The Problem with Modern Amp Sims
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- Do you procrastinate by chasing "perfect" guitar tone?
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Another thing to consider: we don’t usually listen to electric guitar in a vacuum. If you have an amp tone dialed in and it feels like it’s lacking something, try layering more tracks and recording other instruments with it. You might find the guitar doesn’t sound so bad as you start combining it with other elements. :)
Good advice Max! Thank you!
Thank you! I came to this conclusion on my own, so seeing somebody else say it is reassuring :)
Not only that but sometimes the most delicious guitar tone can sound terrible in the context of a mix. Likewise some of the best music was produced using dirt cheap gear and/or stuff that would sound highly questionable if you solo'd the tracks. We all know how many people crave the lofi goodness that comes from gear and mediums musicians used to see as flaws overcome by revolutionary digital music tech. Nowadays much of that same digital tech is often seen as sterile, artificial, inferior to their analog counterparts, while other digital tech that was at one time seen as bringing a new level of fidelity and clarity to music production is now lusted after for the opposite reason (the crunch of 8 bit EPROM based drum machines, 12 bit samplers like the S950 and SP1200, the Boss SP202, anything made by Casio but especially whatever the hell the SK-1 is ext.) For guitars look at the continued popularity and legacy of Danelectro's lipstick pickups, fiberglass bodied Airlines and whatever you could get from a Sears catalogue in the 60s. Don't even get me started on classic solid state amps or how the tube distortion that turned the musical landscape upside down was only developed as an intentional feature after guitarists discovered the beauty of pushing an amp past its limit. A common theme here is that people did more than work around their flaws, quirks or limitations. They made those limitations iconic, doing things that only they could. If they had gear that didn't sound right in the music that was around instead of upgrading their gear they made something new and used what would conventionally be flaws as strengths. Love the ingenuity musicians have in the face of limitations.
@@TayTayMakesBeatsTotally agreed! Great points man, definitely inspiring.
It's called a cab. Also IRs
As a husband, father, producer, and artist this definitely resonates with me. Workflow is so important and I simply don’t have the time to drown in an ocean of options. Sometimes simplicity is the key and less truly is more.
Fantastic video Mick!
I feel this comment. It gets a lot more challenging to balance everything in later seasons of life. As much as I wish I was 19 again with nothing but time to dedicate to passions, the game is now about finding the best tools that get the job done quickly.
@@Morroh i agree with you
True. I just want to plug in and get a good tone quickly. All the options tend to overwhelm.
I feel like Neural DSP plug ins are a great option for people who just want to plug in and play. All the default presets sound awesome from the jump.
I was recording an artist who has a JP 2C in the studio. We were short for time and wanted to track an entire song in just a few hours, we did just that. I pulled out a plugin, had him go through the rhythm track and dialed in what I thought was the perfect sound in a couple of minutes. Had we started firing up amps and mics, we wouldn't be able to just sit in front of the monitors and drop tracks. I pulled a Mesa Dual plugin for the lead, added just a chorus pedal plugin, sounds great. I took the simple approach, didn't dig too deep into speakers, mics, none of that. Where I thought this video was going, my thoughts, most of this stuff sounds about the same. It comes down to the performance. I love plugins because I have zero concern of external noise, like somebody opening a door, a cough, whatever. I have only been recording live drums and vocals. I love my Fryette amp and it sounds fantastic, but time is often hard to come by and the speed I can drop tracks with amp plugins has been huge. Of course, the times I cannot get to the studio, I sit at my desk and record track after track and when the wife yells, "dinner time" it doesn't become a song lyric.
Yep! I also move pretty fast with amplitube or what ever. I don't go down rabbit holes, I just try and find serviceable sounds and concentrate on better parts to define the differences between guitar tracks. These sims are just tools and yes micing up an amp is impossible for me living in an Apt in SF. I have my productions mixed by some talented folks and they say that sims are finally at a place where they work just fine. These Mix engineers only re amp when the sim guitar part is the only thing going in a mix. The avg listener does not drill down on tones--they listen for the song!
Yeah, it's a real problem, but I would argue that one of the chief reasons in not the option paralysis per se, but rather not having experience with the production side of things. One of the biggest lightbulb moments for me was realizing that human hearing is very adaptive and you quickly get used to a certain tonality, whether it's objectively (in some sense) good or not. Meaning, you cannot simply tweak knobs until it sounds good because the brain can compensate massively for sketchy frequency response. A good example is to try and pull down a narrow frequency band, ideally around high midrange, try 2khz-6khz, very narrow Q, and pull it down around -6db to -10db. Listen for a bit, and disable the EQ. You'll hear a very very nasty screechy resonance now that you swear wasn't there before. It's because your brain got adjusted to hearing the tone with that cut on and when you turn it off it emphasizes the difference. It's the same exact issue with tweaking - you get used to how a certain IR sounds, you get used to how you tweaked the tonestack, the amount of gain, the EQ you put after the cab, and all that. It can be a terrible fatiguing sound, but if you got used to it you will be entirely oblivious of this fact.
The only way to get out of this mess is to first have a monitoring system that you're reasonably sure is somewhat flat and then A/B your guitar tone to guitar tones found on records. There's a really big catch though - tones on records are double tracked (or even quad tracked) and it's relatively rare to catch a moment where the guitar is playing just by itself. But this exactly what you need to find - songs where there are snippets of just the guitar. Then you should grab either the left or right channels of this snippet to get rid of double tracking, and only then you can A/B this tone to yours.
