Yo! Thank you all so much for watching. If you want to better understand how I play the guitar, please go check out my Patreon! www.patreon.com/seananguswatson There you'll be able to get access to monthly guitar lessons for pretty cheap. This is a great way for you to learn more about how I approach this wonderful instrument. Cheers! :)
Recently subscribed. Glad I found you man. In a sea of shredders and djenters it’s great to finally find a guitarist just playing good ole’ clean guitar playin’ with no gimmicks. Also, thanks for helping a fellow “finger” player no longer feel ashamed! I’m primarily self taught and never really have felt comfortable playing with a pick although I know it has limited my playing ability in a lot of ways. There’s just nothing like touching skin to steel for tone and feel. Love your stripped down approach and you have really changed my mind about the merits of SG’s which I’ve always had a mild disdain for lol. I’ll be diving into your videos for inspiration. Thanks!
I'm with you! I think playing with fingers is advantageous for this type of music. Like you say, there's nothing quite like fingers directly on the string.
I cut my teeth with a pick, just now playing fingers. I’ve always been a bit jealous of really good finger pluckers so it’s been a lot of fun. I love the emotive feel of your playing. Going to check out your patreon.
I love the simplicity of your style, I've been looking for videos where people use simple things to play cause I didn't want to buy a lot of pedals, amps or plug ins, I was looking to make my guitar sound great only by software, and you showed me that it's possible. I'm grateful
You've truly inspired my own production and playing. Big fan here, and the fact you've put this out for us to see how you do it is awesome. I also have an SG gifted to me by my lady, and love it. Currently installing BG Pure 90's to it as well as a complete hardware overhaul, it being an Epi. Thankfully I've built guitars and did extensive audio engineering behind a DAW as well as studio. Can't wait to get my home studio set back up, but for now it's hard to do because of my living quarters and moving around (Marines). You are an inspiration, and thank you for this video explanation of your set up.
I think you also get some of your tone from your good music/melody taste and those chillin vibratos and slides, of course. Love the tone, but especially the chillin mood melodies you create every time. Brilliant!
Though I've no idea about playing instruments but i can say you're one of the best guitarist out there sir. Love your music so much, specifically the looping ones. Bests.
Dungeons and Dragons Hey man! Just bought the new fender stratocaster from the "Player Series". Excited to play some fingerstyle tunes on guitar. Definitely a new journey for me ;)
You don't know how wonderful it is to see that you, who I consider one of my guitar idols on youtube, use exactly the same stuff I already have: Presonus Audiobox 22 VSL and a Ditto looping pedal. But I am trying it with Logic Pro instead of Live. There are no excuses, I have to start making it sound good, let's practice fingerpicking.
Thanks man! I've been trying all the amp simulations, turns out i don't even need them :D Sounds better already. You could try fabfilter's saturn for saturation, great options there!
Great video well presented. Very good tone you have there. What I have written is intended for those making the transition from pic to fingers. Sorry if I am treading on your toes. I play pic and fingerstyle (Not Cross picking) It is true the tone from using your fingers rather than pic is very different (keep those fingernails short) If you are finding using your fingers difficult try using your thumb. At first, you may be limited to downstrokes but after a while upstrokes are possible or begin using your fingers. Remember play with the fleshy part of the thumb. Using the nail will give you a tone not unlike a pic.
he has some really nice convolution reverb and is what makes the guitar sound so pretty. But you have to pay for good reverb. Altiverb or it comes with some decent DAWs but all cost money.
Hey man I have a a brown sg special as well and I wanted to mod it to have a p90 in the neck and the humbucker in the bridge but I can’t seem to find pickguards with that configuration. I already have a standard sg with two p90’s but I dig the idea of being able to have both the hb and p90. Did you buy an aftermarket pick guard or was your sg stock in that configuration? Anything is appreciated man love your content and tone it’s infectious and inspiring!
Love it, considering joining up to Patreon. Whats the price range on your SG? I ahve had a similar path, recenly frothing Angus Young, but do enjoy more so the quiet jazz chordy stuff. How much could I expect to sepnd on guitar plus 2 pickups if I wanted to copy you? Thank you :)
Sorry my ignorance, why do you have an amp head without a cabinet? I thought one was useless without the other. Can you explain me the reason for using that amp with the audio interface and why you decided to get one (amp head)? You said before you had only the audio interface so why did you get that amp head, it's really important? I really like to learn those stuff, anybody answer me, thank you!
