Great point man. I knew from the start when I was making videos that I could portray myself a better guitar player than I really am. I bet it’s really tempting for an up and coming guitar player to use these tools to show the best of themselves. Its basically a mirror image of how social media media works in general. Everyone is showing their perfect life / perfect job / perfect look. They don’t show their faults. But people see these “perfect” lives and becomes jealous. It messes with peoples heads.
Hey Ola, I follow you since you even used Matt Damons voice for your vids. I think thats the General Problem of our time. Media Shows only the perfect World, but actually we mess it up to a point where we cant and dont want to live like that. We consider the reality as flaw. Thats the jealous and selfish side of us.
THAT explains the difference between Mozart and Solieri....Mozart had the ability to create these remarkable passages off the cuff...And Solieri was just himself with no passion
This is why players like Stephen Taranto are so valuable to me. They manage to make raw content sound amazing and I think that's a perfect example of pushing the boundaries on the guitar.
That man has stated that he only plays in very short sessions for fear of injuring his hands because of the level of speed and fret spanning he does...and i absolutely believe it. Hes a new speedboat and everyone else wants to catch some of his wake.
This is a great video and I know I can't be the only one that thinks this, but you have a very calming voice. If Archspire doesn't work out, maybe you could do 4 levels of asmr
Honestly why I love your 4 levels series so much. Showing how a seasoned, highly capable couple of guitar players still need to commit time and effort to learn new things really helps balance things out.
I agree. Seeing higher level players struggle shows the lesser player that they still have to dedicate time and effort to their craft. I just started watching a few weeks ago and it gave me a boost to pick the guitar up more often.
I find it far more genuine when you act, demonstrate, and display that you’re fallible and are full of inherent imperfections, like a real human person… people tend to gravitate toward it more and relate. I record play-throughs along with music pre-recorded depending on the context of a video and on the flip side, I live stream and record chunks of my raw playing for all my flaws to be on display. The point I try and make regularly is that anyone can do most of this stuff if you want to. You’re song writing, riff writing may be on different levels then that of your contemporaries, but there is someone out there with a set of ears for all types of riffs and songs. It is a bummer that folks online feel it’s gotta be only the best each and every time. This is always a good reflection. A reality check, pulse check, etc.
It's why its nice watching you and Claire struggle with stuff sometimes. Reminds us you're human, and Claire is some sort of super advanced girlfriend AI you paid scientists to create.
Okay, first: Please do more talking head philosophical discussion type videos. This was fantastic. Second: Any performative art form requires a certain level of smoke and mirror, otherwise, there's really no showmanship to it. Personally, while the talent of the instrument itself is a big deal to me, live shows and great productions are just as important to me. Music is very much an artform to provide entertainment, and sometimes you have to add in extra steps for the sake of that entertainment. The miming versus live thing really goes all the way back to the 80s when MTV hit and music videos became the norm. The basis of a music video was musicians miming to their own songs, and I don't see a problem with this, as it presents another form of entertainment to audiences. The flipside of this in the 80s was Milli Vanilli (and today there are bands who are 100% backing tracks who mime onstage, and I also will not call them out). I think at a certain level, perfection is very impressive, but the obsession for perfection takes a lot of the fun out of the music sometimes. Be as perfect as you reasonably can while making sure that the art isn't suffering. If you're practicing the same arpeggio for 12 months, what music is being made during your pursuit of perfection? Still practice the arpeggio, but make sure it has a reason to exist. But then, I'm also fairly boomer, and my thoughts here were just freeform and disorganized. Thanks for the video Dean!
Great comment! I feel the same way about autotune on vocals. I should preface that I don't mind the usage of auto tune in certain instances. The singer themselves should just have the vocal chops to prove they know what they are doing when on stage. Don't lip-sync to backing tracks and don't utilize any features on the mic to make you sound better. I turn a lot of heads when I say that I enjoy Adele. That is from people who know me to a certain degree. I'm a huge metalhead. The point of bringing up Adele is that she doesn't auto tune her voice. You can catch the mild imperfections in her voice on a song. You can catch when she changes notes. Compare that to someone who does use auto tune and you can tell that there is a significant difference. Every note is perfect and every transition is flawless. That's not humanly possible. All in all, utilize auto tune or other options if you think it may sound better in the studio. Just please don't use it onstage. Sorry for the rant.
@@stone_sentinel It's cool to have a blueprint. I've borderline jocked from people. But I always able to spin it to make it sound like me. To a point where you'd have no idea where I got it from.
@@thomascoolberth2648 Why ever do something you suck at? How can you enjoy something you suck at? I'd just realize it wasn't my lane and I'd get out of it.
That’s why all my guitar videos are raw straight to the amp recorded with a cell phone or with a microphone, I just subscribed to your channel cause I absolutely loved this video, thank you !
Reading Yngwie Malmsteen's autobiography, he talks about when he was young he would record himself shredding in his uncle's studio. Then he would go home, listen to the recording, and try to go even faster. But the thing was that he didn't know that the tape player at home was just a little faster than the one at his uncle's, so he was on a never-ending loop of challenging himself to go faster and faster. Similarly, I think of all the guys who grew up on, say, Metallica and tried to match James' precision and speed, not knowing that Metallica sped up the tapes a little bit. Some people challenged themselves to beat a sped-up recording, while others became discouraged that they couldn't match unnatural perfection.
One thing I really enjoy about this channel is that no matter how technically proficient you perform in your videos, there's always a huge amount of time dedicated to figuring out songs or learning or making mistakes before you get to that point. It never seems unrealistic because it shows that no matter how good someone might seem at an instrument they go through the same struggles as the rest of us. I got to a point in the last couple years where I was forcing myself to pick up the guitar but videos like this make it feel like way less pressure and more like fun.
Great and important video - I’m reminded of a video from Tom Geldschlager, who’s been really vocal about this sort of thing, where he talked about what kind of trickery is out there and how we need to remember we’re human and not compare ourselves to perfect, overly edited videos and takes. Shit can be demoralizing otherwise! But on the flip side I’ve been glad to see more and more people on here post one-take covers that deliberately leave imperfections in. No one’s going to be pressed you flubbed a note or two - if anything it establishes more authenticity.
His one-take video of a playthrough of Akroasis sounded good (it's no longer on UA-cam..!). The beautiful thing that he also did was upload the raw track without any backing. Warts & all. Made it very easy to understand how sometimes things aren't what they seem.
@@lemniscatusofficial It was in the back of my mind when I saw that dude being really rude on your cover lmao. I just muted replies after my last response though, not worth the time honestly
@@StyxHackshop That’s the one! I think it got copyright struck (not to get into Steffen drama here…) but while it was up, hearing the raw take he uploaded was a revelation for me. Made me realize the impossible standards I’d been setting for myself
This is why I love Fountainhead. One of the most insane modern guitarists but he's so open about what actual live guitar playing sounds like that he'll give you the one-take solo'd guitar track for you to look over yourself lol
Thank you for your honesty and openness about this topic, it makes me respect you even more now. I have a perfect example of the opposite case. Not so long ago I was looking through the comments of Justin McKeeney’s (The Zenith Passage, The Faceless) video of him performing his song Algorithmic Salvation. The amount of edits is ridiculous in this one, it basically sounds like a studio take brought up in volume. So, there was a beginner guy in the comment section who asked how to get such tone. I told him about the heavy editing thing, Justin saw it, called me an asshole and said it was a one take. What I did next was looking through the video again and writing down the parts where his playing did not match the sound. I posted it in the comments and you know what? He blocked me and deleted every comment (luckily I still possess the screenshots). Such a mean and cowardly move, this was a perfect example of that person who willingly deceives guitar players about his skill and what is possible. At first I did not want to share this even though I was really offended, but this would be a great place for people to see how this goes.
This is great. I've had a really unrealistic standard set for myself when I picked up the electric guitar 2.5 years ago. I kept scratching my head, thinking how on Earth some people sound so tight and clear, which led me down dozens of hours of tweaking my amp sim settings, using a bunch of noise gates and compressors, which ultimately pulled me away from actually practising the instrument itself.
Practice your instrument but also keep looking for the tone that makes you feel closest to the tone you hear in your head. Sometimes a bad tone can also lower your confidence
@@lemniscatusofficial I agree and my "tonechasing" skills have gotten to a point where I really love my sound and find it inspiring, but I wouldn't have stopped tweaking if I never realized what I'm chasing isn't achievable without production
@@latemnf not really, some amount of deliberation is needed in setting the rig you have to get it to work best. Csguitars made a video a very long time ago showcasing that
100% agree with everything you said here. I love the bands that play this almost insane level of mastery and I love watching playthroughs of their songs. But to take a very recent example I watched your 4 levels of death metal video with Matt Heafy and I saw you and Claire, both of you being so much better at guitar than I am, struggling with riffs that I'm able to play was such a big ego boost for me because it showed me that everyone struggles with something at some point and nobody is perfect, no matter what perception you might have of that person. Thanks for this video man, really appreciate you putting this out there!
