if everyone learn how to do it and suddenly everyone becomes a guitar god in IG it will be clear that it is all fake, so I think it is a way of accomplishing the objective 😅
It’s always been super obvious that it’s all fake, and I’m soooo tired of people trying to convince me it’s real. You see these guys try to play live at a NAMM booth and it’s a joke 🙄 the whole music scene has just become fake perfect baloney. Be a human musician. It’s way cooler
@@trveheimer6360 I hear you. That nonsense grinds my gears too. I’ve heard some plain-jane hardcore guitarists with no squiddly-diddlys who’s jams are LEAGUES above most of these soulless wannabe prog machines. Everyone just wants to show off some impressive technique nowadays instead of just writing riffs that kill.
About a decade ago people would catch hell for pulling these kind of grifts, ie Rings of Saturn, now people are so gullible they praise the skill in obvious fake sped up videos. If you try to point it out everyone claims toxic negativity. It's so depressing.
the part about "unreachable standards" and "online persona perfectionism" is just true as fuck honestly and applies to all social media in general regardless of genre
@@paultaylor1812 But will Matteo Mancuso be the soundtrack of someones life in 20 years from now? Will some dude whisper in his girlfriends ears when they hear a Mancuso tune: "Darling, they're playing our song"? I doubt it. Sure, he's an amazing player, but his music doesn't touch me at all. This music isn't made to leave a lasting impression on generations for the next couple of decades, it's made to impress people on the spot, so they click the "like" button. After that it's gets old rather quickly.
@@Patbwoy This is cope. Having more talent doesn't mean he doesn't have "feel" or whatever nonsense you're trying to push. Technique and feel go hand in hand. You don't need all the technique to have a great sense of feel but to say Matteo doesn't make moving music just comes across as seething jealousy.
@@Del_987 Your opinion, my opinion.You like it, I don't. No reason for stupid ad-hominem accusations, don't you think? But hey, being able to handle different opinions seems to be a dying skill set.
I'm a jazz musician so I'm not sure how I ended up here, but if any of us did these editing tricks I don't think they'd ever, ever live it down. Especially if they lied about it. Great topic and video
It's not just social media, listen to the albums too. The production is so prim and perfect nowadays but go back and listen to your favorite albums from anything earlier than like 2010 (or something, idk, you get what I'm driving at) and you'll really hear how charmingly imperfect they were, and realize how much they still rip regardless.
Agree. I used to watch a lot of youtube til the 2010s as a self taught player. Almost all the guitar covers were genuine. One take, filmed with a digicam or primitive smartphone. Now everybody is just faking stuff. We even have a facebook page in the Philipines where people can share report and shame fake guitar players and content theives in social media
Just some fun trivia on the other hand: Mike Malyan (drummer of Monuments) didn't know the first Periphery songs had programmed drums, so he pushed himself and practiced really hard to achieve that level of consistency, which is stupidly inspiring!
I don't know why this isn't the consensus. If perfection sounds good to you, then strive for it. Don't settle for less because you heard there was some smoke and mirrors to get there. If it isn't impossible, then it's possible.
My buddy Leo in Psycho-Frame did the same thing but with Infant Annihilator drums… he thought they were real and pushed himself to play that fast and now he’s absolutely cracked
@@seanedwards94I am an extremely mediocre guitarist that records his own music. I have a better ear than I do talent for guitar, and it's been a process to accept that I will not sound as perfect as I'd like to
@@subularrenoIt comes down to work ethic. The great Eloy Casagrande claims talent is meaningless because if you devote all your life to the craft, at some point it'll be impossible to discern who's talented and who isn't. This is very common among children of musicians who were shaped for greatness from an early age, but it can also be achieved by obsessive practice.
I think it’s really important for up and coming players to be aware of this. Realizing that things are mimed and edited was one of the biggest hurdles I had to overcome.
Recently getting back into serious practising again, I've only just started to learn this. It seemed that the amount of elite tier players with 0 mistakes and insane creativity and skill was endless nowadays, seems I was wrong. It's actually somewhat comforting lol.
I don't understand this obsession with pristine playing. I guess it's the guitar version of instafilters and angles for girls. The great guitar players are great because of how human and imperfect their sound is. I'd rather listen to Yngwie's raw, emotion-filled shred over anything I see these days on Instagram.
It's ok to not play perfectly as long as you do keep time really well... I think though, that to perform the complex playing that they do whilst keeping time is just too hard.
It can be very frustrating to try to build an audience for yourself as a guitarist when you're constantly seeing fake videos get all the attention and success... I wouldn't feel right if I ever uploaded a video like that.
@ There are no rules in art, so people can do what they want. But still, when someone posts a video that is just guitar playing, most people will assume what they are seeing is also what they are hearing. The line between music video and performance video can be blurry, but a lot of these videos are portrayed as performances. I think the point in the video is good. It sets an insanely high standard, and a lot of people will think what they hear is what they see. It also takes away attention from guitarists who deserve it more, at least if we’re talking about the skill level. (I’m not saying I’m one of them, I’m not really that good, but there are plenty of legit players out there who don’t need to mime, edit, or speed up their playing that deserve more attention. In my opinion, of course. ) But it seems to be a situation that affects all sorts of fields on social media where everyone is competing over getting as much traffic as possible. But I guess with art, people are free to do whatever they want, but I think it’s good that people are aware of this stuff.
@@gitarmats the problem is we live in a video world. You can’t just post the song up with an album art. That won’t cut it anymore. You need a visual. Even legitimate guitarists from big bands do this. Misha, Rabea, Intervals, Tosin and etc have been doing these types of videos before reels and tik tok have been a thing. I think it’s not right to pin this as the fault of instagram guitarists. At the end of the day music also has a showmanship aspect. That’s why when we watch shows we love it when the drummer spins his sticks or a guitarist does a a guitar flip. Sorry in the music scene / in the world, it doesn’t matter who is more deserving. It’s all about who is hustling and working hard. Hate all you want in the instagram guitarist, but they are consistently putting out content. It may be edited, not all of them are as exaggerated as this video. They still took the time to write the guitar solos. They took the time to light and do the video
Holy yisus, I’ve been playing for 17 years and never imagined this. I used to hear a lot of complains about ig guitarists, but never thought this was the technique they were referring to. You just opened my eyes lol, I recently made a prog metal video and it was such a pain in the ass to record the guitars without screwing it. I really thought those DI audio videos were real lol
Great video. A dead giveaway for me always was not muting the strings they are not playing and every note is crystal clear. One of those Instagram famous guitarists has a video where his fingers are in the air and notes are being played, as soon as I saw that it was enough for me to unfollow him. Needles to mention that he NEVER mutes the bass strings while he is playing on treble strings and it sounds perfect.
Solid video dude. I've been pondering around the idea of making a similar video myself but looks like you beat me to it. I've been editing videos for over a decade, and been doing studio work for around 7 years. When you've invested enough time into a craft, you're conditioned to see and hear things that the average person probably won't ever pick up on unless it's pointed out to them, and so these kinds of videos have never made it past me. And as you become more skilled, you also become more able to deduce certain... things, and figure out which methods work to accomplish said things. Nonetheless, I've only seen a few of these "faked" (not mimed, faked) videos, but the fact that they even exist is honestly disheartening. What's even worse is that these people are actually great players too. It's the whole doubling down, and then posting a raw DI + raw camera audio clip that does it for me (which, mind you, ends up being a mimed video of a pre-recorded camera audio clip of a perfectly edited DI and then replaced in post). At that point, you've basically thrown away all your integrity, and in my opinion is 100x worse than just saying you mimed over something that was solely produced to grab eyes. Even with miming videos, you can easily tell if a person is probably able to play it just based off of how their fretting hand looks, and if they're miming articulations synonymously with the recorded track. I'm not against miming. I've done it. Everybody does it. Your favorite musicians do it in playthroughs, music videos, etc. It saves a lot of time when filming because you're not starting from scratch if you mess up, and if done right, your video looks a little prettier. At the end of the day, just like you've said in the video, it all boils down to morals and integrity. If you produced an original cover from the bottom up, or even just do a cover with double tracked guitars, I'll never ding points from you if you don't have a live recorded track in your showcased playthrough because that's not the expectation. At that point I'm just there to enjoy your video. Though, if you're doing a one-take playthrough or in this case, doubling down on accusations, that sets the expectation that what you put out is going to be aligned with what you claimed. If it's not, you've just shot yourself in the foot. Anyways great vid and earned a sub, sorry for the essay LOLOLOLOL.