Angelo Martino Great question! These days some heads come with a load box built in that allows them to be used without a speaker. The reason why I insert this amp into the chain instead of just going straight into the interface is because it significantly improves the tone. The tubes in this thing sound great.
Hey man, found your channel a few months ago and one of the things I liked most was your sound so this video is actually really helpful! I guess it would be cheeky to ask where you put the dials on your daw, especially with compression (for instance the kneel etc) I've been recording into a focusrite Di for years with my strat but I've never been able to achieve a tone worthy of posting my music out there, that's why I ask about the effect parameters. Keep riffing them riffs!
It wouldn't be cheeky to ask but there is a reason I didn't go into specifics, everyone's settings will be slightly different because of the gear that they use. I also really want to encourage people to dig into these effects and experiment to find their own sound :) All that said, I always use a knee of 0db. I generally use RMS compression at a ratio of 2.5:1 with a threshold of around -25db. Very quick attack and slow-ish release. Hope that helps Jack!
Hey Sean, when you record your videos are you playing the sound through studio monitors? I don't see you wearing headphones in any of your live recordings. Would be curious to learn what you use. Thanks!
Thanks for the walkthrough! What are the chances of us getting your Ableton effects rack uploaded somewhere? 😇 You laid it out very clearly, but I'd love to see specifically how you dialed it in, it's so much more angelic when you play the same thing I play. Maybe it's the fingers making the sounds and not the gear though 😬
Hey Sean. for a long time i´m thinking about to by a Gibson sg. Deffinately with p90´s :-) i am sure about it, after watching your videos;-) but its difficult to find a faded special with these pickups. so the idea of modding an sg faded is great!! did you make it by your own. Did you shape the inside of your guitar to fit in the P90? and the electronics inside? thank you!!
one small question to round off the tone 'secret': what strings you use and are you always in standard ? Tnx, your music is a shimmering of sea sparkles
Unfortunately at the moment I don't know when I'll be able to get to a lesson on that video but I will say that I was heavily, heavily inspired by Lake Street Dive's live version on a sidewalk in Boston. Definitely go look that up! Rachael Price's vocal lines and the harmonies from that performance are incredible. The instrumentation/arrangement is also fantastic.
Cool, man! I believe S-Gear might suit your taste really well. It´s just a few but very versatile models. You can download a full demo for two weeks to try it out. Even if you don´t find it enough, it blows most VSTs out of the water in its tube response.
Very nice video, thank you. I am interested in getting something similar to your tone but through pedals. I wonder if you have any recommendations to get those three tones you mentioned that way.
Wow! I'm glad I am not alone. I thought I was the only one who liked playing soft, quiet, fingerstyle guitar with only one pickup and no pick. Do you prefer the pickup at the bridge or the neck?
There's a free saturation plugin mentioned on a video by In The Mix... Maybe by softtube? There's ways to get one even if your daw didn't come with one
When recording DI do you monitor the sound in real time? If I try to do that the latency is just too bad. When I change some settings to reduce latency the audio gets all garbled. Any tips???
Yeah that's a common one, managing buffer size and latency is one of the big struggles that comes with recording DI. What's your computer setup like? Laptop or PC? Which audio interface are you using?
Sean Angus Watson Thanks for replying man! But in my setup I have my pc which is pretty capable and then the audio interface I’m using is just somethin my brother gave me, I think a behringer umc22. DAW is ableton live 10. Thanks again Sean, love your content!
@@jeffreygustafson5633 Great! Thanks for the info man, let's see if we can figure out the issue. What you're going to want to experiment with is the setting called buffer size. This can be found inside Ableton's preference menu in the Audio tab under Latency, it should be a little drop down tab. If the drop down tab isn't there or it's greyed out, you'll need to go into the Behringer software to change the buffer size. Here's a little bit about the nuances of buffer size. The bigger the number (1024, 2048, etc), the better the audio quality. With a large buffer size you're making the PC work a little harder to playback the audio which is where the latency comes into play. Think of it like this: bigger buffer size equals bigger latency. Because of that all we need to do is turn the buffer size down as low as possible to eliminate all the latency, right? Almost. We start to run into problems when the buffer size is too low. To a certain extent, the smaller the number the better (512, 256, etc). The problem is that if you drop this value too low, the computer doesn't have enough time to process the information before moving on to the next bits and the result is clicks, pops, and a distorted mess. Basically you need to find the sweet spot. You wand to find the value that's big enough that it won't cause clicks and pops and low enough that the latency isn't noticeable. Anytime you encounter one of those two things, nudge the buffer size in either direction til the issue goes away. For my computer and interface setup, the sweet spot is 512 samples. Alright, let me know how this goes over! Cheers
Sean Angus Watson That was a great explanation! I messed around with buffer size and some other settings and it is A LOT better. There is still a bit of a delay but I think I might be able to manage after getting used to it. I really appreciate the help man, its awesome that you find time to reply to comments as extensively as you do. Keep making great stuff Sean!
