Discovering Your Sound
SeeJay
May 21 2014, 05:02 AM
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The summer after I graduated high school was a magical one. It was a season of discovery (and a little debauchery). I was given a bit of graduation cash with permission to have fun with it, I had my own car (though it was usually found sitting on the side of the road) and besides a part time job, my responsibilities were minimal.

A recipe for good times for sure.

There were handful of record shops my best friend and I frequently visited. We bought every album we could find. I remember holding up my copy of Sgt. Peppers and thinking, "what the hell is this". There was the fight we had when I grabbed a copy of Physical Graffiti that my buddy claimed he saw first.

But along with the new music purchases, came the desire for new musical toys. I had been playing guitar for about 3 years at that point, jamming on a charcoal strat knockoff and a no name solid state amp that would squeal if I put it past 5. When I learned about Zeppelin, I bought a cheap marshall and an epi LP. Found a Hendrix album, bought a wah. Got into some 90s indie rock, bought a fender amp and a boss delay pedal.

I'm sure every teenage rocker goes through this, but for me it was more than just emulation or hero worship. It was the discovery of what really tickles my ears. It was figuring out what my particular voice was through trying new gear and learning new riffs.

But I wonder, does this same process happen now? There's so much information available, you can make an opinion before you really have an experience. Any record you want is pretty easily accessible. If there's a riff you want to learn, there's probably a video of someone showing you how to play it. You want to hear a marshall amp, you can click on a preset.

Are people still discovering themselves in the same way that I did? Is it better now? Is it worse? Does it matter?

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Ben Higgins
May 21 2014, 07:08 PM
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Very interesting question. I think it still happens that way, despite the wealth of demo videos available on Youtube. If someone is absolutely determined to try a new piece of gear then they will.

In many cases in life I think we make a decision in our heads that we're going to do something, even if we haven't outwardly acknowledged it. So, we allow ourselves to be seduced by the idea of owning a piece of gear, even if we're still putting off buying it. I know that I had made a subconscious decision that I wanted to get a JVM before I really allowed myself to admit it. I still wet and got an ENGL instead. Then I sent it back and bought the JVM ! rolleyes.gif

I've digressed a little bit. But yes I do think that people still change gear around in hope of finding the sound. All around me I see constant states of gear acquisition syndrome ! In some cases, people just love buying gear and view it as collecting. In many cases, people don't quite put in the legwork with their practice / experimentation time and therefore are constantly looking for the next thing.


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SeeJay
May 22 2014, 03:53 PM
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Yea, it's really trying new things that helps you discover what you're all about as a player.

Another thing I do is working on keeping myself excited. It's easy to become some old jaded person. If I look back at that amazing period and I see all the excitement, I realized I want to keep that excitement in everything I do.

If a new album is coming out by an artist I really like, I get myself pumped about it. I will hold off from reading too much about it or listening to something that might be leaked.

When I go to play guitar, I like to look at my guitar and feel excited to turn up and play.

I think thats key.


QUOTE (Ben Higgins @ May 21 2014, 06:08 PM) *
Very interesting question. I think it still happens that way, despite the wealth of demo videos available on Youtube. If someone is absolutely determined to try a new piece of gear then they will.

In many cases in life I think we make a decision in our heads that we're going to do something, even if we haven't outwardly acknowledged it. So, we allow ourselves to be seduced by the idea of owning a piece of gear, even if we're still putting off buying it. I know that I had made a subconscious decision that I wanted to get a JVM before I really allowed myself to admit it. I still wet and got an ENGL instead. Then I sent it back and bought the JVM ! rolleyes.gif

I've digressed a little bit. But yes I do think that people still change gear around in hope of finding the sound. All around me I see constant states of gear acquisition syndrome ! In some cases, people just love buying gear and view it as collecting. In many cases, people don't quite put in the legwork with their practice / experimentation time and therefore are constantly looking for the next thing.

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SpaseMoonkey
May 22 2014, 05:06 PM
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Ahh the good days of growing up. I agree with Ben. I bought pedals and stuff just because others used it, then would see a video and next thing I know I'm heading to the store to buy it. I've wasted a ton of cash on gear for nothing. Guitars, amps, speakers, and so on. Bands help push products also just because you'd like to emulate their sound just as SeeJay has shown buy buying things as well.