I used to make bass cover videos, and would always use real "perfect" takes. It usually took me like 4 hours to learn the song note for note, and record a perfect take. Some songs, I had to come back a few days later after really understanding the groove. Some I couldn't even play and still can't. I quickly realized everybody was miming. And I decided that it was a pointless endeavour and just stopped. David Caraccio, the OG youtube bass player, always recorded his stuff 100% live, and it shows: he's now so good it doesn't matter if he's not edited.
I can't love this enough! I appreciate the honesty in this video. When I started learning guitar before social media existed I would spend hours practicing and learning knew things on my guitar just because I loved it. I wasn't comparing or trying to "keep up with Joneses," I just loved guitar. I ended up quitting all social media because I felt that everyone else was at a level I could never attain. Thanks for the reminder to just enjoy the journey!
Thanks so much for calling this out! I’m so tired of non guitarist friends sending me IG reels of these dudes, and then trying to decide if I should tell them it’s fake and sound like a curmudgeon or just let them believe the lies.
Honestly, I needed to see this. For a long time, my cop-out to not making something I really believed in was “Everyone else is so far away from me with their extreme levels of talent, there’s nothing I can add to music.” Well, turns out there’s something I CAN add: authenticity. Thank goodness
This video is the message that needs to be sent and read. For years I was struggling to record a guitar song, because I felt pressured that it must be perfect in every way, edited as tight as possible. Seeing guitar players rise to fame with their impossible to play guitar content (even for them) was very painful for me as a guitar player. Everytime I play a song I take at least 3-5 days to learn it by practicing 6-8h a day. Of course I edit some minor stuff to make it better, but never to the point of playing it slower and stitching it up. Lol, sometimes I even leave minor mistakes just for the sake of it. It's great to hear that I'm not the only one who hears this... thing. Btw, I always write my songs in a way that's possible to play for me when standing up (yeah, playing when standing and sitting are like two different ways of playing). Been gigging for the last 8 years and the one thing you know is to NOT WRITE IMPOSSIBLE RIFFS, because one day you will have to play them live.
I've always thought that the mistakes in a recording are what make it human, special and unique. For me, its the slight imperfections that make music perfect. Great video!
Internet guitarists are too obsessed with perfection, Every time I meet or get to jam with a touring guitarist, They seem to make more micro mistakes IE chords where one note is slightly muted or things like that, But they're just better musicians than the guys obsessed with perfection
There surely can be perfect solos. I think you can absolutely make a point that a professional musician wants to at least try to reach perfection and many do. But not at the cost of authenticity. They practice until they get it right and can do it on the spot. Not by editing until they achieve something they could never play themselves.
I remember in the 80's and the shredder era...at least the old shredders had musicality. Now they just take the technical part and completely left the musicality part. It's impressive for like 5 secs then you to forget them in a split second since it's kinda boring and uninteresting. It's a rat race of technicality without soul. Those people will get replaced by AI since they already sounds like a machine.
Amen, bro. I came to comment more or less the same. 90% or more of that stuff is useless in a band context, where the main task is embellishing a music piece, whether with or without vocals. Take a listen to the old prog bands (Yes, ELP, Genesis, Camel, Focus, Kansas, Rush, etc), they played chromatic stuff in complex metrics and even so they were able to retain a lot of musicality intact on it!
sounds like more mindless emotional nostalgic gibberish disguised as critique but ok buddy. you do realize you can hear the exact same complaints when eddie van halen started tapping yes? "soulless" and "all technique" were some of the exact words they used lol. hell even tony Iomi used the exact same words when talking about malmsteen. the music of todays far better guitarists is just above your taste old man, its ok to say you just dont like it out of pure nostalgic bias and moving on. you are no different than the critics of old.
@flamingmanure Except EVH didn't sound like a robot and could actually write good music. The "far better guitarists of today" can't even play live music and if they do, they aren't as good live as their albums because they can't actually play that well. Their songs definitely aren't as good as the guitarists of the 80s. Do you know why people are such big fans of bands from the 80s and 90s? It's not nostalgia.
I go live every week and cut clips direct from the recording yet some people think I’m fake. With the rise of AI and all these special plugins, it certainly makes it harder to tell. This was a very interesting video and I thank you for it! Hopefully, it will help people understand what is real and what is not!
Literally was going to make a guitar based channel just to call this stuff out and break everything down like you did here. You did it better than I would have. Out here doing god's work sir.
Great video, as a composer I agree with you 100%. Seeing all that "perfection" and obsession with technical skills on social media can be discouraging. Music creation is supposed to be fun and a way for artistic expression, playing complex and fast elements serve a role but it should be a tool, not the goal. Art should be a journey not a competition.
A while ago, someone said, "Every guitarist uploads their best take among several sloppy previous takes." It appears that this isn't true anymore. Anyways, this "perfect guitarist persona" you spoke about is the reason why I don't follow any guitarists on Instagram or TikTok. I remember when I started playing, 15 years ago, and watching players like Jack Thamarat, Andy James and many others here on YT made me feel like I would never be able to be a decent player. Many years passed by, and I realized that this "technical voyeurism" led most of the guitarists to nowhere other than frustration. You may follow other guitarists who inspire you, but it is a very narrow line that you must pay attention to not get frustrated with unreal expectations.
Great stuff to see people putting this spotlight out there more. Nothing kills motivation to learn more than a display of perfection that’s completely unattainable
Subbed. As a solo writing/recording guitarist I do strive to make my music as close to perfection as possible, but I recognize I’d never replicate it perfectly in a live situation. I like to keep occasional smaller mess ups in my music because that’s just real life.
Thanks for posting this video. Although people have it in their hearts to play amazingly, it's quite educational to know there are those out there who have to fake it to make it.
Nice video man, as a guitarrist I really appreciate your knowledge and advice, and specially nowadays when everyone is trying to play perfect takes all over the social media.
I wouldn't say that, he's clearly inspired by berried alive, and makes the same crazy genre, but that's like saying grunge bands are ctrl c ctrl v of nirvana, berried alive didn't invent that mathcore/djent thing fused with trap music, I think it's fair if the dude plays the same stuff as long as the songs are his compositions
It was about time someone said it. I hope this video gets 100 million views!!! Too many “famous” guitarists post videos of things they can’t even PRETEND to play, resorting to subtly speeding up the footage-just a little bit, to make it feasible. That 10-15% makes it nearly undetectable but turns something fairly difficult into something absolutely impossible for any human to play. And yet, they build careers on this illusion. The real disappointment sets in when you see them live. In situations where they can’t fake it, they suddenly play slowed-down acoustic versions of their clips or completely different material-playing like humans for a change. When busted, their invested fans even defend them, saying: “Well, it’s just a 15% speed-up; they need to put out a lot of videos to maintain their schedule.” No, it’s not a harmless shortcut. It’s deception. It’s a lie. It’s unjust and immoral. It ruins the guitar scene for everyone involved. It makes practicing to play virtuosic guitar parts absolutely depressing, because you can spend four hours a day for a month to make a video that’s still less impressive than one done in two hours and sped up just a little bit. Imagine a great runner-someone who can run 100 meters in 11 seconds. A fantastic athlete, just not world-class. Now speed up that performance by 15%, and suddenly they’re running 100 meters in 9.5 seconds, smashing every world record in history. Would we call that fair? Would we celebrate them as the best in the world? Of course not. Yet in the guitar world, this kind of deceit not only goes unpunished but is rewarded with adulation, endorsements, and monetization. It’s a betrayal of the art and of the fans who genuinely believe in what they’re watching. And it is F******* EVERYWHERE.
I don’t want to point fingers because, as usual, it would just summon an army of defenders. However, as a rule of thumb: it’s fake if what’s being played seems absurd. Examples? The trendy super-quick jumps from super low to super high pitches with zero note tails, laser-like precision in 16ths with perfect tempo and identical note attack sounds, ultra-clean execution on high frets with not a single misplaced string noise (and even the string noise somehow perfectly timed and musical) without distortion! You’ll notice nobody ever does the exact same thing on stage. I don't care about the “slightly slower” or “slightly simpler” versions: I want to see the hard stuff they became famous for online. They never do it. Curious how they suddenly get all emotional and feely on stage, sticking to the slow stuff… isn’t it? And when they do try to replicate it, they sound so… so merely human. And yet, somehow, they have Ibanez signature models with their name on them.
