Critical Assessment of a YouTube video: What to/not to do

[Aceman]

This was inspired by our very own LLL's Slaving an Amp vid. I watched the whole thing and while some stuff hit me as "very cool" other stuff hit as "WTF". that, the discussion in the original thread, and some observations about YouTube vid producers in general inspired me to make this. For those of you who want to post stuff - consider it.

Here is the Vid of interest:

Now for the assessment - I'm going to cover three aspects - Technical/Informational, and aesthetic.

Please wait until the next two posts on these go up before you reply.

[Aceman]

Re: Critical Assessment of a YouTube video: What to/not to do

Technical/Info

First – there are various ways to slave – all have pros and cons. This is presented as if it is “the” way to do it. This showed a way to do it for a particular circumstance. And the video at one point contradicts itself (more on that later).

It would have been extremely informative to let listeners know that there are basically two ways to “slave” and amp. The preferred way (for modern use) is to run a preamp-out to a post preamp in. You do this to use one preamp tone and the slave amps power section.

Why? You preserve the tone of the preamp by by-passing the first amps tone stack/controls.

Some uses: Taking a mega-loud head, and running it into a small combo for your apartment or a small club. Taking a tiny amp and running it into a mega amp for a large venue.

Another way is to run out of a first amp and directly into the front of another amp. The issue here is that you impact the tone of the first amp because you hit all of the preamp impact of the second. The bonus is you can do this without effect loops.

A reason this was often done was to cascade Gain stages. Example: Mid gain Marshall into mid gain Marshall = 60’s hot rod Marshall!

This vid only presented an old Marshall into an old little Fender, as if it was the only way, or best way. It needed some contect.

Comments on the Hotplate: States that the tone is messed up going through the Hotplate because the Hotplate impacts the tone. Tone is in the ear of the beholder. The compression added by that Hotplate would be excellent for say early VH or Boston tones. State the impact, not the opinion, or state that you have an opinion. Meanwhile – the Fender ALSO impacts the tone – obviously in a way that the author likes.

Stating that there is a product that is different than the Hotplate was excellent. Many may not know these exist.

The author then states, regarding going into the Fender “Either way it will sound great” Opinion – no it won’t. There are absolutely Amp/Slave combos that will sound crap. And some Fenders will crisp/bright/brittle up an otherwise sweet fat tone. Clean Fender “RE-amps” in the notes - yes it does, setting a Flat eq is important and should have been in other than a callout box.

The delay/verb note for an Old Marshall was really good info. This is a great reason to do this. The Speaker Load issue should have been really emphasized too. That’s critical when dealing with old amps.

Now – WTF were the sound clips. I couldn’t tell jack about what the impact of all of this was. Here is what would have been great to hear:

1. Marshall through a stack as a base tone
2. Marshall through Hotplate at low and high attenuation just to see what OP was talking about
3. An AB of Marshall on it’s own (at sensible level for comparison) and Marshall through the Fender – with EQ set to be as close as possible.
4. Marshall Hot plated vs Marshall Slaved to Fender would have been nice too.

Finally – here is a REAL problem I had. After all of that how to use your Marshall – the Author puts a preamp in the FX chain!!! SO we have: Marshall Head, Preamp, Fender Tone Stack. I do not believe this sounds at all like the original cranked Marshall – not that we heard it.

So yes – this does do a fantastic job of showing you how to
a) Take a non-loop Loud head
b) Put it into the front of a non-loop small combo
c) Add an fx loop

What would have been awesome would have been also showing how to do that into an FX loop to really preserve the sound.

It would have also been really informative to explain how the amp could have a pre-stack out, a post stack out, or a pre speaker out (which would capture output tune glory as well, if you are into that – and that each could be a little different.

A head with an FX loop (or dedicated Slave out) into a Power amp in on another amp, is a very different thing than a Speaker out to a amp input. None of that was covered at all.

But – you did learn one way to do this. But it isn’t the only way, the best way, or informative enough for me to make an informed decision on it.


LLL – not hating on you personally. A lot of people throw up random clips of tiny little slices of information. This is just a very recent example of it. As Bruce said in the earlier thread – you turned the Marshall into a Dark Matter. Pretty much. And a lot of info was left out about how NOT to do that! Like Marshall into a combo with an FX loop and the Suhr box. THAT would have been an awesome show – how the Hotplate cranked the front is different than the Suhr box into the loop!

[Aceman]

Re: Critical Assessment of a YouTube video: What to/not to do

Now for Aesthetics:

#1 The area is a jumbled wire mess. Very distracting and hard to follow. Walking through the room does nothing for informing. Needed to see a clean wire/signal path
#2 Too many boxes all over that were distracting and had nothing to o with vid
#3 No close ups of the settings/connections (but there were travel around the room shots and Nigel)
#4 Pedal rack draw in a cavern and dark
#5 Dog wandering through and barking. Couldn't that have been edited/redone, or dog moved?
#6 Put some shoes on!
#7 Show the face. Lack of image is a distrustful move. Why wouldn't you directly engage audience in eye contact?

