I'm one of two guitarists in a band and we do this thing we call "take turns". I'll play in the hole so his tone shines through then he plays in the hole so my sound comes through. I play a strat, he plays a gibson. And it just so happens he's better at lead and I'm better at rhythm so we take advantage of that. It's almost like we're adults.
It's nice to hear from someone who does this RIGHT. You guys know what you are doing and WHY you are doing it. Nothing to add from me other than GOOD JOB!
Dr Scott, hope your recovery is going outstandingly! I slowed down my playing career to become a family nurse practitioner, and as I finish that, I'm playing out more, yeah. I also enjoy you lessons, regardless of the topic. I recently rearranged my cabinets based on your discussion of what ohms to drive a multi speaker cabinet, how cabinets are wired serial/parallel, and what sound goes with what application of wattage to what speakers. Now I can concentrate on finding my own sonic area of the spectrum to hang out in during my gigs. Also, tuning my guitars based on your explanation of the force and volatility and grips, of strings, I know my intonation and overall tuning/sound is much better now knowing the tips you've given. The results of Surgical orchiectomy and androgen deprivation therapy have proven to be effect, when Dx'd early. Lately I have been juicing a great deal of vegetables, pineapples, apples, oranges, broccoli, kale, carrots, grapes, etc... we find that a largely PLANT based diet decreases the very taxing energy of digestion of a meats based diet... But my soap box aside now to just say how much I enjoy your lessons, I'm gonna be watching for more, and I may even ask some questions in the future, The Stratosphere is a very interesting place... Best wishes! Midiman
People make these "amazing" tones BECAUSE they are alone in their bedroom. Yes, I admit that it took me 14 years to realize this but you are ABSOLUTELY right Scott! WAY too many guitar players are trying to do it all and they end up conflicting with the bass frequencies with their thick ass cabinets and their drop A tuning because they never think about COOPERATING with a bass player. Even worse with another guitar player who thinks the same way. Glad you made this video.
I always dial in a lot of high mids so my bass player can have all the lows he wants and it sounds great. Except for when bass player decides to turn up his high mids then everything turns to mud...
Even though you didn't touch on this directly, I always figured mid switches on active guitar electronics, effect boxes, amps, etc. were for player preferences, but now it makes perfect sense that they'd exist to help multiple guitarists share that mid-range real estate.
tockusa There is still a lot of room for experimentation. And I certainly agree that most music, especially the popular music is a snooze-fest. But it certainly is true about EQing, if you put vocals, bass, guitar, etc together and want the perfect tone for each one, it isn't going to work. There is only so much room to squeeze all those frequencies into before one takes over and drowns the other one out. If you want a nice mix, you have to sacrifice a bit. That's not really my opinion, it's just a matter of physics.
This is pretty good advice. I play bass...my guitar player is always telling me to crank my low-end when we're live because I prefer a more mid-range bass tone. He's right that I should do that, but I'm going to tell him to boost his mids and highs from now on...see how he likes it when I mess with his tone... :-P
lol such a true and honest vid! You basically explained why Zakk Wylde needs towers of power amps behind him at live gigs lol. (it really sounds awesome live but is basically impossible to recreate outside of your bedroom) That said I have a KILLER wylde tone dialed in on my Digitech RP500 that I'll never be able to use in the wild but by god at 3am I AM ZAKK WYLDE by god lol
I found this video very interesting because I am a bedroom player and have a huge respect for the one's that go out and play live. When I was a teenager a friend and I would set up in different bedrooms and record to a Reel to Reel and he knew more about recording than I did and I agree that it's an art form when it comes to sound engineer I'm recording things on my computer now using these software programs and I haven't a clue what I'm doing lol. I also have a friend BJ Byrne who played and toured in the 90's in the band Tammer Laine and put out a CD called Let's Get It On I went a few times back then before the shows just to watch sound check
Good stuff, as usual Doctor! This is something I've always struggled with. Maybe that's why I played in 3 piece bands so much over the years. I shared this w/ the current 5 / 6 piece. Band. Gold!! Pure gold!!