Also, as you get more into production, you'll realize that tone is not that important. Or at least not in the way that guitarists absolutely obsess over it. A great example is simply tweaking the amp knobs - when you do it while playing by yourself, changes are immediate and you're able to discern very minute changes. In a mix the situation is vastly different, the mix tends to bury the small details and those minute knob adjustments you were obsessing over are totally irrelevant, you just cannot hear them. The guitar is just one part of the mix and you need to leave your guitarists' obsession with tone and all that stuff behind, that's the point.
Yea its funny, I sometimes dont know whether my tube amp sounds bad for the first ten mins because it has to warm up, or if I am just not listening to it right at first.
Blasphemy
I really feel this. This is the reason I went for an old fashioned tube-head and a captor box 😊 it limits my options and let’s me focus on enjoying playing guitar. Thank you for voicing my thoughts in a video.
Thank you for watching 🙏
i agree. I did the same i just have one sound now and i feel so much better and productive
I went through a horrendous divorce (still am) a year and a half ago. I became broke with no savings over night. So the last year, I decided to never buy new software because I can’t, so don’t even look. I’m writing SO much now being forced to work with what I have. The biggest danger in todays plugin world is that we keep chasing the new without ever REALLY learning what we have. There’s a time for exploration but what an artist really needs to get work done is a finite set of tools to start and finish a project.
I’m sorry to hear your going through hard times. Honestly I had a similar situation happen to me a couple years ago. Seperation/pandemic ect. I had one guitar and a laptop/interface and was couch crashing. Having limited tools I started writing/recording and just playing more in general. As much as it sucks to say, the hard times can sometimes really put some gas in the tank when it comes creative expression.
@@Morroh for real. Kind of the magic of art. Sounds corny, but it can transform pain into beauty 🙏
Dude, this video hit really hard. I felt this phenomenon you talked about in this video some years ago. Since then I'm sticking to one single amp sim instead of craving the next newest Neural release. Also, the cinematography in this short video was amazing. Subscribed!
Thank you for watching and subscribing! As someone who is just now starting to take my camera seriously, I really appreciate this comment. 🙏
That does happen to me but just as often I’ll find a tone that then inspires new song ideas and sometimes the process of just jumping around is relaxing and fun. Tying everything to productivity is just going to leave you frustrated most of the time.
The best benefit of digital amps, especially with the Fractal and to a lesser degree the Kemper is that without knowing anything about electronics, you can take a stock amp and modify it in ways that don’t already exist which for me is huge because I have some unique issues that most amp makers don’t take into account. I still love real tube amps and their limitations can actually inspire creativity but customizing my digital amps has been very inspiring to give me what I want without having to have my own amp tech willing to tweak things till I get it right.
2:15 “Life will find a way of reminding you that your time, is not infinite. Oh well, there’s always next weekend but didn’t you say that, last weekend?” Epic!
I’m learning guitar. Bought a boss Katana in 2020. I fell into this trap and spent more time finding a sound then practicing. I can’t play but fell into the gear trap. I returned it. I fell in love with the Amped roots free plug-in. Sounds good, models an amp bands I listen to use, don’t need to fidget around to get a decent sound. I just get to practicing.
This is the first video of yours that I watched, it was recommended by the almighty algorithm. This is really well done, good job!
Thank you! 🙏
When it comes to guitar tone, I always aim for "good enough". It's about character. The mix and how it sits with the other instruments will do the rest.
That Laundry-time alarm bell… I felt it so deeply on this Sunday evening, before another week 😂
There’s another side to this coin… The search for tone is an integral part of the musicians journey. As our skills grow and we gain more experience, so do our sonic needs and taste develop. The sandboxes that are modern amp sims provide a much needed playground for us to explore and develop are taste to find what we’re looking for with our sonic pallet. Everyone has “that tone” in mind that they’re striving for, a cross of many of their favorite artists synthesized to absolute perfection. As these products become more and more commercial some company’s have afforded us great insight into our favorite artists tones and rigs, and I can say that being able to play through these rigs has lead to many moments of great inspiration. I could go on and on about the benefits of modern amp sims, but that’s a topic for another video… maybe some day I’ll make it ;)
Well said! Living in a state of gratitude with options to have rigs that only the rich and famous could afford.
Spent way too much time and money trying to acquire and setup gear that wasn’t practical in countless ways.
It’s almost hard to watch a guitarist spending over an hour setting up for a 2 hour gig and another hour taking it down. Even worse when they fumble around in the dark to make tweaks for another song.
Almost like the days when people use to say automobiles weren’t worth the hassle when you have a good horse in the barn..
... this is sooo true, i cant even express it. This is exactly what happens to me every single time i try. I started laughing midway through this video because you just described my exact process... its like hell.
It's like painting with watercolors, you just have to paint that first layer quick and let it dry, without adding too many colors
Great video and solid points! I like to keep things simple as well!