For me personally, as an intermediate level guitar player, some of the most inspiring vids I've seen in recent times are your "Attempts to learn'' and your "4 Levels..." vids. To see super skilled guitarists like yourself and Claire struggle, make mistakes and have to put the time in to get stuff right makes it all feel achievable so long as you're willing to put the time in, whatever your level. So, thanks for that! 😀
Great vid and great topic! In the last 5 years of my playing and posting vids in different facebook groups online I've always tried to do the following: one take, the best you can play - no tweaks, no cuts, no edits. Out of 50 takes one will be good enough but it will be a single playthrough with all the mistakes that come with it and I'm fine with that. I think that it's important to convey the whole journey how you got to that point of playing multiple takes and taking the best one appose to playing that perfect 10 sec after 10 sec and editing it together... also, what I think is important is to post practice videos (like yours 'Dean learns...") so that the audience can see that it's not a walk in the park and that you have to work for every note you record - album wise or camera wise. GG
You heard it here boys and girls, the Archspire band members or either synthetic androids or fully robotic. Jokes aside, thank you for discussing this. We do live in an era where every art and craft can be dishonestly portrayed and sometimes create unachievable expectations. In the same way a person could give up on their image because they will never be flawless as their favorite artist/influencer, I can definitely see musicians giving up after hearing a perfect piece of music they could never play. All of this when the content presented is delivered as an unadulterated product. Thank you Dean, keep up the amazing content!
this conversation always perplexes me as there is the argument of "well if you dont tell people youre not being honest" but then also "people should question what they see on the internet more?" im not sure people always want to see 'reality' as much as they like to think they do. the honus should be more on the audience to question if its genuine. but perception is reality also. composers dont necessarily know how to play instruments but can 'write' them. good video none the less. this is all a simulation! haha
Spot on. You got your message across without being needlessly inflammatory. To those who get discouraged listening to the people Dean is talking about, forget about it. Focus on your playing. Every once in a while record yourself after a practice session. Listen to it days / weeks / months later. You might surprise yourself and wonder what the hell you were even playing. Latch on to what sounds good to you and makes you happy. Make that the focus of your playing.
I liked Samurai Guitarist's way of explaining his video-making process, which boiled down to basically: when he does a playthrough and it looks like a music video, then the clip *was* made like a music video, different takes put together, and then he is miming to the finished track and that's the video. He was also saying that getting both the perfectly played take *and* the perfectly filmed take was very time-consuming, and for the sake of efficiency and demonstrative purposes, this is the compromise he went with. Totally acceptable, and glad that he was open about what was really going on. It would be nice if there was an acceptable/common asterisk indication for these types of produced content where the creator can be honest about what that piece of content actually is and what went into making it, but in a non-distracting/intrusive way that drags down the content in some way.
Excellent video mate, and yeah can you imagine how easy it is for someone to stumble across a video that's hyper reality, and then feel really bad about themselves or their playing afterwards. I guess that's why I enjoy live streaming so much, because you get that real mix of crazy moments, and absolute bum notes lol. It's all live and is what it is.
Man, I agree with every word you said. Personally I lost interest in watching guitar videos on YT exactly because so many of them are fake. For content creators, it's a trap. They tend to develop insane editing skills at the expense of their actual guitar skills. I can call BS immediately when I push play. This being said, I believe a big part of the appeal of your channel is that your videos show how you actually practice, how you fail sometimes and make those tiny little mistakes. It makes you look more human. Keep it up!
This is a very important message to be spread to make the community of musicians a better place. Thank you so much for speaking up about it Dean, love your content
The authenticity is why you're one of the very few guitarists I actually watch on UA-cam. It actually really inspires me to practice a lot, seeing you learning and playing stuff, warts and all.
When I played guitar in high school, I was trying to chase the "album sound" as you described. I eventually dropped the instrument. A year or so ago I heard Lucas Mann's raw guitar input he posted on UA-cam and it sounded exactly like when I was in high school! I was so surprised. I lived in an apartment with my mom, so I never used my amplifier. I was just using an unplugged electric guitar, so I never benefited from reverb, distortion, effects, etc. I didn't know what that was supposed to sound like
Reminds me a lot about how the most popular prank-tuber channels were all completely setup with paid 'victims' but shot and produced in a way to make them look like they were random events in the wild. It lied to the viewer by omission. I'd seem musician videos do the same where there all "oh just something I thought up a minute ago" but it was something well rehearsed, edited and written.
I agree with everything, except for the conclusion where it falls on the audience to be critical. Of course we should, but "it's too good to be true" requires quite a bit of experience before we can have this intuition. I'm more in favour of simply disclosing that post-production was involved. Being honest doesn't *just* mean posting raw one-take first-try playthroughs, being clear about the nature of the product is equally valid IMO.
Great video Dean. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve watched guitar videos on Instagram and compared myself to some of them, and gotten depressed or felt like giving up. Personally, I think someone posting the best take is fine. Because they still had to play it with minimal audible mistakes. What I don’t like is guys like Charles Caswell from Berried Alive who clearly do a ton of chopped up takes to make a crazy borderline unplayable riff, and then mime over it whilst also taking a ton of credit from his audience saying he’s amazing and out of this world, but doesn’t give them a disclaimer that it’s not a live take. You see all these kids in the comments gushing over the guy and saying they wish they could play like that, and he never responds to let them know it’s essentially miming for visual purposes of showing the riff and isn’t genuine live playing.
Thanx for uploading. I've been on both sides of the spectrum in reacting to videos of people doing covers/playthroughs. Early on I was in that mindset where I'd watch some teenage kid in their bedroom plow through arpeggios putting Yngwie to shame feeling hopeless about my own playing and skills. I actually quit playing for almost a decade out of disgust with my own playing. I've since had a major attitude shift where I take inspiration from these videos now and realize there's no specific "level" or ability I need to attain as long as I am putting the effort in to improve and not compare myself to others. I'm moving forward in a "be better than I was" mentality and not being afraid to set the bar high because if you set it high enough you fail upward. 👍🤘
Well said, Dean Ever since I started thinking about recording myself playing covers years ago I always got scared that if I fucked up and flubbed it the people I'd be trying to show my playing to would laugh at me and think I'm just garbage. Because of that, and the fact that I had no editing skills what-so-ever, I would sit for hours at a time, sometimes days, recording one-take's until I got ones that were 'good enough', or I would just give up and post the 'least bad' one, or just not post anything (which was and still is the usual outcome lmao) But even though it caused me to cave hundreds of times and not post anything, I'm still so glad that I stuck with one-takes, because watching the 'good enough' ones that I posted back, and seeing any positive feedback I get from friends, or random people, it showed me that it didn't matter if I missed that one note that I thought was crucial, or didn't nail the bend, or harmonic, or whatever. These little mistakes and imperfections that I obsess over, they don't matter. It helped me stop focusing on this god-tier level of playing that I wanted to achieve, that was impossible for me. It made me take more time focusing on these riffs and solo's that I wanted to play, instead of just editing together multiple sloppy attempts to make a good one And I think I would be a much worse player with a much worse mindset on what I deemed acceptable for myself This isn't to say that I have any problems with any type of editing, I don't, and once I've gotten used to video editing I'll more than likely start editing playthroughs myself, just because I don't really have the time to do one-takes anymore But for me, I know that had I started editing covers back when I was teenager, I would have gotten complacent and lazy with it, which would have affected my playing And I never would have learned to stop being so critical of myself or expecting things that weren't realistic
as an aspirant professional musician, your subject interested me a lot and i find very nice of you to make this kinda video. it will help me a lot with thinking about my inrtrument and it's possibilities etc...
I've always been the sort of person who "raw dogged it" by posting my third attempt live video of a song or riff of another band/ artist/ or just posting sketch ideas (see my FB) ... flubbs, pickscrapes, missed notes, and all... I've done this because I always thought it felt more genuine .... but it is at that point still practiced and rehearsed... so where do we draw the line? Now that being said, my own recorded / produced/ released music, if I'm doing a playthrough, I want it to be as perfect as it can be... so if a listener wants to learn it, they are getting it from the source ... note for note, time perfected I do gotta say though, just having the opportunity to have these sorts of conversations with guys like you Dean and in the comments with Ola, Angel, and everyone else is one of the best things about our modern age... we can learn from eachother instantly regardless of physical distances.. I'm always amazed how shredders in the 80s did it
We need more musicians like you that are on the top end of ability have full playthroughs unedited. It will show the average guy what's ACTUALLY possible.
Check out Kevin Heiderich's youtube channel. All one take playthroughs with no post production but still very impressive. EDIT: Nevermind he took down his youtube for some reason. Bummer. ): Loved his CPE bach playthrough.
I think what I love the most about your channel is that while you're an incredible guitar player, you aren't afraid to show the ugly progression behind it all. With all things creative, most people see the finished product. They never see the countless hours that go into landing whatever it is you are working on. Ihsahn talked about this a few years ago at a guitar clinic too, saying that it used to be everyone practiced and wrote for hours and hours before going to the studio. Now, you write everything in the studio then learn and rehearse it to perform it live, but there was still the same amount of work being put into it. Anyways, we are all super fortunate to have folks like you, Ola, etc. willing to give us a glimpse into the journey of it all. Thank you!
Thank you, Dean. I have seen videos of guitar players playing well and I get discouraged or inspired and I see guitar players playing perfection and I just want to put the guitar down after more than 2 decades and give up.
Well said! Thank you for covering this, especially given your own level of skill. Dishonesty is the main issue. Many of us know some band "playthroughs" are essentially lip syncing, but most bands tend to make it easy to tell, and I frankly don't care so long as the honesty is there (sometimes it's just nice as a visual reference). I do think this is why there's so much street credibility in live playing. I remember seeing clips of Dragonforce play live when they first made it big and they were laughably atrocious, and it highlighted this importance of honesty. That said, they continued touring and practicing and eventually were able to play their own material well. I'm a bit iffy about this on a record too. My personal philosophy is that it's fine to record chunks, as every band does, but you have no business recording a solo in chunks that you can't at least eventually play 95% perfectly in one take.