I'm quite new with playing an electric guitar and I really dig that sound. What I don't understand is how the AMP changes the sound? What is the difference between DI and DI through an AMP with no speakers? What is the reason over an AMP without Speakers in general? Appreciate your help!
Thank you for such an informative video. Can I ask what computer model as well as the camera model that you use to create your videos? Also, which video editing software do you use?
That is a very good question. The DAW effects do affect all the layers from the looper but that is what I aim for. I don't have any guitar pedals other than the looper but if I did I would place them after the looper in the chain. If you placed them before the looper you could potentially do some cool things where some of the layers have effects and some don't.
so that means all the layers sound the same. What would you do when, suppose for an instance, you would wanna loop a jam track with clean reverbed guitar and solo over with a little bit of gain?
Hi there ! :) Thank you for this video, it's very insightful and you've got a beautiful tone ! But I'm wondering if you use any kind of speaker simulation too? I know that you probably bought this Laney L5 head to add a nice tube coloration to your DI sound, it's a great idea ! But are you using the built in 4x12 cabinet emulation that is optional with the XLR output of your head ? I know it's a pretty geeky question lol Thanks in advance !!
Thank you very much for so much information. Just one question: I heard these Seymour Duncan P-90 pickups are humming quite a bit with that 60Hz - can you confirm this?
YAY FINALLY!!! See I can get great tone but I don't know how to fix my noise issue. I mean single coil wise. You said you have that p90 and I know their so noisy and yet I hear zero noise in your videos. That's the main thing in the way of my tone. How do you fix that?
Bad Hombre this p90 is a good deal quieter than most other single coil’s I have experience with. Have you tried recording DI? I find it significantly reduces the noise as opposed to mic’ing an amp/cab.
Thank you so much for this explanation! I love the P90 for the quiet soft fingerstyle playing and want to combine it with a humbucker for louder stuff. Since I cannot really find guitars within my price range that have this setup, you're inspiring me to build my own. I have two small questions that I was hoping you could answer: I know you don't play in the middle position often, but if you do - do you like the tone or do the pickups clash? Also, when you changed the pickups, did you change the volume and tone pots as well? Thank you once again!
Hey there! The middle position on my SG isn’t particularly strong because the pickups are poorly matched. The humbucker is a hard rock pickup and the p90 shines as a clean pickup. I’m sure there’s some p90/humbucker combinations out there that would be very well balanced though! As for the tone and volume pots, i’ve got the same ones in here that came with the guitar.
About the idea of finger style... it tactile... and a pick is not. that alone allows for more dynamic control with fingers ..and not only for soft sounds … just take Jeff Beck for example.... blistering loud and dynamic control
thanks a lot for the explanation, did i get it right that you use the hot P90 as a neck pickup? I thought the hot P90 was intended to use as bridge pickup.
It's funny. I would assume that with the way you play, most people would advise against heavy compression for that kind of style. It clearly sounds beautiful though
Solo Ninja Yeah! Kindof counter intuitive, isn’t it. The key is to play very softly. With my setup it’s really easy to blow out notes by striking them too hard. The breakup is pretty ugly so the whole thing really only works with gentle fingerstyle.
Hey man, how do you use your loop pedal? I mean, in your videos you usually record a first layer and then the second layer is twice the lenght of the first, how do you do this?
@@DavidDaminelli It's possible to use a footswitch but with automation you can program the looper to turn on or off at certain measures while playing to a grid/metronome.
Sean Angus Watson 😊😊 I really like singing! Do you have tips for anyone who wants to learn to play and sing at the same time? because sometimes I see that it is difficult to do some things
Maria Kaffee My best tip is so practice very, very slowly. I don’t have a whole lot of experience singing and playing at the same time but when I struggle with it, playing extremely slowly helps a lot.
