DW and Roland get “Inside The Modern Mix” for Band Month

This year at Plugin Boutique, we’ve been busier than ever, hosting real-world events to celebrate various niches within the music industry. Recent times have seen us celebrate Women’s Month, and discuss Keeping Creative with artists and plugin developers alike.

Aside from celebration, these events serve as a testament of successful growth of the ever-changing and expanding range of diverse music sectors across the globe. Panels of specialists, as well as dedicated enthusiasts meet up in the real world, in real time, to get important discussions underway to further the evolution.

This month was graced as Band Month. Time set aside to reminisce, appreciate and speculate the past, present and future of all things band related. It’s with great prowess and ambivalent humility that we partnered with DW Drums and Roland as our sponsors for the Inside The Modern Mix conference to coincide with our Band Month theme.

How The Event Unfolded

The Inside The Modern Mix event was centred around Heavy Metal and Rock, with a panel of four primary speakers: Misha Mansoor – guitarist of Periphery, MixbusTV – a popular music tech youtuber and Plugin Boutique affiliate, Nick Morzov – sound engineer for Travis Barker, and Brian Lee White – the composer of the DOOM: The Dark Ages and Borderlands 3 video game soundtracks.

After a superb DW Soundworks introduction by Curt Bisquera of DW Drums, our moderator, Travis Fodor (Riot Games, Cartographer, Fodor Sound), introduced the four main panelists to the stage. What followed was an in-depth discussion, broken down into four well-thought-out discussion points. This discussion carried the main body of the evening.

The Main Panel Discussion

What tools are pushing your sound forward?

Travis did a flawless job as moderator, engaging the panel and audience simultaneously with a vast set of curated questions revolving around a centred discussion point. The first point of discussion was: What tools are pushing your sound forward?. The speakers openly declared the hardware and software they use on a regular basis as the cruxes of their workflows.

Fodor dug deeper, posing a question: whether or not the electric guitar is still the defining instrument of heavy music. This was followed by a conversation regarding the use of physical controllers versus pure digital control, and whether vintage plugins and retro modellers still hold a valid place. Lastly, they spoke on randomisation and modulation, as well as briefly touching on what choices they make playing live verses in the studio.

Workflows and writer's block

Next up, the discussion smoothly transitioned onto the next main topic; this time about workflows and writer’s block. The first question was based on uncovering what each panelist does when the creative hits a roadblock. Do they rely on any specific techniques or tools to push through? Or perhaps leave things be for a while, and come back later?

Things naturally moved onto how the guests decided what gets recorded live verses being built in-the-box, which is a big thing in this genre specifically. Interestingly, the next question here focused on AI’s involvement in their production and whether or not it’s a viable solution to writer’s block.

Where do you see heavy music going in the context of the larger music industry?

Next they got into the real meat and potatoes, discussing the genre’s place and trajectory in the music industry as a whole. They discussed recent wins from heavy artists, such as Turnstile’s Grammy award, and Spiritbox’s performance. They also mentioned Olivia Rodrigo’s pop-inspired guitar risk, and how she has blended pop into her sound with finesse.

Finally on this conversation point, they explored their current major musical influences, which was nice for the audience and panelists to connect. It gave a chance for people to really peer into the minds of the creators on stage. There was one last thought-provoking question here before things moved forward: If you could put one non-metal artist in a room with a heavy producer for a week, who would you pick and why?

Song-specific questions, for each panelist

The fourth primary discussion point was: song-specific wrap-ins. With Misha, Nick and Brian asked something unique to elaborate upon one of their individual works. Misha walked the panel and audience through her production techniques for the guitar section on her ‘Everything is Fine!’ track.

In fact, all the guests were asked specifically about guitars. Nick graciously touched upon the chorus of his original ‘Gordian Naught’ track, detailing exactly how he got the crisp and clarity in the final product. Brian, who did the soundtrack for DOOM: The Dark Ages, was asked about the amp and mixing chain he used on the guitars combined with synths, specifically on the chorus of ‘From The Ashes’.

Rapid Fire Wrap Up

The main discussion came to a halt after Brian’s detailing of ‘From The Ashes’, however, Travis wasn’t finished with them quite yet. To wrap things up, and to build a final bit of excitement amongst the audience, there was a set of rapid fire questions. These helped to give the audience a last bit of insight into each guest’s brain before closing.

There were questions asked, such as: Do you prefer the LA-2A or 1176 compressor? Fractal, or Neural DSP? If you were trapped on a desert island studio with only one mic allowed, which would you choose? If you were handed the aux cable at a party, which song are you playing and why?

After these questions were answered (which were fun and enthusiastic), Travis and the guests closed things. The audience gave a final round of applause, and went on to network and party for the remainder of the day! Another successful event was hosted, with special thanks to our sponsors and guests. We thoroughly enjoyed it and hope you did too!