The overly compressed tone of YouTube guitarists

As simple as it sounds it's the mechanic, not the tools. The fact that you need so much direction from the "ground up" means any advice is almost worthless because if you don't know much about recording/mixing techniques the expense of the equipment will have little impact on your results. If you do know a decent amount about recording etc you're better off visiting a DAW/recording centric forum to get finer points on building your signal chain. Your whiny attitude about not getting exactly what you want from the thread is laughable and we won't miss it if you decide to post elsewhere.

jcj":1ukxij24 said:

FourT6and2":1ukxij24 said:

I have a few different pairs of quality headphones ranging from iPhone ear buds, to new Bose QC something or others, to studio cans. If it's an amp demo by some dude on YouTube, I'd still rather hear it recorded "in the room" by anything (webcam, iPhone, camcorder, standalone audio recorder, etc.) over a badly mic'd speaker cone by someone who isn't a professional recording engineer. And even some of those I've heard sound bad. The way an amp sounds IN A MIX, with a REAL BAND on and ALBUM, is very different than most DIYers. And for me, I get a better idea of how an amp sounds when it's just a simple room mic. Room mic = distance = time.

When I listen to a demo, I don't want to hear what it sounds like if I had my ear up against the speaker cone. Isn't the goal of properly mic'ing a guitar cab—to make it sound like it's NOT mic'd up? You want it to sound natural, right? Like how you hear it in the room. Many amp demos recorded with a mic on the speaker cone sound like a mic on the speaker cone. And I don't like that. I am not a recording artist or engineer. But I presume the best recorded tones are some combination of mic'ing techniques? Maybe one mic on the center of the cone, one farther out on the perimeter, and maybe another one or two at different distances in the room? And then elements of each source are mixed. And then the guitars are double or triple tracked and mixed.

But I'm obviously a weirdo and don't know what I'm talking about. So that's just me lol.

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Agreed.

The best clips are typically close mic'd, room mic'd, and running through a great board, with a talented player and engineer.

Barring that, an Iphone in the room almost always gives you a better feel for reality, than a poorly mic'd amateur recording.

Most of us posting on youtube are just hacks, trying to share something we dig.

All Iphone leaning against whatever can was lying around...strings and all.

As always, YMMV.

Henning Bottle Rocket

Cornford MK50

Axe Fx

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Sometimes I forget what a monster player you are Josh!!!

So I think we are talking about a lot of different angles here as far as "recordings" go. A lot of people will have a killer recording but obviously putting it on YouTube or some other website is going to jack up the tone. I found this out when I recorded something and made an accompanying video to go with it to show friends. When I watched it, I was like "this sounds horrible!!". When I created the video it dropped the audio quality.

I guess there are two thoughts about recording demo videos too. There are some that run the audio thru the computer, so all you are hearing is what is being recorded, and then it is synched with video for the post. Then there are people recording with a camera equipped with a mic so you are hearing everything in the room to get a real feeling of what the gear can sound like. I've seen successes and failures with both. I wish I still had the clip of the guy playing thru his Bogner Ubershall (he says something that doesn't sound like Ubershall)

I'm not an expert on sound and technology but unless we have someone in a room listening to the original tracks, it is not going to sound anything like what the original performer intended. Some people can pull it off way better than others though. I've heard some unbelievable tones people have put up that sound great even through my laptop. Would be great to know exactly what they are doing.

Pushead":2tlieq99 said:

But I'd recommend trying to listen in one of the HD settings. There's a pretty drastic difference in the audio quality between the 480p and 720 or 1080.

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This is exactly what I wanted to say, mate.

I've never used a smartphone or any mobile device due to extreme EM and microwave sensitivity, but I'm guessing that those who do have no need to view PooToob at 1080p.

I had a breakdown of the bitrates used for the various video-resolution settings somewhere, but can't find it right now; if I do, I'll post it. Suffice it to say that audio resolution diminishes as lower-res video settings are selected.

IIRC, there's a cutoff point where the highest audio bitrate is used and selecting a video resolution above it doesn't improve sound quality. I'm pretty sure it's either 480 or 720p at which this occurs.

EDIT:

OK, here's what I found:

July 2012 to some time in 2013

Original 192 kbps AAC
1080p 192 kbps AAC
720p 192 kbps AAC
480p 128 kbps AAC
360p 128 kbps AAC
240p 64 kbps MP3


Prior to July 2012

Original 152 kbps AAC
1080p 152 kbps AAC
720p 152 kbps AAC
480p 128 kbps AAC
360p 128 kbps AAC
240p 64 kbps MP3


Prior to May 2011

1080p 128 kbps AAC
720p 128 kbps AAC
480p 128 kbps AAC
360p 128 kbps AAC
240p 64 kbps MP3

Prior to March 2011

1080p 128 kbps AAC
720p 128 kbps AAC
480p 96 kbps AAC
360p 96 kbps AAC
240p 64 kbps MP3

Notice that 720p is that cutoff area I spoke of.