Thanks for sharing this valuable information. It seems some people are on an endless journey chasing tone and I can see how that can be pointless when trying to fit into the mix in a band.
Thank you! I'd be in a room with white rubber walls and a fancy jacket that had sleeves that tied in the back if NOBODY ever watched these things. lol I appreciate you tuning in. It's very GROOVY of you.
Groovy Music Lessons Hahahaha you are awesome i remember find you like 3 months ago when my band where i play bass since 4 years ago, was going to have the first gig with new Drummer and 2guitar, we kicked the old singer and now the 1guitar its lead voice also, since there i learned a lot of things of you Dr. Not only for my bass but in general, the REAL knowledge that any musician need to have but they are too busy with fancy stuff , Thanks a lot for your lessons and comments helped me a lot, keep it up Dr. Groovy ! Blessings
all of the gnr records are done this way, one guitar is dialed back on the left channel, and the right channel is fully cranked. they combine to sound awesome.
Just watched an interview with Steve Morse about his live rig. He mentioned that what sounds good at home at practice might not sound good on stage. He also talked about the importance of midrange control, using that to cut through without an increase in volume during a solo.
He is quite correct. I'm still blocking the moronic scooped mid metal heads who refuse to believe that it isn't all about THEIR tone and that everybody else in the band should EQ around them . lol
At least Vai got that bit right - likening it to painting a landscape. Funny you gave us a tree cartoon. He put it as if there were two trees, one in front of the other. You have to make one bigger or move it to the side. I figure trees only get so big and the one in front is going to win.
TEACHER TEACHER I just watched the Outlaws 1978 concert from NJ, Ok now the sound guys has to smash in two Drummers, Bass, and two Les Pauls and one Strat how the hell did these guys sound so great? I noticed Hughie and Billy really playing the same or close to the same in perfect sync!
I like recordings where I can hear the bass and guitar as distinct equals. Black Sabbath's Wicked World is the best example I can think of at the moment...bass comes out the left speaker, guitar out the right. Most modern metal songs sound like MUSH in comparison.
So sensible and true. As a bass player, I try to stay in the bottom octave and a half for just this reason - to stay out of the way of the other instruments.
It's great that you are so conscious of all this already. It just proves that you are aware of EVERYTHING that is going on around you and that you constantly know where YOUR place is and hopefully everyone else does as well. It makes for such an easy going band situation if everybody just takes the time to fully digest this and then use it in their subconscious more than anything after a bit of trial and error. It's a night and day difference that MOST musicians just can't grasp yet. Always happy to hear from someone who simply KNOWS, that someone that just agrees. lol Cheers.
Hi. I've been watching your videos for a couple of years now. I like your common sense approach to guitars and playing. What's funny about this video is it's a sound guy's nightmare. A lot of musicians are totally oblivious to the phenomenon. I wonder how much more of a headache this becomes for the engineer when you throw in a horn section?
Hi Scott Thanks for all the invaluable info you impart. You are dead on the money right with your advice. I just wish more people would really listen to what you have to say rather than nit pick how you say it. Personally I like your non nonsense approach so keep up the great work and rock on brother G.
Great video! A lot of people really don't have a clue about the importance of mixing and frequencies and seem to develop a type of "tunnel hearing" toward their personal instrument, instead of thinking about the band's sound as a whole. Do you do music production Scott?
A true fact. Too much distortion will blur the true tone of anything. Good, clean sounds will define character. Many different frequencies carefully added to a palette of ANYTHING will bring an interesting and harmonious balance with zero conflict. You may not realize that some frequencies really needed to be added to fill those gaps, you'll find it interesting what those frequencies are and exactly WHAT produces them. It will give you an interesting perspective on something that you've always ignored that you actually NEED.