Ben you could have sent me the ENGL I've always wanted one! Right now I love to have an EVH 5153. But I know better than to buy it. Youtube has helped on that so much. The famous Ola Englund, has shown me that most high gain amps all sound the same in a mix if you really wanted to achieve a certain sound. That has really helped my lack of spending, plus for a bedroom player such as myself it's not really worth it. Unless I can use headphones and a DI for recording.

I spend more time trying to find better guitars rather than sound. I almost can't list them all anymore, I figure one day I will just end up owning 2 of the same guitar.

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Mertay
May 22 2014, 05:19 PM
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For todays teens, absolutely no smile.gif

You, me and our era (pre-ultra fast and huge internet era) was limited in many ways that led us to give a listen to pretty much anything.

Today such accessibility actually rests (the brain) from discovery, the moment one genre/artist is liked teens just stick to it until they get bored. After they get bored they're advised similar stuff and follow a very limited pattern.

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Ben Higgins
May 22 2014, 06:52 PM
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QUOTE (SpaseMoonkey @ May 22 2014, 05:06 PM) *
Ben you could have sent me the ENGL I've always wanted one!


laugh.gif

This was before I was even at GMC smile.gif

It was great for rhythm work but overall it was just too dry... not enough juiciness for smooth sounding leads. It would suit a player that used more picking and staccato techniques like Paul Gilbert or Darius. But for us legato players we'd need to boost it with another pedal which defeats the whole point of a high gain amp in my opinion. After all the raving people had done about it I was left very disappointed. dry.gif

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klasaine
May 22 2014, 10:14 PM
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QUOTE (Mertay @ May 22 2014, 09:19 AM) *
For todays teens, absolutely no smile.gif

You, me and our era (pre-ultra fast and huge internet era) was limited in many ways that led us to give a listen to pretty much anything.

Today such accessibility actually rests (the brain) from discovery, the moment one genre/artist is liked teens just stick to it until they get bored. After they get bored they're advised similar stuff and follow a very limited pattern.


The kids that get into playing music still 'discover' stuff.

This also underscores the importance of a good live teacher (either in person or on-line). A living, breathing musician can push you in a direction, alert you to cool stuff that you may or may not find on your own, etc. The true meaning of Sensei. The kids that are into it and serious will take some of the advice and also learn how to discover. There are certainly more materials available (and more quickly) to people but in order to really take advantage of them you still have to know how to use basic research techniques. It's the ability to properly and effectively research things that I feel is in danger of being lost.

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SeeJay
May 23 2014, 03:43 AM
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Love all of this!!!
First off, are you familiar with the 5153? cause you should comment on my 5150 thread I started. I would love to hear about it.

Second, I'm not familiar with Ola Englund, but I'm glad you took something positive from it. It's easy to just be marketed towards with youtube.

Good for you!

QUOTE (SpaseMoonkey @ May 22 2014, 04:06 PM) *
Ahh the good days of growing up. I agree with Ben. I bought pedals and stuff just because others used it, then would see a video and next thing I know I'm heading to the store to buy it. I've wasted a ton of cash on gear for nothing. Guitars, amps, speakers, and so on. Bands help push products also just because you'd like to emulate their sound just as SeeJay has shown buy buying things as well.

Ben you could have sent me the ENGL I've always wanted one! Right now I love to have an EVH 5153. But I know better than to buy it. Youtube has helped on that so much. The famous Ola Englund, has shown me that most high gain amps all sound the same in a mix if you really wanted to achieve a certain sound. That has really helped my lack of spending, plus for a bedroom player such as myself it's not really worth it. Unless I can use headphones and a DI for recording.

I spend more time trying to find better guitars rather than sound. I almost can't list them all anymore, I figure one day I will just end up owning 2 of the same guitar.



QUOTE (klasaine @ May 22 2014, 09:14 PM) *
The kids that get into playing music still 'discover' stuff.

This also underscores the importance of a good live teacher (either in person or on-line). A living, breathing musician can push you in a direction, alert you to cool stuff that you may or may not find on your own, etc. The true meaning of Sensei. The kids that are into it and serious will take some of the advice and also learn how to discover. There are certainly more materials available (and more quickly) to people but in order to really take advantage of them you still have to know how to use basic research techniques. It's the ability to properly and effectively research things that I feel is in danger of being lost.


I still feel like I have that sense of 'discovery'. Don't want to lose it. But do you think youtube has taken the place of a teacher?

