Lord Tim 1,573 Posted June 17, 2022 (edited) Hey guys, here's a fun 80s inspired melodic metal song that I did last year: There's a couple of interesting things about this song. First of all, this was made entirely with drum out-takes from demo sessions from our 2015 What Tomorrow Brings EP, cleaned up and a new song written around it. Pro-tip: Just because you CAN do this, doesn't mean you SHOULD do this - that was horrible! HAHA! But the end results were pretty good at least! What's cool also is that I only used bundled Cakewalk effects to mix this, which was a bit of a challenge - we all have our own favourite effects, but I wanted to see if you could do a pro mix with only what we were given. Apparently you can! Here's the good bit: If you have Cakewalk from version 2022.06 onwards, go to Help > Check for Updates and you'll get a popup toast for demo projects. This song is one of the demo projects, and it comes with a huge PDF with mix notes, lyrics, Australian slang... all of the good things! I cover everything from setting up a mix in a modular way, to FX Chains, Arranger sections, Aux Sub-mixes... lots of stuff. And you get to hear how bad the source drums were before I wrangled them into shape! Yay! HAHA! Anyway, hope you guys dig it! And if you get the demo project, let me know if you get anything useful out of it. Edited June 17, 2022 by Lord Tim 7 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DeeringAmps 2,063 Posted June 17, 2022 Tremendous work here! Thanks for sharing the project; I'm off to study.... t 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KSband 431 Posted June 17, 2022 Great metal guitar work! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PhonoBrainer 2,001 Posted June 17, 2022 (edited) Loved the vocal, the Geddy tone on the bass, the awesome guitars, the clean-yet-distorted chuggas! Amazing solo as well! I'd vote for maybe a little more low end in the mix somehow, for me, it tilts just a bit bright, but that's not a dealbreaker by any means. And no doubt that helps the clarity. Fantastic production. cheers, -Tom Edited June 17, 2022 by PhonoBrainer 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lord Tim 1,573 Posted June 17, 2022 Cheers, all - much appreciated! And yeah, there's so much going on in the mix, the leads are purposely lows rolled off to give things more clarity. In the Cakewalk demo mix (which is slightly different to the one I put up on Bandlab in the OP) I used only Cakewalk effects exclusively, and that included any final mastering effects too, of which some are obviously not intended to be used that way, so bass management was a big thing to keep the low end from turning into mud. I used my go-to mastering chain effects in the mix above but I didn't want to change things too much from the demo so there was still a fair relation to it. 🙂 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bajan Blue 1,393 Posted June 18, 2022 Hi - good track, great guitar solo, agree sounds a bit toppy, but otherwise cool stuff Nigel 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wookiee 2,063 Posted June 25, 2022 See all the mix toys that come with Cakewalk really are all you need. Cool job sir @Lord Tim. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lord Tim 1,573 Posted June 25, 2022 Thank you, sir! I definitely have my third-party favourites that are go-to effects in most mixes, but you can most definitely do a full mix and basic master with the stock effects. Sometimes it takes looking at what we have in a different way to get the most out of them (like my vocal FX Present chain having TH3 in there for signal splitting and saturation - not what you'd usually have a guitar effect doing!), but I honestly mostly use stock effects for a lot of things regardless. Sonitus might look a bit dated now but they're serious workhorses. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Byron Dickens 1,623 Posted June 26, 2022 (edited) '80s power metal lives! If the vocals were about an octave higher, I'd think that this was a Stryper tune. Edited June 26, 2022 by bdickens Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lord Tim 1,573 Posted June 26, 2022 HAHA! I think that would require more ***** trauma than I'm willing to go through for this song! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lord Tim 1,573 Posted June 26, 2022 Huh... the medical term for the male reproductive gland is censored here. The more you know! 🤔 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Scott Kendrick 10 Posted January 20 digging into this, but I'm having troubles finding the PDF. Does it download with the package and if so, any idea where? Not in the project folders - possible to post somewhere or PM me? Thanks - love the mix and the setup. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lord Tim 1,573 Posted January 20 @Scott Kendrick Cheers, Scott - thanks for your reply in the Production forum too! Hmm... the PDF should be extracted to the same location as the project file, but if not, I have a direct link HERE. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Scott Kendrick 10 Posted January 20 awesome - thank you! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FreeEarCandy 65 Posted January 20 Cool. However the drums (and the vocals) are getting buried underneath the guitar. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lord Tim 1,573 Posted January 21 Cheers for the listen! For this style of music, the guitar is intentionally up front. It may not to be to everyone's taste but it's consistent with how this style works. The best thing is that if you download the demo project, you can remix it however you like. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
steve@baselines.com 401 Posted January 21 Sounds great - I bet you are itching to put on a new drum track where you have more control. Nevertheless, I like it as is. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lord Tim 1,573 Posted January 22 Ha, yes! There were a lot of workarounds on this, and that even dictated how the song itself was written in places because I had to line up accents with whatever existing parts I was able to pull out of the demo tracks. Interesting exercise though! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
markno999 105 Posted January 23 Tim, Great track, what a way to start a Monday morning:) Will look forward to having a look through the demo project, fun stuff. Excellent example of how constraints don't limit good songwriters or musicians, i.e., I only have 4 tracks, don't have the right equipment, don't have good enough plugins, I only have a drum take from 2015, etc.... In many cases, and I have certainly been guilty of this, people obsess over things only they will notice or that don't really matter. Just hit record and see what happens:) In the regard, I kind of miss using tape. You certainly proved that you can write a great song around a good drum performance, and a great mix using stock DAW plugins. Fantastic work. Regards 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Scott Kendrick 10 Posted January 23 What I like about the mix is the guitars are big and wide, the vocals are super clear and have their space - and the fact that you pieced together a song the way you did is super impressive. Has a Queensryche feel to me - great song and great tutorial. I'm starting to adopt the Aux track method of summing instrument tracks rather than bussing - and it's turning out to be a faster workflow. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
