Thanks for Recommending this PIECE OF CRAP, Glenn!
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- čas přidán 2. 11. 2023
- We had a massive response on last week's video, but this one comment in particular really caught my attention. Someone bought one of those cheap Harley Benton cabs I recommended. Here's what he had say about it.
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About Spectre Sound Studios:
I'm Glenn Fricker, engineer here at Spectre Sound Studios. I love making records, and after doing it for sixteen years, I want to pass on what I've learned. On my channel you can find tutorials on how to record guitar, bass, real drums and vocals. There's reviews and demos of tube amps, amp sims, drums, mics, preamps, outboard gear, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, and plugin effects.
We've covered Moon on the Water, played Bias FX, given you the absolute best in Stupid Musician Texts, ranted & raved about bass guitar, and this channel is where The Eagle has Landed.
Everything you've wanted to learn about recording Hard Rock & Heavy Metal can be found right here on this channel!
I also respond to your comments & questions: The best make it into the SMG Viewer's Comments series of videos. Loads of fun, lots of laughs.
Thanks for checking out my channel & please subscribe!
More than half the people who watch this show aren't actually subscribed. If you enjoy the content, please consider subscribing, and help me grow this!
hey Glenn, would LOVE to watch your review of AirGuitar that was recently the talk on several youtube channels because of the company's reaction to criticism (well it has as much to do with an actual guitar as you with ballet or i dunno... interior design for porn sets).
ps. i did hit the like and subscribe :)
Thanks for the subscribe reminder, Glen..I thought I had done that a long time back but somehow hadn’t. I enjoy your videos and your perspective, as well as the love/hate relationship players seem to have with you.
I am a strictly at home player and haven’t gotten into much of the recording aspect of it as I just don’t have the time currently to really dive into the whole complex DAW thing. The content I enjoy most is the “in the room” type stuff however the knowledge and experience you share from the recording/engineering aspect is very valuable and gives me a refreshing view of guitar related gear and how it works and you include a lot of stuff that’s just plain common sense (too many people, it seems sadly, suffer from a tremendous lack of that these days 🙄)
My two cents on pickups… I love my active EMG’s …my 81, my Hets, etc. I have a set of Bone Breakers coming as well. I don’t find they sound tremendously DIFFERENT from the stock pups that came in my various guitars…however they do make a discernible difference in my guitars overall picking RESPONSE/FEEL and the actives allow me to back off the guitar’s volume knob for normal playing more than I can with passives and have the extra gain/headroom to push my tube amps a little harder up front. I can use passive pups and a clean boost pedal and get the same extra gain from the clean boost I get from actives but the tone overall isn’t much different between the EMG’s and passives at least to me. Lots of people would argue that point with me and ohhhh the disagree with em and feel the wrath of their butt hurt!
Thanks again!
Hey Glenn it's not 5150s. But I might be able to get you access to a whole boat load of the exact same model of old vintage marshal amps.
My former neighbor well late former neighbor did stuff with Alice Cooper. And his neighbor on the other side is Elvis costellos guitsr tech.
His old ones should be sitting along with a boat load of others.
And I've literally seen albeit rare vintage examples of amps on the same settings sounding wildly different.
But my theory is. Tolerances yes. But alot more then that 10 percsnt margin. And more components even old components were probably like 5ish percent variance not 10.
But I also know a very specific amp thats famous and it teuely does have a flaw in the transformer specs that makes it behave unique. Albeit nothing magical and it's been cloned dozens of times over for their touring gear.
But some of the old hand wired amps can have alot more variation. Like the actual circuit lay outs change slightly even if basically they're identical. Essentially in my theory its noise and interference suppression and other little things probably voltage drop impedencd and other stuff. And becomes much less valid of any form of concern once we get to pcb and more standardized construction methods then pure hand wiring.
And if I'm correct. Most kf it is from the transformers alone besides potentially having some weird effects of wiring runs being not identical and causing actual negative side effects that in rare cases happen to be good sounding.
Also why lots of old gear sounds like crap.
And sorta Backes by up 50s era gibsons do sound different.....the scale length is an 1800s calculation method and less accurate for intonation and all that.
Essentially all the tone chasing. Is literally just the stuff people pull out of modern music. The Imperfections.
No.
Btw. I know you've complained about headphones before and like speaker reviews. Electrostatic options? Stay headphones are considered good for production side stuff apparently
I have watched Glenns videos since he did the ”AxeFx2 vs the real deal”.
I even visited his studio in 2016 when i was out traveling from Sweden.
Glenn is great and his videos really helped get into recording.
Great to see him still going strong!
That was you & your two brothers right? Thanks again for coming out!!!
Yes yes yes! I also got to be in the ”Can you play metal on strat video?”.
Then we went out for some beers 🍻👌
Thank you for your hospitality! 🫡
thats so awesome!!!!!!
@@SpectreSoundStudios Thanks for giving me the accolade of first 'dumb comment of the week'. I knew (and was hoping) you'd pick me up on the fact that speakers have a cone too. Keep up the great work.
