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. :)
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.
Man, maybe you didn’t realize how important this video is for the community of guitar player. As you mentioned many of us are doing exactly this. Congrats. Very well done. 👍🏼
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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 🤟
Awesome video, this is something I'm constantly struggling with as well. The better you get at production, the more gear you accumulate...the less creative time you have. Thanks for highlighting that, much needed right now!
At some point it’s good to remember why you started in the first place. For me it’s always been about the songs, and at some point along the way that got lost in the production. Thank you for watching 🙏
@@Morroh exactly, it's a fine line to walk, especially if the songwriting side of it is still the main focus (which it is here too). So it's a bit of a balancing act, I'm dialing production work way back and focusing on my bands again because it's too hard to balance this stuff otherwise. I'll definitely be following your future stuff! - Mike
And that's why I minimalized my setup and I try to take it even further. Try to use one device for tones, get 2-3 good tones (clean, dirt and lead) out of it, then delete everything else (from the computer and from the material world too). I have 4 electric guitars now, all in different tuning and i'm thinking about to sell some of them too and get only one that has a lot of guitar in it (i'm talking about an 8 string in standard tuning). I feel like you, I tried a lot of pedals, amp sims and a lot of fancy plugins just to find out that all I need is an HX Stomp and a Whammy V with one or two guitars really. We always seek perfection but we end up without a happy ending. Set the line just a little bit lower and you will be actually more productive and happier with your resoults. Cheers!
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.
yuuup! Great video with amazing delivery and backing track! This is why templates have saved my life! got a good enough tone to start and write and record. when a new amp sim comes out i often pass on it. Though I DID buy softube's new amp room suite since the marshall and mesa clones are top notch. didn't have anything that could match them so i bought them. I try not to rebuy amp clones i already have that get the tone for a specific amp at near perfect levels. most new things are just as good as the real thing these days. neural dsp i often avoid (though their bass amp/pedal sims are top notch) mainly because when i think of a tone in my head i already have the mic position i want, speaker/cab brand, and amp brand in my mind. so i wanna be able to reach for that no compromises.
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 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.
I played guitar for about 10 years before falling out of it from just living life. About 15 years later and I recently got back into playing guitar, this time with the money to buy the equipment I could only dream of when I was first learning. I fell right into this trap. There have been so many technological advances when it comes to plug ins and digital interfaces, I forgot that I used to just plug into the amp and play. I now use a real amp, a real cab, and a few pedals. This is ALL I need to get to it and start playing. Great video. Good job bringing attention to a problem I’m sure many people suffer from.
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!
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.
Yep, you're absolutely right. I got IK Multimedia Studio Max and the complete Arturia collections. I wasted so much time just trying different options. Now, I have a few presets and just work with those. Great video and music.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
Dude you hit the nail right on the head with this video. I often will look at getting new gear and it takes me FOREVER because there’s just SO much nice gear out there today, not to mention vintage gear as well. It really does make me reconsider getting into these amp sims. I was just looking at buying a new amp and I figured instead of spending a couple grand I could spend a couple hundred on an interface and go to the races. But after watching this it makes me think that I should go with my original idea and go with a real tube amp that I know I’ll like after trying it in the store. Because I am definitely the type to look for hours and forget that I should just be playing instead. Very good video. Makes you open your eyes to the way things are now. It’s kind of sad really.
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!
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.
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.
Absolutely amazing video!!! Few time ago I have modified my old ENGL with UK's V30 and got an amazing tone out of it. Something between Cobra and ENGL Fireball. But it is too loud to exercise with it, in the evening, when family is sleeping. I decided to find the tone close to my amp in sim amps. The longer I played with all the tools I realized more and more, that nothing sounds better for me than freq compensated out of the amp. Last week I decided to kick out all the amp sims I have and today that video! Thank you!!!
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.
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'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.
This is bang on . I find myself spending more time tine shaping and tweaking than actually playing. Its almost a separate interest that in itself is not bad, but its very easy to get obsessed by it. Option paralysis is a very real thing
bruh! This channel is gonna blow up mayyyyng. I produce electronic music but I also play the guitar. I find the same issues with synthesizer plugins and electronic music production. Too many options, too many production tricks, too many compressor and eq plugins. Anyway, was shocked at the number of subs, I thought you were internet famous for sure. Love the cozy feels.
I don’t know how you electronic producers manage, I own massive and every time I open it up I have an anxiety attack on where to start 🤣 thanks for the kind words! Comments like these are keeping me going, thank you 🙏
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
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.