You're right man, many of us has jobs and college degrees to finish or even to give some attention to our family and the little time that we had became even shorter by the phenomena of searching the right tone instead of focus in our songwriting and etcetera. Great video dude 🤟
Great Video bro, it was me many years ago. Specially dealing with Impulse Responses until i really got tired of exploring unlimited effects and sounds that now days those plugin give us, and i bought a HUGHES KETTNER TUBEMEISTER 20 that can be connected direct to my audio interface and know that is my basic sound, i dont deal more with so much options and i just play the guitar now. So you really reminded me a lot of those old days moving digital knobs and the next day looking for a better sound that never came.
Digital amps are awesome and I own quite a few of the NeuralDSP plugins. But lately I've realized that I'm getting way better results when I focus on the sound I get from my TWO physical amps a reactive loadbox and some good IRs.... and spend more time on making music. You've hit the nail on the head for my situation.
Ah... the good old ToneChasers! I suppose modern amp sims have created a lot more of these guys but they've always been around. I worked in guitar stores many years ago and I knew a few of these types of guys. One or two were even colleagues. I remember spotting a work mate laying out a heap of single D'Addario string packets all over the bench and jotting down the tension rating that was written on the back. Turns out he was trying to match the tensions across a set (well before companies started doing balanced tension sets themselves) because he thought it might give his tone just that last thing it was missing. He would also swear blind that certain brands of 9V battery would sound better than others. Poor guy, I don't think he ever found his Shangri-La.
I'm not totally immune either but I think I've done ok on the tone chasing front. I save my option paralysis for Netflix.
Well, Netflix shut down because I was using a shared account, guess I will be doing more tone chasing!! lol
I've been using Scuffham Amps for years! It sounds great and the set-up is limited to amp controls (with cabinet tweaks on some models), convolver parameters, delay and reverb controls. You can also change/add IR's. It blows away Tonex, Archetype and Amplitube, IMHO!
Great, simple but crafted video. I agree with you about the plugs, we could stand in particular to have short lists of sensible descriptive names, no more 3000 names like "frost puppy" and "sunlight." More generally, art thrives on procedural limitation, and founders in the face of a blank sheet and infinite supplies. In writing lyrics, for example, your first keeper couplet or stanza tells you a hundred things about what your song is NOT, far more helpful in completing it than kaleidoscopic glimmers of what it could be. This, along with some serious reflection on Dolly Parton's critical observation that it takes a lot of money to look this cheap, are all you really need to know to make good and useful art.
I think people nowadays forget that most revolutions in music came from using equipment the way it wasn't supposed to. Spring reverb was used to make a surf sound by cranking it, a guitar made for jazz is one of the most popular in rock music, distortion as a whole from pushing amps harder than they're supposed to be pushed, positions 2 and 4 on a strat, basically all modulation pedals were replication of studio screw ups or radio phasing etc. My point isn't that new technology giving more access is a bad thing though, just that there's too much put into getting the tone just right when most music in most genres was made in more limiting circumstances and still sounds good
In fact, the issue at hand stems from the abundance of choices. Having numerous options is undoubtedly fantastic, but it can also be paralyzing.
In the past, the options for amplifiers were limited. There wasn't a wide selection available, and the control over them was fairly minimal. The same was true for effect pedals. Moreover, owning several was a costly endeavor, so people often made do with what they had. This limited selection was sufficient for most, as there was no alternative. Consequently, many musicians honed their skills with the equipment they had.
One might think that the amplifiers of yesteryears were superior, but in reality, they were not. To be honest, they were inferior since they didn't offer the range of controls that are available today. However, their limited nature was, in some ways, advantageous.
Today, my setup consists of a Positive Grid Mini and a Go, which I use daily, coupled with a JBL Party Box 310. They are exceptional in comparison to the tube amp that I used to have. Not only is the sound quality better, but it is also more minimalist, which I find to be a huge plus. However, it’s true that sometimes the sheer volume of options available today can be overwhelming.
There is definitely something to be said about using a hardware modeler (Line 6 HX, Tonex, Axe-FX, etc.) or an actual amp (tube, solid state, or modeling) to monitor myself while I record the DI to reamp later (bonus of almost zero latency). This way during the recording session, I'm more about capturing the performance(s) and less dicking around to search for the perfect tone; I can do that later in the production process. Like another comment pointed out, writing, recording, and production belong in separate sessions. In fact, I just use a main guitar patch and a main bass patch on my Line 6 HX Stomp for practicing, performing, and monitoring, and don't venture much from there; I don't even touch my stash of amp sims, IRs, and/or plugins, even the ones loaded up in my template, until everything's been recorded.
Bonus tip: DAW templates with your favorite plugins loaded up and routed are an immense time-saver :D
This can happen with hardware gear too, though, especially when people get sucked into G.A.S. With amp sims, option paralysis is at least free or very cheap.
Bogren amp knob plugins are awesome because they don't spoil you with plenty of options. It just works.
Also, a trick that I learned while producing electronic music is that you be great to split sound design and writing sessions.
If you want to dial the tone - just do that.
If you want to write riffs - get the preset you crafted or any other and play.
I have been strictly using the bogren amp knob stuff for practicing and writing for the exact reasons you’re describing
This is so true for me. I will say that by comparison I've spent years buying different amps, pedals, guitars, tubes, strings, even trying different picks in the pursuit of the tone I am chasing. So in my opinion I've spent much less time with plugins than I have with my amp. But there's been so many times I've sat down to play just a scratch track using my iPad and an hour later I'm just noticing my ass is asleep because I haven't moved. These tools are fun but can definitely become a rabbit hole. Overall though I would just say that I prefer my amps and pedalboard over plugins, even though the price difference is dramatic.