Thanks for the breakdown! Do you have a favorite set of strings? I’ve only ever played light gauge strings, but I’ve heard people say that heavier gauges produce a much better sound, despite being a little harder to play with
Ah I don't actually have a favorite but I almost always use Ernie Ball Slinky's, usually 10's or 11's. I really like using heavy strings when detuning. When I want to tune down to D standard I'll sometimes use 12's or bigger.
I use a Deluxe Reverb amp, which has two outputs on the back for internal and external speakers. Can I use one of those outputs to run, guitar into amp, amp output to audio interface? I use GarageBand. Would I still have to choose an amp profile? If so, how does using an amp differ from just plugging the guitar, straight into the interface?
yes you can, you can connect with a jack on the external speaker output (that will cut your Delux speaker) to a DI box on which you engage the -20db PAD, then you enter your sound card
What about your videos? I really love that nice, warm tone of your videos with the blurry backgrounds. Do you do any special editing or lighting setups in your room/studio to achieve this look?
Ah this will be the subject of a future video :) For now I'll say there's nothing special about the editing. Mostly I rely on using natural light and I supplement it with a small LED light panel. I shoot with a Sony A7s and usually pair it with a Rokinon 85mm lens. The blurry background comes from using the lens at a very low f-stop value.
Hey quick question - does it take a lot of mixing to get the right sound? I'm relatively new to looping and I'm finding that sometimes the extra layers don't mix well - are too overpowering or not enough, etc. Do you do a lot of engineering to make it all sound perfect?
It does but not in the way that most people would think. The mixing occurs when you're laying down each loop and is controlled by how loud you play and how you play it, so it's all in the hands and arrangement. Lots of care needs to be placed on crafting each individual part in order for the whole thing to come together nicely. Because it's so easy for loops to get muddy or overpowered, I generally focus on specific areas while writing/looping. I'll start with a bass part, then a mid part, then a high part and I'll be careful to make sure that none of them step on the other parts.
You can get noiseless ones but apparently the tone suffers somewhat, although for the low and mellow finger style he uses I doubt you'd hear much difference so some people can justify them.
you just gave away your secrets! I mean how could one ever do that? if I were you, I would play the silent game of not letting anyone know about it. Don't you think it gets you out of competition? I wanna know the psychology behind letting everyone know this! good job anyways, I love your work. love, Arvind.
Hey Arvind! I choose not to look at it that way. I’m much more interested in helping people learn than I am in withholding any tips/tricks and ultimately gatekeeping. I would be very happy to help anyone achieve a tone similar to mine :) cheers!
Mate with all due respect, your approach is a little outdated. TH-cam is about sharing valuable knowledge for free. I learnt a lot of things here. Nowadays the secret is not in accessing info but learning with patience and focus. This guy will remain to be unique and the competition is less about talent but more about mental strength.
Dude I've a audio interface and I plug directly my guitar with a jack cable but I can't understand why I've so much white noise in my sound :( I'm not sure if it comes from the guitar, cable or the software (guitar rig). Cheers :)
Yo! Thank you all so much for watching. If you want to better understand how I play the guitar, please go check out my Patreon! www.patreon.com/seananguswatson
There you'll be able to get access to monthly guitar lessons for pretty cheap. This is a great way for you to learn more about how I approach this wonderful instrument. Cheers! :)
where did you get the pickguard with a humbucker and p90?
Hey Sean! Could we please have a video on how to practice fingerstyle and ditch the pic? Thank you
Recently subscribed. Glad I found you man. In a sea of shredders and djenters it’s great to finally find a guitarist just playing good ole’ clean guitar playin’ with no gimmicks. Also, thanks for helping a fellow “finger” player no longer feel ashamed! I’m primarily self taught and never really have felt comfortable playing with a pick although I know it has limited my playing ability in a lot of ways. There’s just nothing like touching skin to steel for tone and feel. Love your stripped down approach and you have really changed my mind about the merits of SG’s which I’ve always had a mild disdain for lol. I’ll be diving into your videos for inspiration. Thanks!
I'm with you! I think playing with fingers is advantageous for this type of music. Like you say, there's nothing quite like fingers directly on the string.
A few years later and I have bought every single piece of equipment mentioned in this video more or less... no regrets, love the sound!
Nothing relaxes me more quickly than your music. I’ve been waiting for this haha
I cut my teeth with a pick, just now playing fingers. I’ve always been a bit jealous of really good finger pluckers so it’s been a lot of fun. I love the emotive feel of your playing. Going to check out your patreon.