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.
great vid... as i started playing guitar at 20( back in 83), i had small solid state amps ang guitar.. ..in 2001 i graduated to the boss gt6 and added two 100 watt marshall heads and 4x12 cabs to go with it.. that was decades ago and never have needed sims, plugins, etc. especially when i have the real thing
That’s why I like so much ML Sound Lab amps sims (at least the one I use). They work in standalone mode, got 2 main sounds and 3 or 4 presets for each sound. I think it’s great.
This is why some of us are looking at a DAW-less production workflow. I am in complete agreement about option paralysis. This is why I have had the same pedal rig for the best part of a decade. I have a Boss ME-80 for my elecric. A boss GT-6B for my bass. A pair of loop stations and a Boss multitracker portable studio. The reasoning is simple - the multi-fx pedals and the multi-tracker (BR-800) have the essentially the same simulations for cab, amp, fx chain. So dialling in tones is pretty simple as all devices use the same modelling engine and have pretty similar sounds. I can download patches for the pedals, but I can't change the fx models. I can demo everything on the loopers and record the outputs to individual tracks on the BR-800 when done. Or vice-versa. Demo ideas on the BR-800 and then record it on the loopers and multitrack it back into the BR-800. Sometimes to think outside the box, we must produce our music outside of the box.
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 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
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.
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.
Very clear and to the point advice. Don't try to optimize anything for the sake of perfection. There has to be a reason and a well defined goal in order to do so. Optimization without a clear criterium when you're done is that black hole. Better to stick to "Fair enough." as a general rule.
Dead on, brother! I literally purged 5 different amp sims, and way too many EQ’s, compressors, channel strips, yadda-yadda! I narrowed my sound down to one company and finally started writing again. When I’m finished I send it off to a producer friend and let him have at it. The newfound freedom is exhilarating!! Thanks for the post
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.
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
One and a half month ago I purchased a combo amplifier. It is my first tube amplifier (Marshall Silver Jubilee 2525). With that and a very simple looper pedal (Boss RC2) I have composed more guitar lines than in the last 18 months, aside from having enjoyed a lot. I am trying to restrict the options and enjoy the path. And to enjoy the music, as a priority. Your video is probably the reality of a lot of us.
I'm kind of new to guitar though I've been playing bass for 45 years. I've got a number of amp sims: Rhino,. MMr. Hector, Waves PRS Supermodels and my favorite, Peavey Revalver. Even though the Aurora DSP products super cools with lots of options, for day to day playing and jamming I always turn back to Peavey Revalver. It's simple but has just enough options to make a difference. I use Mr. Hector for a super clean, Rhino for metal and Revalver for general rock. I like the MI placement options on Revalver. There are about 10 for each speaker and they do make a big difference in tone.
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..
I found myself struggling with this in every amp sim I tried... until I discovered Scuffham S-Gear. It still has lots of tweakablity... but not so much that you end up in the black hole of option overload. Give it a shot. Great video BTW - I appreciate your unique approach to content. Subscribed!
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.
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 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 relate to some extent but what helps me feel better is I will pull up the isolated guitar track of a song from a band I like, and I quickly realize if I got that EXACT tone with an Amp plugin something would still feel like it wasn't good enough because I, and many people get to "Stuck in their own head" That forever need to "Just tweak a little more" When in reality a good song is a good song, and while you don't want a shitty tone, its not worth killing yourself over getting it "Perfect" A great tone thats not "perfect" will often sound right with the song and grow on you over time.
Great video, thanks. As for me I don't use digital plugins for guitar tone (except the cabsim, but it's a preset), my choice is the same set up for every track, music is first of all, not sound
My tactic is to set up 2 or 3 song templates in the DAW, with all tracks and routing already in place and tested. For the guitar tracks in the template I'll have my current-favorite-sim loaded, with a few genre-specific presets ready to go. This allows me to geek out on the production aspect, when setting up the template(s). Then, when I am in a creative flow, I can fire up the DAW, open my template, save it as a new song and then I can concentrate on making music. Not 100% bulletproof, but I've been doing this for the last 2 years or so and it works pretty well.
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! ;)
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.
As a father of four, I could play with this stuff all day long…but don’t. I play a Stomp with a few pedals, and use one patch 95% of the time. Every time I hear it when I play, or listen to something I recorded. I love it! It is MY sound. The ability to hear something I created recorded, never gets old to me. Andy Wallace said that every time he hears a song he mixed on the radio, he loves it. Done, is better than perfect. Great vid! Thanks!