Glenn....it's sooooo fucking refreshing to encounter someone that examines aspects of guitar playing like tone and sound quality in a scientific way and not just framed by personal opinion. It's fantastic to see the use of empirical data in the form of things like frequency response to confirm or discount commonly held notions. Confirmation bias is rampant in the guitar world and it drives me insane! Our perceptions are absolutely shaped by our expectations - this is a psychological phenomenon that is very well documented...if you don't recognize that, then you're an imbecile...plain and simple. If two rigs, one expensive and one budget for example, are compared, of course the results will be skewed toward the higher priced one because our opinions are shaped by our expectations. If the test is carried out under a double blind testing model and measured using empirical data and the exact same sound sample, the results become much more balanced. This has been demonstrated time and time again...
Some gear that I purchased and regretted was my pedal board. I spent over $1000 dollars for a bunch of bass pedals (compression, pitch shifter/octaver, tuner, wah, fuzz, delay, and looper) and I have never to this day used any of them live. They sound great and they do the things I want them to do but I have never been able to apply them in normal playing situations and gigs outside of my own music. Bass players don't really need a full les claypool setup when they're playing country music or jazz.
I used to gig with just my active 5 string fretless bass and a cord. No amp no pedals. Every stage had a D.I. box and floor monitors. Why haul more stuff than needed.🍻
Yeah, it all depends on the context. When I was gigging with an original-material band, I used a dozen bass pedals, but when it was time for an acoustic gig, just an acoustic bass's preamp was enough.
@@niteshades_promise For sure, I unfortunately learned that after I started doing shows. At least I have a lot of really cool pedals though! 🤣
Not sure how that magic worked, but MySpace seemed to get everyone involved in their local music scene. Everyone was suddenly excited about local music and they were turning up at the shows in huge numbers. It was marvelous.
Myspace was better than anything we have today. Not sure how and why it changed. Good times and way to find music without pirating
It's a shame it changed, but it changed because the normies non musicians had no way to make the focus on them. Facebook and other platforms allow people without skills or talent get some form of attention. (Being blunt of course)
I miss MySpace. Tom was pure. MySpace helped my band out tremendously. It helped me figure out that if people actually know about local music they’ll show up. It’s a win/win for everyone around. People don’t wanna have to budget an entire month around going to a show. Ticket prices have always been outrageous, it’s really bad now. People wanna get ready on a Friday or Saturday night and just go to a venue to have fun.
@@GypsyDanger514true
That was before Spotify and other streaming services completely devalued music
Hey us instrument players matter too! I'm a terrible musician, but over the last 3 years I've gotten so much joy from learning how to TECHNICALLY play the guitar. I couldn't write a song for the life of me, but playing along to my favourite Archspire tune today made my underpants just a little tighter. I always tell people "I don't play the guitar, I recite the guitar". Much love from your neighbour in Waterloo
I don't care what anyone says, bleeped cursing is always so much funnier than hearing the words themselves 😂😂
Sir, have you heard of Metalocalypse? That's where the idea comes from lol
@@kennhern heard OF it, but have never seen it. On my list of things to watch though
Unnecessary censorship videos are hilarious
Yeah, that’s where that sound effect comes from. Best choice by him for picking a censor, lol.
* beep * you
This man is awesome, the sense of humor... Perfect.
One of my favourite quotes that I've seen is: "hard work out performs lazy talent every day."
Doesn't matter how naturally talented you are, if you don't put the work in, some one working harder than you will end up "better" than you.
The irony wants that quotes are usually reserved for those who are the laziest amongst us.. happy now???
That`s a great and very true saying and very positive as well, because it really means that everyone who is willing to put the work in (may it be in music, fine arts, writing, sports and whatever you can think of) has a fair chance to become really good in their specific field. Talent may just be another word for dedication.
I'd say outside of "hard work" talent essentially doesn't exist. A lot of what people percieve as talent is just the basic social skills that enable some people to gloss over the work they had to go through to achieve something. If you think someone is "talented" and that whatever they do comes really easily to them, more than likely you're just not seeing the work for whatever reason.
@@CuriousKey so how many hours did you practise to come to that conclusion? 20,000?
@@wolfgangdevries127 Does the idea of hard work being the real delineator make you feel uncomfortable?
It would be wonderful to shootout the same speaker model with different cones, magnets,.etc.
Your research regarding tone and bullshit are a really useful resource for some of us
Not only is this channel pure teaching material, but also encouraging! I'm a hobby musician myself, with a small channel and do all by myself. Sometimes I feel a bit bad, but watching this channel is always like therapy.
I have two purchase regrets. One is a Boss DS-1 pedal, but not because it was a bad pedal. The reason was because it was sold to me new in the box, but when I brought it home it had two holes drilled into the bottom plate, telling me it was clearly used or a floor model, and was previously bolted down onto a pedal board. I was a kid and didn't really know any better and did not expect the dealer to take it back. The second is a regret for NOT purchasing a Carvin X100-B amp on the spot back in '93 when I was shopping for them, or at least the OG 5150. Looking at tube amp prices nowadays, I wish I didn't hesitate.