I love playing with tones, its like sound design. That being said I wait to dial down the tone after the rest of the song comes together
This resonates with me. I’ve been down the modeling/profiling rabbit hole a few times and, in retrospect, it’s been a huge waste of time. I take full responsibility. These are powerful tools. However, I tend to spend a lot less time tweaking when I just stick to a good tube amp with pedals.
The problem with that is privilege. Not everyone can afford or has acceptable space for a tube amp and cab. Besides, real amps aren't infallible, and time can be wasted tweaking them as well.
@@nebularain3338 very true. I do appreciate the benefits of digital gear, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered with it.
Yep! My favourite amp sim critisism from various review videos is '' It only has 27 amp models!''.
I just have generic tones that are always ready when inspiration strikes, like clean/crunch/hi gain rhythm and lead. I don't dwell too much on creating the perfect tone. My priority is always produce new tracks, there is always a chance to make things sound better but I never allow that to stop my productions. I am old school so I appreciate all the new technologies but I only get the basics needed to proceed without digging deep in every option and possibility. Another point is that with time and practice you get really experienced on how to dial the tone you need in a very short time, for example, I can create the tone I need from scratch in less than 5 minutes, with the technology and modern digital workflow you can always re-amp or change the tone even after you record. Great video production by the way, keep going.
The perfect name for this phenomenon is "chasing the tone dragon". Being addicted to finding the "perfect" sound rather than actually playing, creating, and enjoying music.
LOL - so true! Fiddle all weekend with the sounds and then times up - and it was all just different , not necessarily better. I recently settled into one single amp config and 2 IRs (one for low gain, one for hi gain) and it was liberating to not have to worry anymore about tweaking sounds so I could focus on songwriting, arranging, and recording. Congrats on your new channel, very strong debut with this and your other videos. Keep ‘em coming!
I did my loop through Amplitube, Guitar Rig, Bias FX, and Amp Room - and finally ditched all the amp sims for a Yamaha THR30 amp which has about 10 great sounds in it and a wireless receiver, and since then I play way more guitar and compose much more than I did before. I still use the Amp sims for mixing songs, but at least I play the guitar and enjoy it.
I always felt what you said in this video but couldn't find a way to express it in words until now. Thank you. In the end, many iconic tones were crafted out of the lack of options, i mean, many artists ended up using unconventional methods/gear due to the lack of other options, creating many legendary tones now a lot of people try to emulate. A exaggerate use of these plugin can in my opinion lead to everyone sound really alike each other, other than putting a stop to creativity. I agree on the fact these plugins are awesome and really well built, i use them on a daily basis to train/study/jam/hear in the daw what i record before reamping etc. but i just stick to a preset i've created when i bought the program because i am too lazy to make new presets with so many options hahah
This is exactly why when I get a new amp sim or try one out, I usually give myself a week or two to constantly work on a few custom presets to match my taste with one to three for each standard sound (high gain rhythm, high gain lead, low gain rhythm, clean, and so on), so I have a few to choose from when writing. After that tone search period, I often get tired of crafting sounds in that plugin/sim, so I naturally gravitate toward writing and just choosing the right custom preset for the moment. If something is still missing like some weird modulating flanger delay effect chain, I will still add it later but can just start with one of my custom presets and add the desired effects, without really having to craft the sound again.
I find it most useful to use in the box guitar amp sims to replicate the sound of my actual gear, and of my hardware amp sims, so that way it is purely just a tool. I seek out the best free and paid amp and pedal sims of physical gear I already own, or plan to purchase for usage practice. That whole "limitations force creativity" thing is true, as is "keep it simple" and that's what works for me.
Using IRs with IR loaders instead of the plugins' own cabin simulations makes a difference like night and day for most plugins. If you boost your guitar with a real pedal, the results can be amazing with some plugins. You can try connecting it from the instrument input of your sound card or the line input with a di box.
I tend to approach my music sessions with a goal. Sometimes it's to write music while other times it's to get a good guitar tone which can effectively be considered sound design. The point of this is to keep the sound design sessions separate from the music creation sessions. That way when you want to write music, you take your presets that you created from the sound design sessions (or even other presets) and they're already made.
I should also point out that I tend to look at things from a producer standpoint, which means the song should always come first before the guitar tone. You can spend hours coming up with a perfect tone, but if it doesn't work with the mix of the song, it's all for not.
I have two modes:
Messing around with plugins mode, and making music mode.
Messing around normally ends with a guitar to midi converter, (jamorigin) and some wacky synths, loads of granular and shimmer delays.
For making music, I have a simple setup, mimicking a jc120 with a bit of reverb. That's it. In this way, I can really listen what I do, without all the fluff.
recommendation: when you think your sounds is "not quite there" just stop and start playing, you have already wasted too much time. The problem with modern guitar players is that you want the "perfect tone" right on the vst plugin, let me tell you something, the "perfect tone" does not exsist, not even in a real cab, you need to have context from the mix and the main problem is that you want to create the "perfect tone" based on a mix, if you are lucky enough and find the isolated original tracks from that mix, you will find out that the guitar sounds different from what you thought.