I firstly discovered your channel by watching a video of you trying to learn a song, a hard one of course. And I remember it wasn't easy for you at all. Then way later I saw you actually play in a band and well can shred if I may say. That was relieving because I thought "wtf even this high skilled guy has a hard time" and that was relieving ;). Like many maybe I'm playing on a regular basis but without courses and sadly without social musical circle and never did. That may sound weird for some but I actually only did go to a concert once in my life and play in my appartment with a very low volume. That means I actually have a quite low knowledge about what is playable by a human, how it would sound.... and what it costs to have the sounds I hear in youtube videos. I tried a few times recording software + sound plugins but as you said there's a lot more under the hood. I don't know where to put my expectation when playing. Music is not my daily job so I don't want to spend half my time not playing or getting angry cause it doesn't sound at all like the original. Honestly now I mostly play on a classical guitar (not the huges ones, the ones with good access to high notes and thinner body) because it often sounds good, to me at least :D. BUT, even with classical on YT I have the weird feeling some pieces acutally sound a lot different without amplification, like high speed parts where in my brain it feels weird to sound both loud and clear... Was around without subscription do your channel, fixed that :).
Great points in this! i think its only a major problem when the artist blatantly lies about content they posted and goes on to deny any criticism exposing them, while simultaneously using said content as marketing for lessons that trick people into thinking they can legitimately sound like the unrealistic clips they post
Super interesting take Dean. In my opinion, the biggest problem is it's dishonest to yourself. I think trying to put up a perfect facade of yourself like this is simply not healthy in the long term, since you'll always have to "live up to it" or you'll be afraid to be perceived as a fraud. Personally, been doing vocals for less than 2 years, I'd consider myself below average, but I don't use any effects/multiple takes cut together since I feel it just wouldn't be me. I find it a great way to see how I improve through time too, since all my errors and shortcomings are not edited out. I'll never be as good as many people, I'll never be as good as average people who layer/reverb/edit/pitch shift their stuff out the wazoo, but I don't care, I want to be myself.
I immediately thought of the Haarp machine. It was a band from a guitarist from Britain I believe. There was this forum post where people were going insane about his music, trying to figure out how he was playing it, but never getting it to sound right. When I heard it back then, I noticed right away that they where just sped up tracks. If you have some experience in recording, it's immediately noticable. I think he even got called out on it by some of the Periphery guys, but people still thought it was all real. EDIT: I just remembered KMac later did a brilliant parody song of that band. :D
So true, and especially important for younger people learning. I remember growing up listening to cassettes and being explained the difference between that (being done in a studio) versus a live performance. Now I feel like it's even more vital to understand those differences given how accessible video content is and how over saturated social media is.
Thanks for the opinion and insight. I believe you are correct on most points. As production values are raised, it gets really hard to know what is good enough when it comes to releasing your own material and content. I personally struggled with this for the past number of years with my bands last album release. We had songs complete for months, if not years, before we got tired of waiting for our production tweaks to finally get good enough. It sucks because we lost a lot of creative time fiddling with knobs trying to get the best mix as compared to AAA releases.
Your videos are not dumb. You are a very honest guitar player and a true inspiration. I only find inspiration from the musicians that break the mold. Ben Weinman recorded ALL of the guitars and bass on Calculating Infinity in 1998 to tape. This dates me as Ben and I are the same age. I personally like to have some imperfections in my material. You guys play clams (wrong notes) sometimes in your live videos. That shows that you are human. No on is perfect, nothing is perfect but as long as we can learn we can just try to make good stuff. Cant wait for seeing you guys live soon. You F$#@ERS are making me have to take a long road trip. Massachusetts is a place where they have clubs.
Thanks Dean for making this point clear. I am a 40 year old player and when insta et al. came out, I really was under the illusion I had done playing guitar wrongly my whole life until I understood the "partial" deception. I came to peace with me and my humble playing.
Here's my unprofessional but still somewhat experienced take on this, when I post a playthrough or demonstration of my music, I'm typically doing it just so people and myself in the future to a lesser extent, can see HOW it's played, and what it looks like on a guitar, and in the same vein, that I CAN play it, even if on the recording that's in 4 takes instead of 1, so the video is essentially completely disconnected from the audio - note this isn't all the time, often I'll record playthroughs retroactively and it's just easier for me to do a rough video take and put it to my audio than to record a new take as a playthrough, once again, not all the time as sometimes I actually prefer you to see exactly what you're hearing. I guess for me it comes down to necessity and ease over anything else, whilst still appreciating the viewer experience.
Yeah for the most part my video is also that same audio take, but I've recently been correcting things and using multi angles now, but If I cant play a song all the way through I won't do a cover of it at all
3:20 to 3:44 is a constant struggle for me. I know even if i practice for the rest of my life i will never be as good as you Dean. BUT im at peace with that and i play for fun and my own gratification. But from time to time I still feel that twang of inadequacy when watching guys like yourself, Wes Hauch and Jeff Loomis. You guys make it look so effortless and easy that its very easy to become so demoralised that i just give up. But watching your streams and Wes's 'warts and all playthoughts' show me that you guys make mistakes, and are human afterall.
I think I really learned about this fake perfection in music and social media a while ago, but it's always good to be reminded that no musician can play perfectly every time, and almost everything you see from musicians online is edited in some way. Another part of this is that you hear the same recording of a song every time you hit play on Spotify or wherever, and it sounds the same every time. Releasing music this way is necessary for the artists and the audience, but sometimes you forget that the artist can't actually play it exactly the same every time, and because you're a different person, you'll never play it exactly like the artist or anyone else. The goal should be to learn the song well enough that you can play it well a few times in a row, but know that you'll always play it in your own way, which is the best part of playing music: discovering and developing your own sound
I've been playing guitar for about a year now, so as a new guitarist and a modern, content consuming man, thank you for putting this out there. Going forward it will help me be easier on myself and my never ending quest for perfect tone, perfect notes and perfect gear. I feel like I'm constantly chasing tone and constantly looking at guitars and gear that I see certain players and youtubers with.
Great video and hopefully this opens peoples eyes a bit. There's nothing wrong with editing stuff, just be honest about it and don't mislead people and present a false image of your abilities. Most everything you see online is produced or edited in some way unless it's clearly a 100% raw video, which personally I would rather hear. It's nice to hear someone flub a note every now and then, it doesn't mean they suck, just means their human like the rest of us. No ones perfect, and no should think that anyone else is either.
Good point dean. When i watch your videos, you make me wanna practice more, because we see you struggle when you learn a song by someone else. You upload your struggles, which is rare. Thank you for being a wonderful example and make us pick up the instrument. And now i am going to listen to bleed the future and not picking up my guitar ever again
It's kind of funny you posted this video because as of lately I've been thinking about this subject a lot while trying to dial in my own guitar tone. I've found myself enjoying content creators who use less studio groomed playing than those who do. It's just nice to watch someone play and come back down to earth and be like "okay, yeah, this is how it actually sounds". Just can't beat the raw sounding stuff.
My motivation for guitar playing skyrocketed when i stopped watching other people play guitar in "spontaneous" covers and stuff like that. Videos of people guitar playing is banned from my social media feeds
There is a certain level of communication that musicians should have with their audiences that portrays what kind of entertainment they are providing. It's a hard, but almost necessary, part of the experience being in the arts if you don't want to be considered part of the problem. I absolutely love the shit out of air-guitaring/lip-syncing/guitar-wankery videos as they can be a silly amount of fun. But it becomes really chintzy for me when some people try to make social media careers out of it and say that their playing is genuine, esPECially the guitar equivalent of lip-syncing videos as you mentioned. It cheapens the craft if you are not open to saying "Hey, these are just fun videos I want to do messing around on my guitar. Hope you have as much fun watching them as I do making them!" Really respect musicians that tow that line.
Great vid. This is especially true when it comes to vocalists. The amount of people who abuse pitch correction and effects to make them sound perfect in a video is insane. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done it before, but it definitely gives an unreal expectation. I’d almost prefer if singers went rawdawg for covers/ OG songs, but then again it might turn people off. It’s definitely a tricky situation idk
I'm literally making a 35 minute UA-cam video about this exact thing with viewpoints from a ton of guitarists in the community. Fuck me, now i basically HAVE to add your take to my video, if thats okay xD
Very measured and reasonable response Dean. I heard Archspire and thought man this is good stuff. Then you guys played at a venue I managed, and it was pretty much note for note flawless, I can't say I am a massive fan of the modern 'over produced' sounds but it has its place 🤙🏼
Yep, this reminds me a lot of my process for my metal piano covers. A lot of post-production, from the obvious (pitch shift, reverb, panning), to the less obvious (compression + EQ, chorus/doubling fx, comping, recording solos at half-speed in a way that the final is obviously sped up, panning individual notes differently from a single chord), to the more-or-less cheating (gridding nearly every note during layered parts to eliminate flamming, editing out key clicks and chair creaks, copy-pasting over wrong notes). That said, I did release a couple versions to show what it would sound like with the raw takes and only basic comping.
Nahre Sol did a great video about editing, and how even classical pianists edit their takes a bit. Good compliment to this video, to also reinforce that no one is being called out in particular here.