I love the simplicity of your style, I've been looking for videos where people use simple things to play cause I didn't want to buy a lot of pedals, amps or plug ins, I was looking to make my guitar sound great only by software, and you showed me that it's possible. I'm grateful
You've truly inspired my own production and playing. Big fan here, and the fact you've put this out for us to see how you do it is awesome. I also have an SG gifted to me by my lady, and love it. Currently installing BG Pure 90's to it as well as a complete hardware overhaul, it being an Epi. Thankfully I've built guitars and did extensive audio engineering behind a DAW as well as studio. Can't wait to get my home studio set back up, but for now it's hard to do because of my living quarters and moving around (Marines). You are an inspiration, and thank you for this video explanation of your set up.
I think you also get some of your tone from your good music/melody taste and those chillin vibratos and slides, of course. Love the tone, but especially the chillin mood melodies you create every time. Brilliant!
Though I've no idea about playing instruments but i can say you're one of the best guitarist out there sir. Love your music so much, specifically the looping ones. Bests.
Genuinely appreciate you doing this. Some people are so shady over their sound - even if it isn't that distinct
Awesome! Just when I'm about to buy my first electric guitar. Thanks for your insight ;)
Guus Music nice, looking forward to hearing you. Which guitar do you want to buy?
Dungeons and Dragons Hey man! Just bought the new fender stratocaster from the "Player Series". Excited to play some fingerstyle tunes on guitar. Definitely a new journey for me ;)
I want to buy that guitar! Do you like it?
Fel S not sure yet, the reviews are good. The guitar will be at my house tomorrow ;)
Guus Music ah that’s very exciting! getting a new guitar is such a treat. I hope you like the strat :)
YOUR TONE IS PERFECTION. my favorite. I am so glad I found your music. -- 💜 Fan from your album on spotify
Nicely explained. Thanks for sharing your process
You don't know how wonderful it is to see that you, who I consider one of my guitar idols on youtube, use exactly the same stuff I already have: Presonus Audiobox 22 VSL and a Ditto looping pedal. But I am trying it with Logic Pro instead of Live.
There are no excuses, I have to start making it sound good, let's practice fingerpicking.
Thank you. I saved your settings as a preset in Ableton.
This is great. Seriously, thanks for taking time out to explain mate
Tim Harrison thanks for taking the one to watch! I appreciate it very much
Love this video and glad you explained your tone so thoroughly. Inspiring stuff man!
Cesar Cheers man, thanks for watching!
Thanks man! I've been trying all the amp simulations, turns out i don't even need them :D Sounds better already. You could try fabfilter's saturn for saturation, great options there!
Great video well presented. Very good tone you have there. What I have written is intended for those making the transition from pic to fingers. Sorry if I am treading on your toes.
I play pic and fingerstyle (Not Cross picking) It is true the tone from using your fingers rather than pic is very different (keep those fingernails short) If you are finding using your fingers difficult try using your thumb. At first, you may be limited to downstrokes but after a while upstrokes are possible or begin using your fingers. Remember play with the fleshy part of the thumb. Using the nail will give you a tone not unlike a pic.
he has some really nice convolution reverb and is what makes the guitar sound so pretty. But you have to pay for good reverb. Altiverb or it comes with some decent DAWs but all cost money.
dude, what about the tone knob on your guitar? do you turn the highs down?
Good question :)
Hey man I have a a brown sg special as well and I wanted to mod it to have a p90 in the neck and the humbucker in the bridge but I can’t seem to find pickguards with that configuration. I already have a standard sg with two p90’s but I dig the idea of being able to have both the hb and p90. Did you buy an aftermarket pick guard or was your sg stock in that configuration? Anything is appreciated man love your content and tone it’s infectious and inspiring!
Thank you so much for this! Your tone is God-tier!
Love it, considering joining up to Patreon. Whats the price range on your SG? I ahve had a similar path, recenly frothing Angus Young, but do enjoy more so the quiet jazz chordy stuff. How much could I expect to sepnd on guitar plus 2 pickups if I wanted to copy you? Thank you :)
oh man, an sg and a laney amp. not what i would have guessed from just listening to your music, haha!
Haha yeah by the gear I use you'd think I played really heavy music! Turns out both the SG and Laney can create beautiful clean tones as well :)
Sean Angus Watson yeah, they sound amazing!
Sorry my ignorance, why do you have an amp head without a cabinet? I thought one was useless without the other. Can you explain me the reason for using that amp with the audio interface and why you decided to get one (amp head)? You said before you had only the audio interface so why did you get that amp head, it's really important? I really like to learn those stuff, anybody answer me, thank you!