Just create a simple sound that works with your "palm mute" technique and also with melodies, lead, solos etc... with an equalization that you feel related to, and that's it...
You will create your perfect tone IN the mix
Oh man, I was just talking about this yesterday. Sometimes I wish I would have never plugged my guitar into an interface. I have thousands of plugins, but I still prefer plugging into a tube amp with a few pedals. I dont as much, because I like the better volume control and ease of routing on a pc.
i had a shared license of Archetype Nolly with band that i worked with and it's safe to say that i'm more comfortable with the ancient TSE X50 i have been using for more than 5 years rn.
Tsex50 still sounds great!
Wow great video. I came from Tube Amps and went with Modeling in 2006 with AxeFx 1 mainly for curiosity and convenience for gigs. After a week I gave up completely trying to replicate my tube amps and find the perfect sound. Even today. Such a waste of time. Like haircuts, no one cares but you how perfect your sound is. I started using the modeling as a new sound and wrote to that. Spend 99% of your time on the song and 1% on the tone. Your video pointed out what no one is talking about. 8 thousand parameters in a modeling setting does nothing but sell products since we live in a world of more features is supposedly better. Amp and pedal sales are at the highest ever because of their simplicity. Tells you something.
This video is the exact depiction of my life these last months…
With two very young kids, I have very limited time to play and still spent 10% of the time playing and 90% of the time turning knobs in my DAW, blending IRs, auditioning profiles…
The perfect tone I dial on Wednesday is utter trash on Friday and is reborn again on Sunday. I am caught in a negative spiral which completely killed my guitar passion.
This video is really an eye opener. I have decided to delete 90% of my IRs collection and plugins.
I am keeping only the essential ones and essential IR mixes.
I am going to play more and fiddle less…
Hopefully…
this is a very well made video. i thought my youtube was broken when i saw you had 112 subscribers. keep going.113 :)
Thank you, I really appreciate that 🙏 lots of ideas for future videos. currently working on something exciting, 🤞🏻 it works out. Thanks for the sub!
I AM a production junkie. And I CAN mess with all the stuff and I DO. The irony is that being a “production junkie” is the biggest hinderance to production for a creative player. As I said in my last comment: Find what works and go to it every time you have that spark in you and need to sit down and get ideas out. Don’t mess around with stuff. Just turn it on and go. Save the option exploration for other times….it’s not for the creative moment.
I stopped dialing in tone before I record and now I wait until I start mixing. I get it where I can use it to track, and then I start tweaking after I have my DI tracks solid. Plus, the tone I end up with in a mix usually doesn’t sound awesome by itself. Tones I have dialed in to be killer on the standalone app end up getting redone completely once I start to mix a track.
This made me a lot less insecure about my tones actually. I dont really go down the hole of fixating on my tone for a long time but Ive always been super insecure about them. Cool video
Thanks for watching!
I spent way too many years worrying about tone. The performance is the most important item on the list. Preparation is before tone. I played a live gig with a Line 6 Spider III with an SM57 in front of it. I didn't want to carry my Fryette 1/2 stack and I wouldn't get paid more for better gear at the gig. People remember the performance, not the tone. Too much attention given to tone. I say that and I am a tone junky, I just keep it in check.
The same situation also applies to the tone chasers too. All that gear chasing exhausted the time and money.
I'm writing a post rock album at the moment and the approach I take is this: I'm using guitar rig 6. as it's the most versetaile, best sounding, and best feeling amp sim of all the ones i tried. So, I thought out a basic rig with all the necessary fx. I use the twin reverb model on all my guitars, for heavy guitars i use only the distorrion of the pedal models. and I also setup a wrting template for my daw, with everything i might possibly need, such as different synth pads, piano, strings, horns, and stuff like that. I also loaded up basic eq and comp settings on each channel. Everything is color coded, bussed amd ready to go. This changed my life completely. No messing about for hours, to find the "perfect" tone and whatnot. I can worry about all that in post production. IMO it doesn't make any sense anyway to craft that perfect tone you're after without the context of the other elements in the arrangement. I would highly recommend to put in the hours of setting up a writing template, to eliminate as many repetetuve tasks as possible and to pave the smoothest path possible for your creativity.
Oh, and I prepared pedal switch automations for every single pedal of every instance guitar rig, in my case 1 main clean guitar, 3 leads for layers and shit and heavy L/R. So, if I wanna decide to "stomp" a pedal sim at any point in the arrangement, I can just pull it in, instead of wasting time of drawing in an automation clip everytime. I'm using FL studio btw
I've more often than not found that presets do not sound like me. I like to get a sound on my Mesa for clean and dirty then add pedals on my board for specific flavors that I like to have for jamming. Modelers are great for recording since I never lived in a studio and hard wired recording is a God send, but I always need to adjust all the paramiters on presets to get what I want to sound like and then save them under my own custome titles. Have a tone in mind before you start up that device of plug in. It will help you get creative in the long run. Peace.
This is why I use the amp knob. I don’t have the time or energy to craft my tone anymore. It’s just not worth wasting my creative energy
This is exactly why I still have an Orange OR15 and 4x12, and a small pedalboard. Turn it on, turn it up, and just… play. I don’t need the endless options. No, that is my sound and I’m working with it.
I have a to much plugins but I decided to use my amp with two notes. Why? Because I have only one sound. Plug and play.