Yeah, I started putting a disclaimer on my videos that they are not live playthroughs as I have been giving this a lot of thought in the past months (mostly due to Reynolds talking about fake drumming). I like the aestethic of two camera angels but can't record both at the same time so I opt to prerecord the audio. I try to balance this by uploading live takes as well but not as fully produced videos. But I agree with you 100%
As a young kid listening to rock & then metal I thought every solo was improv off the cuff, one take emotion flowing out. Finding out about my guitar heroes methodically writing solos, comping takes, etc. killed the dream a little bit, but also made it more accessible to me to attempt for myself as an adult decades later recording my own playing at home. Now I enjoy learning about the process of creating this art at a professional level. I watched a doc about Archspire a couple of weeks ago and it was cool to see the unused strings dampened & a bass take edited to make sure it fit perfectly. It also brings out a ton of appreciation in me for flubs left on Beatles & Van Halen records.
I want to voice my opinion on one thing that you said. That part about how something might discourage them to give up on their instrument. And you see that jokingly in UA-cam comments. You see "well this has inspired me to quit." And for me personally that has never happened because talent inspires me. Especially if it's someone that's close to my age. They are examples that you can be this good at this age. So. I don't know... Can talent really inspire people to quit or discourage anyone? Especially if you are passionate about music.
Awesome video man, I’ve always doubted my skills especially when viewing other musician’s play but this here really opens my eyes up to the saying “nobody is perfect”. Thanks for the great content.
Yeah, I think it's easy as an experienced guitarist and/or producer to assume that everyone watching already knows this, but looking back I'm sure that's far from the case. So, I highly appreciate you talking about it in terms of clearing up misconceptions for those just starting out or simply not savvy when it comes to how production works. As for me, personally, if it's not a full one-take playthrough with obvious "yep, this is definitely live" small mistakes I'll always assume it's more or less entirely comped and edited. Even with the former, my old videos certainly weren't the first take aside from the easiest songs I recorded. Where do you draw the line there as either the performer or the viewer assuming you're after an "authentic" representation of someones' skill level (if that even matters to anyone, I guess)? 5 takes? 20? 400? There's also other aspects around this when it comes to album production. In terms of my own tastes, I genuinely prefer some amount of sloppiness over absolute perfection, even in technical music. There's something to be said for allowing the listener's imagination to interpret the stuff that didn't come out pinpoint precise. As someone who audiates (aka "actively mentally participates" or whatever you want to call it) along to the music, I usually get tired of music where everything is crystal clear pretty quickly. It kind of shuts out part of my ability to explore the song actively, if that makes sense. It goes from "huh, I wonder if the thing I'm hearing is actually what they were trying to play? I should take another listen" to "yep, that's the song... alrighty, on to the next". For me, the best songs are the ones that keep me coming back again and again because of this. It's to the point where one of my favorite songs out there is Sauron's "Thrash Assault". For context, I don't even like muddy/sloppy production or really anything about this type of mix. I'd probably never do it myself with my own music. Yet I cannot for the life of my figure out what in the world they are trying to play in at least half the riffs in that song, and honestly - I hope I never find out. I just love the feeling on bewilderment I get from listening to it much more than I enjoy most "near-perfect" songs I hear, even though I myself veer toward the latter more often than not. TL;DR: it's weird.
Well, once the live shows are fully back on, you can tell who can really pull off what they have demonstrated on youtube! It's time for us to appreciate an organic performance within human capacity and not over editing things. We all worship old albums that have numerous production flaws but we love them so much that it has become part of the charm for us! Use the machines but don't try to be one when it comes down to music!
Been playing guitar and drums for over 25 years and and absolutely love that you've touched on this subject. For me I know all of these things you've laid out in the video and it doesn't bother me too much, BUT, knowing newer musicians that are just trying to get better and look up videos of playing, I can see just the disappointment in the their face because they feel like they can't obtain any skill that they are witnessing because it seems utterly perfect. However, what I would like to point out that on one hand it sucks, but on another at least for over the years, seeing such playing only drives me to become better and better and contuine to learn new techniques and ability. I agree tho that they should at least be up front and honest instead pretending like some of these works are in fact them naturally and not a bunch of tech to help them sound perfect.
Hit the nail right on the head. 9/10 too good to be true is not the truth. There are so many musicians to be respected out there and falsified content is not helping anybody
You make a good point. I have the opposite problem myself. When I’m editing my videos and there aren’t enough mistakes, I need to go back in and add some flubs in editing to stay on brand. It’s what the Swampus core have come to expect. If I ever make a 1 take playthrough with no mistakes, I’ll have to throw my camera into the swamp. This is the way
If you're a talented player, it makes a difference. Take Alexi Laiho for example: he always said COB were a 'live' band. Well rehearsed and well-practiced. It makes a difference if you piece your music together, or actually know how to play your guitar.
Dude I’m so glad you spoke about this. I’m a very average player but I have been toying with the thought of pre recording my covers just to get them out quicker, because 90% of what I watch is pre recorded but I feel it’s just so dishonest and whats the point of the cover if you can’t play it properly the whole way through? 🤔
I appreciate this mentality very much, especially as a newcomer to guitar. Humbling is a powerful and irreplaceable tool for those who truly wish to learn.
the sad thing is, is that new players coming in and learning find this out about their IG idols and industry and choose to accept it as the norm and they begin learning how to edit better instead of playing better and the cycle perpetuates again and again.
That is exactly why I love your streams and why they motivated me to keep going.. Because you can clearly see that even your favourite players are human beings as well with their own imperfections and flaws. Also loving these types of videos, keep it up!
i once kept a very bad note, and let it ring very long, i intented to accept the mistake and make it part of the song. its ugly, but its real. its a wink wink and comedy and yet reality. the song have a bad note and i didnt removed it. its art about disrespecting art perfection, and its not art cause it has mistake. was funny to keep it
Thank you for this video dude, it’s absolutely something that needs to be said more often! Even though I teach guitar, studied popular music in college and try to temper expectations in exactly the same way I’ve got to be honest in that I find comparison difficult to deal with at times, even knowing the other side, because I’m no real shredder. Who knows how this could affect less experienced players and I think it’s symptomatic of the bigger, faster, stronger mentality of society as a whole. More realistic takes like yours help us all and I’m grateful for it dude. Keep doing what you’re doing, we appreciate you.
Even Dimebag wrote a lot about stage presence and recording tricks in Guitar World. I remember trying to learn this solo and getting defeated. Later reading about how he used a series of cardboard tubes and a Dremel for a pick......Live he had Grady run his whole rig so he could stomp around and make everything look cool. You can't really get away from creating images if you want to make money performing art.
This is well said. I do think this is an unfortunate byproduct of social media culture and an inability for some people (especially younger folks) to be able to simply understand and accept that its ok to not take things at face value. I feel like people who grew up without smart phones or even the internet afe way better at just realizing that things online that seem perfect usually arent and you just take it for what it is instead of feeling defeated by it and comparing yourself to it. Also, there is an unfortunate reality that the ease and frequency of heavily produced/edited content does greatly blur the line between the truly elite players who can actually play with little to no editing and sound ultra clean versus the plethora of good players who never allow their reasonable flaws to be shown. Its valuable to recognize thr distinction.
Great stuff Dean. Would love to see you go on the Downbeat podcast and explore this more with Craig. For me, the disingenuousness completely turned me off modern metal in general in recent years. It's surprising to see a lot of people here saying that they don't really care at all, though I accept part of this is that they're not aware of the extent of editing that exists and how common it is (eg. the "one take" vocal video trend). Perhaps there needs to be more concrete definitions in the community for words like playthrough, play along, etc.
Great point man. I knew from the start when I was making videos that I could portray myself a better guitar player than I really am. I bet it’s really tempting for an up and coming guitar player to use these tools to show the best of themselves.
Its basically a mirror image of how social media media works in general. Everyone is showing their perfect life / perfect job / perfect look. They don’t show their faults. But people see these “perfect” lives and becomes jealous. It messes with peoples heads.
Hej Brola you set the standards proper son 🤛
"Everyone is out having the time of their life, while you're sitting at home scrolling instagram." It's a huge issue for sure.
Love u Ola
Hey Ola, I follow you since you even used Matt Damons voice for your vids. I think thats the General Problem of our time. Media Shows only the perfect World, but actually we mess it up to a point where we cant and dont want to live like that. We consider the reality as flaw. Thats the jealous and selfish side of us.
Great comment, Ola!
"To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable." - Ludwig van Beethoven
THAT explains the difference between Mozart and Solieri....Mozart had the ability to create these remarkable passages off the cuff...And Solieri was just himself with no passion
Pc programs do what you really can' t do!
Magical Recordings.
@@theartisan1898 you knew him?
@@theartisan1898 how are you alive bro
i think that was einstein
Thanks Dean. Ironically, you couldn't do this entire chat in one take without edit in post 😀
This is the comment I was looking for
I think the delayed transitions and obvious cuts are intentional to hint to that point.
This is why players like Stephen Taranto are so valuable to me. They manage to make raw content sound amazing and I think that's a perfect example of pushing the boundaries on the guitar.
agreed. most if not all of the raw clips i see of him are absolute face melters
He is fucking NUTS at guitar. I've laughed so many times watching his IG clips.
Try being in a band with him 😅 it’s a nightmare.
That man has stated that he only plays in very short sessions for fear of injuring his hands because of the level of speed and fret spanning he does...and i absolutely believe it. Hes a new speedboat and everyone else wants to catch some of his wake.