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.
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.
A couple observations from someone who uses DAWs to make loose folky rock pop, essentially functioning as, and also emulating, the fabled rooms of instruments and devices and wires. 1. Making your own presets for a project, just a few, with a sense of mission about it, is huge for me. Put something in the room and leave it there, that's what the player gets, lump it (or tweak it obviously, i am being glib to make a point). Here are your amps. This is the primary vocal mic we have. These are the two organ sounds we will be using, and over there is the wurlitzer and ONE good synthesizer that fits the project. These are the drums we will be using. 2. Drier is better, almost always. Presets sell themselves to you with their juicy wide bigness, or their super attenuated hyper specific notching, or their amazing rhythmic squiggles. Every bit of that is going to hem your arranging and playing creativity in UNLESS they are a featured choice for a section, a very specific highlighted effect. In building a groove, dry and small elements are almost always going to take you further, for overlapping reasons. They leave room for other sounds and ideas. They allow scope for juicing them up later if need be. They nudge the arranger or producer into selecting source sounds which are inherently pleasing or persuasively organic. They therefore tend to read to the casual listener as more authentic and more human. Reverb and other effects phase and compete with each other, if you are not an historic genius, you are probably better off mixing a drier thing on the end. 3. Don't quantize anything you don't have to, and notice how bands actually work. The drums are pretty much always semi-microscopically ahead of everyone else, and everyone else is not the same amount ahead. That is not "wrong," it is performance in the real world. I use a grid, usually, but i have done effective DAW based rock by recording an acoustic guitar part of the whole song with no click, no grid, then playing other parts to that, drums from pads or keys with no or limited quantization, etc etc, and it was revelatory for me, because it made me wake up all over performatively, it made absolutely everyone i played it for ask where the band was recorded, and it kinda showed me a lot of assumptions i had about DAWs and how to use them. I don't NOT use grids, and i do quantize, but I think i learned a healthy wariness of all of those tools mediating performance. 4. I have noticed over time that the projects I have done that rely least on prefab tools and presets and effects (that is to say effects as noticeable effects rather than mixing tools), and most on playing and performance and instrument sound and groove and feel... these are the ones i still like, these are the ones most listeners prefer, these are the ones that start conversations instead of end them, figuratively speaking. All very pompous, apologies for being an old person who grew up when people wrote letters lol.
Great comment, I think this explains it pretty much, why old recordings most the time sound much better than most of the new stuff, it's more about the songwriting and not over producing a song.
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.
Mick, you hit the nail on the head. This is an issue I’ve dealt with more than I’d like. It gets to the point where I’m just ready to walk instead of recording all the ideas I have. Thank you for the breakdown, opened my eyes up!
Yeah, I agree, this search of perfect tone is quite addictive and it’s hard to completely avoid it even when you sit down to do something completely different (e.g. compose and record demos). I get by with a free app on the iPad and haven’t bought any add-ons to it precisely for the reason you mention. At the same time, all of it comes down to wanting something more than anything else (e.g. compose and record demos) and discipline. I mean, girls, parties, video games can all be an even stronger distraction than amp plug ins, but when you’re really fixed on getting that demo done even they can’t get in the way.
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.
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
This is a very good point about too many options. I feel like a person should spend a little time dialing in exactly what they like but be ready to commit to a sound/tone. That’s why it’s important to print down your guitar tracks after you record them instead of leaving that option open to keep making changes later on.