My takeaways from this are: 1. Have some self-respect, inspect what you are purchasing, and if it is defective, take the stuff back and make the dealer own up to their obvious mistake. 2. If you find some good gear at a terrific price and you can afford it, jump on it. Good gear will hold its value and often times appreciate with inflation (or otherwise keep pace with it somewhat).
Okay lemme get your advice. Relearning guitar. Learned on 4 and 5 string tenor guitars which are dead art now lol. Well slowly coming back.
Learning to play again and 6 strings for writing demos of stuff. Local shop has an eastman 59V at like over a grand under retail and will do payment systems.
Keeps it affordable and also gets me something like as nice as can be to learn on. Pretty much only care about playability. And they're like 7.9 pounds tops for a les paul solid body. I'd prefer chambered for even lighter. But like.....for a lss paul nerd with a bad neck and shoulder.
Or should I go something in that sub 1k price range and get myself other stuff. Tonex a joyo zombie and the monoprice combo for going to jam.
Was figuring that and pedals and a DI for the computer gets me everything I need cheap. Primarily a vocalist. So got some mics. Meaning eventually I can build up a cab collection with speakers.
16:07 oh goddamn the MySpace days!!! I found SOOO many bands through that medium and made connections with musicians across the country that I still talk to today.
Myspace was one of the BEST things for music I have seen since the inception of the internet. Anyone who was on it can attest. You could find bands you liked easily and each band would display their favorite bands pages under their "top 10 friends". The rabbit holes you could go down were impressive and often fruitful. I remember finding Intronaut on there right after Void came out when no one (in my group of band-active metalhead friends) had heard of them. I greatly miss MySpace and i wish someone would try and recreate that type of experience.
And not only musicwise, it was generally a place where alternative people, metalheads, punks, artists and all the different subculture people had a personal profile page and you could meet and communicate with all kinds of cool people. I really miss that aspect of MySpace the most.
Very stoked that you’ll be reviewing some Weber Tone Kvlt speakers! I’ve been interested in them for a few years but can’t pull myself away from the trusted Swamp Thang / Texas Heat combo.
Also, each ring on a speakers diaphragm produces a different frequency. Some drivers (speakers) diaphragm are tighter than others that also has a change in tone. As always, great stuff Glenn.
Nice shout-out of my city Glenn! We've had a lot of badass bands that have come through Kansas City over the years, including Van Halen
indeed i bought the Harley Benton 1x12 and the Joyo Zombie because of your recommendation for those who doesn't have enough money to expend as a hobby player and im not gonna lie, it sounds brutal. i actually use it when i go with my friends to play in Pubs and little gigs. Thanks!
Nice! looking forward to the Webber speaker show and tell, those guys are great.
I bought two of their coil loaded load boxes from them with the plan of racking them into a common box and they sent them to me with the coil loads unglued and intructrions on how to glue them in to the new box when I move the controls.
So cool. Works beautifully, still have it. Feels great to use, you know, like a speaker.
you hit the nail on the head about the garage band facebook music scene thing. I also 100% agree with you! we need something like that to come back. but I don't feel that we are heading in that direction due to the fact that people don't wanna go to shows anymore. seeing band struggle on the road cause people are not coming out to the tours they are on....but... people are going to music festivals still so there is still hope. great video by the way !!
I bought a near perfect Ibanez J Custom used for about $2500. I rushed to open it all excited. But when I plugged it in, I didn't sound any better; I sounded like me. Same old pentatonic licks and sound.
On the other hand, I had no more excuses. The only way I was going to change and get better was to practice with intention. I didn't need to spend that much money on a guitar. My other guitars were fine. But when you're trying to learn to improvise, or to play a hard riff, or sweep pick, I couldn't blame the gear anymore. It's not the action, it's not the strings, it's not the neck, it's not the pickups, or the amp, or the pedals, it's you.
On the other hand, I got way better. You can learn that lesson with way less money. I love that guitar, and it's amazing. It feels great, plays great, sounds great, looks beautiful... But I didn't need it. I just needed to practice.
Excited for the top 10 video, great episode 🤘🏼🤘🏼 you’re aging like fine wine and you were great to begin with. Always love hearing you further your ideas and refine your beliefs about something you’re passionate about that’s been historically held back and deceptive by bad marketing practices. It’s created a really strong case for the truth about what matters what in the signal chain, and what we can save our money on!!!! Thank you 🙏🏼
Hey Glenn. Loved your content for years. You helped me a lot with everything involving music, social media, gigs, the entire music business. Also everything that I know about recording is from you. I've been playing bass for almost 5 years now. My question is when was the last time you had a terrific bass player in your studio, cuz I got a bit confused with the singularity thing, but still enjoyed it. Lastly, huge thanks for everything, you're awesome. Greetings from Bulgaria.