Some good things:

1. The call out boxes were nice
2. Sound levels were good and clear
3. Video was pretty smooth
4. Light was alright for indoor shot (did you use other lighting?)
5. Didn't hear guitar strum noise! (I HATE that!!!!)

Again - I got the point of the video. But if I were new to this, I might not have watch. There are not a ton of "How to slave" vids out there. But much like pedal shootouts, most are really really weak. It's like we have made it so easy to do this, that we just put like zero effort into it. People don't write/edit/produce. They just film and post....which is unfortunate for the watchers.

[El Dunco]

Re: Critical Assessment of a YouTube video: What to/not to do

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't it suggested that you should use a poweramp only and he just doesn't have another amp that has one? I do. I also have a decent attenuator, so we'll see if it's that much better than just using an attenuator. Some amps involve the power amp in their sound so I imagine it will be quite different.

[Aceman]

Re: Critical Assessment of a YouTube video: What to/not to do

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't it suggested that you should use a poweramp only and he just doesn't have another amp that has one? I do. I also have a decent attenuator, so we'll see if it's that much better than just using an attenuator. Some amps involve the power amp in their sound so I imagine it will be quite different.

And that's why I mentioned that the three different locations of the Amp out should be mentioned....


Avery similar situation occurs when someone shows an OD Pedal into a clean amp only. You could have OD into clean, OD into slightly overdriven, OD into distorted and get very different results.

The point is when vids on YouTube are presented - the viewer may really have no idea what they are watching. If this were presented as only one way of doing this - a particular way (As opposed to a more "conventional way") It would have been cool.

But it mixed in all kinds of other stuff.

Also - Pedal shootout FAUL in a similar vein. Ignoring the recording medium and the playback - Most pedal shoot outs only show either; The knobs in the same positions, or in the extreme positions.

One thing A/B pedal shootouts don't do is show if one pedal can sound the same as the other. So if one had the tone on 2p and the other at noon, and one had the gain on 1p and the other 2p - they might sound almost exactly the same. But they always sound different at 1, 5, and 10 settings.

[Aceman]

Re: Critical Assessment of a YouTube video: What to/not to do

Another "Do YouTube right" example is the guitar demo, or amp demo. Either way....

They always show whatever amp through an HK Tubemeister or whatever. Show me the guitar through a cheap crate, a midline Marshal, and the Uber amp of choice....

[Mincer]

Re: Critical Assessment of a YouTube video: What to/not to do

I will say one of the things that drives me crazy about demo/playthrough/instructional videos is guitar strum noise. I usually won't listen past the point where I hear that (this video doesn't have that). You will never hear the proper tone of the guitar/amp/pedal/whatever if the amp isn't louder than strumming an unplugged electric guitar.

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Critical Assessment of a YouTube video: What to/not to do

I will say one of the things that drives me crazy about demo/playthrough/instructional videos is guitar strum noise. I usually won't listen past the point where I hear that (this video doesn't have that). You will never hear the proper tone of the guitar/amp/pedal/whatever if the amp isn't louder than strumming an unplugged electric guitar.

Agreed...it’s a complete turn off

[LLL]

Re: Critical Assessment of a YouTube video: What to/not to do

I happened to notice this in a roundabout way (I have some on "mute" here because they have nothing of value to offer).

Here's my "critical assessment" of the critiquer's... "critique":


"Ace" has never tried slaving himself and knows very little about the subject matter.

It's blatantly obvious by his statements that he doesn't understand the concept, because he sounds confused as
to the purpose of slaving (there are many, and you can combine them). Also, he has zero YouTube instructional vids on slaving
...or anything for that matter.

Hence, his "critical assessment" is meaningless.

That would be like myself (who knows nothing about roofing and never hammered in a shingle) offering a critique
of a roofer's YouTube vid showing how to shingle a roof and posting it on a roofing forum; talk about a dumb thing to do. Really?



Furthermore, what Ace is really doing here is =

...trolling about a four year old video (and thread here). Suddenly it's important to start a critique thread about it now? Yeah... really?

Thank you, come again.

Lastly, I'd like to add (speaking to you, mods) that overall on the forum we've had a good quiet run here for some time now (save a couple poop stirring posts by the usual); don't think posting this troll piece was a very bright move on the OP's behalf.

I vote a lock.

[El Dunco]

Re: Critical Assessment of a YouTube video: What to/not to do

I sure feel bad for bumping the d@mn thread in the first place! I just wanted to know some things. I should have pm'd. Can we all just relax and get along? I hate when the fighting starts. It just goes on forever.