I’m kind of an analog guy by nature. “Less is more” has always been a huge part of my musical process since I was classically trained, and I have made some of the most blazing and futuristic math rock on a Fender 57 Bandmaster tube amp. Modelers are awesome and give you nearly infinite choices, but there’s something about having a “set” tone that gives me more ideas
Endless amounts of options can definitely be overwhelming. I play guitar and like to create melodies and patterns that I record and then I mix them inside fl studio. So I know the process you are talking about. When it comes to the musical process you have to decide what you want out of it. Do you enjoy playing the instrument more or do you like to mix and master? To me, knowing how to accomplish creating the track from start to finish is quite a feat. This is why many bands have studios mix their records because playing an instrument and knowing how to mix them properly are two different things that require different types of attention. Having a trained ear knowing how mix those guitar tones together and properly eq and compress and the stereo image blah, blah, blah and thats just getting started what it takes to mix things like you hear on professional records. If you spent all weekend fiddling with guitar tones and messing with plugin settings than you should be having fun exploring what that is all about. Know that your going to spend that time doing that exploration and be ok with it because its part of the process creating music. The only thing is, dont stay fiddling with it forever. Its really about learning the proper use of the plugins which comes from tons of trial and error of seeing what it does to the sound and then playing the instrument properly with correct recording. Ive spent hours trying to fix things in the mixing phase when actually the instrument needed to be played more accurately or the recording technique was poor. But looking back its fun to see what can try to be done with not so great recordings to see what kind of mixer magic can be performed because thats important to know how to do as well when sometimes all you have is a shitty recording and you have to make it work. When you listen to great music you like, its a combination of artists playing their instruments top notch and whoever mixes and masters all that. So both things need to be accomplished to deliver a finished product. Focused fiddling which comes from tons of trial and error through deeper understanding of all the elements that are involved. And all the elements that are involved are... first having nice melodies and musical content. Solid ideas and arrangement. Next playing those ideas well through some type of instrument. Knowing how to record the instrument. Then comes mixing and mastering. Every stage of the process has to be pretty high quality next to pristine for the sound we are looking to match what we hear on those songs we love so much.
Your exactly correct that it takes a certain level of experience and discipline to not get lost in the options. I do honestly believe this is one of the reasons why not everyone can become a self produced artist in todays music economy where almost every artist has to start that way. One of the things I wish I touched on just a bit more in this video is that most of these modern amp sims are targeted at young bedroom guitarist but in reality they are tools designed with producers in mind first. Very few of them take the “plug in and play approach” that many of us guitarist are looking for. I think it has something to do with the fact that most of the market in the mid 2000’s when ampsims were starting to take footing we’re the producer types. Now that technology has surpassed that point, more and more guitarist who just picked up the instrument are plugging straight into computers first. The combo/practice amp that most of us started out with has taken a back seat to convenience. You would think that we would be seeing more simplified options that still sound “pro” but are just plug and play. Thanks for watching the video, I appreciate you joining the discussion!
@@Morroh That is interesting to think about that people now are playing through computers first than through regular amps but that is the way of things in these times. Thx for the vid and the never ending quest of achieving that sonic sound.
@@Morroh my struggle is time. I am recording all the tracks for my songs. A band has 3-5 members perfecting their parts, I have me. The whole image of the song takes place in my head, then I have to figure out how to reproduce it. I have some great foundations, but it is taking time to go back and learn how to play those parts perfectly. Bass is my weakest instrument but coming along far better than expected. Vocals, I'm trying, hard to be objective with my own voice. The struggles of modern day music creators.
I just got gx100 and super happy with default presets. I just plugged in and started playing. And it has 96+ presets out of the box, so yeah. I just picked one I like the most and... here I go. I guess I will tackle on creating something of "my own" like only half a year later. And I must say, psychology sees perfectionism as a disorder for a reason, and there is also a proverb: "best is the enemy of something good enough".
as a 36 yr old new father, Ive been finally exploring this axe fx and making a few baller presets, after making about 3 i just plug in, and depending on the guitar switch presets and I jam away for hours. I really love dialing tone and I love exploring different genres and sounds, and conversely I also like simple tools that help me practice. Ive been playing a ton of nylon string these days, no amp sims required!
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
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
Man, maybe you didn’t realize how important this video is for the community of guitar player. As you mentioned many of us are doing exactly this. Congrats. Very well done. 👍🏼
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!
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! 🙏
Actual amp, load box, IR of your cab you made.
Easy peasy.
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.
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.
Can you name one amp sim / preset that sounds like a great amp?
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
Great comment
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 🤟
Awesome video, this is something I'm constantly struggling with as well. The better you get at production, the more gear you accumulate...the less creative time you have. Thanks for highlighting that, much needed right now!
At some point it’s good to remember why you started in the first place. For me it’s always been about the songs, and at some point along the way that got lost in the production. Thank you for watching 🙏
@@Morroh exactly, it's a fine line to walk, especially if the songwriting side of it is still the main focus (which it is here too). So it's a bit of a balancing act, I'm dialing production work way back and focusing on my bands again because it's too hard to balance this stuff otherwise. I'll definitely be following your future stuff! - Mike
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 😁
And that's why I minimalized my setup and I try to take it even further. Try to use one device for tones, get 2-3 good tones (clean, dirt and lead) out of it, then delete everything else (from the computer and from the material world too). I have 4 electric guitars now, all in different tuning and i'm thinking about to sell some of them too and get only one that has a lot of guitar in it (i'm talking about an 8 string in standard tuning). I feel like you, I tried a lot of pedals, amp sims and a lot of fancy plugins just to find out that all I need is an HX Stomp and a Whammy V with one or two guitars really. We always seek perfection but we end up without a happy ending. Set the line just a little bit lower and you will be actually more productive and happier with your resoults. Cheers!