He’s absolutely insane, love how he just posts raw camera audio of him playing
This is a great video and I know I can't be the only one that thinks this, but you have a very calming voice. If Archspire doesn't work out, maybe you could do 4 levels of asmr
Lol ,never been a fan of amsr, dean talks with others is a great idea tho
Honestly why I love your 4 levels series so much. Showing how a seasoned, highly capable couple of guitar players still need to commit time and effort to learn new things really helps balance things out.
I agree. Seeing higher level players struggle shows the lesser player that they still have to dedicate time and effort to their craft. I just started watching a few weeks ago and it gave me a boost to pick the guitar up more often.
I find it far more genuine when you act, demonstrate, and display that you’re fallible and are full of inherent imperfections, like a real human person… people tend to gravitate toward it more and relate. I record play-throughs along with music pre-recorded depending on the context of a video and on the flip side, I live stream and record chunks of my raw playing for all my flaws to be on display.
The point I try and make regularly is that anyone can do most of this stuff if you want to. You’re song writing, riff writing may be on different levels then that of your contemporaries, but there is someone out there with a set of ears for all types of riffs and songs.
It is a bummer that folks online feel it’s gotta be only the best each and every time.
This is always a good reflection. A reality check, pulse check, etc.
ay, didnt expect to see your here, your Helix videos helped me tremendously man!
It's why its nice watching you and Claire struggle with stuff sometimes. Reminds us you're human, and Claire is some sort of super advanced girlfriend AI you paid scientists to create.
Okay, first: Please do more talking head philosophical discussion type videos. This was fantastic.
Second: Any performative art form requires a certain level of smoke and mirror, otherwise, there's really no showmanship to it. Personally, while the talent of the instrument itself is a big deal to me, live shows and great productions are just as important to me. Music is very much an artform to provide entertainment, and sometimes you have to add in extra steps for the sake of that entertainment. The miming versus live thing really goes all the way back to the 80s when MTV hit and music videos became the norm. The basis of a music video was musicians miming to their own songs, and I don't see a problem with this, as it presents another form of entertainment to audiences. The flipside of this in the 80s was Milli Vanilli (and today there are bands who are 100% backing tracks who mime onstage, and I also will not call them out).
I think at a certain level, perfection is very impressive, but the obsession for perfection takes a lot of the fun out of the music sometimes. Be as perfect as you reasonably can while making sure that the art isn't suffering. If you're practicing the same arpeggio for 12 months, what music is being made during your pursuit of perfection? Still practice the arpeggio, but make sure it has a reason to exist.
But then, I'm also fairly boomer, and my thoughts here were just freeform and disorganized. Thanks for the video Dean!
depend the goal i guess ! perfect music or everything else
i prefer everythin else
Great comment! I feel the same way about autotune on vocals. I should preface that I don't mind the usage of auto tune in certain instances. The singer themselves should just have the vocal chops to prove they know what they are doing when on stage. Don't lip-sync to backing tracks and don't utilize any features on the mic to make you sound better. I turn a lot of heads when I say that I enjoy Adele. That is from people who know me to a certain degree. I'm a huge metalhead. The point of bringing up Adele is that she doesn't auto tune her voice. You can catch the mild imperfections in her voice on a song. You can catch when she changes notes. Compare that to someone who does use auto tune and you can tell that there is a significant difference. Every note is perfect and every transition is flawless. That's not humanly possible. All in all, utilize auto tune or other options if you think it may sound better in the studio. Just please don't use it onstage. Sorry for the rant.
I want to burn my guitars on a daily basis looking at the insane musicianship and perfection on the instrument.
You should stop comparing yourself to other people. You'll never be yourself on the instrument with that mindset
@@commodore6430 Compare, or aspire? That's how I see it.
@@stone_sentinel It's cool to have a blueprint. I've borderline jocked from people. But I always able to spin it to make it sound like me. To a point where you'd have no idea where I got it from.
Embrace sucking, I have for over 40 years.
@@thomascoolberth2648 Why ever do something you suck at? How can you enjoy something you suck at? I'd just realize it wasn't my lane and I'd get out of it.
That’s why all my guitar videos are raw straight to the amp recorded with a cell phone or with a microphone, I just subscribed to your channel cause I absolutely loved this video, thank you !
I agree!
pc software do what you can't do!
Reading Yngwie Malmsteen's autobiography, he talks about when he was young he would record himself shredding in his uncle's studio. Then he would go home, listen to the recording, and try to go even faster. But the thing was that he didn't know that the tape player at home was just a little faster than the one at his uncle's, so he was on a never-ending loop of challenging himself to go faster and faster.
Similarly, I think of all the guys who grew up on, say, Metallica and tried to match James' precision and speed, not knowing that Metallica sped up the tapes a little bit. Some people challenged themselves to beat a sped-up recording, while others became discouraged that they couldn't match unnatural perfection.
I was thinking about Yngwie also when this video began, I never heard this story though, thanks.
One thing I really enjoy about this channel is that no matter how technically proficient you perform in your videos, there's always a huge amount of time dedicated to figuring out songs or learning or making mistakes before you get to that point. It never seems unrealistic because it shows that no matter how good someone might seem at an instrument they go through the same struggles as the rest of us. I got to a point in the last couple years where I was forcing myself to pick up the guitar but videos like this make it feel like way less pressure and more like fun.
Great and important video - I’m reminded of a video from Tom Geldschlager, who’s been really vocal about this sort of thing, where he talked about what kind of trickery is out there and how we need to remember we’re human and not compare ourselves to perfect, overly edited videos and takes. Shit can be demoralizing otherwise!
But on the flip side I’ve been glad to see more and more people on here post one-take covers that deliberately leave imperfections in. No one’s going to be pressed you flubbed a note or two - if anything it establishes more authenticity.
This video is a coincidence😳
His one-take video of a playthrough of Akroasis sounded good (it's no longer on UA-cam..!). The beautiful thing that he also did was upload the raw track without any backing. Warts & all. Made it very easy to understand how sometimes things aren't what they seem.
@@lemniscatusofficial It was in the back of my mind when I saw that dude being really rude on your cover lmao. I just muted replies after my last response though, not worth the time honestly
@@StyxHackshop That’s the one! I think it got copyright struck (not to get into Steffen drama here…) but while it was up, hearing the raw take he uploaded was a revelation for me. Made me realize the impossible standards I’d been setting for myself
@@blankepitaph4407 lmfao I gladly accepted my first hate comment and pinned it🤣🤣
This is why I love Fountainhead. One of the most insane modern guitarists but he's so open about what actual live guitar playing sounds like that he'll give you the one-take solo'd guitar track for you to look over yourself lol
Thank you for your honesty and openness about this topic, it makes me respect you even more now. I have a perfect example of the opposite case.
Not so long ago I was looking through the comments of Justin McKeeney’s (The Zenith Passage, The Faceless) video of him performing his song Algorithmic Salvation. The amount of edits is ridiculous in this one, it basically sounds like a studio take brought up in volume. So, there was a beginner guy in the comment section who asked how to get such tone. I told him about the heavy editing thing, Justin saw it, called me an asshole and said it was a one take. What I did next was looking through the video again and writing down the parts where his playing did not match the sound. I posted it in the comments and you know what? He blocked me and deleted every comment (luckily I still possess the screenshots). Such a mean and cowardly move, this was a perfect example of that person who willingly deceives guitar players about his skill and what is possible. At first I did not want to share this even though I was really offended, but this would be a great place for people to see how this goes.
This is great. I've had a really unrealistic standard set for myself when I picked up the electric guitar 2.5 years ago. I kept scratching my head, thinking how on Earth some people sound so tight and clear, which led me down dozens of hours of tweaking my amp sim settings, using a bunch of noise gates and compressors, which ultimately pulled me away from actually practising the instrument itself.
Practice your instrument but also keep looking for the tone that makes you feel closest to the tone you hear in your head. Sometimes a bad tone can also lower your confidence
@@lemniscatusofficial I agree and my "tonechasing" skills have gotten to a point where I really love my sound and find it inspiring, but I wouldn't have stopped tweaking if I never realized what I'm chasing isn't achievable without production
@@bleh8789 yeah
Tone is all in the fingies.
@@latemnf not really, some amount of deliberation is needed in setting the rig you have to get it to work best. Csguitars made a video a very long time ago showcasing that
100% agree with everything you said here. I love the bands that play this almost insane level of mastery and I love watching playthroughs of their songs.
But to take a very recent example I watched your 4 levels of death metal video with Matt Heafy and I saw you and Claire, both of you being so much better at guitar than I am, struggling with riffs that I'm able to play was such a big ego boost for me because it showed me that everyone struggles with something at some point and nobody is perfect, no matter what perception you might have of that person.
Thanks for this video man, really appreciate you putting this out there!
For me personally, as an intermediate level guitar player, some of the most inspiring vids I've seen in recent times are your "Attempts to learn'' and your "4 Levels..." vids. To see super skilled guitarists like yourself and Claire struggle, make mistakes and have to put the time in to get stuff right makes it all feel achievable so long as you're willing to put the time in, whatever your level. So, thanks for that! 😀
Great vid and great topic!
In the last 5 years of my playing and posting vids in different facebook groups online I've always tried to do the following: one take, the best you can play - no tweaks, no cuts, no edits. Out of 50 takes one will be good enough but it will be a single playthrough with all the mistakes that come with it and I'm fine with that. I think that it's important to convey the whole journey how you got to that point of playing multiple takes and taking the best one appose to playing that perfect 10 sec after 10 sec and editing it together... also, what I think is important is to post practice videos (like yours 'Dean learns...") so that the audience can see that it's not a walk in the park and that you have to work for every note you record - album wise or camera wise.