I didn't learn this until I started mixing my own music and listening to my sm57 headphone mix. By the time your guitar is sucked thru a mic or a pa, the whole thing sounds nothing like the amp in the room. The bass is gone and all you are left with are mids and noise frequencies. When scooped metal works, it's because the instruments still complement each other and there is a graphic eq used to be selective about cuts. one guitar cuts 750hz, the other boosts it, and the bass keeps doing its thing because it owns 50-200hz.
Great pimping guitar Scott. Many thanks for allowing us mere mortals to see and hear this fancy beast. I'll have to go and lie down now, to recover, catch you later mate.
People just getting into guitar to play metal, especially dimebag fans tend to get trapped in this. I actually liked the studio tone you used a lot more, that's the kind of tone I look for. I know it's subjective but a lot of people gush for Slash's tone and I've heard people say that when they heard it in sound check before a show it was so bright it was almost shrill and intolerable, but when the band played ensemble it was perfect and cut through the mix just right. Too many people learning to play as a one man band where they not only 'want' to fill the full range of sounds but are compelled to in order to sound bigger without any accompanying instruments. I started off as a metal head and didn't realize I always preferred a brighter tone, and couldn't figure out why I never got a tone I liked out of the EMG equipped guitars I was playing. I'm looking at swapping the EMGs out of my schecter for some PAFs now.
Scott you made my day 3 Dr groovy videos in one morning yes. Got two questions first who makes a good bass for cheap? And is there a roller bridge that doesn't require any modifications for Gibson? Hope you are doing well and getting over your surgery.
Very true. You can usually part them out and get DOUBLE the cash for the body alone. They make a lot of them out of great looking Ash. The clear, natural bodies are just stunning.
Thanks. Yeah, I currently have 4 different Pop Top models. I'm missing 2 of them. The all Korina one and the one that looks just like the one I'm playing but it has an "F" hone in it. Both of which are USA Custom Shop Models. I have one that is not listed anywhere and have yet to find another one like it. It is groovy with an orange/red flame job on the front, fades a bit on the sides...adding blue hues in and is totally blue flames on the back. It really should've been the other way around. The blue flames are AMAZINGLY beautiful. I think that the poptop guitars are easily one of the coolest shaped "V" style guitars to come out.
great info, as a bedroom player i found this out when mixing my "amazing" tones for my projects. whats your thoughts on amp sim plugins for computers? i know you like the johnson amps with all the digital modeling in them and was wondering what your thoughts were because you know your shit and arent afraid to have an opinion.
EVERY beginning guitar player should watch this right after they buy their first guitar and amplifier. Before they go buy a bunch of effects. Priceless information!
Many thanks. It's so funny how many SELF-DUBBED experts on here think that this is petty information and not even worth their time since they came out of the womb knowing it. lol I really appreciate that you see its worth to those who simply have never played outside of their home or music store before. EVERYTHING has to be new to SOMEBODY at SOMETIME. lol Thanks again.
Great video, Dr. Groovy. What about for pedal steel guitar? Since pedal steel is normally played super clean, would this also compete with a Telecaster lead guitar? But then again probably not, since they come in at different times throughout a song.
You are dead on correct all the way to the end of your post. Dedicating who plays when is the key to that whole thing for sure. It sure can be a beautiful thing if everybody is pro about it all and lays out when they NEED to. Just the right amount of instrumentation to let the song breathe and have a different instrument doing the rides or fills on each verse or chorus.....or splitting up those parts half and half in the same verse etc. I've always liked the older kind of country stuff where the first verse didn't have anything doing any padding or playing of any kind other than just the drums, bass and acoustic, then start adding the salt and pepper at the 2nd verse. Just a good way to cook a good song. lol
Yep, as long as you understand frequencies and that the SAME frequencies used in a mix will result in one instrument cancelling another out withing that particular frequency....so, you simply need to alter that a bit. People who record at home.....as long as they understand that, then they will make way better sounding recordings from the beginning instead of messing up the mix for years, being frustrated KNOWING that each instrument sounds AMAZING when you solo it in the headphones, but...when you start putting the amazing sounding instruments together, it gets ugly fast. You simply have to be willing to sound ugly so that the final product sounds great. If there is a part in the song where it is just one instrument for a moment.....you can flip flop back to that great sounding EQ that was originally recorded, then it will simply go back to what it MUST be for the benefit of the final product.