@animator1722 - Agreed. Glenn has really helped me with guitar recording, which I only really started doing one or two years ago. My first ever guitar rig (besides a 3” practice amp) was a hybrid Orange head with a pair of Behringer pedals, then the headphone out into a home stereo system with some speakers I found on the street in the rain. That piece of trash was actually really fucking amazing. Cost me about $200. Ten thousand dollars of gear is not going to make you a better guitar player. So go fucking practice!
Love the emotion. This really is a hard industry to be involved with and to have someone, like yourself, that can walk you through it can make a world of difference. As always, thanks for sharing and caring.🤘🏻❤️🎶
When I was in high school, I bought a Seymour Duncan Invader pickup (OOOO Synister Gates uses it!!) and installed it in my Squier Showmaster expecting a huge difference in tone. I couldn't tell a difference at all. It did look cool though.
I love the intro music for your shows, it's so heavy and just too cool.
Thanks for the info on the ELE drums update. As a lazy guitarist, I usually dread making the drum tracks and anything that will make it easier will be welcomed. Love the shows and thanks for all you do for us.
Gleeeeeeenn!!!!! I’m a guitar teacher in Mexico and i am greatly influenced by you videos and even in my day to day classes, trying to teach that a lot of the brands only want your money and don’t care about anything but your money……
i watch your videos since a lot and i think i speak for me and a lot of the people that normally don’t write comments and appreciate your content…… your content has helped our careers!!! Thanks Glenn!!!
Just wanted to say Thank you for your recommending the Harley Benton 2x12, I received mine a few days ago, (Horizontal) and it's amazing! I have it mixed with a GreenBack loaded 4x12, and all i can say is WOW!!!! I had been running a EQ in the effects loop, trying to get the Greenbacks to sound a little more modern. now the EQ is gone! And i couldn't be happier! thanx again.
For Gear I regret buying, it has got to be my 1975 Fender P-Bass (Which I have now sold so not much of a loss but still a good story). I had saved up for quite a while to buy this bass and when I got it it sounded great! So what’s the problem? I went to friend’s house to practice and he had a cheap Squire that not only sounded amazing, it played BETTER than my Fender. I kind of had a revelation when I finally accepted cheap things aren’t always bad.
How dare you!?!?! How dare you save us thousands of dollars, glenn?😂🍻
I grew up in Kansas City. Thrust was hair metal in the age of System of a Down and Korn. They came out ten years too late.
Absolutely love your channel Glenn. Your straight talking and honest approach is refreshing (and entertaining). I can honestly say that I haven't heard anything in any of your videos that I haven't agreed with or didn't prove to be right. Nice one
Thank you for talking about Neil Peart's background. I feel like this gets missed way to often. We live in an age were people think there is a hack for everything. But in music you work your ass off. Period. Fairy dust and magic don't exist. I heard Rick Rubin(love him or hate him) say in an interview once, that before he will even listen to a band in studio, he wants a "minimum" of 36 songs. And that's if your Black Sabbath or Johnny Cash. Every one else, he wants to hear a lot more music from. I wonder if writing would magically get better?🤔
If you go in with 12 songs you chose yourself, you could have say 8 that don’t fit with the best songs you came with. The 36 songs might be just asking people to come in with enough material to complete an album.
Glenn!
I was broke since I started playing in high school all the way until I found your channel in 2019 so I really wasn't able to make foolish purchases lol. Since then I've purchased recording gear based on your videos and other recording channels.
I guess if a purchase didn't deliver, would be my Seymour Duncan Whole Lotta Humbuckers that I threw in my cheap Epiphone Les Paul Special 2. I did it because I don't play that with heavy gain or distortion. It made a difference, but so miniscule, I almost regret it.
Thank you for all you do on your channel! 🤘
I have this cabinet and it's absolutely phenomenal. Cannot complain and it looks pretty solid onstage as well. Goes great with my Blackstar Head
I love this guy, he knows his shit and very informative. Funny as hell and 0 bullshit. I've learned so much off of him. He was right as I got myself an upgrade speaker cab and the sound is spectacular. Thanks so much
Okay here’s a gear purchase I regret. So to give some background I am 16 and I’m still learning a lot thanks to this channel. So I bought a Marshall mg100hdfx half stack used for like $450. I did this because all the band I listened to used Marshalls , so I thought this would get me there would do that for me. Well to my dismay I did not all I god was an okay clean and a fuzzy unclear overdrive. So, thanks to you Glenn, I bought a Harley Benton 2x12 and sold my old 4x12 cab and then just recently bought a Marshall dsl20 and sold the old head. Now I have an amp setup that I’m very happy with all thanks to you.
Another thing to consider is that the coils of wire in a pickup don't move in relation to the magnet. The voice coil of a speaker does (at least it sure appeared to be that way every time I dissected a speaker.) Depending on how far it travels, etc., it could possibly have a noticeable change in inductive impedance, which would affect frequency response, especially when driven hard.
Waaassssupppp Glenn!!!Have you done a show on guitar tone knobs?So many guitarists just don't know.