GG
You heard it here boys and girls, the Archspire band members or either synthetic androids or fully robotic.
Jokes aside, thank you for discussing this. We do live in an era where every art and craft can be dishonestly portrayed and sometimes create unachievable expectations. In the same way a person could give up on their image because they will never be flawless as their favorite artist/influencer, I can definitely see musicians giving up after hearing a perfect piece of music they could never play. All of this when the content presented is delivered as an unadulterated product.
Thank you Dean, keep up the amazing content!
this conversation always perplexes me as there is the argument of "well if you dont tell people youre not being honest" but then also "people should question what they see on the internet more?" im not sure people always want to see 'reality' as much as they like to think they do. the honus should be more on the audience to question if its genuine. but perception is reality also. composers dont necessarily know how to play instruments but can 'write' them. good video none the less. this is all a simulation! haha
Don't approach it as either/or, it's "and". People can be more honest AND the audience should question whether it's genuine.
Spot on. You got your message across without being needlessly inflammatory. To those who get discouraged listening to the people Dean is talking about, forget about it. Focus on your playing. Every once in a while record yourself after a practice session. Listen to it days / weeks / months later. You might surprise yourself and wonder what the hell you were even playing. Latch on to what sounds good to you and makes you happy. Make that the focus of your playing.
A very well thought out perspective on this topic, thanks for sharing!
I really do appreciate the production quality of your videos.
I liked Samurai Guitarist's way of explaining his video-making process, which boiled down to basically: when he does a playthrough and it looks like a music video, then the clip *was* made like a music video, different takes put together, and then he is miming to the finished track and that's the video. He was also saying that getting both the perfectly played take *and* the perfectly filmed take was very time-consuming, and for the sake of efficiency and demonstrative purposes, this is the compromise he went with. Totally acceptable, and glad that he was open about what was really going on.
It would be nice if there was an acceptable/common asterisk indication for these types of produced content where the creator can be honest about what that piece of content actually is and what went into making it, but in a non-distracting/intrusive way that drags down the content in some way.
Excellent video mate, and yeah can you imagine how easy it is for someone to stumble across a video that's hyper reality, and then feel really bad about themselves or their playing afterwards. I guess that's why I enjoy live streaming so much, because you get that real mix of crazy moments, and absolute bum notes lol. It's all live and is what it is.
Man, I agree with every word you said. Personally I lost interest in watching guitar videos on YT exactly because so many of them are fake. For content creators, it's a trap. They tend to develop insane editing skills at the expense of their actual guitar skills. I can call BS immediately when I push play. This being said, I believe a big part of the appeal of your channel is that your videos show how you actually practice, how you fail sometimes and make those tiny little mistakes. It makes you look more human. Keep it up!
Dox Bradley hall for me, is he real or fake? I could totally see those “write a song like blank band in 5 minutes” videos being fake
This is a very important message to be spread to make the community of musicians a better place. Thank you so much for speaking up about it Dean, love your content
A great perspective, Dean. I gotta remember when I'm practicing that I need to be honest to myself as well.
Also, 69k subs. NICE
The authenticity is why you're one of the very few guitarists I actually watch on UA-cam. It actually really inspires me to practice a lot, seeing you learning and playing stuff, warts and all.
When I played guitar in high school, I was trying to chase the "album sound" as you described. I eventually dropped the instrument. A year or so ago I heard Lucas Mann's raw guitar input he posted on UA-cam and it sounded exactly like when I was in high school! I was so surprised. I lived in an apartment with my mom, so I never used my amplifier. I was just using an unplugged electric guitar, so I never benefited from reverb, distortion, effects, etc. I didn't know what that was supposed to sound like
I think of all people to talk about this topic, it speaks volume coming from you. Thanks for bringing up this subject, Dean.
Reminds me a lot about how the most popular prank-tuber channels were all completely setup with paid 'victims' but shot and produced in a way to make them look like they were random events in the wild. It lied to the viewer by omission. I'd seem musician videos do the same where there all "oh just something I thought up a minute ago" but it was something well rehearsed, edited and written.
Great point! Truth
Really refreshing to hear someone talk about it
Dean you touch on a lot of great points here! But even more so your voice is so calming and relaxing I want you to read me some bedtime stories.
We need more videos like this
I agree with everything, except for the conclusion where it falls on the audience to be critical. Of course we should, but "it's too good to be true" requires quite a bit of experience before we can have this intuition. I'm more in favour of simply disclosing that post-production was involved. Being honest doesn't *just* mean posting raw one-take first-try playthroughs, being clear about the nature of the product is equally valid IMO.
Great video Dean. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve watched guitar videos on Instagram and compared myself to some of them, and gotten depressed or felt like giving up.
Personally, I think someone posting the best take is fine. Because they still had to play it with minimal audible mistakes. What I don’t like is guys like Charles Caswell from Berried Alive who clearly do a ton of chopped up takes to make a crazy borderline unplayable riff, and then mime over it whilst also taking a ton of credit from his audience saying he’s amazing and out of this world, but doesn’t give them a disclaimer that it’s not a live take. You see all these kids in the comments gushing over the guy and saying they wish they could play like that, and he never responds to let them know it’s essentially miming for visual purposes of showing the riff and isn’t genuine live playing.
He makes alot of live clips of the parts that people deem unplayable.
@@iPiiZiiZ I haven’t seen any of them. Furthermore I’d be highly skeptical that guy could play most of his stuff on stage in a live band setting
Thanx for uploading. I've been on both sides of the spectrum in reacting to videos of people doing covers/playthroughs. Early on I was in that mindset where I'd watch some teenage kid in their bedroom plow through arpeggios putting Yngwie to shame feeling hopeless about my own playing and skills. I actually quit playing for almost a decade out of disgust with my own playing. I've since had a major attitude shift where I take inspiration from these videos now and realize there's no specific "level" or ability I need to attain as long as I am putting the effort in to improve and not compare myself to others. I'm moving forward in a "be better than I was" mentality and not being afraid to set the bar high because if you set it high enough you fail upward. 👍🤘
Well said, Dean
Ever since I started thinking about recording myself playing covers years ago I always got scared that if I fucked up and flubbed it the people I'd be trying to show my playing to would laugh at me and think I'm just garbage. Because of that, and the fact that I had no editing skills what-so-ever, I would sit for hours at a time, sometimes days, recording one-take's until I got ones that were 'good enough', or I would just give up and post the 'least bad' one, or just not post anything (which was and still is the usual outcome lmao)
But even though it caused me to cave hundreds of times and not post anything, I'm still so glad that I stuck with one-takes, because watching the 'good enough' ones that I posted back,
and seeing any positive feedback I get from friends, or random people, it showed me that it didn't matter if I missed that one note that I thought was crucial, or didn't nail the bend, or harmonic, or whatever. These little mistakes and imperfections that I obsess over, they don't matter.
It helped me stop focusing on this god-tier level of playing that I wanted to achieve, that was impossible for me.
It made me take more time focusing on these riffs and solo's that I wanted to play, instead of just editing together multiple sloppy attempts to make a good one
And I think I would be a much worse player with a much worse mindset on what I deemed acceptable for myself
This isn't to say that I have any problems with any type of editing, I don't, and once I've gotten used to video editing I'll more than likely start editing playthroughs myself, just because I don't really have the time to do one-takes anymore
But for me, I know that had I started editing covers back when I was teenager, I would have gotten complacent and lazy with it, which would have affected my playing
And I never would have learned to stop being so critical of myself or expecting things that weren't realistic
as an aspirant professional musician, your subject interested me a lot and i find very nice of you to make this kinda video. it will help me a lot with thinking about my inrtrument and it's possibilities etc...
I've always been the sort of person who "raw dogged it" by posting my third attempt live video of a song or riff of another band/ artist/ or just posting sketch ideas (see my FB) ... flubbs, pickscrapes, missed notes, and all... I've done this because I always thought it felt more genuine .... but it is at that point still practiced and rehearsed... so where do we draw the line?
Now that being said, my own recorded / produced/ released music, if I'm doing a playthrough, I want it to be as perfect as it can be... so if a listener wants to learn it, they are getting it from the source ... note for note, time perfected
I do gotta say though, just having the opportunity to have these sorts of conversations with guys like you Dean and in the comments with Ola, Angel, and everyone else is one of the best things about our modern age... we can learn from eachother instantly regardless of physical distances.. I'm always amazed how shredders in the 80s did it
We need more musicians like you that are on the top end of ability have full playthroughs unedited. It will show the average guy what's ACTUALLY possible.
Watch me on livestream! :)
Check out Kevin Heiderich's youtube channel. All one take playthroughs with no post production but still very impressive.
EDIT: Nevermind he took down his youtube for some reason. Bummer. ): Loved his CPE bach playthrough.
@@DeanLamb One of the best, most shameless plugs for twitch i have ever seen. You sir, rival the great Charlie.
I think what I love the most about your channel is that while you're an incredible guitar player, you aren't afraid to show the ugly progression behind it all. With all things creative, most people see the finished product. They never see the countless hours that go into landing whatever it is you are working on. Ihsahn talked about this a few years ago at a guitar clinic too, saying that it used to be everyone practiced and wrote for hours and hours before going to the studio. Now, you write everything in the studio then learn and rehearse it to perform it live, but there was still the same amount of work being put into it. Anyways, we are all super fortunate to have folks like you, Ola, etc. willing to give us a glimpse into the journey of it all. Thank you!