Real amp into a load box like two notes is a great option! I just sold my Evh5153 but if I hadn’t this is the route I would take.
The reason modern tools are such a distraction is because they are so great. Our problem solving brains did not evolve to process the sheer amount of instantaneous control that modern DAWs provide with little effort. If things don't sound better, but simply sound different, when you make them more complex, then it's yet another reminder to just keep things simple. The works that inspired you to create in the first place were more often than not created on a few pedals, a single microphone, and a couple of cabinets. The same principle applies to electronic music. Keeping things simple and trying to create great things with less almost always gives you a greater product in the end. Endless toiling is priceless as a learning process, but the cause of so much that you will never create. Just have fun, save these presets, and recall them when you need to be creative and just get something you already know will sculpt it well.
Probably not a bad thing to just settle for a perceived imperfection because it's going to be subjective and what is thought to be an objective perfection doesn't exist, and everyone's experience is going to be different enough that something that is simply good enough will be plenty and everyone will be happy who would've been happy regardless however much was agonized over some detail, and the creator will be happy for having gotten something done and not worried too much in the process. Just use some presets, adjust a few things here and there, maybe throw some stuff around and it's probably fine.
A couple months ago I bought NDSP's Tone King plug-in. I spent a couple weeks playing around with it and setting up some presets for my different guitars. Since then, when I want to play, I load up the plug-in, pick the preset for the guitar I'm using and I'm good to go. I think playing with tone is a lot of fun, but it has to be separate from playing guitar. Give yourself some time to set up and play around with a couple tones you like, but then when it's time to play/record, don't let yourself muck up the presets you made for yourself. Commit to and trust the sounds you set up beforehand.
I actually use amp sims for the exact opposite of this. I use them because they're significantly quicker and easier to just plug in and go. I rarely tweak mics and cabs and all those other settings. I just dial in gain, boost, and low end and just go. Especially withe the Neural stuff. They sound so good right out the box I can get to wiriting and recording in no time. If anything, I maybe spend too much time noodling just because they sound so good. It's not the amp sim, it's the person. They know they should create, but they want to procrastinate. Even if they were recording in a traditional sense they'd probably waste a bunch of time with pedals and mic positions and all that. It's all just a form of procrastination at the end of the day.
This was a very nice and even calming video, I like your style! :) I feel kinda refreshed after this, which happens rarely in this time of micro dopamine hits machine-gunning from every single channel. Altho the title was slightly misleading. Option paralysis is found almost everywhere and well.. I think it's more of a problem of the person, not the tools! Only if a guitar amp sim comes with NO presets whatsoever you could maybe blame it being the hinderance of your creativity and productivity.
Just click one preset and start playing. It really is that simple! ;)
I have to keep reminding myself, the regular listener doesn't care. What does the song require? Find an amp that sounds good in the mix, EQ on mixdown and you're done. Endless mining for the perfect sound is a fool's errand. Thank you for pointing this out. Taming the inner gearhead is a real thing.
I am late but enjoyed that video. It's true. You can spend hours playing with the features. I have dialed a few tones in and downloaded a few the rest is ignored. I own Amplitube 5 max and Tone x, Helix Native and Bias elite. It's mind boggling. I just wanna play.
This is a common perspective, but it comes with a big ol' YEAH, BUT; you can just find a 'that'll do' tone and leave the shaping and perfecting for the mixdown stage. You don't need to obsess, because you don't have to commit; just grab it and growl, with your eyes on the prize.
Of course this is very much a thing. Personally I think I’m a bit inoculated against it just because I was never a tinkerer back when I worked with real physical amps and pedals. But I realise I’m an exception in the guitar community. Just like back then, I just choose something in the ballpark of what I want, or just surf the presets until I hear something interesting, and then get on with it. In my experience, the minute tinkering a lot of guitarists spend a lot of time on, is rendered moot at mix time anyway. You know, when that larger than life guitar sound has to play nice with everything else and fit in the mix… I guess it depends a bit on genre as well though. Just my two cents.
This is so good; I really hope your channel blows up!!
Such incredible care and intention put into this video; great work!
Thank you! I put a lot of time into this one.
I would be thrilled if things take off, but for now I’m just going to enjoy making videos 😁
Why is this so well shot lmao
Musician does not equal a sound engineer.
If you want to write, just use presets.
It takes years to learn writing music.
It takes years to learn prosuction.
This is why these are 2 different roles.
I divide my time into setup or playing. When its time to practice, i choose to spend 30 seconds or less dialing in a playable tone, or just use one thats already set up. Separately I spend time tweaking to get a specific sound. I am not always consistent, but I find that it helps to alternate. If i chased tone last time, today i chase practice and learning.
What definds a tone as good or bad is the context. If you don't have any context, you can't define your tone.
Use a random preset first, compose, then work on the sound design, si it has a bit of context to work with
Actual amp, load box, IR of your cab you made.
Easy peasy.
I forced myself to just print the guitar audio to a new track as if it were a real amp. I can still tweak that but changing amps and cabs and mics qas at least removed from the process.