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.
yuuup! Great video with amazing delivery and backing track! This is why templates have saved my life! got a good enough tone to start and write and record. when a new amp sim comes out i often pass on it. Though I DID buy softube's new amp room suite since the marshall and mesa clones are top notch. didn't have anything that could match them so i bought them. I try not to rebuy amp clones i already have that get the tone for a specific amp at near perfect levels. most new things are just as good as the real thing these days. neural dsp i often avoid (though their bass amp/pedal sims are top notch) mainly because when i think of a tone in my head i already have the mic position i want, speaker/cab brand, and amp brand in my mind. so i wanna be able to reach for that no compromises.
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 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.
I played guitar for about 10 years before falling out of it from just living life.
About 15 years later and I recently got back into playing guitar, this time with the money to buy the equipment I could only dream of when I was first learning.
I fell right into this trap.
There have been so many technological advances when it comes to plug ins and digital interfaces, I forgot that I used to just plug into the amp and play.
I now use a real amp, a real cab, and a few pedals. This is ALL I need to get to it and start playing.
Great video. Good job bringing attention to a problem I’m sure many people suffer from.
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. 🙏
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
Great video and solid points! I like to keep things simple as well!
Yep, you're absolutely right. I got IK Multimedia Studio Max and the complete Arturia collections. I wasted so much time just trying different options. Now, I have a few presets and just work with those. Great video and music.
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.
Very well put into words,
I will love to watch more of your videos.
Subscribed ✌️
🙏 thank you!
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.
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.
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 🙏
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…
Dude you hit the nail right on the head with this video. I often will look at getting new gear and it takes me FOREVER because there’s just SO much nice gear out there today, not to mention vintage gear as well. It really does make me reconsider getting into these amp sims. I was just looking at buying a new amp and I figured instead of spending a couple grand I could spend a couple hundred on an interface and go to the races. But after watching this it makes me think that I should go with my original idea and go with a real tube amp that I know I’ll like after trying it in the store. Because I am definitely the type to look for hours and forget that I should just be playing instead. Very good video. Makes you open your eyes to the way things are now. It’s kind of sad really.
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!
That Orson Welles quote struck me. Good video.
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.
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.
Absolutely amazing video!!!
Few time ago I have modified my old ENGL with UK's V30 and got an amazing tone out of it. Something between Cobra and ENGL Fireball. But it is too loud to exercise with it, in the evening, when family is sleeping. I decided to find the tone close to my amp in sim amps. The longer I played with all the tools I realized more and more, that nothing sounds better for me than freq compensated out of the amp. Last week I decided to kick out all the amp sims I have and today that video!
Thank you!!!
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.
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 actually learned something unexpected from your video. Setting a timer before I start...adds a sense of urgency (if there isn't one).
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.
That's such a good point! Clean video btw.. you are gonna blow up soon
This is bang on . I find myself spending more time tine shaping and tweaking than actually playing. Its almost a separate interest that in itself is not bad, but its very easy to get obsessed by it. Option paralysis is a very real thing
Dude... thank you. Thank you again. This video resonated with me a lot. Damn.
Thank you for watching :)
what is that sim at 2:34?
You mean softube's amp room?
bruh! This channel is gonna blow up mayyyyng. I produce electronic music but I also play the guitar. I find the same issues with synthesizer plugins and electronic music production. Too many options, too many production tricks, too many compressor and eq plugins. Anyway, was shocked at the number of subs, I thought you were internet famous for sure. Love the cozy feels.
I don’t know how you electronic producers manage, I own massive and every time I open it up I have an anxiety attack on where to start 🤣 thanks for the kind words! Comments like these are keeping me going, thank you 🙏
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.
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.
great vid... as i started playing guitar at 20( back in 83), i had small solid state amps ang guitar.. ..in 2001 i graduated to the boss gt6 and added two 100 watt marshall heads and 4x12 cabs to go with it.. that was decades ago and never have needed sims, plugins, etc. especially when i have the real thing
That’s why I like so much ML Sound Lab amps sims (at least the one I use). They work in standalone mode, got 2 main sounds and 3 or 4 presets for each sound. I think it’s great.