Angelo Martino Great question! These days some heads come with a load box built in that allows them to be used without a speaker. The reason why I insert this amp into the chain instead of just going straight into the interface is because it significantly improves the tone. The tubes in this thing sound great.
Sean Angus Watson Alright, got It! Thanks for the reply man.
Hey man, found your channel a few months ago and one of the things I liked most was your sound so this video is actually really helpful! I guess it would be cheeky to ask where you put the dials on your daw, especially with compression (for instance the kneel etc) I've been recording into a focusrite Di for years with my strat but I've never been able to achieve a tone worthy of posting my music out there, that's why I ask about the effect parameters. Keep riffing them riffs!
It wouldn't be cheeky to ask but there is a reason I didn't go into specifics, everyone's settings will be slightly different because of the gear that they use. I also really want to encourage people to dig into these effects and experiment to find their own sound :)
All that said, I always use a knee of 0db. I generally use RMS compression at a ratio of 2.5:1 with a threshold of around -25db. Very quick attack and slow-ish release. Hope that helps Jack!
Would love to know the exact colour on your SG model? I find Cherry is too jarring, is yours a brown or walnut? Thanks :)
Hey Sean, when you record your videos are you playing the sound through studio monitors? I don't see you wearing headphones in any of your live recordings. Would be curious to learn what you use. Thanks!
Thanks for the walkthrough! What are the chances of us getting your Ableton effects rack uploaded somewhere? 😇 You laid it out very clearly, but I'd love to see specifically how you dialed it in, it's so much more angelic when you play the same thing I play.
Maybe it's the fingers making the sounds and not the gear though 😬
Nicholas Kramer I think you’d like the Ableton tutorial I made. It’s on my channel!
When you play with your fingers are you using your nails or just the skins of your fingers?
Hey Sean. for a long time i´m thinking about to by a Gibson sg. Deffinately with p90´s :-) i am sure about it, after watching your videos;-) but its difficult to find a faded special with these pickups. so the idea of modding an sg faded is great!! did you make it by your own. Did you shape the inside of your guitar to fit in the P90? and the electronics inside? thank you!!
one small question to round off the tone 'secret': what strings you use and are you always in standard ? Tnx, your music is a shimmering of sea sparkles
Can you do a lesson about how you came up with the parts for the want you back video? What were you thinking in terms of passing and ghost notes etc.
Unfortunately at the moment I don't know when I'll be able to get to a lesson on that video but I will say that I was heavily, heavily inspired by Lake Street Dive's live version on a sidewalk in Boston. Definitely go look that up! Rachael Price's vocal lines and the harmonies from that performance are incredible. The instrumentation/arrangement is also fantastic.
Have you ever tried vst amp simulation? I regularly use S-Gear by Scuffham amps because I really enjoy the tube-like response of their modelling.
Joe Towers I actually haven’t found an amp sim that I like but I know there’s some good ones out there! i’ll have to check out S-gear
Cool, man! I believe S-Gear might suit your taste really well. It´s just a few but very versatile models. You can download a full demo for two weeks to try it out. Even if you don´t find it enough, it blows most VSTs out of the water in its tube response.
Very nice video, thank you. I am interested in getting something similar to your tone but through pedals. I wonder if you have any recommendations to get those three tones you mentioned that way.
Wow! I'm glad I am not alone. I thought I was the only one who liked playing soft, quiet, fingerstyle guitar with only one pickup and no pick. Do you prefer the pickup at the bridge or the neck?
This is really inspiring!! 😍 BTW was wondering if you could make a cover of Kaleo - Way down we go.
There's a free saturation plugin mentioned on a video by In The Mix... Maybe by softtube? There's ways to get one even if your daw didn't come with one
When recording DI do you monitor the sound in real time? If I try to do that the latency is just too bad. When I change some settings to reduce latency the audio gets all garbled. Any tips???
Yeah that's a common one, managing buffer size and latency is one of the big struggles that comes with recording DI. What's your computer setup like? Laptop or PC? Which audio interface are you using?
Sean Angus Watson Thanks for replying man! But in my setup I have my pc which is pretty capable and then the audio interface I’m using is just somethin my brother gave me, I think a behringer umc22. DAW is ableton live 10. Thanks again Sean, love your content!
