contest/ video.
Over 1500 submissions.
This is metal
Might come back with a longer reply, but for now the short answer is that with it being just a sketching setup I don't really do any mixing (except some high / low passes on the cover in zenbeats) nor mastering on iPad. Not that I don't think it's good enough, but I'm certainly not good enough and I don't have external monitors connected to my iPad. So my idea is to start the track on iPad from the sofa and then if / when I have something move that to PC where I have monitors and lots of plugins collecting dust
In the examples I just set the levels on the mixer to try to balance it a bit and I probably have a limiter at the end and that's it. I'll let you know the exact drums I'm using, I think they're from one of the ZenBeats IAP. They sound quite good to me (for rock/metal)
With the drambo example, I'm basically trying to get to something closer (but more powerful) than ableton note and with sounds that can be used for the genre. In that template I have KQ Sampei with the drums from the built in soundfont and no processing
- will let you know which one those are, can't check right now
I have riffler and it's great, but as far as I remember it can't be used just as an instrument (i.e. still have the MIDI in the DAW piano roll as opposed to just within the plugin)
And I was hoping Rock Drum Machine would go on sale + I'm waiting for AUv3 support
Which samples do you use with AudioLayer? something you recorded?
thanks
I use the free Standard Guitar from https://unreal-instruments.wixsite.com/unreal-instruments/standard-guitar and sometimes the Metal GTX sounds from the same site. I don't \ think I did a great job of layering the pick sounds with the string sounds due to my lack of experience with samplers but it gets the job done.
I been a metal fan for 35 years. Metal never dies, it always goes back to the underground where it comes from.
The best metal band that I know who uses NO guitars is Master boot record.
I play guitar but if was going to try to make a digital guitar sound I would start with String Lab by 4Pockets going thru Nembrini 8180 amp.
I also remember getting good result severely eq-ing a piano sound.
For drums I would use Beat Scholar midi out to play Beathawk Accoustic drums.
I’m all ears as to how to get great distorted guitar tones on iOS without samples
Read my previous post
[deleted: misread - will repost later]
Im going to have to jump in and say, as a lead shredder, it isn’t REALLY metal without an actual guitarist ripping up a guitar. That band ^ is awesome, great metal composition, and great music just in general. But as a true metal head, thats faux metal…I dont mean to be negatively critical of them, but if i dont hear a live guitar with a dude shredding, its not really metal…..Metal = Electric (not electronic). But thats just the purist in me talking. Take it with a grain of salt and i mean no offense to anyone if you make metal music with Audio Units guitars. Just my old metal head in me talking.
Oh, I somehow missed them! In some parts it sounds almost like real guitars with 8bit sounding distortion
- from their youtube I think they have real guitars when they perform live, but it's a solo project?
Don't have StringLab, but will keep an eye on it, thanks! On my drambo template I currently have a Nembrini MRH810, but I never tried amp sims based on Peavey models I think.
I have beathawk acoustic drums, but didn't particularly like they way they sound out of the box. Guess I could try to process them a bit
I see where you're coming from; I think without real guitars it could be considered a different sub-genre / mix between genres - but anyway I'd like to keep this thread about writing for those genres more than actual final production (if we assume it's not too hard to replace an "fake" (virtual instrument, sampled / modelled) guitar with a real one if you can play guitars or know/hire someone who can record them for you)
The way I think about this is like when composers would send out rough drafts of vocal parts to singers just to give an idea of how it would sound.
It’s all just naming conventions though.
I have played for years, and while I used to shred, I’m more likely to try something more mellow and bluesy if I solo now. It’s definitely not easy to get certain playing styles right without a guitar, but there are some that sound OK using samples or other tools.
Yes it is a solo project and yes he uses a guitar player and drummer live. Carpenter Brut dies the same.
Marshall amps are fine if you want a 70s sound, with a tube screamer in front you can do early 80s.
Mesa Boogie were the Metal amp of choice from the mid 80s on. Metallica started using them on master of puppet.
Peavy 5150 (Nembrini 8180) is the Metal amp of choice for the mid 90s onward.
Depend on the sound your looking for.
Metal played without guitar typically fall under the umbrella of Dark Synth or Chiptune Metal.
To be honest I don’t really attach any importance to names, so whether someone calls it ‘metal’, ‘dark synth’ or ‘wankyspanky’ I’m probably not going to remember that.
I’ve always been more than a little surprised that the minutiae of genres has been retained since the demise of the major record store chains and the need to organize a bricks and mortar store. It seems a bit like memorizing the Dewey-Decimal system when you read all your books on an iPad.
I still haven’t heard any “metal” that wasn’t built on at least electric guitar(s), if not plus electric bass and acoustic drums (generally speaking - I know some metal bands do use digital drums, and well, it’s possible that some might use digital bass too). Actual vocals also, where relevant in the first place.
Everything else sounds… like um, something else. Which is fine (and there’s room for all kinds of music in this world), but not actually convincing if “metal” is what they were going for.
Well you obviously have not watched the Master boot record video I posted above.
Volkor X is pretty metal.
Yes but he uses real guitars
I use a Behringer Pro-1 with the oscillators tuned a 5th apart. I dialed in a pluck sound with the smallest it bit of release. Turn the filter down for a palm mute. I run that into a Peavey Triple X head and a Mesa 4X12. I have had good luck using a metal muff pedal into a Joyo Zombie pedal on clean then into an ADA 2x12. The Joyo zombie just could not do it on it’s own.
I'm trying to go down this path too. Drums are easier and bass too to do in iPad world. Take a band like Godflesh, drums programmed. Fear Factory, massive processing, but real triggered drums and guitar. Front Line Assembly, sampled, guitars. It's all possible to fit somewhere in that genre, but guitar is toughest:
I get cool stuff with dry impluse from Riffler or Steel Guitar Yonac into Nembrini amps. I HIGHly suggest trying Rhino and Mammoth effects too. So good, i got them for Desktop too. I'm a fellow traveler, let's have fun
Also, a band like Godflesh, most of the stuff is real guitar bending/feedback, harmonics we cant do on computers!
Ha pretty cool, nice work
Reminds of this https://youtube.com/shorts/bP8ff8V9NPQ?si=TBGqrMYpxxgpEi3x
Another good example of metal without guitars is Perturbator
@HeavyWater , you can do ‘ bending/feedback, harmonics’ pretty well on GeoShred. This track has some of those effects…
Nice! I like you can do polyphony too