Why Do People Say Pedals/Effects Cover Up Mistakes?

[Agileguy_101]

If I make a mistake when I'm playing with chorus, delay, reverb, tremolo, phaser, flanger, or really any effect except ring modulation, it still sounds like a mistake. In fact, some effects actually make mistakes more prominent.

I just don't get the concept. It must be one of those things that people came up with in rebellion against (or jealousy of) huge pedalboards.

[Petrovsk Mizinski]

Re: Why Do People Say Pedals/Effects Cover Up Mistakes?

I agree.

The guitar is a generally a very unforgiving instrument to bad technique.

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Why Do People Say Pedals/Effects Cover Up Mistakes?

It's like saying too much gain covers up mistakes..

[Simon_F]

Re: Why Do People Say Pedals/Effects Cover Up Mistakes?

I think it originates from the early days of rock when people first played loud and used distortion (amp or fuzz). It was a way for the old folks to disparage the new music by claiming that the amplification and distortion covered up a lack of technical ability. It then just became a cliché to say it.

I can remember people of my grandparents generation talking about the singers they liked when they were young and saying they didn't need microphones because they were proper singers (i.e. not like these feckless young hooligans).

[MrTondo]

Re: Why Do People Say Pedals/Effects Cover Up Mistakes?

Well, of course it is not true perse, however...

The more definition your sound has, the better you will hear the mistakes. When you have less definition the mistakes get covered more and more. Why? Because the definition of your sound gets covered more and more. I know not a single guitar player who does not want his/her sound to be heard so they stay away from undefined sounds. That is unless it is their aim to sound undefined. You can purposefully use a totally fuzzed out, polyphonic arpeggiated, reverb whashed tone (or use the ring modulator that agileguy_101 mentioned) to create the sound you are after, even when the notes you are playing would make no sense when the effects would have been off (which most of the time they still might anyways).

In more technical terms you could say that effects that create harmonic content that is not coherent with the guitar signal will to the degree this non-coherent harmonic content dominates cover up mistakes. However few devices with a high degree of non-coherent harmonic contect exist (extreme fuzzes and oscilator/ring modulator type pedals may qualify though).

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: Why Do People Say Pedals/Effects Cover Up Mistakes?

As with any generality, the statement is ten pounds of BS wrapped around a grain of truth.

I think distortion/fuzz can cover up mistakes, because it compresses everything and can make up for uneven picking technique. Try playing your axe for awhile with a heavy distortion, then switch to a clean, unaffected tone, and you will see what I mean. It is harder to be sloppy and still sound good with a clean tone.

But play one sour note into an echo and it will become a whole string of sour notes... sour notes... sour notes...

[Aceman]

Re: Why Do People Say Pedals/Effects Cover Up Mistakes?

Yeah - other than mega gain covering up mildly sloppy playing vs clean. No.

I will say that sometimes the mistake IS the pedal or use of chorus/flange/distortion, too much distortion....

[GuitarStv]

Re: Why Do People Say Pedals/Effects Cover Up Mistakes?

Gain and compression can actually reveal mistakes . . . finger noise, unmuted strings, stuff like that blasts out at you where playing clean it's much easier to hide. You have to rely on dyads most of the time rather than full chords, which makes you think about your chord choices differently.

Playing an instrument is all about making it do the things you have in your head. There's a different technique that needs to be used with high gain stuff than with low gain stuff, there's a different technique to playing with effects than clean. That's kinda why I like effects . . . using a different pedal can demand a completely different way of playing.

[Petrovsk Mizinski]

Re: Why Do People Say Pedals/Effects Cover Up Mistakes?

As with any generality, the statement is ten pounds of BS wrapped around a grain of truth.

I think distortion/fuzz can cover up mistakes, because it compresses everything and can make up for uneven picking technique. Try playing your axe for awhile with a heavy distortion, then switch to a clean, unaffected tone, and you will see what I mean. It is harder to be sloppy and still sound good with a clean tone.