I'm oddly in the middle l feel this 100% with too many options equaling nothing but at the same time love messing with the stuff so I always have tivhave a separate day dedicated to messing with sound
The problem with all these amp sims is that they are all getting super close to cloning a tube amp sound, but it's the same amp. A JCM800 through a V30 - or a modded JCM800 style circuit with more gain - all with a tube screamer up front to rip out all the low end. The dream of modelling is not to have 1000 versions of the same sound, it's to have 100 different sounding amps without having to buy and store them all. Props to all the companies making their own unique tones or modelling all the weird and rare amps out there.
It's the same reason I don't create synth presets. Too many parameters that distract you from actually making music.
Well, the nice thing about amp sims, is you can adjust the tone AFTER recording the parts. Just get something decent, play the parts, then worry about tweaking it afterwards. It's not that complicated.
Im always trying to get a better tone but i dont really know how to dial it in well with real pedals and amps let alone in a DAW i can barely use lol. Great video man
I personally find restrictions really helpful and I like when there are just a couple options that are all powerful. Like on guitar pedals. I think 3-4 parameters is perfect. I hate pedals with like 7 nobs
This is fantastic. We'll thought out, shot, and edited. I'm definitely guilty of getting distracted by tone dialing when I'm supposed to be writing. My solution is to use a generic preset on my QC while i tab and arrange everything out in guitar pro to keep things basic and kinda bad sounding because it forces me to focus on making the riffs good. If it sound good in gp, I know it'll sound good in my DAW.
i can't even decide my way out of a grocery store aisle.
This is why I use Ampire on Studio One now. Sounds good but there's almost no customisation, just plug n play
I got tired of what sounds the best. So! Several years ago I bought a TC Helicon voice live 3 extreme. The A/Ds D/As are the best. I learned it pretty good and now. I’m out playing gigs every weekend (Sex, Drugs and rock and roll). Everybody that comes to hear my music has a great time and tells me I’m the best. It ain’t perfect, but how much time is there left in the world to have fun!
Im on the other end of the spectrum here. I basically just use the presets and only ever make minor changes. I spend too much time playing and recording and as a result always hate my tones. Been doing my best to lean the other direction and sculpt custom sounds lately, but once I find a tone I dig I just end up jamming on it instead of messing with it.
My own thoughts on this:
1) Stop looking for the "perfect tone" when you are tracking. In fact, there's a reason why it's called a "demo" because it's something that gives you a starting point, which you can *then* refine. And this leads into ...
2) Save the tweaking for when you are mixing. I guess there can be some mild tweaking if you are trying to track what is supposed to be a finished work if it will aid in a better performance. After all, it's the performance that matters more in tracking than the actual sound. But it's mixing when the tweaking and it's only really to make sure *all* the elements work together to form a cohesive whole, not just sounding nice/cool/perfect in isolation.
But all in all, nice job on making the point =]
I never had that problem. I dialed in my tones 10 years ago. Never felt the need to get the new amp sim or impulse, i found my sound and i just roll.
I agree with your take (also amazing video production, very captivating visuals and straight to the point). I went through phase of buying and trying each new amp sim, wasting so much time scrolling through presets and adjusting parameters. Though the past few months i started using ML Sound Lab amp sims because of their simplicity and it has changed my approach tremendously in a great way. My only issue (a recurring one for a long time) is latency, maybe a more expensive interface would help solve that.
I feel like most interfaces no longer have the latency issue. However if the plug-in is too taxing on your system that can definitely cause latency issues.
This is a problem only for those who consider it...a problem. When you go shopping at the supermarket, you won't eat everything you buy that same evening, but stock up for when you need it in the following days and months. It's better to know it's there but leave it there and use it when needed.
What are you smoking?
You absolutely right. The amp sims are time traps only and the modelers too. In addition the outringing tone stops or collapses at the end what nobody consider if he use a gate. I wont a workable tone: clean, crunch and lead, some effects and that's it. The unbelievable possibilities are like click bate...
While I want to have a "less is more" kind of mindset, finding the tone (especially if I'm planning on learning a song/making a cover) is half the fun for me.
I agree with you 100% that many of the newer amp sims are virtually indistinguishable from the "real" thing, BUT, many people who use these sims also use other plugins like Superior drummer, fake bass plugins etc, and the resulting music production as an aggregate all sounds the same. Too sterile, polished, too perfect etc. There needs to be life and feeling in music recording. Of course this depends on the type of music one is producing, but in general my point stands that we are becoming too reliant on "software everything". Also, latency is a BIG issue for many. I have a brand new M2 mac and I still have to fiddle with buffers constantly to make latency acceptable when using a guitar sim. This is particularly noticeable if you have other tracks in your DAW session utilizing CPU like synths and processing. I would have included this in your video, meaning the amount of tech fiddling we have to do to get things working somewhat reliably, and that also takes away joy of writing/recording music. Great video though, the message is clear and relatable!
I fully agree, the amount of trouble shooting it takes to be able to get started inside the computer has always been a barrier. Its one of the prices we all have to pay in order to be our own producers. I also agree that music needs a prominent element of natural feel in order to translate to others. It’s a matter of convenience now, that also has its price.
It saddens me how accurate that first half is. The second half for me however feels like a skill issue. I've been trying so hard to get the exact tone I want, but flipping back to a present or copying settings I've seen in RUclips vids always seem to produce something sounding half decent / usable..
So what is it? Is the problem really option paralysis or are some people just better at crafting tone than others?