Thank you Glenn for the raw honesty as well as the data to back it up. I'm a scrub guitar player just getting back into it and while researching a Line 6 Catalyst amp you trashed it's shortcomings in favor of the Boss Katana. One lucky reverb used purchase later I'm a happy Katana owner. I've watched a bunch of your videos since then, hence why this comment is here and not on the Catalyst video and I'm more confident in your opinion on other gear and recording methods. Keep up the great work and I doubt I need to tell you this, but never compromise!
The only reason you need to reamp with amp sims is if you wanna use mics on a cab and not use an IR. You can use different amps with different power amp circuits and types, position your own mics over your own cab with your choice of speaker. Use the reamp box to go direct into the FX Return to just use the amp sim as a preamp and use the amp's power amp. You can do the same thing with solid state amps, PA heads, or rack mount power amps if the amp sim has power amp simulation built in.
I haven't really regretted a gear purchase bc I research gear extensively before a purchase. A large part of that research is consulting Glenn and his content on this show. Still bought a Quad Cortex though. LMAO. Keep up the great content Glenn!
How do you get a star?
Hey Allen Dean! I don't know, how do you get a star? lol @@allendean9807
OH! I understand what you mean. When you subscribe, you pay a monthly membership fee. Different amounts are available.
@@allendean9807
@@allendean9807 by becoming a member
@allendean9807 he showed glen his member
You're going to love to hear this Glenn... My biggest gear purchase regret was buying into the Fractal Audio ecosystem. I purchased an Axe FX III four years ago and a FM3 two years ago. Don't get me wrong, they both really do sound great. But, fuck me, they are so expensive and I've learned I'd rather tweak knobs on amps and pedals IRL and not menu dive for endless hours in an editor to dial in tones. I don't plan on selling them as I do still use them as preamps and FX units (and it pains me to think how much money I will lose out on), but I should have rather invested my money elsewhere. Rock on Glenn. 🤘
That opening cracked me up. 😆. Also made me consider an HB cab!
Pickups ARE just magnets and wire....and fibre bobbins and plastic bobbins and butyrate bobbins and brass baseplates and silver nickel baseplates and alnico magnets and ceramic magnets and enamel wire, formvar wire, poly wire, 42 gauge 43 gauge 44 gauge, scattered windings, tight windings, wide coils, deep coils, offset coils, slugs, dome screws, allen screws, long screws, short screws,......and that's just common 6 string humbuckers, then you got wide range humbuckers, mini humbuckers, single coil sized humbuckers, stacked P90s, filterton humbuckers, many many many single coils and actives!......but I guess its just magnets and wire😂😂
I started watching this channel about 2 or 3 weeks ago. It really is very good, thanks for the videos. Here in South Africa, music eq can be quite expensive so this has helped me get a better understanding of what really is needed and what is just good marketing by corporations. I appreciate the help. GGGGLLLLLLEEEEEN.
Talent is how fast you learn. The biggest loss is talented people with no work ethic waiting for success . Work. Read. Learn
I watch periodically and love the show. Have you shot out the difference an eq in the loop makes to guitar tone?
Not yet!
I'm a bassist and there are 2 things I bought that just wasted my money: An Acoustic bass amp head and 15" speaker cab. I used to get shocked from it all the time, and the sound was just terrible - all treble fart-bass. The other was an Ibanez bass - a Soundgear, not sure of which one though. It would never stay in tune, and needed constant tune-ups (literally every time the weather changed). My favorite bass amp was the old Sunn tube amp with a Sunn 6-12" cabinet and an SVT 8-10" together (I play Metal). Damn, that rocked hard! I used it to play at the Thirsty Whale in River Grove way back when.
I can't wait for that speaker vid to see the difference in how it's made changes the sound 😮
I was literally having this conversation about social media for music. MySpace was amazing for this. Nothing since then has. We need something but nothing too flashy.
Man Glenn you are a Godsend. I’ve learned more about equipment and studio procedure from you, then anyone else!!!
Mr Internet Dictionary - the best laugh I've had all week - thank you!
Saved up and bought an American made Fender Jazz bass. Played it many times in the shop and convinced myself this was the bass I was looking for. After a few years really trying to like the sound, realised I just don’t like the tone. Main bass now is a second hand 5 string Warwick with active pickups and a really nice low end.
Hey Glenn Not too sure if you've done this video. But how about a video that talk about thing to avoid when programming drums? Could be very useful. Love the channel Glenn keep up the great work.
MySpace was great for finding new music and for getting the word out for shows.
For testing out changes in speakers, would you consider using a box of doom? Fully enclosed and mic’d box that should yield consistent results with minimal influence from the room.
Love your channel brother 👍. Been recording for years and i appreciate your bold ,common sense info and experience!! Ps.... Just found your channel and subscribed 👍
Love the shirt Glenn. The 'Old' riff is legendary.
The gear I regret spending money on was the eleven rack. I could never get any decent sounds out of that thing. Love what you do and thank you for everything!
