Making A Song With The Worst Gear I Own

[@Ian-Threaded]

I think my mastering chain caused some clipping in the pedal playthroughs that I didn’t catch. Oops Shout out to Rob Lichauer for printing me that fredman technique microphone clip

[@adamwatson6916]

I think JCM 2000s arw great amps.

[@Ian-Threaded]

@@adamwatson6916 I have to agree

[@Cara-Calico]

Calling a JCM 2000 bad is a stretch considering how many have used them and how easy it is to make them sound good

[@Ian-Threaded]

@@Cara-Calico the JCM 2000 is a great amp

[@jamescourt2842]

I have DSL HR. This is probably one of the best amps I've ever bought. It annoys me when guitarists struggle with their gear; often, it's because they don't know how to set it up which is okay like that. Because not everyone knows everything first off, are you using a graphic EQ with your amp? Make sure to do your research on the speakers you have mounted. We all have access to uncompressed audio samples of different speakers that could be mounted in your cabinet. If you approach it this way, you won’t have any problems.

[@Ian-Threaded]

@@jamescourt2842 you can get a great sound with any amp. The only amp I used in this video was the Peavey RAGE combo with its 6” speaker.

[@rosspeacevalley]

Was going to riot if the Zoom G1X wasn't mentioned

[@Ian-Threaded]

@@rosspeacevalley it’s simply too good. Will make a video on it eventually Everyone listen to Peace Valley - Take Me In - streaming now

[@noodlegts]

That sounded pretty awesome and Deftones-y. Shows that *most* gear is overrated. Clean tone was rough though :)

[@Ian-Threaded]

@@noodlegts thank you brother! Appreciate the kind words. The funny thing is that I thought that the clean tone was pretty good and the distorted tones were rough. I guess it’s a reminder for me that you will never know what one person may like even if you yourself aren’t stoked on it

[@noodlegts]

@Ian-Threaded distortion clips the signal so less of the original tone is leftover. I think it's much easier to get a good high gain tone with cheap gear than it is to get a clean tone that sounds good. But in a mix all tones sound better than on their own.

[@Ian-Threaded]

@@noodlegts Very true. The mix changes everything I think I 100% agree with you on it being easier to get a good high gain tone with cheap gear - Except when using a small (and not great) 6” speaker outside of a full mix. Something about the really small speakers are unpleasant to me. Run that same setup through a 12” speaker by means of extension cab or something and I would probably be very happy with it I always tell people to go cheap with their dirt pedals and spend the money on higher priced/better reverbs and other effects

[@Porridge_bland]

Hey man awesome video you got a good cheap reverb pedal? for shoegazey or deftones typa reverb? awesome video man

[@Ian-Threaded]

@@Porridge_bland hey thank you so much 🙏 Do you have a budget in mind? I could give a couple options maybe each in different price tiers for you to consider. Also are you comfortable with buying used? How about from aliexpress?

[@Porridge_bland]

@ honestly my budget is probably around £50 idm aliexpress either

[@Ian-Threaded]

@@Porridge_bland ok cool so for £50 reverbs are a little harder to find than delays for example but it can be done. The Behringer Reverb from this video is a good choice as I showed. (It is literally just a copy of a Boss RV-5 I believe. Don't quote me on that) I've heard good things about the caline Snake Bite reverb as mention in this video for $45 USD As a stretch goal - if you could find a used/second hand JHS series 3 reverb floating around that would be ideal. I know its a stretch price wise They are $100 USD new in the states but I got one used off marketplace for $50 and its quite good Other options: I love the DemonFX Ravine which I got for around $60 USD on Aliexpress but looking right now it seems to have gone up in price. It is a copy of the keeley caverns and I have a video comparing it to the real thing. This is probably my favorite of this whole list especially since it is both a delay and reverb pedal with independent switches for each effect Dead Beat Void (Used) I got mine USED for around $50 USD and I love it. It is a little bit of a one trick pony but it does that one trick extremely well. The Sonicake Levitate looks attractive at $55.99 USD NEW with reverb and delay (double pedal) and it looks pretty good aesthetically. The Ghast Reverb by DemonFX is lower on my list because it is ripping off the Earthquaker Devices Ghost Echo but it seems to have a lot of noise and not be as true to the original as the Demonfx Ravine is to the Keeley Caverns for example. It does get very long ethereal verbs though A verb I do NOT recommend is the TC Electronics Sky Surfer because I do not think it would fit the style you are looking for but I may be wrong and you can find them cheap. I do NOT reccomend the EX Mini Digital reverb pedal on amazon because it caused a volume drop in my signal when activated. The sonic cake delay reverb mini pedal may be worth looking into but I have no experience with it. I do not recommend the pink YMUZE reverb pedal that has a bar code graphic on it. I don't think it would be the style you are looking for even though it is well liked. It is an old spring reverb type sound I also say to avoid the AZOR brown colored two knob mini spring reverb pedal for the same reason as the YMUZE pink barcode one. It is the old spring reverb type sound. I will try and think of some more pedals. Reverb is truly the trickiest of the common effects to find at a good price. (by common I mean its not a synth or hatsune miku pedal or something way out there) My all time favorite reverb is an Earthquaker Devices Dispatch master which is pretty far outside of the budget and I did look at clones on aliexpress but they are disappointingly priced way high as well relatively speaking.

