So With Shitty YT Demos Being A Current Hot Topic Right Now...

[ZEN Amps]

I don't really like a ton of YouTube guys. None of them really cover my genre interests.

What are you into out of interest?

Agreed. I always wonder why they do videos in fully produced music productions all the time for a gear review. I understand and appreciate them showing it in a full mix briefly, it helps. But not always. It seems like the people watching are primarily Guitars players wanting to hear that piece of gear as much as possible. When I’m searching for a particular pedal or an amp and start a video and it’s in a fully produced mix, I usually just exit and move on.

I like to hear it in a mix, then on its own. Guitars sound best when surrounded by family and friends so showing this real world situation makes complete sense to me. And you get to hear some music, not just guitar playing (there is actually a difference).

I agree with the assessment that phone clips or room mics bring nothing to the table, and do not actually sound anything like being in the room. Almost every great rock and metal guitar sound in the history of recorded music has been close miked - weird how this gets forgotten sometimes.

 

[CarlF]

When you demo an amp in a store or wherever, is it close-mic'd? You're hearing the amp in a room.
I don't want to hear the amp close mic'd, in a track or thru IRs.
Most phone vids suck because the loud amp is overloading the phone mic.
The few bs vids I made thru the years, either using the iphone or my Sony vid cam, people compliment the tone, whether on YT comments or FB.

 

[DanTravis62]

What are you into out of interest?

Im into classic/power metal ala priest, scorpions, maiden, accept to name bands you'd know.

I'm NOT into modern heavy stuff

 

[Metalhex]

I can honestly say I'll appreciate the efforts of almost literally anybody who gives enough of a damn to record their amps with carefully selected IR's or legitimately mic'd cabs as opposed to some random cellphone placed 15 feet away from the cab with the mic pointed down at a tile floor or against the table the phone is placed on...

...because you can't record sweetass shots of yourself pretending to be a guitar hero melting face in your basement without pointing the mic straight down due to phone design. And we all know that recording video of yourself shredding to Build Your BrandⓇ online is obviously WAY more important than putting out a demo that could actually be useful or informative for even a single other person.

Cellphone clips are totally worthless.

And just to go ahead and address the most obvious counter, no, I don't think they sound anything like the amp "in the room." They sound like an amp being recorded by a cheap 90's camcorder that is constantly shifting its own internal compression settings to deal with the drastic changes in volume. They are truly worthless.


Having said that, the YT guys I pay the most attention to these days are Ola, Pete Thorn, Rabea, Euge Valovirta, Tim Pierce, Shawn Tubbs, Leon Todd, Kyle Bull, and Paul Davids, maybe a couple others.

I disagree. There is no way a cab can capture the in the room sound and feel with natural reverberating acoustics and such. But this cell phone can. (Im assuming it's a cell phone).

I wouldn't call cell phone recordings worthless. Sounds miles better than this...

 

[Briman24]

When i click on an amp demo and it starts playing in a band mix.....i close immediately and go somewhere else where they are demoing the amp tone on it's own.

 

[ZEN Amps]

When i click on an amp demo and it starts playing in a band mix.....i close immediately and go somewhere else where they are demoing the amp tone on it's own.

Might be worth checking the video later on - most of them that start with a full mix then go on to guitar only. Pete Thorn does this virtually every time for example.

When you demo an amp in a store or wherever, is it close-mic'd? You're hearing the amp in a room.

No of course not. However to my ears phone recordings do not sound like being in the room, and that is my point. It's a highly compressed and EQ'd version of what is actually hitting the phone mic. The end result is vastly different to what the human ear captures, decodes and perceives, and the acoustics of the room affects the signal so much I find them unhelpful.

You feel differently - that's cool man. There's going to be no agreement on what good tone is on this dimension or any other!