Yeah, for a good few years I had a Roland Cube Street. It had inputs for both guitar and a microphone, and was surprisingly small and cheap but very loud and with real wood construction. Even battery powered! And despite coming out in 2003, the guitar presets sounded surprisingly good. I loved that thing. Eventually it stopped working, and it had been out of production by then, so I got the new version, made by Boss now. It has more controls, Bluetooth, and it was lighter. It was also an absolute piece of shit. The cheap plastic construction just gave it this horrible high mids spike that you couldn’t get rid of with the awful eq, and none of the guitar presets sounded good, and the mic input just sounded really thin. I sold it, and ended up wasting $100. I am currently trying to fix my old one, still waiting on some replacement capacitors to arrive that may hopefully fix the problem. Love your channel, thank you Glenn!
I was on a songwriting/recording forum once. I was a recording and mastering engineer for about 30 years, so I thought I could offer some advice here and there to improve mixes. One guy had compressed to shit out of his mix; he could have done a quarter of the compression and it would still have been too much. I tried to give advice on how to do better, being diplomatic and positive the whole time. But he would not stop butt-hurting, no matter how much I tried to smooth his feathers.
My point is, well done, Glenn for sticking at it over so many years. Despite your yelling, you have been incredibly patient and persistent. I only lasted about 6 months on that forum. So, kudos to you!
Great vid! Do you have any videos that go into detail about unique recording techniques that led to famous metal tones? You gave a little bit of this during your 5150 video the other week talking about how they got the tone on Carcass Heartwork. I love hearing the unique stuff that studios do to get some great sounds.
Glenn, what are your toughts around the Old Blood Noise pedal called Beam Splitter?
Tracking once can be done, the main thing is the RNG factor when it comes to deviation between times and modulations, but I think they forgot some factors.
Programming such as a plugin can be done even better since there is no dependency on the components added to the pcb, even if you might dislike the idea, such a plugin will sell.
The correct way to approach it would be RNG on predelay times to simulate difference in timing, RNG on slight prepitch variations (vibrato) to simulate difference i intonation and fretting hand behaviour, sustain, attack and EQ’s that do the same thing as switching scalelength and pickup types, add 3 outputs that can be send to each their amp and ir plugin and you have the sound simulation of 3 guitar tracks even if in reality it is only one, and probably much closer to exactly what really happens than with that pedal.
A cool phenomenon that occurred - installed a covered SH-4 to my friend's Ibanez, after a while I understood that regular spacing and F-spaced pickups exist, so I got him a uncovered f-spaced DiMarzio PAF. Now what happened was the sound got much clearer, the covered wrong sized SH-4 was muddy sounding. Yes you could compensate with amp settings but it was just irritating to listen to, even though it functions properly. Got him the PAF and yes, while it needed more gain to get to the proper distortion territory the sound became much much more clearer. Easily could roll the treble back from the amp and it just sounds good and ... right. Sound is hard to describe.
My Gibson Les Paul Studio.
After tearing my head out with the tuning stability and the to me very incompatible "ergonomics" if you can even call them that, i finally gave up and bought an Ibanez RG570.
That made me understand the problem with a floating bridge and bends... it's been a process of relearning my bending.
But overall I'm happier here over in Japan-land than i was with my Gibson.
My original starter guitar, a 150$-ish Peavey, felt better than my Gibson, and i later realized by plugging the same starter guitar into the amps that also have been upgraded over time... Well the phat sound i had with my Gibson, was not the P90s it was my amp all along!
Oh how much time and energy I could have saved if i had a resource like Glenn's channel back in the day.
Thank you man keep it up with the fantastically informative content
Speakers are just magnets and wire? *facepalm*. Anywho, looking forward to the Jensen video, Glenn! I'm one of many that you have helped with mixing, as well. And still helping as I'm still learning. Take care!
Your mention of the band Thrust got me looking and I am wondering what generally unknown bands can you recommend?
Hi Glenn! I usually don't regret gear purchases. But I frequently want to purchase new gear that upon further inspection would let me regret the decision. There is a lot of back and forth and research before I buy gear. I have made the decision to focus on getting the most out of the stuff I have. I like making ambient guitar stuff, and just a few videos about some weird sounds that I can get out of my delay pedal have showed me that I barely scratched the surface of what I can do with the stuff I have lying around anyway. As much fun new gear can be, let's find out what cool stuff we can do with the gear we already have.
I bought a MX5 Headrush pedal from Facebook Marketplace. I love the product itself but.....6 months after I purchased it the touch screen started distorting and going out. Since I didn't purchase the product from an actual store the Headrush people can't fix it. The learned lesson here is unfortunately spend the little extra money and buy from an actual store that way the companies honor the warranty of the product if it's defective. Or if you buy it from a person get the sales receipt with the product,just in case 💩 happens.🤘✌️
You mentioned hempback speakers and it reminded me of an ad I saw about the "new" Celestion Hempback speakers. Have you tried them? Thoughts? Thanks, and have a good weekend.
Yes. Pickups are a bunch of magnets and wires just like a speaker. But the signal of the pickup is the first in the signal chain y the speaker is the last. The speaker will tell the pickups how they should sound.
glen, i really do not love metal music with shredding guitars und growling voices, but i love your videos and i am thankful for all the information you share with us. thanks a lot
Enjoying Metal is a lot like enjoying spicy food. Through exposure, you build a tolerance, and come to enjoy progressively spicy stuff.