@@jeffreygustafson5633 Great! Thanks for the info man, let's see if we can figure out the issue. What you're going to want to experiment with is the setting called buffer size. This can be found inside Ableton's preference menu in the Audio tab under Latency, it should be a little drop down tab. If the drop down tab isn't there or it's greyed out, you'll need to go into the Behringer software to change the buffer size.
Here's a little bit about the nuances of buffer size. The bigger the number (1024, 2048, etc), the better the audio quality. With a large buffer size you're making the PC work a little harder to playback the audio which is where the latency comes into play. Think of it like this: bigger buffer size equals bigger latency.
Because of that all we need to do is turn the buffer size down as low as possible to eliminate all the latency, right? Almost. We start to run into problems when the buffer size is too low. To a certain extent, the smaller the number the better (512, 256, etc). The problem is that if you drop this value too low, the computer doesn't have enough time to process the information before moving on to the next bits and the result is clicks, pops, and a distorted mess.
Basically you need to find the sweet spot. You wand to find the value that's big enough that it won't cause clicks and pops and low enough that the latency isn't noticeable. Anytime you encounter one of those two things, nudge the buffer size in either direction til the issue goes away. For my computer and interface setup, the sweet spot is 512 samples.
Alright, let me know how this goes over! Cheers
Sean Angus Watson That was a great explanation! I messed around with buffer size and some other settings and it is A LOT better. There is still a bit of a delay but I think I might be able to manage after getting used to it. I really appreciate the help man, its awesome that you find time to reply to comments as extensively as you do. Keep making great stuff Sean!
I'm quite new with playing an electric guitar and I really dig that sound. What I don't understand is how the AMP changes the sound? What is the difference between DI and DI through an AMP with no speakers? What is the reason over an AMP without Speakers in general? Appreciate your help!
Great video! I'm curious what your setup is when you are just playing and not recording?
Thank you for such an informative video. Can I ask what computer model as well as the camera model that you use to create your videos? Also, which video editing software do you use?
Hey! I have a custom PC that I built around an Intel i7. All my videos are shot on an A7s and I use Premiere to edit video. Thanks for watching :)
Amazing video bro! Glad I found you! Amazing guitar style! What strings do you use? Cheers from Brazil!
I’d really like to learn how do you pluck strings
What is the diff between xlr into the interface vs guitar cable into the interface
I have a question about the looping. If you use effects from the DAW, doesn't it effect all the layers? Do you place guitar pedals before the looper?
That is a very good question. The DAW effects do affect all the layers from the looper but that is what I aim for. I don't have any guitar pedals other than the looper but if I did I would place them after the looper in the chain. If you placed them before the looper you could potentially do some cool things where some of the layers have effects and some don't.
Sean Angus Watson thank you
so that means all the layers sound the same. What would you do when, suppose for an instance, you would wanna loop a jam track with clean reverbed guitar and solo over with a little bit of gain?
Hi there ! :) Thank you for this video, it's very insightful and you've got a beautiful tone ! But I'm wondering if you use any kind of speaker simulation too?
I know that you probably bought this Laney L5 head to add a nice tube coloration to your DI sound, it's a great idea ! But are you using the built in 4x12 cabinet emulation that is optional with the XLR output of your head ?
I know it's a pretty geeky question lol
Thanks in advance !!
Hey Nicolas, spot on as to why I got the L5 head. I am indeed using the cab emulation! I like the sound of it a lot.
Thank you very much for so much information. Just one question: I heard these Seymour Duncan P-90 pickups are humming quite a bit with that 60Hz - can you confirm this?
Do you teach how to fingerpick in your patreon?
Dude, you need to make a cover John Mayer’s dvd intro, mulholland drive
YAY FINALLY!!! See I can get great tone but I don't know how to fix my noise issue. I mean single coil wise. You said you have that p90 and I know their so noisy and yet I hear zero noise in your videos. That's the main thing in the way of my tone. How do you fix that?
Bad Hombre this p90 is a good deal quieter than most other single coil’s I have experience with. Have you tried recording DI? I find it significantly reduces the noise as opposed to mic’ing an amp/cab.
How does the pedal work w/ Ableton?
NOW WE'RE FINGERPICKIN'!
Fingerstyle: Gentle
Pic: Dgentle
Thank you so much for this explanation! I love the P90 for the quiet soft fingerstyle playing and want to combine it with a humbucker for louder stuff. Since I cannot really find guitars within my price range that have this setup, you're inspiring me to build my own. I have two small questions that I was hoping you could answer: I know you don't play in the middle position often, but if you do - do you like the tone or do the pickups clash? Also, when you changed the pickups, did you change the volume and tone pots as well? Thank you once again!