First time I played in a band setting, all the cymbals blew me right out of the mix. I had to fake it for a while until I started to figure things out. My first lesson was not use all of the gain.
I hear you my friend. The whole tone world changes with the addition of each instrument. You are so very correct about too much gain......it simply is a way of ALLOWING the band to drown you out. If anybody is reading this......the more gain you pump into your sound during a gig, the LOWER your volume out front will be. It's just the way things work.
Scott, goofy question, but I have to know: What are the two units sitting on the keyboard behind you? (4 silver dials on the bottom half, with a cool looking, round black meter on the top).
Ahhhhhh, thanks for asking. Those are a couple of OLD Conn Strobe Tuners. They were one of the 2 best tuners available (Peterson being the other) that you can see sitting on top of SOOO many amps in all of the late 60's through early 80's stages. They were a MUST. You will still find them in many school band rooms since they are amazingly dead on. The best thing to set your intonation with as well. Just a hard to beat unit after all this time.
Very cool. And thanks for the reply! Now I know what those guys on the T.V. show "American Pickers" feel like when they stumble on to an interesting item. I can hear the guys saying "Hey...WHAT is THIS?" Now I have to go to E-Bay to see if I can find one. Stay Groovy Scott!
Thanks David. Always a fun show to watch. I just wish Mike REALLY knew what he was talking about when it comes to cars from the 30's. lol He screws it all up big time......but hey.....his show and his reputation to mess with. lol You stay groovy as well my friend.
Great subject man, not something you hear every day! I like some of Zeppelins sounds just hanging mics from stairways for drums, using very small amps (for recording) Jimmy Page had that nailed! I think he had a lot to do with the engineering... Thanks bud, Mike
There were no mics in stairways, yes they only used two overheads for that song, but the producer said he used a binson echorrette (that Jimmy had picked up) for the drums
It comes down to this, the ONLY PERSON who will hear YOUR AMP is YOU. The people in your band will hear an engineer's version of it in their in ear monitors or old school wedges. The audience will hear the other engineer's version of what will actually work in a mix. It won't sound like what you are hearing though. Your amp is there to inspire you to play well with its tone. If you are wearing the in ear monitors as well....then you won't be hearing your amp either. Most folks are just tossing an iso cab back stage or something, using the in ears and calling it good. It's just the way things are done now.
I've noticed I can almost never hear an acoustic guitar being strummed and even often the rhythm electric guitar cutting through the bass, and drums, vocals in many songs. Is it because it's too weak, or utilizing too many frequencies (all the strings)?
That is one of the many reasons that I dig the OLD, CLASSIC country stuff. You could pretty much always count on the entire first verse being MAINLY acoustic guitar, light bass, light kick drum and a snare rim or wood block and the lead vocal. No other instruments at all. They almost always just add the snare in place of the "click" in the chorus and possibly a ride in place of the hi-hat. The 2nd verse and any other versus or bridge will have like an electric guitar do fills on half a verse....then it is GONE, then a piano for the last half of the verse. Bridge might have Pedal Steel for the first half of it....then GONE, then a fiddle for the 2nd half, then.....gone. The songs always had TONS of breathing room and everybody stayed out of everybody's way, but everybody got their part in each tune. No such thing as chugging away for every member all the time. It is too chaotic and quickly becomes hard to pick out what is what.
Yes, I prefer the old stuff as well. Hank Snow, Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers. I found it interesting to learn that in the old days the guitar was meant to imitate the 3 speeds of a horse. Trot, Gallop, Run. And when they started using drums many were opposed. That was pretty interesting.