But play one sour note into an echo and it will become a whole string of sour notes... sour notes... sour notes...

If there's one thing that time and time again that audio engineers that work with heavy music complain about, it's inconsistency in picking technique and if there's one thing they preach often, it's that you need to work damn hard on your picking technique if you want to sound great and sound professional.
Sure, it can compress things a bit, smooth it out, but it wont be the saving grace of someone with terrible picking technique, not by a long shot.
Get two guys to try to double track a heavy riff, , one with horrible picking technique and the other with a right hand like 80s James Hetfield and the difference will be MASSIVE and it comes down almost entirely to right hand technique.
One clip would sound extremely mushy, undefined and limp wristed, and the other will sound well defined, percussive and ballsy.

[Lewguitar]

Re: Why Do People Say Pedals/Effects Cover Up Mistakes?

Well, of course it is not true perse, however...

The more definition your sound has, the better you will hear the mistakes. When you have less definition the mistakes get covered more and more. Why? Because the definition of your sound gets covered more and more. I know not a single guitar player who does not want his/her sound to be heard so they stay away from undefined sounds. That is unless it is their aim to sound undefined. You can purposefully use a totally fuzzed out, polyphonic arpeggiated, reverb whashed tone (or use the ring modulator that agileguy_101 mentioned) to create the sound you are after, even when the notes you are playing would make no sense when the effects would have been off (which most of the time they still might anyways).

In more technical terms you could say that effects that create harmonic content that is not coherent with the guitar signal will to the degree this non-coherent harmonic content dominates cover up mistakes. However few devices with a high degree of non-coherent harmonic contect exist (extreme fuzzes and oscilator/ring modulator type pedals may qualify though).

A heavily saturated and distorted tone may not correct wrong notes but it can disguise a lack of precise fingering technique, a lack of left hand/right hand coordination and it can kind of smear everything all together.

Whereas a more accomplished player can sustain notes with a clean tone and get a nice sustain even from an un-amplified acoustic guitar, a less accomplished player might need heavy distortion to get sustain.

On the other hand, guys like Eric Johnson, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani can play as precisely as anyone and for them a heavily distorted tone is not a crutch - it's just the tone of the music they choose to play.

For guys like this, it might be a crutch or it might be that you can't chugga-chugga without it.

Or both!

[ratherdashing]

Re: Why Do People Say Pedals/Effects Cover Up Mistakes?

^ oh Lew, you were doing so well. You just can't leave a hornet's nest un-kicked, can you?

[Psykel]

Re: Why Do People Say Pedals/Effects Cover Up Mistakes?

Play the wrong note with a long-decay delay and it will haunt you for ages.

[SongsForTheDeaf]

Re: Why Do People Say Pedals/Effects Cover Up Mistakes?

Usually old classic rock guys that say that. It must be natural amp breakup NO PEDALS... it's 2014 and pedals are just part of almost everyones tone these days. I don't think either the classic approach or using clean amps with pedals is better than the other, I have heard crazy good tones from pedal users and just amp distortion users.

It's all preference..

[jon the art guy]

Re: Why Do People Say Pedals/Effects Cover Up Mistakes?

I'm very sloppy at all of it, but I've never felt the very, very heavy Fuzzes and distortions I use have been much of a boon to me. Poor fretting sounds bad, bad pick angle sounds bad...and that's with practically all dynamics mushed to death.
Nothing short of the Antares company can save a bad player.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

[everdrone]

Re: Why Do People Say Pedals/Effects Cover Up Mistakes?

Ill tell ya on bass you can make a ton of mistakes and depending on how I play (hard or soft and rhythym) no one will really notice or pay any mind

same goes for any instrument though. Musicians are supposed to take those rough patches and smooth em out, however they may. ya a wall of fuzz is gonna cover up dynamics and blend lots of notes, like the others stated