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klasaine
May 23 2014, 05:57 AM
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QUOTE (SeeJay @ May 22 2014, 07:43 PM) *
But do you think youtube has taken the place of a teacher?


They may think it has ... but it hasn't.

*When I say on-line teacher I mean a real, face to face via video screen, live lesson where you can give and get instant feedback. It's in a real lesson where the student may play some random lick and the teacher says, "hey, the the intro to a Booker T. and the MGs song". And the student goes, "who's that". And the the teacher plays the kid a song. And the kid goes, "hey, that's fckn cool!, can we learn that?" ... off and running. Unless you're a VERY savvy and experienced searcher chances are you ain't gonna actually 'discover' a lot until you learn how to do it.

Again, most folks just orbit their own little musical solar system when they cruise the 'tube.

I search the same way on youtube as I do looking for records.
Who produced the song?
What country or city was it recorded in?
Who's the bass player?
What year was that?
What label (if there is one)?

And then you go from there. You know, you have to do a 'little' work but it's totally worth it IMO.

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Darius Wave
May 23 2014, 08:30 AM
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Unfortunately I cannot add myself to the list tongue.gif I was always emotionally connected to every piece of gear I had. When I bought something, I had it for quite some time to explore even some settings I would never consider could ever work. Like doing a distortion in old ME-5 multieffect usuing compressor and EQ section without distortion module involved smile.gif Currently I have a rig I'm satisfied with and latest mod I did was adding HBE detox as a virtual clean channel of my non-clean RH30. I do not like often changes tongue.gif I like to get used to the gear I have smile.gif

Note:
Even though I do a lot of demos it's mostly borrowed gear, gear from the ship I work at or gear from the companies I collaborate with but...My main rig doesn't change that much. In fact...I I would base on YT demos and my first impression I would never had my current amp anymore. I couldn't find any single sample in the wab that could convince me BUT...I purchased it...just like that, took it to many rehearsals, gigs with different playing style etc....And I found a lot of good things that I would miss to catch if I would just try it for a week or two smile.gif

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klasaine
May 23 2014, 04:19 PM
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QUOTE (Darius Wave @ May 23 2014, 12:30 AM) *
In fact...If I would base on YT demos and my first impression I would never had my current amp anymore. I couldn't find any single sample in the wab that could convince me BUT...I purchased it...just like that, took it to many rehearsals, gigs with different playing style etc....And I found a lot of good things that I would miss to catch if I would just try it for a week or two smile.gif


Good point!
I would bet that 90% of the players, good and bad, that demo an amp (or pedal) on YT - even if they're using the same guitar - don't use the same pick or strings that you do and have a different attack technique in their picking hand/wrist/arm.
A gear demo will interest me and that's about it.

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SeeJay
May 23 2014, 11:44 PM
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QUOTE (klasaine @ May 23 2014, 03:19 PM) *
Good point!
I would bet that 90% of the players, good and bad, that demo an amp (or pedal) on YT - even if they're using the same guitar - don't use the same pick or strings that you do and have a different attack technique in their picking hand/wrist/arm.
A gear demo will interest me and that's about it.



Couldn't agree more. That why I hate super long demos or comments from people asking about the details of the recording chain. Is a different mic really going to change your opinion of a pedal video demo? You're still going to sound different when you plug into it.

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klasaine
May 24 2014, 03:55 AM
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Personally I prefer just a less expensive condenser in the room (not on the amp).
Which is more like what I would actually hear if I were there ... or there and playing the gear.

*I know that from a product manufacturers standpoint a really 'album' quality demo of a distortion pedal or an amp is what's gonna 'sell' the product to the general public.

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Ben Higgins
May 24 2014, 09:01 AM
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QUOTE (SeeJay @ May 23 2014, 11:44 PM) *
Couldn't agree more. That why I hate super long demos or comments from people asking about the details of the recording chain. Is a different mic really going to change your opinion of a pedal video demo? You're still going to sound different when you plug into it.


Haha, yeah my reaction to most gear questions is "Who cares ?" laugh.gif

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SeeJay
May 25 2014, 03:56 AM
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QUOTE (Ben Higgins @ May 24 2014, 08:01 AM) *
Haha, yeah my reaction to most gear questions is "Who cares ?" laugh.gif


My man! kindred spirits!

If someone really have the audacity to comment on a youtube video "I wish you had used a XXX mic", I want to respond "shutup and work on your hands"

Wait. . .that sounds weird. . .

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