It's difficult to hear the differences between the edited and real tracks tbh, i just catch the fake videos with the "open ringing string" or maybe some weird vibrato that doesn't match the sound. I like to see videos with imperfections and i'm glad more people are sharing more organic material :) thanks for making this video man!
I’m glad to see more perspectives on this. I frequently share whether I’ve comp’d a take. It seems to be less important to viewers and I wonder if the engagement is driving the unrealistic ideals of perfection.
Solid takes in here. As a producer and songwriter, I'm always aiming for "what's the sound that's in my head" if it's not possible for me at full speed yet. That's fine. I'll edit it in or punch it in. But as a guitarist. I always want to aim for being able to do something live. Great video. You've gained a sub this day!
That's part of the reason why I don't even bother uploading any guitar covers on social media because I don't want to partake in the fakeness of it all. I can understand music videos, but social media is full of people gullible enough to think that it's real. Thanks for the explanation man.
Integrity is no longer a valued commodity in this world. In recent years, many mainstream music performers have been caught lip-syncing and using pitch correction live but people still love and throw money at them. It's the same with the gym scene, modelling scene, and even taking photos of family vacations for social media. Everything is fake and people genuinely adore the hokeyness of it all. I am a mediocre musician but I always, only do one-takes - they may not sound great but at least I can live with myself and at least people hire me for what I can actually do.
Man... this is the video EVERYONE who starts to play guitar must see... I can't tell how many times I wanted to quit learning how to play the guitar because ALL of the youtube and instagram guitarist are "fake", they are edited the sound and even if you play the same riff perfectly you will sound garbage compared to them. Once I bought presets for my Boss Katana 100/212 MKII and when I complained the seller said "you are using different pickups thats why you sound different" :D Of course my DiMarzio D-Activator pickups in an RG550 sound like a cheap guitar on a toy amp and the "same preset" on his RG550 sound like hell.... Everyone lying on the internet and I hate this... Thank you for your honest video!
I feel this. I upload to socials but i actually record the guitar audio prior most times and then mime it. Easier that way for filming purposes but my DI is rarely ever edited or sped up to make me sound better. If I mess up or sound off, ill re record it.
At this point I'm rly not that surprised nor being angry or disappointed by people faking stuff on the Internet. But I certainly like videos like these calling this stuff out
I just want to point out Noah Crenshaw. He also does the modern Berried Alive style playing (killswitch + Floyd Rose) but he’s legit. He livestreams himself playing and tracking takes and I can hear all his mistakes, but he nails the techniques. Surely for the tracking he could still edit things but his real playing and playthrough are as close as possible and sounds pretty much the same (even if dubbed over after).
I had a hunch for some guys, but also accepted the fact that maybe some people are that good. Well done man, pretty fair accusations with respectful delivery. Shame people go through hoops like these for perceived mastery of their instruments, bad for them and their viewers and the guitar-sphere in general.
I think the problem here is some guitarists see music as a sport vs an artistic expression. Some people think if you can't play it live then you shouldn't write it, while some don't let skill limited their ideas. Imagine you have such a kick ass idea, but you can't play it live so will you just let that idea go away or find a way to realize it? Yea it sucks that people have to mime, but this is a video age we live in. People like people they need to see a visual. You can't just slap the song with a static album cover on instagram or tik tok. It's basically a music video
I agree! Most edm artists can’t play their synths they’ve programmed and that’s fine. They’re composers, not players. It’s only a problem when you become dishonest and stack lies on top of lies.
@ Maybe it’s dishonest if they show the DAW in the back as if it was recording in the moment. That is one trend that used to be a thing. Rob Scallon, really talented used to do it in his videos
hey nice thoughts man, that's basically what I thought, but a little bit more to the live side. They should make a spectrum for this thought, bc I'm on it. Center right. Dragonforce should not play live
OMG thank you so much for showin Davin, I'm so sick of all his video where there are more edits than notes, and people be like "wow you're so skilled" in comments xD
That insanely complicated process for editing notes together at 3:53 seems like it’s more work than actually learning to play the part. Very interesting video.
It takes less discipline, that's the difference. You can do a bunch of editing in a daw with your eyes while also listening to a podcast or music or something in the background, whereas learning how to play something at or above your skill level on guitar takes complete focus and patience
Dude thank you so much for making this video. I subbed. It’s amazing how simple these recording tricks are and people are still falling for it. I’ve definitely used a lot of studio tricks to get a part tracked perfectly. But fighting for attention with false advertisement is so weird. Clean DI argument is the funniest to me haha like yeah your clean super edited DI dude, sick work.
I love this video! I am not really insecure about my playing, but I never feel good at it, whatever it may mean. This video sends a powerful message that extends beyond Instagram and internet guitar culture. It helps us see that basically everything we see on social media is fake. Now that's not that bad in itself that we want to present ourselves in best light possible, but it really stirs the emotions of jealousity and frustration, especaily in people who don't have the ability to tell somebody's supposed life is fake.
There's so much of this right now, it sickens me. All this sped up, MIDI backed crap. I've even seen people faking harmonic taps live when its on a backing track. Makes me literally not want to release stuff because people won't find genuinely impressive playing as good because it's not the Berried Alive Lover Manuel Rings of Saturn Gardner Al'Mum'in James Griffin Ekens unattainable b.s.. I've seen all these young guitarists doing it. It's just too much.
Great vid bro. Professionally presented and you weren't a dick about it and even more importantly, your giving guitarists the truth about how over-compensated some of these content creators (not musicians) have become. Most of them are already talented AF but their insecurities and/or need to be THAT guy turn them into frauds. I feel a real musician would never even be able to comprehend to do such a thing. Once again, video has killed the radio star. Subscribed✌
The fun part of it, and also the sad one, is that all these players never heard any isolated solo ever from any great player... When you do, you clearly hear that perfection only comes with the context of it. That said, the videos you showed us is not only faked but yeah, sped up as fuck.
This has been going on for a long time with drums - probably because that was the first instrument in metal to start to be heavily programmed by people making music in their bedrooms with no access to a drummer - or at least no way to record drums. It led to this thing where kids on the internet would comment on real live drum videos and say that they were sloppy, they weren't tight, etc. because they were so used to hearing drums that had been triggered, edited, locked to a grid etc, that they didn't realise that real humans don't play like that. I really worry that a similar thing will happen with guitar as well. I mean people have always done tricks in the studio but it's now getting to a ridiculous point. The only thing I can hope is that once this stuff is everywhere, it stops being interesting to people, and stuff that you can't really fake like interesting songwriting will be what stands out.
And then you see people mocking pro guitar players who play it raw in some interviews. Its kinda crazy how social media creates these unrealistic images how you should be able to play even for guitar players At this point basically everything you see online is "fake"
Great video! This persona thing was haunting me too, but now I seem to have overcome it, totally agree with every line you said... Greetings from Himalya...
I think if you took two clips of the pick scrapes, put them on top of each other and then inverted the phase of one track, they would cancel each other out and you’d prove that it’s fake. You might have to search for a few in case the samples are round robined.
I've been arguing this for years...IG, FB reels etc. My argument isn't that the guitarists that do this can't play... obviously they can... or at least most can (some miming is really off, but that's a different story). My argument is that there are people starting out on guitar who will see these "perfect" performances, believe they are live unedited recordings, and stunt their own progress by feeling that they just aren't good enough... or even quit. Additionally... viewers that watch these videos and then in comments, trash guitar players for putting out raw videos that don't sound as polished. I saw a FB reel where a girl was playing (the way many of us do) quick cellphone recording of her. She was good... good as any band I'd see at a bar etc. So many comments trashed her... and it was mainly the lackluster recording with the cellphone that caused the ruckus. I've said for years... these videos should have to have a disclaimer, stating they are edited for entertainment purposes.