It seems that around March 2016 YouTube stopped using 192k AAC and switched to WebM/Opus. It also, from what I've read, adjusts the audio bitrate in accordance with your streaming bandwidth, something it can now do 'cause the audio is apparently no longer hard-connected (part of) the video file.

My guess is that using a YouTube-downloading application would get around this streaming-bitrate constriction, but I can't find more-current data on what resolutions are on offer these days.

LP Freak":2ttui7v8 said:

psychodave":2ttui7v8 said:

You guys are nuts. iPhones compress and clip in too many clips If they sound so good, people would abandon regular recording and record albums with an iPhone just based on cost and simplicity alone.

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Golden ears has spoken

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Love it

Monkey Man":9y224j8k said:

My guess is that using a YouTube-downloading application would get around this streaming-bitrate constriction, but I can't find more-current data on what resolutions are on offer these days.

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https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171

In the current upload settings, YouTube is asking for 384kbs for stereo audio uploads. That's on par with the current MP3 technology albums are released at.

But, it stands to reason that they scale the audio quality along with the video quality.


I think there are two different schools here on what people want to hear in their clips. I'm not as worried about how the amp sounds "in the room" as I am with how it sounds recorded. But I can understand why some people want to hear the room sound, but in my experience, I've had a difficult time getting a "perfect in the room" sound to work in a recording.

Thanks for the update, man.

Under the "Bitrate" heading, Google says, "Audio playback bitrate is not related to video resolution.".

So there we have it; the methodology I outlined that apparently took hold in 2016 where I said YouTube "... adjusts the audio bitrate in accordance with your streaming bandwidth, something it can now do 'cause the audio is apparently no longer hard-connected (part of) the video file", seems to still be in-place. I like the way they say it's not related, but fail to provide further detail. Any fool can say what something's not; this M.O. is a pet frustration of mine, especially in advertising.

I'm still hopeful that downloading as opposed to streaming would circumvent this bandwidth-depentent choking.

Oh, and I'm with you; IMHO there're too many variables acoustically alone to enable us to make detailed judgements about "in the room" tones. Every room sounds different. A recorded dry tone (or one with added 'verb sans obvious resonances) is a reference everyone can use.

gibson5413":3rr6ttzf said:

Sometimes I forget what a monster player you are Josh!!!

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You’re a gentleman Chad, but no monsterpus playing from me...I noodle around for fun!

You’re also very modest about your own playing, which Ive always enjoyed a great deal!

MistaGuitah":144f7prw said:

NotAlexJones":144f7prw said:

Threads on forums have to be cleaned all the time due to confrontational internet trolls derailing the discussion which is exactly what's happened here. Nothing SJW about me or anything SJW wanting to have the conversation stay on topic. Try to re-read the thread, it's pretty clear I'm looking for people to state whatever gear, recording techniques, or anything else that would help avoid the pitfalls of the players I have mentioned. That mean's everything from the ground up...

In terms of equipment... When I say Universal Audio, it's pretty god damn obvious I'm referring to any one of their recording interfaces whether it be 8p / 16, the Ox for a reactive load, the 2-610 for a mic pre, any piece of gear that is beneficial. Over the course of the thread this has been made quite clear, but instead you want to argue about literally fucking nothing and derail the conversation, talking about SJW's? Seriously?

And you got involved in the discussion because you were looking for any reason to interject shitty metal players like Wes Hauch (yea sorry I don't have time for that noise and could give a damn about your shitty taste in music - nor how you think I should spend my money), but there's too much noise for this to go anywhere. Internet trolls always win in situations like this, congrats I'm done.

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Definitely an SJW meltdown right there. All I can say is good luck in your elite tone quest. Wes Hauch and Keith Merrow shitty players with shitty tone? Where are your videos by the way?

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I think we can all agree that Keith Merrow is the bean & cheese burrito of the guitar world.

I learned to temper my expectations in the digital audio world in regard to gear reviews.
If I'm scrutinizing for a purchase, ultimately, in the room w/my ears and fingers playing it will be the final tell anyways so, as long as a demo/clip can ball park it, I'm good w that.

String noise and the dreaded 7 minutes of "TALKING TOO MUCH" puts most videos to the "I can't even" bin for me as well.

LP Freak":1yt79xif said:

psychodave":1yt79xif said:

You guys are nuts. iPhones compress and clip in too many clips If they sound so good, people would abandon regular recording and record albums with an iPhone just based on cost and simplicity alone.

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Golden ears has spoken

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Hmm....

I just ordered 12 I phones, does anyone know where I can get some stands that will hold these?