Maybe if I used headphones I'd feel a little different, but I don't. I use good speakers in a good room. The (close miked) sound comes out, hits the room, and enters my ears, just like it does when I play through a cab. One good room in the mix is enough, I don't need to hear the phone mangling someone's else room of unknown acoustics as well

 

[Briman24]

Might be worth checking the video later on - most of them that start with a full mix then go on to guitar only. Pete Thorn does this virtually every time for example.

No of course not. However to my ears phone recordings do not sound like being in the room, and that is my point. It's a highly compressed and EQ'd version of what is actually hitting the phone mic. The end result is vastly different to what the human ear captures, decodes and perceives, and the acoustics of the room affects the signal so much I find them unhelpful.

You feel differently - that's cool man. There's going to be no agreement on what good tone is on this dimension or any other!

Maybe if I used headphones I'd feel a little different, but I don't. I use good speakers in a good room. The (close miked) sound comes out, hits the room, and enters my ears, just like it does when I play through a cab. One good room in the mix is enough, I don't need to hear the phone mangling someone's else room of unknown acoustics as well

They should do the reverse. Amp first then the mix....

 

[guitarplayer]

When I click on and the guy says….ok, got some reverb, delay, and a little chorus …..I’m out.
I want to hear the amp pure and naked….no effects, no studio processing…..I just want to know what the amp sounds like! Simple.

I also hate the chatty guys. Just shut up. I don’t want your opinion. Just turn the gain, treble, mid, and bass knobs for me to hear the differences. Kyle Bull is awesome. Not a bunch of mindless bs.

I also don’t even bother if a guy is playing a Strat. Don’t like single coils, don’t need to hear it. Not a fan of the dorks at Andertons. Seem to be more interested in trying to impress you with their witty comments. Cameron Cooper is awesome.

 

[Beyond Black]

When I click on and the guy says….ok, got some reverb, delay, and a little chorus …..I’m out.
I want to hear the amp pure and naked….no effects, no studio processing…..I just want to know what the amp sounds like! Simple.

I also hate the chatty guys. Just shut up. I don’t want your opinion. Just turn the gain, treble, mid, and bass knobs for me to hear the differences. Kyle Bull is awesome. Not a bunch of mindless bs.

I also don’t even bother if a guy is playing a Strat. Don’t like single coils, don’t need to hear it. Not a fan of the dorks at Andertons. Seem to be more interested in trying to impress you with their witty comments. Cameron Cooper is awesome.

It’s like you can see into my heart.

 

[guitarplayer]

It’s like you can see into my heart.

Glad to know I’m not alone I just don’t wanna waste a bunch of time get to the freaking point and let me hear the amp. I’m also more of a melodic type of guitar player so I want to hear chord progressions Van Halen type of riffs, Def Lep etc. I don’t want to hear a bunch of mindless picking sweeps and lead play. I’m not impressed if a guy can play 4000 notes in six seconds. Keep those stupid type of magic tricks to yourself.

 

[Techdeth]

the signal chains color the amps too much in the videos . They get good tones at times but I won’t really judge the amp . I must say BLAKE has the best video tones of I’ve seen though . Always good

 

[braintheory]

When I click on and the guy says….ok, got some reverb, delay, and a little chorus …..I’m out.
I want to hear the amp pure and naked….no effects, no studio processing…..I just want to know what the amp sounds like! Simple.

I also hate the chatty guys. Just shut up. I don’t want your opinion. Just turn the gain, treble, mid, and bass knobs for me to hear the differences. Kyle Bull is awesome. Not a bunch of mindless bs.

I also don’t even bother if a guy is playing a Strat. Don’t like single coils, don’t need to hear it. Not a fan of the dorks at Andertons. Seem to be more interested in trying to impress you with their witty comments. Cameron Cooper is awesome.

Agreed on the modulation. IMO what's just as bad or worse (and harder to catch) is when they add the reverb after like in Logic or whatever program they're using. It's blended better and more transparent, but still makes everything sound more homogenized and cluttered. I think they just do it to get a more polished, smooth, inoffensive sound, but really it ends up making everything sound much more similar to each other and has the same effect of a girl using too much make up. Not gonna mention names, but there's a few guys who always do this, but still always gets comments about how great their demos sound (really?), but like did you actually listen to the amp's tone or was it just the overall polished sound of the demo you liked?