Thanks for sharing; im honestly, disguisted, and feel so much more passion for my craft now knowing that so many people out there are just faking it. Thanks Jacobra Records, Kobura Records ;)
hey, here a guitar player for bout 24 years of my life now (i am 32). Thanks for uploading this. Its often strikingly odd to see players play, and sense like somethings off these days. I think im experienced enough to tell but didnt know enough about the way they exactly do it so, cheers mate for this video. Whats another thing that should come across and what drives me nuts these days, is the thing with overall "play speed". it is okay to not play with the highest rates of BPM or to compeed all the time. There are numerous really good not speed dependet guitarists out there, and people should watch em becaus they make beautiful pieces of art: to name a few: Adam jones (Tool), Drew goddard (Karnivool), both mastodon guitarists and a lot of Post rock guys. They have a lot to offer, complementing their music and not overtake every Track to stand in the spotlight. Remember that you are most often part of a band and it will mostly consist of more than only you.
I love it when instagram guitarists speed up their videos and forget to turn off their amp modelers in the background so the tap tempo lights are blinking away at light speed.
that's why I love when guitarists upload their raw and no processed camera audio recordings, where you can hear the picking and even the pickup switches and stuff.
As someone who has put literally thousands of hours into it over the last 2 years and experienced actual physical limitations to prevent me from playing more; i can confirm that you have to be a little crazy to be as good as some of these people allegedly are.
Seeing sooo many guitarist being able to post that style back to back used to confuse the hell out of me. Takes me weeks sometimes months to play things like that effortlessly and honestly
so many of this videos are super fake but it's a double edged sword because if you don't fake it at least a little bit (ie using a mixed version of your playing over the video instead of the raw live audio) the average person isn't gonna think wow this guitarist is showing a good live version, they are gonna think this guitarist sucks a lil because they are used to over produced shit
This is the biggest issue imo... The unrealistic expectation. It's not a "they're stealing audience" factor but a "they're lying about something I care about."
I saw that IG short of the first dude you talked about a few days ago. Upon seeing it, I immediately thought "midi + edited notes". There's just no way anyone can DI cleanly as if it sounded like it's perfectly level/compressed. Good on you for noticing the low B droning.
Full time engineer here of 18 years, and brother, I am right there with you. I have called out this BS many times to people that link me videos like this. The LOW STRINGS always give it away, because in the recorded finished take, and in the "No, really it's an unedited DI, I promise" take, the low string is often flapping away wildly, but the audio we hear is pristine, almost as if you muted every other string with wraps and only did the tapping runs, which it almost certainly was. Sorry, but this crap is impossible. It's impossible for the low string to be uncontrollably vibrating while you're doing tapping stuff, and us not hear that low string muddying everything up. Busted, indeed.
I’m showing my age here I’m sure, but these IG and TikTok players don’t do anything for me, at all, and this is the reason why. Shit is way too perfect and sounds like AI. Nothing will ever beat seeing a great player live, with all the organic nuances of the nights interpretation. I’m old enough that I got to see a lot of the greats perform in their prime like Chuck and Dime, Marty Friedman, Jeff Loomis, Alexi Laiho, Muhammed Suicmez, Christian Muenzer, Wes Hauch, Dean and Toby from Archspire, and plenty I’m forgetting. All of these mf’ers are/were just on fucking point, because they put in the time the old fashioned way. I’m not discounting the talent a lot of these social media players possess, but get out there and do it, away from the daw and editing, live in front of people, and let’s see how it sounds. And I’ll happily keep and open mind about it too.
many of them do objectively get out there, you guys on here are just too emotionally biased and drowne in generalist statements and nostalgia to notice it. lol like who are the insta guitarists youre talking about exactly? i laughably hear far more complaining about fake edited stuff than actual fake edited stuff at this point.
@@flamingmanure Who cares if there’s more complaining that it actually happening? That’s a good thing. A wonderful thing actually. If all the whining discourages even one person from doing it, that’s perfect. I’ll happily contribute to that. Who are these “insta” guitarists that both receive criticism for fake and hyper edited playing, and then absolutely destroying any doubt when they play live? Dude, if people want to make hyper produced and edited videos for the algorithm, fuck it, it is what it is. Bands have been doing that on studio albums for decades. But just be prepared that when some asshole like me says you can’t do it for real, you can make me eat my words by blowing my fucking mind with just an amp and a room mic, or better yet, in front of 1000 people.
@@flamingmanure Who cares if there’s more complaining than it actually happening? That’s a good thing. If all the whining gets even one person to rethink hyper producing a bunch of EDM bullshit and calling it guitar playing, that’s a win 😉. And of course there’s a nostalgic link, why wouldn’t there be? What an odd thing to say like it’s some kind of insult, honestly pretty bizarre. You don’t have any nostalgic feelings towards music from years past? Actually? Man I went and saw Aborted, Archspire, and Alluvial back in may, and all three bands blew my mind. I could not believe how tight and incredible every single member of those three bands were. Just getting that tight the right way, with insane amounts of hours. Who are these “insta” guitarists that are objectively out there? I’m genuinely curious as to which ones absolutely bring it live, I’d like to check them out.
didn't even realize you were the same guy who posted the "how to track and edit guitars PERFECTLY" video until you pointed it out. i've been going back to that video a lot. keep it up. 🙏
Man makes video to combat fake guitar playing while ironically educating an entire new wave of players on how exactly to do it
Don't do meth; anyway here's how you make meth.
if everyone learn how to do it and suddenly everyone becomes a guitar god in IG it will be clear that it is all fake, so I think it is a way of accomplishing the objective 😅
so go do it
NEWSFLASH: Editing and/or recording at lower BPM isn't a secret.
@@user-te3qq1rb7u Because then they'll know exactly what not to do
Everybody wanna be Guthrie Govan, nobody wanna practice.
I don’t wanna be him and I practice that
@@EOHRyan Guthrie vs Ronnie, who is more powerful?
tbh very few people could practice enough to be guthrie govan
I think the opposite is true as well tho…lots of people have tremendous skill and can’t write a decent song or solo. Guthrie is great at both btw.
I don't wanna be him. Great but boring.
Plot twist...this whole video and audio was recorded at 85% speed and sped up in post to look more impressive too
😆
I typed this reply at 85% and sped it up so it reads faster.
Actually, listening to him talk, I think he forgot to speed it back up to 100%
I typed this reply at 100% and slowed it down so it reads slower for you.
It’s always been super obvious that it’s all fake, and I’m soooo tired of people trying to convince me it’s real. You see these guys try to play live at a NAMM booth and it’s a joke 🙄 the whole music scene has just become fake perfect baloney. Be a human musician. It’s way cooler
the brrr deng style they go for is already soulless, and even less djenty hype guitarrists fall for "all technique, zero merit"
Sometimes I make the comparison of how much goes into making Porn
@@trveheimer6360
I hear you. That nonsense grinds my gears too.
I’ve heard some plain-jane hardcore guitarists with no squiddly-diddlys who’s jams are LEAGUES above most of these soulless wannabe prog machines.
Everyone just wants to show off some impressive technique nowadays instead of just writing riffs that kill.
sophie burrell is one of the legit people
@@Celatra
I’m unfamiliar with her, but there are indeed legit guitarists that are all about the chops. Not all of em are phony or make soulless trash.
Nice to see people starting to catch on and actually see the problem with it.. totally appreciate your video!
About a decade ago people would catch hell for pulling these kind of grifts, ie Rings of Saturn, now people are so gullible they praise the skill in obvious fake sped up videos. If you try to point it out everyone claims toxic negativity. It's so depressing.
Everybody trynna be Rusty, nobody wants to practice it.
Rings of saturn is legit tho@@floydhopkins7901
Rusty is a real one 🙌🏼
One of the greatest ever!
the part about "unreachable standards" and "online persona perfectionism" is just true as fuck honestly and applies to all social media in general regardless of genre
Hold my beer...
...Matteo Mancuso.
@@Rainbow-Chicken but how will you do that trickery on stage, you can't fake it then...
@@paultaylor1812 But will Matteo Mancuso be the soundtrack of someones life in 20 years from now? Will some dude whisper in his girlfriends ears when they hear a Mancuso tune: "Darling, they're playing our song"? I doubt it.
Sure, he's an amazing player, but his music doesn't touch me at all. This music isn't made to leave a lasting impression on generations for the next couple of decades, it's made to impress people on the spot, so they click the "like" button. After that it's gets old rather quickly.