I've been playing with Reason(music making tool) and I found that I could squeeze more similar frequencies into the mix if I panned everything away from eachother. Would that work in a live situation?
I'll address live panning. Stereo mains for a LIVE BAND are USUALLY never needed (DJ....whole different situation). The NEED for stereo sound for a band would be because one speaker cluster is in a totally different "situation" than the other side.....meaning that one side is nice and free of obstacles and the other side is against a wall and goofy crap hanging around to change EVERYTHING about how that side would need to be EQ'd. So, it would simply need a different EQ curve on the left and right, but no need for panning. The ONLY TIME you might consider a stereo sound system is if 90% of your audience is pretty much in the center of the sound field. You would not want to pan ANYTHING all the way to one side or the other, especially to just try to solve EQ fights involving same frequencies on different instruments. It is only cool for drum toms and occasional SPECIAL effects that might happen once or twice during an ENTIRE show.
If I could bother someone to answer this, I know fuck all about guitars, however I have 7 of them. haha. Anyhow, I love the guitar in this vid . What is it? Corvus?
funny how people don't realize you have to have mids in your tone haha even Meshuggah who use 8 strings have mids in their tone so you can hear that 8th string.
No surprise this is one of your least watched videos. They don't want to hear it. As you know, I have been in the studio many, MANY, times. And there is still so many people who REFUSE to believe me, when I tell them about things like re-amping your sound. And it is telling because, some of these people were people I respected as musicians at one point. You only know what you know. A LOT of people proved to me they DON'T KNOW, AND, they are completely full of shit as to what goes on in their own lives. Anyway, I am enjoying looking back on some these old videos
around ...oo" , MID october ...i start to realize how MIDdle of the road i was being. I iMIDeatly Modiified and midified my bad tone . Well...i was floored , MID sentence my jaw smashed on the floor . My tone was hot again ! I brought the mids back !! It got huMID ! Now what to do about my MId life crisis ...?? better calm down and pour a MIDori ..oh shit ..this pun shit is crap - but lovin the vid scott -couldnt agree more .
sample drums are meh i make my drummer put the effort in to do it right so i dont have to fuck with it just record in the big treated room throw on the thing that makes cymbal bleed go away and the usual eq and it works great
Man..... I had to learn this the hard way. I set up my sounds way too high, especially distortion at home. In the studio.....eheheh.....well lets just say its just full of crappy sounds, but SO LOUD (I think its because of the distortion pedal, lol) to the point that my ears almost bleed......XD
Love your vids Scott but don't sit (or i guess stand) here and try to tell me that Drum samples sound better than a well rehearsed drummer. If engineers want to change the drum sound they can tune the drums, not tune my drummer.
I will sit or stand and say whatever I want. These are my personal thoughts on the drums. Your results may vary and that is fine and dandy. But, to come here and vent or disagree is not wise, not the place to do it. You go do YOUR thing and be thrilled with it. I personally don't care to hear about it. If I did, I would hunt for a video by you.
+Groovy Music Lessons You're right, I apologize. I just feel strongly about this subject because I don't want music to turn into pointlessly perfect and boring garbage. Don't get me wrong, I agree that engineers should try to make the performance sound better as much as they possibly can but changing the performance should not be part of that in my opinion.
I hear you. I think that the line is drawn (for the most part) between what music makes it to the airwaves and what music that other musicians will most likely be buying. Jazz or very HUMAN oriented music will always be left alone because it is something that the musicians and listeners hold sacred. You can't blow your nut to the music if the entire feel and intended tones aren't EXACTLY as the artists and performers intended them to be. All forms of mainstream music, in all remaining genres will get put through "THE PROCESS" in order to make sure that it is conforming to what is now the standard that the people who actually BUY music (kids) like to hear or feel coming from the rattling trunks of their cars. I know that you are aware of the differences here, just letting you know that I do as well and that the MARKETING will always win with the popular music and that KIDS are who spend the VAST majority of cash on music purchases......so, THEY get what tickles their tingly parts. lol Cheers.