Thank you, Dean. I have seen videos of guitar players playing well and I get discouraged or inspired and I see guitar players playing perfection and I just want to put the guitar down after more than 2 decades and give up.
Authenticity over anything. Excellent point Dean!
Well said! Thank you for covering this, especially given your own level of skill. Dishonesty is the main issue. Many of us know some band "playthroughs" are essentially lip syncing, but most bands tend to make it easy to tell, and I frankly don't care so long as the honesty is there (sometimes it's just nice as a visual reference).
I do think this is why there's so much street credibility in live playing. I remember seeing clips of Dragonforce play live when they first made it big and they were laughably atrocious, and it highlighted this importance of honesty. That said, they continued touring and practicing and eventually were able to play their own material well.
I'm a bit iffy about this on a record too. My personal philosophy is that it's fine to record chunks, as every band does, but you have no business recording a solo in chunks that you can't at least eventually play 95% perfectly in one take.
I firstly discovered your channel by watching a video of you trying to learn a song, a hard one of course. And I remember it wasn't easy for you at all. Then way later I saw you actually play in a band and well can shred if I may say.
That was relieving because I thought "wtf even this high skilled guy has a hard time" and that was relieving ;).
Like many maybe I'm playing on a regular basis but without courses and sadly without social musical circle and never did. That may sound weird for some but I actually only did go to a concert once in my life and play in my appartment with a very low volume.
That means I actually have a quite low knowledge about what is playable by a human, how it would sound.... and what it costs to have the sounds I hear in youtube videos.
I tried a few times recording software + sound plugins but as you said there's a lot more under the hood. I don't know where to put my expectation when playing. Music is not my daily job so I don't want to spend half my time not playing or getting angry cause it doesn't sound at all like the original.
Honestly now I mostly play on a classical guitar (not the huges ones, the ones with good access to high notes and thinner body) because it often sounds good, to me at least :D.
BUT, even with classical on YT I have the weird feeling some pieces acutally sound a lot different without amplification, like high speed parts where in my brain it feels weird to sound both loud and clear...
Was around without subscription do your channel, fixed that :).
Great points in this!
i think its only a major problem when the artist blatantly lies about content they posted and goes on to deny any criticism exposing them, while simultaneously using said content as marketing for lessons that trick people into thinking they can legitimately sound like the unrealistic clips they post
Super interesting take Dean. In my opinion, the biggest problem is it's dishonest to yourself. I think trying to put up a perfect facade of yourself like this is simply not healthy in the long term, since you'll always have to "live up to it" or you'll be afraid to be perceived as a fraud.
Personally, been doing vocals for less than 2 years, I'd consider myself below average, but I don't use any effects/multiple takes cut together since I feel it just wouldn't be me. I find it a great way to see how I improve through time too, since all my errors and shortcomings are not edited out. I'll never be as good as many people, I'll never be as good as average people who layer/reverb/edit/pitch shift their stuff out the wazoo, but I don't care, I want to be myself.
I immediately thought of the Haarp machine. It was a band from a guitarist from Britain I believe. There was this forum post where people were going insane about his music, trying to figure out how he was playing it, but never getting it to sound right. When I heard it back then, I noticed right away that they where just sped up tracks. If you have some experience in recording, it's immediately noticable. I think he even got called out on it by some of the Periphery guys, but people still thought it was all real.
EDIT: I just remembered KMac later did a brilliant parody song of that band. :D
So true, and especially important for younger people learning. I remember growing up listening to cassettes and being explained the difference between that (being done in a studio) versus a live performance. Now I feel like it's even more vital to understand those differences given how accessible video content is and how over saturated social media is.
Great video, super cool perspective on that stuff
Thanks for the opinion and insight. I believe you are correct on most points. As production values are raised, it gets really hard to know what is good enough when it comes to releasing your own material and content. I personally struggled with this for the past number of years with my bands last album release. We had songs complete for months, if not years, before we got tired of waiting for our production tweaks to finally get good enough. It sucks because we lost a lot of creative time fiddling with knobs trying to get the best mix as compared to AAA releases.
Your videos are not dumb. You are a very honest guitar player and a true inspiration. I only find inspiration from the musicians that break the mold. Ben Weinman recorded ALL of the guitars and bass on Calculating Infinity in 1998 to tape. This dates me as Ben and I are the same age. I personally like to have some imperfections in my material.
You guys play clams (wrong notes) sometimes in your live videos. That shows that you are human. No on is perfect, nothing is perfect but as long as we can learn we can just try to make good stuff.
Cant wait for seeing you guys live soon. You F$#@ERS are making me have to take a long road trip. Massachusetts is a place where they have clubs.
Thanks Dean for making this point clear. I am a 40 year old player and when insta et al. came out, I really was under the illusion I had done playing guitar wrongly my whole life until I understood the "partial" deception. I came to peace with me and my humble playing.
This is why, for me, there is nothing better than live, electric guitar, cable and amp.
Let the techniques come from the fingers.
@@pat82ization they also can clip too, which is very frustrating
Here's my unprofessional but still somewhat experienced take on this, when I post a playthrough or demonstration of my music, I'm typically doing it just so people and myself in the future to a lesser extent, can see HOW it's played, and what it looks like on a guitar, and in the same vein, that I CAN play it, even if on the recording that's in 4 takes instead of 1, so the video is essentially completely disconnected from the audio - note this isn't all the time, often I'll record playthroughs retroactively and it's just easier for me to do a rough video take and put it to my audio than to record a new take as a playthrough, once again, not all the time as sometimes I actually prefer you to see exactly what you're hearing.
I guess for me it comes down to necessity and ease over anything else, whilst still appreciating the viewer experience.
Yeah for the most part my video is also that same audio take, but I've recently been correcting things and using multi angles now, but If I cant play a song all the way through I won't do a cover of it at all
3:20 to 3:44 is a constant struggle for me. I know even if i practice for the rest of my life i will never be as good as you Dean. BUT im at peace with that and i play for fun and my own gratification.
But from time to time I still feel that twang of inadequacy when watching guys like yourself, Wes Hauch and Jeff Loomis. You guys make it look so effortless and easy that its very easy to become so demoralised that i just give up. But watching your streams and Wes's 'warts and all playthoughts' show me that you guys make mistakes, and are human afterall.
archspire waiting for a video that compares their recordings to their live shows and playthroughs
I think I really learned about this fake perfection in music and social media a while ago, but it's always good to be reminded that no musician can play perfectly every time, and almost everything you see from musicians online is edited in some way.
Another part of this is that you hear the same recording of a song every time you hit play on Spotify or wherever, and it sounds the same every time. Releasing music this way is necessary for the artists and the audience, but sometimes you forget that the artist can't actually play it exactly the same every time, and because you're a different person, you'll never play it exactly like the artist or anyone else. The goal should be to learn the song well enough that you can play it well a few times in a row, but know that you'll always play it in your own way, which is the best part of playing music: discovering and developing your own sound
Dean, you are absolutely right. We need more people to look at the big picture like this and understand it better
I've been playing guitar for about a year now, so as a new guitarist and a modern, content consuming man, thank you for putting this out there. Going forward it will help me be easier on myself and my never ending quest for perfect tone, perfect notes and perfect gear. I feel like I'm constantly chasing tone and constantly looking at guitars and gear that I see certain players and youtubers with.
Great video and hopefully this opens peoples eyes a bit. There's nothing wrong with editing stuff, just be honest about it and don't mislead people and present a false image of your abilities. Most everything you see online is produced or edited in some way unless it's clearly a 100% raw video, which personally I would rather hear. It's nice to hear someone flub a note every now and then, it doesn't mean they suck, just means their human like the rest of us.
No ones perfect, and no should think that anyone else is either.
Good point dean. When i watch your videos, you make me wanna practice more, because we see you struggle when you learn a song by someone else. You upload your struggles, which is rare. Thank you for being a wonderful example and make us pick up the instrument. And now i am going to listen to bleed the future and not picking up my guitar ever again
It's kind of funny you posted this video because as of lately I've been thinking about this subject a lot while trying to dial in my own guitar tone. I've found myself enjoying content creators who use less studio groomed playing than those who do. It's just nice to watch someone play and come back down to earth and be like "okay, yeah, this is how it actually sounds". Just can't beat the raw sounding stuff.
My motivation for guitar playing skyrocketed when i stopped watching other people play guitar in "spontaneous" covers and stuff like that. Videos of people guitar playing is banned from my social media feeds
There is a certain level of communication that musicians should have with their audiences that portrays what kind of entertainment they are providing. It's a hard, but almost necessary, part of the experience being in the arts if you don't want to be considered part of the problem. I absolutely love the shit out of air-guitaring/lip-syncing/guitar-wankery videos as they can be a silly amount of fun. But it becomes really chintzy for me when some people try to make social media careers out of it and say that their playing is genuine, esPECially the guitar equivalent of lip-syncing videos as you mentioned. It cheapens the craft if you are not open to saying "Hey, these are just fun videos I want to do messing around on my guitar. Hope you have as much fun watching them as I do making them!"
Really respect musicians that tow that line.