@@Patbwoy This is cope. Having more talent doesn't mean he doesn't have "feel" or whatever nonsense you're trying to push. Technique and feel go hand in hand. You don't need all the technique to have a great sense of feel but to say Matteo doesn't make moving music just comes across as seething jealousy.
@@Del_987 Your opinion, my opinion.You like it, I don't. No reason for stupid ad-hominem accusations, don't you think?
But hey, being able to handle different opinions seems to be a dying skill set.
Careful! These instagram perfectionists will start to add imperfections in their DAWs after your video 😅
P.S. I love I Declare War!
This is already happening with mime vocal tracks for live shows. Breathing between the lines can be edited IN.
I'm a jazz musician so I'm not sure how I ended up here, but if any of us did these editing tricks I don't think they'd ever, ever live it down. Especially if they lied about it. Great topic and video
I tell students all the time they're fake, this video just shows you exactly how they do it
It's not just social media, listen to the albums too. The production is so prim and perfect nowadays but go back and listen to your favorite albums from anything earlier than like 2010 (or something, idk, you get what I'm driving at) and you'll really hear how charmingly imperfect they were, and realize how much they still rip regardless.
Spot on with that time frame.
Except Steely Dan ;) They achieved perfection in the 1970s, but they did it the hard way
It actually makes me appreciate how insanely good people like Yngwie and Batio were/are. Back in the day it was completely normal to miss notes.
I consider Periphery's first album from 2010 to be the beginning of all of this.
Agree. I used to watch a lot of youtube til the 2010s as a self taught player. Almost all the guitar covers were genuine. One take, filmed with a digicam or primitive smartphone. Now everybody is just faking stuff. We even have a facebook page in the Philipines where people can share report and shame fake guitar players and content theives in social media
Just some fun trivia on the other hand: Mike Malyan (drummer of Monuments) didn't know the first Periphery songs had programmed drums, so he pushed himself and practiced really hard to achieve that level of consistency, which is stupidly inspiring!
I don't know why this isn't the consensus.
If perfection sounds good to you, then strive for it. Don't settle for less because you heard there was some smoke and mirrors to get there. If it isn't impossible, then it's possible.
My buddy Leo in Psycho-Frame did the same thing but with Infant Annihilator drums… he thought they were real and pushed himself to play that fast and now he’s absolutely cracked
@@seanedwards94I am an extremely mediocre guitarist that records his own music. I have a better ear than I do talent for guitar, and it's been a process to accept that I will not sound as perfect as I'd like to
@@subularrenoIt comes down to work ethic. The great Eloy Casagrande claims talent is meaningless because if you devote all your life to the craft, at some point it'll be impossible to discern who's talented and who isn't. This is very common among children of musicians who were shaped for greatness from an early age, but it can also be achieved by obsessive practice.
@@JacobraRecordsArt Tatum supposedly learned four-hand pieces as if they were written for two, the rest is history.
I think it’s really important for up and coming players to be aware of this. Realizing that things are mimed and edited was one of the biggest hurdles I had to overcome.
Recently getting back into serious practising again, I've only just started to learn this. It seemed that the amount of elite tier players with 0 mistakes and insane creativity and skill was endless nowadays, seems I was wrong. It's actually somewhat comforting lol.
I don't understand this obsession with pristine playing. I guess it's the guitar version of instafilters and angles for girls.
The great guitar players are great because of how human and imperfect their sound is. I'd rather listen to Yngwie's raw, emotion-filled shred over anything I see these days on Instagram.
It's ok to not play perfectly as long as you do keep time really well... I think though, that to perform the complex playing that they do whilst keeping time is just too hard.
@@Obi-WanKannabis Yngwie, BB King, Clapton are just a few examples of players with a loose approach to rhythm.
Tim effing Henson. He'll get found out soon enough.
Guitar hero made everyone want to play perfect lol
It can be very frustrating to try to build an audience for yourself as a guitarist when you're constantly seeing fake videos get all the attention and success... I wouldn't feel right if I ever uploaded a video like that.
why not it's just a glorified music video
@ There are no rules in art, so people can do what they want. But still, when someone posts a video that is just guitar playing, most people will assume what they are seeing is also what they are hearing. The line between music video and performance video can be blurry, but a lot of these videos are portrayed as performances.
I think the point in the video is good. It sets an insanely high standard, and a lot of people will think what they hear is what they see.
It also takes away attention from guitarists who deserve it more, at least if we’re talking about the skill level. (I’m not saying I’m one of them, I’m not really that good, but there are plenty of legit players out there who don’t need to mime, edit, or speed up their playing that deserve more attention. In my opinion, of course. )
But it seems to be a situation that affects all sorts of fields on social media where everyone is competing over getting as much traffic as possible. But I guess with art, people are free to do whatever they want, but I think it’s good that people are aware of this stuff.
@@gitarmats the problem is we live in a video world. You can’t just post the song up with an album art. That won’t cut it anymore. You need a visual. Even legitimate guitarists from big bands do this. Misha, Rabea, Intervals, Tosin and etc have been doing these types of videos before reels and tik tok have been a thing. I think it’s not right to pin this as the fault of instagram guitarists.
At the end of the day music also has a showmanship aspect. That’s why when we watch shows we love it when the drummer spins his sticks or a guitarist does a a guitar flip.
Sorry in the music scene / in the world, it doesn’t matter who is more deserving. It’s all about who is hustling and working hard. Hate all you want in the instagram guitarist, but they are consistently putting out content. It may be edited, not all of them are as exaggerated as this video. They still took the time to write the guitar solos. They took the time to light and do the video
Holy yisus, I’ve been playing for 17 years and never imagined this. I used to hear a lot of complains about ig guitarists, but never thought this was the technique they were referring to. You just opened my eyes lol, I recently made a prog metal video and it was such a pain in the ass to record the guitars without screwing it. I really thought those DI audio videos were real lol
Great video.
A dead giveaway for me always was not muting the strings they are not playing and every note is crystal clear. One of those Instagram famous guitarists has a video where his fingers are in the air and notes are being played, as soon as I saw that it was enough for me to unfollow him. Needles to mention that he NEVER mutes the bass strings while he is playing on treble strings and it sounds perfect.
Preach
Shaggy
Ned from spiderman
Mike Dawes I love your stuff!!
bru
This needs to be talked about more... Many people feel discouraged after not being able to replicate such 'perfection'
Solid video dude. I've been pondering around the idea of making a similar video myself but looks like you beat me to it.
I've been editing videos for over a decade, and been doing studio work for around 7 years. When you've invested enough time into a craft, you're conditioned to see and hear things that the average person probably won't ever pick up on unless it's pointed out to them, and so these kinds of videos have never made it past me. And as you become more skilled, you also become more able to deduce certain... things, and figure out which methods work to accomplish said things. Nonetheless, I've only seen a few of these "faked" (not mimed, faked) videos, but the fact that they even exist is honestly disheartening. What's even worse is that these people are actually great players too. It's the whole doubling down, and then posting a raw DI + raw camera audio clip that does it for me (which, mind you, ends up being a mimed video of a pre-recorded camera audio clip of a perfectly edited DI and then replaced in post). At that point, you've basically thrown away all your integrity, and in my opinion is 100x worse than just saying you mimed over something that was solely produced to grab eyes.
Even with miming videos, you can easily tell if a person is probably able to play it just based off of how their fretting hand looks, and if they're miming articulations synonymously with the recorded track. I'm not against miming. I've done it. Everybody does it. Your favorite musicians do it in playthroughs, music videos, etc. It saves a lot of time when filming because you're not starting from scratch if you mess up, and if done right, your video looks a little prettier.
At the end of the day, just like you've said in the video, it all boils down to morals and integrity. If you produced an original cover from the bottom up, or even just do a cover with double tracked guitars, I'll never ding points from you if you don't have a live recorded track in your showcased playthrough because that's not the expectation. At that point I'm just there to enjoy your video. Though, if you're doing a one-take playthrough or in this case, doubling down on accusations, that sets the expectation that what you put out is going to be aligned with what you claimed. If it's not, you've just shot yourself in the foot.
Anyways great vid and earned a sub, sorry for the essay LOLOLOLOL.
I used to make bass cover videos, and would always use real "perfect" takes. It usually took me like 4 hours to learn the song note for note, and record a perfect take. Some songs, I had to come back a few days later after really understanding the groove. Some I couldn't even play and still can't.
I quickly realized everybody was miming. And I decided that it was a pointless endeavour and just stopped.