I don’t think those things are mutually exclusive. For example, you know your going to use a 5150 style sim with some variation of a mesa v30 cab and 57 blended with your mic of choice. Do you use Archetype Nolly, Gojira, TSE or some other 5150 sim? Once you decide do you stick with the stock cab? Or do you reach for Ownhammer, Redlines? Or GetGood? Let’s say you go with Ownhammer, ok so what exact variation of the 57 v30 do you want? There’s likely tens to hundreds of them. Friedman style? Directly on the grill cloth? Maybe you had one you like but now you’re bored with it? Maybe Ownhammers the wrong call. Maybe you should switch to get good? But didn’t nolly also make the nueral cabs? Why should you choose getgood over the stock ones? See in my mind, there’s just way too much time spent over these details. If your a producer and you use these every day and you know what’s going to work when, then it absolutely makes sense. I just want something that works well, but still sounds amazing. That time spent tweaking amp/cab/mic positions is far better spent working on the music imo.
I've Kemper, I've put 6 sounds on it and consider them as 'my sound' those are the ones I use and start making music with.
I love the premise of the kemper for this reason, I haven’t tried one though. I’m excited that technology is becoming more affordable, Tonex and NAM come to mind.
@@Morroh More affordable? Yea I would say going from close to $2k to $0 is quite the jump! I mainly use Tonex because I like broswing profiles more that way than just loading files in NAM
I remember as a teenager, I had 1 guitar 1 amp, and 1 pedal. Was wither distortion or no distortion.
I defo have this issue, got at least 4 virtual guitar rigs. They are great production tools. But, that said, for my band, I general set the presets once then use 1 of 3 I have for rehearsal and record tones. If further adjustment needed for final release then so be it, but a lot of the times we reamp for final recording so it's just a means to an ends.
Can be fun of course if you get exactly what you after though. Have fun whatever you do
I only use free plugins and i dont care about quality, just fun enjoy playing
I wrote more songs with the line out on my Peavey Bandit. I didn't have any options, only Clean, Dirty, and more or less reverb.
Less is really more sometimes. My old Roland micro cube got more practice and play out me than my amp sims have. However I think that’s more a phase of life condition than anything else.
I'd love to hear more of that Tube Clean tone at 2:06. What amp is that, anyway?
Find a sound that you like and think is appropriate for the song. Record, including a track for re-amping later. Resist the urge to spend more than, say 30 minutes on a sound before you have most of the instrumentation down. If you spend ages getting ‘that’ sound at this early stage, chances are it’s gonna be changed anyway.
I’m old. From the analogue and early digital days. The equipment is so much better than it used to be, no question. Even the ‘classic’ stuff. What it did have, was limitations. If you only had 4/8/16/24 tracks you had to be thoughtful about what you recorded. Most studios might have had one or two compressors, maybe an extra couple if your contract allowed you to hire stuff.
And guitars - yes, if we could we spent hours getting a sound, moving mics, changing amps or guitars if they were available. But you were on the clock, so you needed to make a decision. Sure, some things could be fixed in the mix but only some. These limitations and deadlines gave musicians structure, those wonderful limitations! Unless you were Fleetwood Mac or Elton John or Van Halen but even then, chances were a big chunk of those near-endless budgets went on cocaine so limitations on the gear and recording process were created even then.
I love amp sims, I will argue that nobody can tell if a well recorded guitar was via amp and mic or amp sim these days. And that goes double once in a mix. But I play through a valve amp because I like the experience, even though I do tend to record a reamp track in case I screw something up.
There are no absolute limitations these days, so for the creative process to work you need to create your own. By the way, IMO this lack of limitations is one reason the golden era ended about 1995, maybe a few years earlier or later. But when the limits were gone, popular music fragmented. This is despite the technical standard being much higher on average these days and there probably being more talent around than ever. To recapture some of that magic, set a path, a workflow and your one limits. I can’t guarantee your music will improve but every time I’ve done this or seen someone else do this, the old magic seems to just reappear.
Iv been thinking about the end of the “golden era” for music and production as well and how it likely relates to technology and the structure of our music capturing process. Your comment is spot on. Thank you for joining the conversation and for sharing your wisdom!
I was going down the black hole of guitar sim "analysis paralysis" but the reponse from my tone knob on my guitar was lacking on most sims. I experimented with a Vox MV50 that I kept as a backup live amp and just sent the headphone output with built-in cab sim to my interface. I could still use my pedals on the front end of the amp then add delay and/or reverb on the daw.
My favorite amp is a Fender Blues Deluxe so I bought a Joyo Tweedy to set up the same way into my DAW. It also has a cab sim on the headphone output but offers an effects loop so I use it and have no worries about picking up room noise while tracking.
I have compared it to amp sims, unless you a cork sniffer it works just fine.
Now I just use the Vox and the Tweedy. It also works for the bass.
I used to do this with my Evh and a Darkglass elements pedal for live sound. I get to load a good cab sim that would go to FOH, but still have my cab for stage sound and access to all my effects. Best of both worlds.
This is why artists shouldn't produce their own shit...stop messing around with tones and hook up with a producer whose job it is to do that. Your job is to perform and write. Eventually you'll develop your own tastes and learn when to fuck with the knobs and when not to.
I agree. We are in the golden age of digital music technology. Now more than ever producers are needed to help the songwriter musician types.