[@Porridge_bland]

@ I got a plan im gonna save up for a Spark 2 amp basically a budget boss katana has all the effects i really need so yeah

[@Ian-Threaded]

@@Porridge_bland that’s a great idea. I have the spark go (or whichever is the absolute smallest one the size of a Bluetooth speaker) and love that thing. Great piece of gear. Excited for you to get one of the spark models

[@Ben_19M]

thats literally just "searching" by soul blind

[@Ian-Threaded]

@@Ben_19M so true

[@Ian-Threaded]

@@Ben_19M many people are saying

[@damienwingerter8437]

cheap shit all the way dude. captures more a authentic and real look effect

[@Ian-Threaded]

@@damienwingerter8437 I truly love cheap gear. Honestly the only thing really holding this setup back is the speaker on the peavey. Mainly because of its size. Appreciate your comment

[@corbin.schlee21]

Do you think it's better to record w an amp sim or w microphones ima kinda new to recording and I tried recording through an amp sim and it sounds good but not what i want. And if u think microphones what kinda mics should i look for?

[@Ian-Threaded]

@corbin.schlee21 great question. that is a hard one that may not have a one size fits all answer. I think whatever sounds the best to you is the answer. Recording a real amp is much harder than using something like STL tones Amp Hub guitar amp plugin that just sounds good immediately. And it’s also consistent. You can make something and come back a year later and nothing has changed where as every time you move the microphone recording an amp you have a sound that is different from what it was previously. If you are going to try recording with a microphone I recommend getting a single used Shure SM57 and positioning it somewhere between the center cap and the outside of the speaker. Do test recordings and keep moving it until you like the sound. In towards the center of the speaker gives you a brighter sound and away from the center towards the outside gives you a darker sound. There is also the fredman technique which I used here with two Pyle microphones that cost $15 each. Some of my strayline stuff has been 100% real amps, some has been 100% amp sims, and some has been a mixture of both. Whatever sounds good is the answer

[@corbin.schlee21]

@ this is really helpful. I've been using amplitude im just really new to recording so I think I'm not gonna find a good sound until I play around and figure it out w time yk. What DAW do you use? And do you have any videos about like multitracking and shit cause I'm a little lost on it but I haven't had time to do too much research. I've only been playing guitar for a year let alone recording stuff for about 6 months off an on 😭

[@Ian-Threaded]

@ amplitube is going to give you way better results than what I got here (especially with the more distorted sounds cause mine were not very good in this video) you just gotta play around with it. I use pro tools but don’t necessarily reccomend it because of its cost. There is a free version called pro tools intro that lets you have 8 tracks and 4 aux tracks but starts to get kind of limiting. As far as amp sims/plugins I have been using STL Amp Hub recently but even the free stuff by Nembrini Audio like the crunck amp is really good etc. I have also used TH-U slate by Overloud a lot Double tracking (at least in the way I’m talking about it) is when you record a rhythm guitar part and pan it all the way left (so that you would only hear it in your left EarPod) and then record that exact same part of the song again and take that recording and pan it all the way to the right (so that it would just be heard in your right ear pod) This is the important part - You cannot just take one recording and copy and paste it - you have to actually play it and record it two separate times and then pan them in stereo. This gives a huge massive sound. Quad tracking is doing two more takes (so 4 in total) and panning the additional 3rd and 4th takes the same or similarly. Maybe not 100% left and right but maybe 75% or 90% etc etc another key note with double and quad tracking is you have to play very tight and accurately or else the sloppiness works against you in terms of making a song sound BIG

[@corbin.schlee21]

@ why couldn't you copy it over? Or does it just sound like it's in mono or something. Yeah idk I've been messing with amplitude but I can never get anything to sound perfect or atleast what I think is quality I'm unsure. I feel like I need more mixing knowledge and get better at playing too a metronome to really dive deep into recording. How long did it take u to get ur recordings to sound good? Like I said earlier I've only been playing really about a year

[@Ian-Threaded]

@corbin.schlee21 yes that is exactly why you can’t just copy it over. It will sound like mono. By playing it twice the second recording is able to fill in spaces that the first take didn’t fill. It’s very discrete differences but they make it feel bigger. If you just copy and paste the same thing it you aren’t filling any new spaces. I’ve only seriously been trying to record stuff and learn to mix for somewhere around 2 years now. I’ve been playing guitar for around 18 years now though I’m sure your settings sound better than you think or give yourself credit for Learning to play to a metronome is maybe the most important thing you can teach yourself. Playing in time is everything

[@breakingblackmagic7617]

A jcm2000 sucks? Solid state isnt that bad.

[@Ian-Threaded]

@@breakingblackmagic7617 the JCM 2000 is a fantastic all tube guitar amp.