Metal is much the same, starting with basic distortion and certain songwriting conventions (or lack thereof), and gradually builds into a particular behemoth.
I started off thinking that growling and screaming was ugly and without purpose, but these days, I get bored of music without it. Weird how tastes shift.
funny you mention that because Glenn tends to hate both of those things if they're overdone, and would rather have either or both of them to be done sparsely yet tastefully.
What some people seem to misunderstand is that pickups only affect the output and not the tone. if you want to have more crunch from your amp without adding gain in the amp, you get hotter pickups, and vice versa. IMO pickups should be look at more like a booster or attenuators more than a tone generator or an eq curve. Keep the great work and Cheers from Fort Cavazos, Texas. \m/
One of the BEST gear purchases I ever made was in 2007-2008 (I don't remember the exact year), but it was an Ibanez RG5EX1. It was an amazing guitar for about $400, and I wish I still had it!
I greatly appreciate the work you put in. It’s great to see somebody actually being a teacher rather than being an idiot spending 10 minutes of my time for 1 minute of actual information.
My 2 questions are, as a brand new bassist, I’v I’m plugging my bass directly into my 2i2, so I still need a di box? My understanding is that it splits the signal to get a clean sound, but if I’m already getting a clean sound I don’t need it right?
Also, where’s that discord link? I would love to connect and learn more!
Thrust - Parade Of Idiots is on youtube and sounds amazing!
I, too, have learned a lot from Glenn, but I do have to say, the one thing I don't understand-and most metal producers do this-is why they insist on recommending to place SM57s on the cap edge as the "sweet spot." In my many years of trying out that mic position, it always sounded thin, harsh, and fizzy, with no body whatsoever. Placing the mic halfway between cap edge and surround on a V30, however, always yielded instantly useable tones.
I also miss the Myspace days. I had a bunch music on there, from past projects, that I can't listen to anymore because, they reformated. Some of which, I'd like to redo and make better recordings of but, not everything got written down and I'm just going off of a fuzzy memory of what we did? .... Exactly why I had so many hours of arguing on the importance of writing things down.... But "Nobody does that!"
I want a Trey Xavier extensive course on how to write Ghost songs ... the one he did was so great that i want more 😅
Hey, Glenn!
Love the channel, love the show, love the tests!
Regarding pickups: I've never personally felt like the difference between two different name-brand humbuckers was super noticeable, but I HAVE felt that the difference between a cheap stock "guitar brand" Humbucker (like one in a mid-level Ibanez) and a name brand, was quite different, at least in terms of clarity and note definition.
Now, however, I've begun to question my experience with that, and would love to see you do an experiment testing it out.
Thanks for all that you do! Have a good one, and fuck you very much.
Most people can't tell which guitars were used on Led Zeppelin recorded songs by ear. Players think they are getting the tone using a '59 Gibson plugged into a Marshall which was mostly not the case. Hundreds of thousands of guitarists can't tell the difference between a Telecaster plugged into the sound board and a '59 Gibson plugged into a Marshall using their ears. Pickups are the least of a guitarist's tone chasing problem.
I'm on old tape engineer love your honesty dude seeing the knowledge passed on 👍👍
GLLLLLEEEEEENNNNNNNNN! Can you do a fearless gear review on the two notes opus? Seems like it checks a lot of boxes and it’s super freaking cheap.
That Thrust album is on Apple Music!
Do you think you'll be able to get a lead on the new Harley Benton tube head series? They've got a cool 30w head for about $650 all in after shipping to BC here that I'm considering pulling the trigger on.
You are right, a speaker is much more than Magnets and Wires. Size of the Voice Coil, Suspension, Cone, Dust Cap, the surround, all that affects the Tone and response of a Loudspeaker.
Had my eye on an HB Cab for a while now, fuck you Glenn for making me consider it!!
Any thoughts on the newer HB tube heads?
Man I love seeing In Flames getting the respect they deserve.
End the Transmission is such a good fucking album.
I really wish they wouldn't have abandoned their classic sound though.
First of all thanks for all the content and recommendations. I find your no B.S. approach refreshing and insightful. I teach music at a state university and travel often to perform so I do not have a great deal of time at my disposal to scavenge through gear so your channel is an awesome resource for me.
The Boss gt1000 core would be the purchase I regret, perhaps followed by some of their synth guitar gear. I find that the GT1000 core had a lot of potential taking their flagship processor and keeping it all the same in a smaller package but they did some odd choices in the IR section. If you are using it to go into an amp’s loop you will find that the output selection lists a series of options to cater the device to specific types of amps. These filters sound terrible and color the overall timbre in an unflattering way. It works okay if you keep them at “recording” and then deselect the IR which oddly is under a different menu.
The sad thing of it all is that once you can get it set right (no thanks to customer service or the instruction manual) it is a beast, the sound is awesome and quite responsive to your dynamics. The processing power it is there with no necessity to compromise on how much blocks you use even though I do not not like the idea of a fixed signal path. Do note that is has been almost 3 years since they have done a firmware update.