David Caraccio, the OG youtube bass player, always recorded his stuff 100% live, and it shows: he's now so good it doesn't matter if he's not edited.
I can't love this enough! I appreciate the honesty in this video. When I started learning guitar before social media existed I would spend hours practicing and learning knew things on my guitar just because I loved it. I wasn't comparing or trying to "keep up with Joneses," I just loved guitar. I ended up quitting all social media because I felt that everyone else was at a level I could never attain. Thanks for the reminder to just enjoy the journey!
Thanks so much for calling this out! I’m so tired of non guitarist friends sending me IG reels of these dudes, and then trying to decide if I should tell them it’s fake and sound like a curmudgeon or just let them believe the lies.
Honestly, I needed to see this. For a long time, my cop-out to not making something I really believed in was “Everyone else is so far away from me with their extreme levels of talent, there’s nothing I can add to music.”
Well, turns out there’s something I CAN add: authenticity. Thank goodness
0:57 all of sudden feel better about myself 😆
😂 Not Alone
Haha, I really felt this same vibe learning harsh vocals and trying to match certain overproduced, layered stuff was so confusing
Tim h
This video is the message that needs to be sent and read. For years I was struggling to record a guitar song, because I felt pressured that it must be perfect in every way, edited as tight as possible. Seeing guitar players rise to fame with their impossible to play guitar content (even for them) was very painful for me as a guitar player. Everytime I play a song I take at least 3-5 days to learn it by practicing 6-8h a day. Of course I edit some minor stuff to make it better, but never to the point of playing it slower and stitching it up. Lol, sometimes I even leave minor mistakes just for the sake of it. It's great to hear that I'm not the only one who hears this... thing.
Btw, I always write my songs in a way that's possible to play for me when standing up (yeah, playing when standing and sitting are like two different ways of playing). Been gigging for the last 8 years and the one thing you know is to NOT WRITE IMPOSSIBLE RIFFS, because one day you will have to play them live.
Dude this video was perfect!! Thank you
Bedrooms guitarists used Instagram and TikTok to decimate the reputation and interest of the craft
Yip
That’s why I put up videos of gigs on my pages. Only way I can really verify I can play what I play
Nah, getting rid of music classes in grade school destroyed guitar culture.
@@Charles-mv7sv that too
@@Charles-mv7svwhere do you live? Lol. Schools still have music classes
Awesome video and a much needed point to be made. Rock on!🤘🤘🤘
I've always thought that the mistakes in a recording are what make it human, special and unique. For me, its the slight imperfections that make music perfect. Great video!
Internet guitarists are too obsessed with perfection, Every time I meet or get to jam with a touring guitarist, They seem to make more micro mistakes IE chords where one note is slightly muted or things like that, But they're just better musicians than the guys obsessed with perfection
The "slight imperfections" are your signature style and what makes you unique. Giving that away via editing is taking away what people truly want.
@@DangleSan Well said!
All the chickens come home to roost when internet guitarist have to play live or jamming.
There surely can be perfect solos. I think you can absolutely make a point that a professional musician wants to at least try to reach perfection and many do. But not at the cost of authenticity. They practice until they get it right and can do it on the spot. Not by editing until they achieve something they could never play themselves.
Dime has a good quote saying that raw stuff that makes you cringe. Is what others can’t get enough of.
Insanely good and informative video. No gatekeeping, youre very knowledgable, honest and I have respect beyond comparison for that. Sub earned.❤
I remember in the 80's and the shredder era...at least the old shredders had musicality. Now they just take the technical part and completely left the musicality part. It's impressive for like 5 secs then you to forget them in a split second since it's kinda boring and uninteresting. It's a rat race of technicality without soul. Those people will get replaced by AI since they already sounds like a machine.
Amen, bro. I came to comment more or less the same. 90% or more of that stuff is useless in a band context, where the main task is embellishing a music piece, whether with or without vocals. Take a listen to the old prog bands (Yes, ELP, Genesis, Camel, Focus, Kansas, Rush, etc), they played chromatic stuff in complex metrics and even so they were able to retain a lot of musicality intact on it!
sounds like more mindless emotional nostalgic gibberish disguised as critique but ok buddy.
you do realize you can hear the exact same complaints when eddie van halen started tapping yes? "soulless" and "all technique" were some of the exact words they used lol. hell even tony Iomi used the exact same words when talking about malmsteen. the music of todays far better guitarists is just above your taste old man, its ok to say you just dont like it out of pure nostalgic bias and moving on. you are no different than the critics of old.
@flamingmanure Tony Iommi never said that, Wikipedia boy.....
@flamingmanure Except EVH didn't sound like a robot and could actually write good music. The "far better guitarists of today" can't even play live music and if they do, they aren't as good live as their albums because they can't actually play that well. Their songs definitely aren't as good as the guitarists of the 80s. Do you know why people are such big fans of bands from the 80s and 90s? It's not nostalgia.
I go live every week and cut clips direct from the recording yet some people think I’m fake. With the rise of AI and all these special plugins, it certainly makes it harder to tell. This was a very interesting video and I thank you for it! Hopefully, it will help people understand what is real and what is not!
I’ve been trying to tell my students this for years. I am going to share this vid with many of them. Thank you for the detailed explanation!
First video I've seen by you, and I am now subscribed. Great work, great message, now a fan 👏
Literally was going to make a guitar based channel just to call this stuff out and break everything down like you did here. You did it better than I would have. Out here doing god's work sir.
Lol he said literally
@@TheApacheTrail Literally, literally
Great video, as a composer I agree with you 100%. Seeing all that "perfection" and obsession with technical skills on social media can be discouraging. Music creation is supposed to be fun and a way for artistic expression, playing complex and fast elements serve a role but it should be a tool, not the goal. Art should be a journey not a competition.
A while ago, someone said, "Every guitarist uploads their best take among several sloppy previous takes." It appears that this isn't true anymore.
Anyways, this "perfect guitarist persona" you spoke about is the reason why I don't follow any guitarists on Instagram or TikTok. I remember when I started playing, 15 years ago, and watching players like Jack Thamarat, Andy James and many others here on YT made me feel like I would never be able to be a decent player. Many years passed by, and I realized that this "technical voyeurism" led most of the guitarists to nowhere other than frustration. You may follow other guitarists who inspire you, but it is a very narrow line that you must pay attention to not get frustrated with unreal expectations.
Great stuff to see people putting this spotlight out there more. Nothing kills motivation to learn more than a display of perfection that’s completely unattainable
because this I'm afraid to upload my sloppy playing and my mistakes in my covers
@@xserienchiller86 look at how many people commented in agreement, none of us are perfect and admire playing even with imperfections!
Subbed. As a solo writing/recording guitarist I do strive to make my music as close to perfection as possible, but I recognize I’d never replicate it perfectly in a live situation. I like to keep occasional smaller mess ups in my music because that’s just real life.
Thanks for posting this video. Although people have it in their hearts to play amazingly, it's quite educational to know there are those out there who have to fake it to make it.
Nice video man, as a guitarrist I really appreciate your knowledge and advice, and specially nowadays when everyone is trying to play perfect takes all over the social media.
that guitarist is a ctrl c ctrl v of berried alive lol
I wouldn't say that, he's clearly inspired by berried alive, and makes the same crazy genre, but that's like saying grunge bands are ctrl c ctrl v of nirvana, berried alive didn't invent that mathcore/djent thing fused with trap music, I think it's fair if the dude plays the same stuff as long as the songs are his compositions
Guitar Pro Midicore
It was about time someone said it. I hope this video gets 100 million views!!!
Too many “famous” guitarists post videos of things they can’t even PRETEND to play, resorting to subtly speeding up the footage-just a little bit, to make it feasible. That 10-15% makes it nearly undetectable but turns something fairly difficult into something absolutely impossible for any human to play. And yet, they build careers on this illusion.
The real disappointment sets in when you see them live. In situations where they can’t fake it, they suddenly play slowed-down acoustic versions of their clips or completely different material-playing like humans for a change. When busted, their invested fans even defend them, saying: “Well, it’s just a 15% speed-up; they need to put out a lot of videos to maintain their schedule.”