Great vid. This is especially true when it comes to vocalists. The amount of people who abuse pitch correction and effects to make them sound perfect in a video is insane. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done it before, but it definitely gives an unreal expectation. I’d almost prefer if singers went rawdawg for covers/ OG songs, but then again it might turn people off. It’s definitely a tricky situation idk
I'm literally making a 35 minute UA-cam video about this exact thing with viewpoints from a ton of guitarists in the community. Fuck me, now i basically HAVE to add your take to my video, if thats okay xD
Very measured and reasonable response Dean. I heard Archspire and thought man this is good stuff. Then you guys played at a venue I managed, and it was pretty much note for note flawless, I can't say I am a massive fan of the modern 'over produced' sounds but it has its place 🤙🏼
Yep, this reminds me a lot of my process for my metal piano covers. A lot of post-production, from the obvious (pitch shift, reverb, panning), to the less obvious (compression + EQ, chorus/doubling fx, comping, recording solos at half-speed in a way that the final is obviously sped up, panning individual notes differently from a single chord), to the more-or-less cheating (gridding nearly every note during layered parts to eliminate flamming, editing out key clicks and chair creaks, copy-pasting over wrong notes).
That said, I did release a couple versions to show what it would sound like with the raw takes and only basic comping.
Dean is the Mr. Rodgers of Death Metal and I f"n love it. Good stuff bud
Nahre Sol did a great video about editing, and how even classical pianists edit their takes a bit. Good compliment to this video, to also reinforce that no one is being called out in particular here.
Yeah, I started putting a disclaimer on my videos that they are not live playthroughs as I have been giving this a lot of thought in the past months (mostly due to Reynolds talking about fake drumming). I like the aestethic of two camera angels but can't record both at the same time so I opt to prerecord the audio. I try to balance this by uploading live takes as well but not as fully produced videos. But I agree with you 100%
As a young kid listening to rock & then metal I thought every solo was improv off the cuff, one take emotion flowing out. Finding out about my guitar heroes methodically writing solos, comping takes, etc. killed the dream a little bit, but also made it more accessible to me to attempt for myself as an adult decades later recording my own playing at home. Now I enjoy learning about the process of creating this art at a professional level. I watched a doc about Archspire a couple of weeks ago and it was cool to see the unused strings dampened & a bass take edited to make sure it fit perfectly. It also brings out a ton of appreciation in me for flubs left on Beatles & Van Halen records.
Great video dude and congratulations on 69k subs!🤘
I want to voice my opinion on one thing that you said. That part about how something might discourage them to give up on their instrument. And you see that jokingly in UA-cam comments. You see "well this has inspired me to quit." And for me personally that has never happened because talent inspires me. Especially if it's someone that's close to my age. They are examples that you can be this good at this age. So. I don't know... Can talent really inspire people to quit or discourage anyone? Especially if you are passionate about music.
Awesome video man, I’ve always doubted my skills especially when viewing other musician’s play but this here really opens my eyes up to the saying “nobody is perfect”. Thanks for the great content.
Yeah, I think it's easy as an experienced guitarist and/or producer to assume that everyone watching already knows this, but looking back I'm sure that's far from the case. So, I highly appreciate you talking about it in terms of clearing up misconceptions for those just starting out or simply not savvy when it comes to how production works.
As for me, personally, if it's not a full one-take playthrough with obvious "yep, this is definitely live" small mistakes I'll always assume it's more or less entirely comped and edited. Even with the former, my old videos certainly weren't the first take aside from the easiest songs I recorded. Where do you draw the line there as either the performer or the viewer assuming you're after an "authentic" representation of someones' skill level (if that even matters to anyone, I guess)? 5 takes? 20? 400?
There's also other aspects around this when it comes to album production. In terms of my own tastes, I genuinely prefer some amount of sloppiness over absolute perfection, even in technical music. There's something to be said for allowing the listener's imagination to interpret the stuff that didn't come out pinpoint precise. As someone who audiates (aka "actively mentally participates" or whatever you want to call it) along to the music, I usually get tired of music where everything is crystal clear pretty quickly. It kind of shuts out part of my ability to explore the song actively, if that makes sense. It goes from "huh, I wonder if the thing I'm hearing is actually what they were trying to play? I should take another listen" to "yep, that's the song... alrighty, on to the next".
For me, the best songs are the ones that keep me coming back again and again because of this. It's to the point where one of my favorite songs out there is Sauron's "Thrash Assault". For context, I don't even like muddy/sloppy production or really anything about this type of mix. I'd probably never do it myself with my own music. Yet I cannot for the life of my figure out what in the world they are trying to play in at least half the riffs in that song, and honestly - I hope I never find out. I just love the feeling on bewilderment I get from listening to it much more than I enjoy most "near-perfect" songs I hear, even though I myself veer toward the latter more often than not.
TL;DR: it's weird.
Ive played guitar for about 2.5 years and this makes me feel so much better about my future as a musician so thank you
Well, once the live shows are fully back on, you can tell who can really pull off what they have demonstrated on youtube! It's time for us to appreciate an organic performance within human capacity and not over editing things. We all worship old albums that have numerous production flaws but we love them so much that it has become part of the charm for us! Use the machines but don't try to be one when it comes down to music!
Been playing guitar and drums for over 25 years and and absolutely love that you've touched on this subject. For me I know all of these things you've laid out in the video and it doesn't bother me too much, BUT, knowing newer musicians that are just trying to get better and look up videos of playing, I can see just the disappointment in the their face because they feel like they can't obtain any skill that they are witnessing because it seems utterly perfect. However, what I would like to point out that on one hand it sucks, but on another at least for over the years, seeing such playing only drives me to become better and better and contuine to learn new techniques and ability. I agree tho that they should at least be up front and honest instead pretending like some of these works are in fact them naturally and not a bunch of tech to help them sound perfect.
Hit the nail right on the head. 9/10 too good to be true is not the truth. There are so many musicians to be respected out there and falsified content is not helping anybody
Appreciate raw production of Black Metal and 70, 80s heavy and thrash metal.
This is why I love The Doo. Doing live improve or covers over Omegle is brilliant, and you can tell it is honest since it is live.
You make a good point. I have the opposite problem myself. When I’m editing my videos and there aren’t enough mistakes, I need to go back in and add some flubs in editing to stay on brand. It’s what the Swampus core have come to expect. If I ever make a 1 take playthrough with no mistakes, I’ll have to throw my camera into the swamp. This is the way
If you're a talented player, it makes a difference. Take Alexi Laiho for example: he always said COB were a 'live' band. Well rehearsed and well-practiced. It makes a difference if you piece your music together, or actually know how to play your guitar.
Dude I’m so glad you spoke about this.
I’m a very average player but I have been toying with the thought of pre recording my covers just to get them out quicker, because 90% of what I watch is pre recorded but I feel it’s just so dishonest and whats the point of the cover if you can’t play it properly the whole way through? 🤔
I appreciate this mentality very much, especially as a newcomer to guitar.
Humbling is a powerful and irreplaceable tool for those who truly wish to learn.
Really well said my friend. There’s a lot to unpack about this topic and you summed it up in the most polite & Canadian way possible haha.
the sad thing is, is that new players coming in and learning find this out about their IG idols and industry and choose to accept it as the norm and they begin learning how to edit better instead of playing better and the cycle perpetuates again and again.
I love your head, man. This is such a great insight!
That is exactly why I love your streams and why they motivated me to keep going.. Because you can clearly see that even your favourite players are human beings as well with their own imperfections and flaws.
Also loving these types of videos, keep it up!
i once kept a very bad note, and let it ring very long, i intented to accept the mistake and make it part of the song. its ugly, but its real. its a wink wink and comedy and yet reality.
the song have a bad note and i didnt removed it. its art about disrespecting art perfection, and its not art cause it has mistake.
was funny to keep it
Thank you for this video dude, it’s absolutely something that needs to be said more often! Even though I teach guitar, studied popular music in college and try to temper expectations in exactly the same way I’ve got to be honest in that I find comparison difficult to deal with at times, even knowing the other side, because I’m no real shredder. Who knows how this could affect less experienced players and I think it’s symptomatic of the bigger, faster, stronger mentality of society as a whole. More realistic takes like yours help us all and I’m grateful for it dude. Keep doing what you’re doing, we appreciate you.
Even Dimebag wrote a lot about stage presence and recording tricks in Guitar World. I remember trying to learn this solo and getting defeated. Later reading about how he used a series of cardboard tubes and a Dremel for a pick......Live he had Grady run his whole rig so he could stomp around and make everything look cool. You can't really get away from creating images if you want to make money performing art.
This is well said. I do think this is an unfortunate byproduct of social media culture and an inability for some people (especially younger folks) to be able to simply understand and accept that its ok to not take things at face value. I feel like people who grew up without smart phones or even the internet afe way better at just realizing that things online that seem perfect usually arent and you just take it for what it is instead of feeling defeated by it and comparing yourself to it. Also, there is an unfortunate reality that the ease and frequency of heavily produced/edited content does greatly blur the line between the truly elite players who can actually play with little to no editing and sound ultra clean versus the plethora of good players who never allow their reasonable flaws to be shown. Its valuable to recognize thr distinction.
Great stuff Dean. Would love to see you go on the Downbeat podcast and explore this more with Craig. For me, the disingenuousness completely turned me off modern metal in general in recent years. It's surprising to see a lot of people here saying that they don't really care at all, though I accept part of this is that they're not aware of the extent of editing that exists and how common it is (eg. the "one take" vocal video trend). Perhaps there needs to be more concrete definitions in the community for words like playthrough, play along, etc.
Such a good video my dude! And I personally love ot when. People do theor takes in 1 shot mistakes and all for a cover I like authenticity personally