This is why some of us are looking at a DAW-less production workflow.
I am in complete agreement about option paralysis. This is why I have had the same pedal rig for the best part of a decade. I have a Boss ME-80 for my elecric. A boss GT-6B for my bass. A pair of loop stations and a Boss multitracker portable studio. The reasoning is simple - the multi-fx pedals and the multi-tracker (BR-800) have the essentially the same simulations for cab, amp, fx chain. So dialling in tones is pretty simple as all devices use the same modelling engine and have pretty similar sounds. I can download patches for the pedals, but I can't change the fx models.
I can demo everything on the loopers and record the outputs to individual tracks on the BR-800 when done. Or vice-versa. Demo ideas on the BR-800 and then record it on the loopers and multitrack it back into the BR-800.
Sometimes to think outside the box, we must produce our music outside of the box.
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
When I got my first modeller the ge200 I was sucked into the black hole of tone. Great vid very relatable.
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
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.
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.
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.
Great video, you always try to reach the perfection for your sound :)
Very clear and to the point advice.
Don't try to optimize anything for the sake of perfection. There has to be a reason and a well defined goal in order to do so. Optimization without a clear criterium when you're done is that black hole.
Better to stick to "Fair enough." as a general rule.
Dead on, brother! I literally purged 5 different amp sims, and way too many EQ’s, compressors, channel strips, yadda-yadda! I narrowed my sound down to one company and finally started writing again. When I’m finished I send it off to a producer friend and let him have at it. The newfound freedom is exhilarating!!
Thanks for the post
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
Really valuable video here. Thanks for pointing out the potential downside of too many options.
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.
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 has become a huge problem for me over the years. I've spent more time searching for tone than actually writing music. Thanks for the inspiration
thanks for watching
One and a half month ago I purchased a combo amplifier. It is my first tube amplifier (Marshall Silver Jubilee 2525). With that and a very simple looper pedal (Boss RC2) I have composed more guitar lines than in the last 18 months, aside from having enjoyed a lot. I am trying to restrict the options and enjoy the path. And to enjoy the music, as a priority. Your video is probably the reality of a lot of us.
I'd love to hear more of that Tube Clean tone at 2:06. What amp is that, anyway?
Fantastic videography man! And definitely agree with the story behind this video lol
Appreciate that, thank you!
I'm kind of new to guitar though I've been playing bass for 45 years. I've got a number of amp sims: Rhino,. MMr. Hector, Waves PRS Supermodels and my favorite, Peavey Revalver. Even though the Aurora DSP products super cools with lots of options, for day to day playing and jamming I always turn back to Peavey Revalver. It's simple but has just enough options to make a difference.
I use Mr. Hector for a super clean, Rhino for metal and Revalver for general rock.
I like the MI placement options on Revalver. There are about 10 for each speaker and they do make a big difference in tone.
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..
Often better to spend a few hours jamming and writing in a live room with musicians than a few hours tweaking janky amp sims in your bedroom.
This video hits hard... Just rocking a basic amp sim for writing and ''chasing tone'' with my 100w Marshalls!
I found myself struggling with this in every amp sim I tried... until I discovered Scuffham S-Gear. It still has lots of tweakablity... but not so much that you end up in the black hole of option overload. Give it a shot.
Great video BTW - I appreciate your unique approach to content. Subscribed!
I haven't heard of that one, ill definitely give it a go! Thanks for watching, and welcome aboard!
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.
Amen Bro.. my favorite sims are the ones with the most mix ready presets ..
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 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.
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 relate to some extent but what helps me feel better is I will pull up the isolated guitar track of a song from a band I like, and I quickly realize if I got that EXACT tone with an Amp plugin something would still feel like it wasn't good enough because I, and many people get to "Stuck in their own head"
That forever need to "Just tweak a little more"
When in reality a good song is a good song, and while you don't want a shitty tone, its not worth killing yourself over getting it "Perfect"
A great tone thats not "perfect" will often sound right with the song and grow on you over time.
Great video, thanks. As for me I don't use digital plugins for guitar tone (except the cabsim, but it's a preset), my choice is the same set up for every track, music is first of all, not sound
My tactic is to set up 2 or 3 song templates in the DAW, with all tracks and routing already in place and tested. For the guitar tracks in the template I'll have my current-favorite-sim loaded, with a few genre-specific presets ready to go.