No, it’s not a harmless shortcut. It’s deception. It’s a lie. It’s unjust and immoral. It ruins the guitar scene for everyone involved. It makes practicing to play virtuosic guitar parts absolutely depressing, because you can spend four hours a day for a month to make a video that’s still less impressive than one done in two hours and sped up just a little bit.
Imagine a great runner-someone who can run 100 meters in 11 seconds. A fantastic athlete, just not world-class. Now speed up that performance by 15%, and suddenly they’re running 100 meters in 9.5 seconds, smashing every world record in history. Would we call that fair? Would we celebrate them as the best in the world? Of course not. Yet in the guitar world, this kind of deceit not only goes unpunished but is rewarded with adulation, endorsements, and monetization.
It’s a betrayal of the art and of the fans who genuinely believe in what they’re watching. And it is F******* EVERYWHERE.
care to link more examples? i see laughably more ppl claiming that its everywhere than it actually is tbh.
I don’t want to point fingers because, as usual, it would just summon an army of defenders. However, as a rule of thumb: it’s fake if what’s being played seems absurd.
Examples? The trendy super-quick jumps from super low to super high pitches with zero note tails, laser-like precision in 16ths with perfect tempo and identical note attack sounds, ultra-clean execution on high frets with not a single misplaced string noise (and even the string noise somehow perfectly timed and musical) without distortion!
You’ll notice nobody ever does the exact same thing on stage. I don't care about the “slightly slower” or “slightly simpler” versions: I want to see the hard stuff they became famous for online. They never do it.
Curious how they suddenly get all emotional and feely on stage, sticking to the slow stuff… isn’t it? And when they do try to replicate it, they sound so… so merely human.
And yet, somehow, they have Ibanez signature models with their name on them.
It's difficult to hear the differences between the edited and real tracks tbh, i just catch the fake videos with the "open ringing string" or maybe some weird vibrato that doesn't match the sound. I like to see videos with imperfections and i'm glad more people are sharing more organic material :) thanks for making this video man!
Thank you for making this. This is a topic I’m very passionate about, and it’s great to see someone make a video about it. Thank you
@2:02 I like how you can even hear the little pops from his edits lol
That kid actually sucks and is extremely thin skinned. I’ve gotten on him a couple times on the app and he’s been super defensive about it every time.
That gibberish is obviously sped up
I’m glad to see more perspectives on this. I frequently share whether I’ve comp’d a take. It seems to be less important to viewers and I wonder if the engagement is driving the unrealistic ideals of perfection.
Solid takes in here. As a producer and songwriter, I'm always aiming for "what's the sound that's in my head" if it's not possible for me at full speed yet. That's fine. I'll edit it in or punch it in. But as a guitarist. I always want to aim for being able to do something live. Great video. You've gained a sub this day!
That's part of the reason why I don't even bother uploading any guitar covers on social media because I don't want to partake in the fakeness of it all. I can understand music videos, but social media is full of people gullible enough to think that it's real. Thanks for the explanation man.
Integrity is no longer a valued commodity in this world. In recent years, many mainstream music performers have been caught lip-syncing and using pitch correction live but people still love and throw money at them. It's the same with the gym scene, modelling scene, and even taking photos of family vacations for social media. Everything is fake and people genuinely adore the hokeyness of it all. I am a mediocre musician but I always, only do one-takes - they may not sound great but at least I can live with myself and at least people hire me for what I can actually do.
Man... this is the video EVERYONE who starts to play guitar must see... I can't tell how many times I wanted to quit learning how to play the guitar because ALL of the youtube and instagram guitarist are "fake", they are edited the sound and even if you play the same riff perfectly you will sound garbage compared to them. Once I bought presets for my Boss Katana 100/212 MKII and when I complained the seller said "you are using different pickups thats why you sound different" :D Of course my DiMarzio D-Activator pickups in an RG550 sound like a cheap guitar on a toy amp and the "same preset" on his RG550 sound like hell.... Everyone lying on the internet and I hate this... Thank you for your honest video!
I love D-Activators lol
One of my music teachers once said "we live in a world of musical fiction" and this is a great example of how it's evolving 😂
I feel this. I upload to socials but i actually record the guitar audio prior most times and then mime it. Easier that way for filming purposes but my DI is rarely ever edited or sped up to make me sound better. If I mess up or sound off, ill re record it.
very well made video, great stuff
At this point I'm rly not that surprised nor being angry or disappointed by people faking stuff on the Internet. But I certainly like videos like these calling this stuff out
I just want to point out Noah Crenshaw. He also does the modern Berried Alive style playing (killswitch + Floyd Rose) but he’s legit. He livestreams himself playing and tracking takes and I can hear all his mistakes, but he nails the techniques. Surely for the tracking he could still edit things but his real playing and playthrough are as close as possible and sounds pretty much the same (even if dubbed over after).
Now I gotta hug you idk
@@Noah_Crenshaw not if I hug you first 😈🙏🏻
@ not if I touch you first
@@Noah_Crenshaw ☹️
Mind blowing, thanks! I acknowledge your efforts and showing that there is so much more fake content than we actually realize.
This is a clip that every casual music fan should see, great video👏
I had a hunch for some guys, but also accepted the fact that maybe some people are that good. Well done man, pretty fair accusations with respectful delivery. Shame people go through hoops like these for perceived mastery of their instruments, bad for them and their viewers and the guitar-sphere in general.
I think the problem here is some guitarists see music as a sport vs an artistic expression. Some people think if you can't play it live then you shouldn't write it, while some don't let skill limited their ideas. Imagine you have such a kick ass idea, but you can't play it live so will you just let that idea go away or find a way to realize it? Yea it sucks that people have to mime, but this is a video age we live in. People like people they need to see a visual. You can't just slap the song with a static album cover on instagram or tik tok. It's basically a music video
I agree! Most edm artists can’t play their synths they’ve programmed and that’s fine. They’re composers, not players. It’s only a problem when you become dishonest and stack lies on top of lies.
@ Maybe it’s dishonest if they show the DAW in the back as if it was recording in the moment. That is one trend that used to be a thing. Rob Scallon, really talented used to do it in his videos
hey nice thoughts man, that's basically what I thought, but a little bit more to the live side.
They should make a spectrum for this thought, bc I'm on it. Center right.
Dragonforce should not play live
OMG thank you so much for showin Davin, I'm so sick of all his video where there are more edits than notes, and people be like "wow you're so skilled" in comments xD
Good video and love that opinion, Thanks for sharing...
That insanely complicated process for editing notes together at 3:53 seems like it’s more work than actually learning to play the part. Very interesting video.
It takes less discipline, that's the difference. You can do a bunch of editing in a daw with your eyes while also listening to a podcast or music or something in the background, whereas learning how to play something at or above your skill level on guitar takes complete focus and patience
Dude thank you so much for making this video. I subbed. It’s amazing how simple these recording tricks are and people are still falling for it. I’ve definitely used a lot of studio tricks to get a part tracked perfectly. But fighting for attention with false advertisement is so weird. Clean DI argument is the funniest to me haha like yeah your clean super edited DI dude, sick work.
I love this video! I am not really insecure about my playing, but I never feel good at it, whatever it may mean. This video sends a powerful message that extends beyond Instagram and internet guitar culture. It helps us see that basically everything we see on social media is fake. Now that's not that bad in itself that we want to present ourselves in best light possible, but it really stirs the emotions of jealousity and frustration, especaily in people who don't have the ability to tell somebody's supposed life is fake.
There's so much of this right now, it sickens me. All this sped up, MIDI backed crap. I've even seen people faking harmonic taps live when its on a backing track.
Makes me literally not want to release stuff because people won't find genuinely impressive playing as good because it's not the Berried Alive Lover Manuel Rings of Saturn Gardner Al'Mum'in James Griffin Ekens unattainable b.s.. I've seen all these young guitarists doing it. It's just too much.
Great vid bro. Professionally presented and you weren't a dick about it and even more importantly, your giving guitarists the truth about how over-compensated some of these content creators (not musicians) have become. Most of them are already talented AF but their insecurities and/or need to be THAT guy turn them into frauds.
I feel a real musician would never even be able to comprehend to do such a thing.
Once again, video has killed the radio star.
Subscribed✌
The fun part of it, and also the sad one, is that all these players never heard any isolated solo ever from any great player... When you do, you clearly hear that perfection only comes with the context of it.
That said, the videos you showed us is not only faked but yeah, sped up as fuck.