There is the issue of the fizz almost across everything they make. A 100hz cut and a 4K should almost be a default setting. No one actually wants their guitar sounding like a tin can. Why would they even program patches that sound like that? This is a common issue with many of their products.
I find it also has a lot of noise issues when you plug external pedals through the 2 built in loops. If you put in a drive and use an external volume pedal and and bring set volume down you can still hear another signal source coming through. It is hard to describe but it renders the function useless.
While I can learn to circumvent some of the issues at this price point I should not have to. If a company launches a product to the market it should be ready to perform. I am not part of the R&D team nor I am paid to do it, I am a paying customer.
My other issue with Boss/Roland as a company has to do with not following through, the lack of updates and their atrocious customer support. Take the Katana, it is a great idea but why in the world would you invest the amp with a stereo usb port but a mono line out with no IR loading capabilities? Even in their latest flagship unit they still don’t have an actual Left and Right Stereo Delay! Take their 2x12 combo version, what is the point of this amp if it is not actually stereo? It is not impossible to do, certainly such fit was achieved with the Jazz Chrous line of amps in 1975!!!!
To me it is these oddities that continue to push customers on to other brands. I am not usually gear hopping as my focus is on honing my craft as a player, focusing on the pieces I have to play and not so much in button pushing. While I am tech savvy if I find myself having to improvise solutions for poorly designed equipment I just get rid of it. Close enough, good enough, patches and duck tape solutions are not acceptable, not in a professional environment.
Gear purchase I kind of regret, is the Orange 20w micro terror. It was supposed to be a giggable amp, and while it's loud af, but it's got no bottom end at all and with only one knob for tone control, the tone is unsculptable. It's just what it is, and that's what you get. It's a very loud 20w practice amp. Thankfully it was only a little over $100. It was what I could afford at the time.
15:15 Glenn!! There's a couple copies of that CD up on eBay and it's on CZcams. Edit: I don't see "The Professinal" but they remind me (vaguely) of Meliah Rage.
100% agree with you on speakers and pickups now. I have a few different guitars with different pickups, and the differences are not that noticeable. My new cab with 2 Celestion G12T-75 speakers sounds badass compared to the 4x12 I used to have. Kinda wanna try a Celestion Type A speaker with one of the G12T-75's though.
Great video Glenn! I'm wondering if there's a cab like the Harley Bentons for bass? I've heard of the solidbass cabs but I can't find any concrete reviews or tests so not pulling the trigger on that
Looking forward to the day when we see a top tier guitarist go on tour with a massive stack of Harley Benton cabinets!
if you're on a super tight budget I can see doing the harley benton thing, but personally I'm a big fan of Avatar cabs, USA handmade/pick your speakers at very reasonable prices
I purchased a Schecter Damien-6 V in 2009 for $199.00. The guitar was a 2008 model that had failed to sell. I thought what the hell. Why not? It turned out to be a fantastic cheap guitar, that I play to this day. The guitar has also lived the hard knock life. I gracefully fell on it, and stripped the threads out of one of the screws, on the bolt on neck. But the neck was repaired easily, tuned right up, and still holds tune. It has the falling bat inlay, and the overall feel of the neck is superb, which is what really won me over, other than the price tag.
The passive EMG HZ pickup set, the guitar came with, still sounds great fifteen years later. I prefer passive because no nine volts needed, but passive responds to how you're playing, where actives are just boosted until the battery shits the bed.
The guitar also has great balance. The fact that it has no neck dive was a surprise. Nowadays, I wish I could afford one of Schecter's new V's.
That's my story of an impulse purchase. I wasn't sure I would like playing a V, but it was cheap, so fuck it. No regrets.
I would suspect that the the spider and the surround would have a much larger effect on the sound of a speaker than things like the glue on the leads to the voice coil or the size of the dustcap, as they will affect the way the cone moves significantly.
Glenn, When ELE II comes out can we do a (how to) program drums? Kinda a MIDI course?
Beleive it or not (I think you will beleive), it took me 15 years to finally bought a proper 4x12 cab and stop using whatever shitty combo speaker to plug my amps in. I've never been happier with my sound, no matter the amp, no matter the overdrive I use... I have now around 15 pedals, 2 amps and a couple of pickup kits to sell, that's the price of stupidity I guess.
Thanks for prooving me I was dumb ! We sometimes need it !
On a talent vs. Hard work. Glenn is spot on. Talent is only a starting point. It just shows your brain is wired in a way that makes it easier to latch on to ideas, especially at the start. Could be music. Could be math. Or something else entirely. If you want to get good at that thing, you have to put in the *work* to develop the talent into actual skill and ability. That’s why we keep hearing about “10,000 hours.” A side note, I prefer the word “affinity” to “talent.” Anyone with a basic ability can get good at something if they make the effort. They may not be the “best” (whatever that means) but they’ll be good - even excellent.
yea u have helped many people with mixing and no joke my sound has changed a lot because of you