This allows me to geek out on the production aspect, when setting up the template(s). Then, when I am in a creative flow, I can fire up the DAW, open my template, save it as a new song and then I can concentrate on making music.
Not 100% bulletproof, but I've been doing this for the last 2 years or so and it works pretty well.
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! ;)
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.
I really needed to see this thank you
As a father of four, I could play with this stuff all day long…but don’t. I play a Stomp with a few pedals, and use one patch 95% of the time. Every time I hear it when I play, or listen to something I recorded. I love it! It is MY sound. The ability to hear something I created recorded, never gets old to me. Andy Wallace said that every time he hears a song he mixed on the radio, he loves it. Done, is better than perfect.
Great vid! Thanks!
First thing i did when going over to amp sims is pick an impulse response that sounded great and was pretty neutral tone wise and stuck with it!!!!
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.
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.
A couple observations from someone who uses DAWs to make loose folky rock pop, essentially functioning as, and also emulating, the fabled rooms of instruments and devices and wires.
1. Making your own presets for a project, just a few, with a sense of mission about it, is huge for me. Put something in the room and leave it there, that's what the player gets, lump it (or tweak it obviously, i am being glib to make a point). Here are your amps. This is the primary vocal mic we have. These are the two organ sounds we will be using, and over there is the wurlitzer and ONE good synthesizer that fits the project. These are the drums we will be using.
2. Drier is better, almost always. Presets sell themselves to you with their juicy wide bigness, or their super attenuated hyper specific notching, or their amazing rhythmic squiggles. Every bit of that is going to hem your arranging and playing creativity in UNLESS they are a featured choice for a section, a very specific highlighted effect. In building a groove, dry and small elements are almost always going to take you further, for overlapping reasons. They leave room for other sounds and ideas. They allow scope for juicing them up later if need be. They nudge the arranger or producer into selecting source sounds which are inherently pleasing or persuasively organic. They therefore tend to read to the casual listener as more authentic and more human. Reverb and other effects phase and compete with each other, if you are not an historic genius, you are probably better off mixing a drier thing on the end.
3. Don't quantize anything you don't have to, and notice how bands actually work. The drums are pretty much always semi-microscopically ahead of everyone else, and everyone else is not the same amount ahead. That is not "wrong," it is performance in the real world. I use a grid, usually, but i have done effective DAW based rock by recording an acoustic guitar part of the whole song with no click, no grid, then playing other parts to that, drums from pads or keys with no or limited quantization, etc etc, and it was revelatory for me, because it made me wake up all over performatively, it made absolutely everyone i played it for ask where the band was recorded, and it kinda showed me a lot of assumptions i had about DAWs and how to use them. I don't NOT use grids, and i do quantize, but I think i learned a healthy wariness of all of those tools mediating performance.
4. I have noticed over time that the projects I have done that rely least on prefab tools and presets and effects (that is to say effects as noticeable effects rather than mixing tools), and most on playing and performance and instrument sound and groove and feel... these are the ones i still like, these are the ones most listeners prefer, these are the ones that start conversations instead of end them, figuratively speaking.
All very pompous, apologies for being an old person who grew up when people wrote letters lol.
edit: "everyone else is not the same amount behind"
Great comment, I think this explains it pretty much, why old recordings most the time sound much better than most of the new stuff, it's more about the songwriting and not over producing a song.
That Laundry-time alarm bell… I felt it so deeply on this Sunday evening, before another week 😂
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.
Mick, you hit the nail on the head. This is an issue I’ve dealt with more than I’d like. It gets to the point where I’m just ready to walk instead of recording all the ideas I have. Thank you for the breakdown, opened my eyes up!
Definitely an issue I have had as well! Thanks for watching Kelsey!
Yeah, I agree, this search of perfect tone is quite addictive and it’s hard to completely avoid it even when you sit down to do something completely different (e.g. compose and record demos). I get by with a free app on the iPad and haven’t bought any add-ons to it precisely for the reason you mention. At the same time, all of it comes down to wanting something more than anything else (e.g. compose and record demos) and discipline. I mean, girls, parties, video games can all be an even stronger distraction than amp plug ins, but when you’re really fixed on getting that demo done even they can’t get in the way.
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.
Had the exact same feeling before. Like to go back to my old reliable Marshall amp and give it a go.
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
This is a very good point about too many options. I feel like a person should spend a little time dialing in exactly what they like but be ready to commit to a sound/tone. That’s why it’s important to print down your guitar tracks after you record them instead of leaving that option open to keep making changes later on.