This has been going on for a long time with drums - probably because that was the first instrument in metal to start to be heavily programmed by people making music in their bedrooms with no access to a drummer - or at least no way to record drums.
It led to this thing where kids on the internet would comment on real live drum videos and say that they were sloppy, they weren't tight, etc. because they were so used to hearing drums that had been triggered, edited, locked to a grid etc, that they didn't realise that real humans don't play like that. I really worry that a similar thing will happen with guitar as well. I mean people have always done tricks in the studio but it's now getting to a ridiculous point.
The only thing I can hope is that once this stuff is everywhere, it stops being interesting to people, and stuff that you can't really fake like interesting songwriting will be what stands out.
I guess I am not as bad as I thought.
Thanks for this man - very inspiring hearing the truth
And then you see people mocking pro guitar players who play it raw in some interviews.
Its kinda crazy how social media creates these unrealistic images how you should be able to play even for guitar players
At this point basically everything you see online is "fake"
Great video! This persona thing was haunting me too, but now I seem to have overcome it, totally agree with every line you said... Greetings from Himalya...
I love how this topic comes up every few years or so
and its mostly brainles nostalgia bias and old man lawn syndrome.
I think if you took two clips of the pick scrapes, put them on top of each other and then inverted the phase of one track, they would cancel each other out and you’d prove that it’s fake.
You might have to search for a few in case the samples are round robined.
Ooh that’s clever!
Great video! Fitness industry suffers from the same issue!
They took fake it till you make it to heart.
I've been arguing this for years...IG, FB reels etc. My argument isn't that the guitarists that do this can't play... obviously they can... or at least most can (some miming is really off, but that's a different story). My argument is that there are people starting out on guitar who will see these "perfect" performances, believe they are live unedited recordings, and stunt their own progress by feeling that they just aren't good enough... or even quit.
Additionally... viewers that watch these videos and then in comments, trash guitar players for putting out raw videos that don't sound as polished.
I saw a FB reel where a girl was playing (the way many of us do) quick cellphone recording of her. She was good... good as any band I'd see at a bar etc.
So many comments trashed her... and it was mainly the lackluster recording with the cellphone that caused the ruckus.
I've said for years... these videos should have to have a disclaimer, stating they are edited for entertainment purposes.
thanks for the tips my guitar videos will sound way better now!
This is crazy bro! Thanks for showing us what’s up
Thanks for sharing; im honestly, disguisted, and feel so much more passion for my craft now knowing that so many people out there are just faking it.
Thanks Jacobra Records,
Kobura Records ;)
And my ignorant self thought they were legit the whole time :(
hey, here a guitar player for bout 24 years of my life now (i am 32). Thanks for uploading this. Its often strikingly odd to see players play, and sense like somethings off these days. I think im experienced enough to tell but didnt know enough about the way they exactly do it so, cheers mate for this video. Whats another thing that should come across and what drives me nuts these days, is the thing with overall "play speed". it is okay to not play with the highest rates of BPM or to compeed all the time. There are numerous really good not speed dependet guitarists out there, and people should watch em becaus they make beautiful pieces of art: to name a few: Adam jones (Tool), Drew goddard (Karnivool), both mastodon guitarists and a lot of Post rock guys. They have a lot to offer, complementing their music and not overtake every Track to stand in the spotlight. Remember that you are most often part of a band and it will mostly consist of more than only you.
I love it when instagram guitarists speed up their videos and forget to turn off their amp modelers in the background so the tap tempo lights are blinking away at light speed.
that's why I love when guitarists upload their raw and no processed camera audio recordings, where you can hear the picking and even the pickup switches and stuff.
Thanks for the shoutout. Happy holidays! 🍓🤘
Is awesome that you show real videos.. something that I've done and seems to be very rare
Lovely take on this and nicely presented!
That is like the steroid junkie at the gym claiming natty.
As someone who has put literally thousands of hours into it over the last 2 years and experienced actual physical limitations to prevent me from playing more; i can confirm that you have to be a little crazy to be as good as some of these people allegedly are.
Good frickin vid homie
Ayy it's Uncle Judy
Liked and subscribed. Thanks for calling out the junk on social media.
This ≈ insta "models" + filters
Seeing sooo many guitarist being able to post that style back to back used to confuse the hell out of me. Takes me weeks sometimes months to play things like that effortlessly and honestly
so many of this videos are super fake but it's a double edged sword because if you don't fake it at least a little bit (ie using a mixed version of your playing over the video instead of the raw live audio) the average person isn't gonna think wow this guitarist is showing a good live version, they are gonna think this guitarist sucks a lil because they are used to over produced shit
This is the biggest issue imo... The unrealistic expectation. It's not a "they're stealing audience" factor but a "they're lying about something I care about."
I saw that IG short of the first dude you talked about a few days ago. Upon seeing it, I immediately thought "midi + edited notes".
There's just no way anyone can DI cleanly as if it sounded like it's perfectly level/compressed. Good on you for noticing the low B droning.
The remedy for this is to call these social media musicians out and make them play it live.
I think both Davin and BA have hinted at playing live shows
Full time engineer here of 18 years, and brother, I am right there with you. I have called out this BS many times to people that link me videos like this.
The LOW STRINGS always give it away, because in the recorded finished take, and in the "No, really it's an unedited DI, I promise" take, the low string is often flapping away wildly, but the audio we hear is pristine, almost as if you muted every other string with wraps and only did the tapping runs, which it almost certainly was. Sorry, but this crap is impossible. It's impossible for the low string to be uncontrollably vibrating while you're doing tapping stuff, and us not hear that low string muddying everything up.
Busted, indeed.
I’m showing my age here I’m sure, but these IG and TikTok players don’t do anything for me, at all, and this is the reason why. Shit is way too perfect and sounds like AI.
Nothing will ever beat seeing a great player live, with all the organic nuances of the nights interpretation.
I’m old enough that I got to see a lot of the greats perform in their prime like Chuck and Dime, Marty Friedman, Jeff Loomis, Alexi Laiho, Muhammed Suicmez, Christian Muenzer, Wes Hauch, Dean and Toby from Archspire, and plenty I’m forgetting.
All of these mf’ers are/were just on fucking point, because they put in the time the old fashioned way.
I’m not discounting the talent a lot of these social media players possess, but get out there and do it, away from the daw and editing, live in front of people, and let’s see how it sounds. And I’ll happily keep and open mind about it too.
many of them do objectively get out there, you guys on here are just too emotionally biased and drowne in generalist statements and nostalgia to notice it. lol like who are the insta guitarists youre talking about exactly? i laughably hear far more complaining about fake edited stuff than actual fake edited stuff at this point.
@@flamingmanure Who cares if there’s more complaining that it actually happening? That’s a good thing. A wonderful thing actually. If all the whining discourages even one person from doing it, that’s perfect.
I’ll happily contribute to that.
Who are these “insta” guitarists that both receive criticism for fake and hyper edited playing, and then absolutely destroying any doubt when they play live?
Dude, if people want to make hyper produced and edited videos for the algorithm, fuck it, it is what it is. Bands have been doing that on studio albums for decades.
But just be prepared that when some asshole like me says you can’t do it for real, you can make me eat my words by blowing my fucking mind with just an amp and a room mic, or better yet, in front of 1000 people.
@@flamingmanure Who cares if there’s more complaining than it actually happening? That’s a good thing. If all the whining gets even one person to rethink hyper producing a bunch of EDM bullshit and calling it guitar playing, that’s a win 😉.
And of course there’s a nostalgic link, why wouldn’t there be? What an odd thing to say like it’s some kind of insult, honestly pretty bizarre. You don’t have any nostalgic feelings towards music from years past? Actually?
Man I went and saw Aborted, Archspire, and Alluvial back in may, and all three bands blew my mind. I could not believe how tight and incredible every single member of those three bands were. Just getting that tight the right way, with insane amounts of hours.
Who are these “insta” guitarists that are objectively out there? I’m genuinely curious as to which ones absolutely bring it live, I’d like to check them out.
didn't even realize you were the same guy who posted the "how to track and edit guitars PERFECTLY" video until you pointed it out. i've been going back to that video a lot. keep it up. 🙏
1:39 lol you mispronounced his name the same exact way as i do
Hahahaha
When guitar players looked up to Jimmi Hendrix there was no way to fake it