I admittedly do the same reverb thing when I made brief classical guitar clips on my IG, but social media is very fake anyway so didn't care there lol, but for a gear demos not good to do imo

 

[lowmantotempole]

I’m working on a channel myself.

I would absolutely love some constructive criticism and some tips on future format maybe? Things to add to keep interest.

I’m not the best guitar player but I’m about to have a whole lot more time on my hands and would like to showcase some gear.

 

[skoora]

I don’t mind a quick dalliance with reverb or delay if it’s to show the loop but I want to hear a mostly dry demo. Also can’t stand the chatty Kathy’s. It’s depressing to see the frames fast forward and they’re just not playing the guitar or touching the amp for an eternity. Man, unless an amp has a knob labeled pussy extractor, I’m good on the controls. Get to it. Would dig more demo’s that really go for a variety of overdriven sounds rather than here’s a plinky clean for 20 seconds and then 2-3 minutes of the same high gain, saturated tone with subtle knob twists. Don’t mind a Strat as long as it’s one of a few guitars they use. Extra points to those who throw a P-90 guitar in the mix.

Something that could be cool is reviews using a few different IR’s or micing an alternate speaker. Like, here it is through a V30, a greenback and an Alnico.

 

[ZEN Amps]

I’m working on a channel myself.

I would absolutely love some constructive criticism and some tips on future format maybe? Things to add to keep interest.

I’m not the best guitar player but I’m about to have a whole lot more time on my hands and would like to showcase some gear.

Personally I appreciate anyone who puts content out for others to access. Most of them don't work for me - and if so I'll quietly move on. I understand the crazy amount of time and work even a simple videos takes, so thanks for posting this.

You asked though, and seem open to feedback so my top 5 is:
1. I get bored quickly on YT, so I would say shorter and punchier - maybe 10mins.
2. Be nice to to see the guitar being played. Doesn't really matter, but it just makes things more interesting.
3. Some better lighting.
4. Use the timecode/chapter feature so people who like to skip around (see #1) can find things of interest efficiently.
5. Some on-screen graphics showing what you're switching to and when is a nice touch.
On the plus side you're pulling some rockin tones and that really is the most important factor, so kudos to you

 

[TheToneDig]

Best demos are the blind tests, by far. I just like to hear stuff and guess what it is and how right I was or wasn't.

I did these 3 80s riffs this morning using different rigs.



I was trying to get The Edges delay tone on a rig last week here



I was trying then to get Bryan May shortly after



Whatever works, works.

 

[Dino 939]

i play on getting my channel going. gonna drink whisky, take milky bong hits, play my amps and offend many people

Hey man, I called "shotgun" homie!!

 

[Dino 939]

Pat Finnerty or however you spell it.
That dude is hilarious!!
He basically rips on other YT'ers, Beato's etc,
horrid songs/music video's of yesteryear's...,
in a way we all sorta' really feel about all
THIS CRAP.
My God..,
were these YT salesmen & booster's the actual dude's I used to hand their own ass's playing D&D?
Ok..it's all beginning to surface and make sense.

 

[SQUAREHEAD]

Best demos are the blind tests, by far. I just like to hear stuff and guess what it is and how right I was or wasn't.

I did these 3 80s riffs this morning using different rigs.



I was trying to get The Edges delay tone on a rig last week here



I was trying then to get Bryan May shortly after



Whatever works, works.

So sincere and polite ‘over here’ Dude… without the D puppeteer playing all your strings…

 

[TheToneDig]

So sincere and polite ‘over here’ Dude… without the D puppeteer playing all your strings…

?

Are you requesting Master of Puppets? I can do that album somewhat. Maybe you can quote what you are referencing.

Although I won't be slaving Mesa pre-amps into Marshall power amps because I don't have Mesa at the moment.