I’m kind of an analog guy by nature. “Less is more” has always been a huge part of my musical process since I was classically trained, and I have made some of the most blazing and futuristic math rock on a Fender 57 Bandmaster tube amp. Modelers are awesome and give you nearly infinite choices, but there’s something about having a “set” tone that gives me more ideas
It's like painting with watercolors, you just have to paint that first layer quick and let it dry, without adding too many colors
Endless amounts of options can definitely be overwhelming. I play guitar and like to create melodies and patterns that I record and then I mix them inside fl studio. So I know the process you are talking about. When it comes to the musical process you have to decide what you want out of it. Do you enjoy playing the instrument more or do you like to mix and master? To me, knowing how to accomplish creating the track from start to finish is quite a feat. This is why many bands have studios mix their records because playing an instrument and knowing how to mix them properly are two different things that require different types of attention. Having a trained ear knowing how mix those guitar tones together and properly eq and compress and the stereo image blah, blah, blah and thats just getting started what it takes to mix things like you hear on professional records. If you spent all weekend fiddling with guitar tones and messing with plugin settings than you should be having fun exploring what that is all about. Know that your going to spend that time doing that exploration and be ok with it because its part of the process creating music. The only thing is, dont stay fiddling with it forever. Its really about learning the proper use of the plugins which comes from tons of trial and error of seeing what it does to the sound and then playing the instrument properly with correct recording. Ive spent hours trying to fix things in the mixing phase when actually the instrument needed to be played more accurately or the recording technique was poor. But looking back its fun to see what can try to be done with not so great recordings to see what kind of mixer magic can be performed because thats important to know how to do as well when sometimes all you have is a shitty recording and you have to make it work. When you listen to great music you like, its a combination of artists playing their instruments top notch and whoever mixes and masters all that. So both things need to be accomplished to deliver a finished product. Focused fiddling which comes from tons of trial and error through deeper understanding of all the elements that are involved. And all the elements that are involved are... first having nice melodies and musical content. Solid ideas and arrangement. Next playing those ideas well through some type of instrument. Knowing how to record the instrument. Then comes mixing and mastering. Every stage of the process has to be pretty high quality next to pristine for the sound we are looking to match what we hear on those songs we love so much.
Your exactly correct that it takes a certain level of experience and discipline to not get lost in the options. I do honestly believe this is one of the reasons why not everyone can become a self produced artist in todays music economy where almost every artist has to start that way. One of the things I wish I touched on just a bit more in this video is that most of these modern amp sims are targeted at young bedroom guitarist but in reality they are tools designed with producers in mind first. Very few of them take the “plug in and play approach” that many of us guitarist are looking for. I think it has something to do with the fact that most of the market in the mid 2000’s when ampsims were starting to take footing we’re the producer types. Now that technology has surpassed that point, more and more guitarist who just picked up the instrument are plugging straight into computers first. The combo/practice amp that most of us started out with has taken a back seat to convenience. You would think that we would be seeing more simplified options that still sound “pro” but are just plug and play. Thanks for watching the video, I appreciate you joining the discussion!
@@Morroh That is interesting to think about that people now are playing through computers first than through regular amps but that is the way of things in these times. Thx for the vid and the never ending quest of achieving that sonic sound.
@@Morroh my struggle is time. I am recording all the tracks for my songs. A band has 3-5 members perfecting their parts, I have me. The whole image of the song takes place in my head, then I have to figure out how to reproduce it. I have some great foundations, but it is taking time to go back and learn how to play those parts perfectly. Bass is my weakest instrument but coming along far better than expected. Vocals, I'm trying, hard to be objective with my own voice. The struggles of modern day music creators.
I just got gx100 and super happy with default presets. I just plugged in and started playing. And it has 96+ presets out of the box, so yeah. I just picked one I like the most and... here I go.
I guess I will tackle on creating something of "my own" like only half a year later.
And I must say, psychology sees perfectionism as a disorder for a reason, and there is also a proverb: "best is the enemy of something good enough".
Do you tweak the presets or do you use them as they are?
@@accentontheoff yes I tweak them a bit. Still learning this thing.
@@raggedclawstarcraft6562 Got it thanks.
as a 36 yr old new father, Ive been finally exploring this axe fx and making a few baller presets, after making about 3 i just plug in, and depending on the guitar switch presets and I jam away for hours. I really love dialing tone and I love exploring different genres and sounds, and conversely I also like simple tools that help me practice. Ive been playing a ton of nylon string these days, no amp sims required!
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