Hey there! The middle position on my SG isn’t particularly strong because the pickups are poorly matched. The humbucker is a hard rock pickup and the p90 shines as a clean pickup. I’m sure there’s some p90/humbucker combinations out there that would be very well balanced though! As for the tone and volume pots, i’ve got the same ones in here that came with the guitar.
Hi! I just found your video. I also use a Gibson SG that I put a p90 pickup in the neck position.
About the idea of finger style... it tactile... and a pick is not. that alone allows for more dynamic control with fingers ..and not only for soft sounds … just take Jeff Beck for example.... blistering loud and dynamic control
I have a Princeton 68 and I'm thinking I should try going direct out of the amp part. Interested to see how it sounds!
the saturator makes a hell of a difference!
thanks a lot for the explanation, did i get it right that you use the hot P90 as a neck pickup? I thought the hot P90 was intended to use as bridge pickup.
Yep! Hot p90 in the neck position. Seymour Duncan makes two versions of the same pickup, one for each position.
It's funny. I would assume that with the way you play, most people would advise against heavy compression for that kind of style. It clearly sounds beautiful though
Solo Ninja Yeah! Kindof counter intuitive, isn’t it. The key is to play very softly. With my setup it’s really easy to blow out notes by striking them too hard. The breakup is pretty ugly so the whole thing really only works with gentle fingerstyle.
Ah you're a legend dude
Hey man, how do you use your loop pedal? I mean, in your videos you usually record a first layer and then the second layer is twice the lenght of the first, how do you do this?
Hey! Anytime there’s loops of different lengths happening that means I’m using the looper in Ableton Live and controlling it with automation
@@seananguswatson Cool! I've never used Ableton Live but, how so you do this? Use some pedal as footswitch or something like that?
@@DavidDaminelli It's possible to use a footswitch but with automation you can program the looper to turn on or off at certain measures while playing to a grid/metronome.
@@seananguswatson Wow, pretty cool! Thanks for answering!
3:46 you say that like it's a bad thing, but I'm sitting here with no money to buy gear and all the motivation to practice 🙃
gai
Hey dude! Which SD hot p90 model do you have? There a couple variations on the market :)
This made me want to learn to play 🎸
Maria Kaffee ah I love to hear that!
Sean Angus Watson 😊😊 I really like singing! Do you have tips for anyone who wants to learn to play and sing at the same time? because sometimes I see that it is difficult to do some things
Maria Kaffee My best tip is so practice very, very slowly. I don’t have a whole lot of experience singing and playing at the same time but when I struggle with it, playing extremely slowly helps a lot.
Thanks for the breakdown! Do you have a favorite set of strings? I’ve only ever played light gauge strings, but I’ve heard people say that heavier gauges produce a much better sound, despite being a little harder to play with
Ah I don't actually have a favorite but I almost always use Ernie Ball Slinky's, usually 10's or 11's. I really like using heavy strings when detuning. When I want to tune down to D standard I'll sometimes use 12's or bigger.
I love your videos man..waiting for you videos
What camera do you use when Recording to have a clean sound?
Just a quick question, What DAW do you use? I've just been thinking about recording my own stuff and your videos sound wonderful.
Ableton live
so i got it, all i gotta do is get me a seymore ducken p90 and ill sound exactly like you" awsome thanks man :]
I use a Deluxe Reverb amp, which has two outputs on the back for internal and external speakers. Can I use one of those outputs to run, guitar into amp, amp output to audio interface?
I use GarageBand. Would I still have to choose an amp profile? If so, how does using an amp differ from just plugging the guitar, straight into the interface?
yes you can, you can connect with a jack on the external speaker output (that will cut your Delux speaker) to a DI box on which you engage the -20db PAD, then you enter your sound card
Great video!!!! thanks so much for this
Bryan Lai of course, thank you so much for following along!
Could you do a video about how you make the videos with the audio synced up??
nice. Do you grow your nails out for fingerpicking or just use flesh?
JJ Schrick great question! I keep my nails very short and use the fleshy parts of my fingers.
Is it possible to recreate it with actual reverb, compression, and a boost pedal instead of using DAW?
Leinard Esteves oh yeah, for sure! with a good clean amp and those three pedals you’d be set
Thank you so much! I'm getting my first guitar soon and I've been wanting to achieve your tone.
If I become a patron, do I see all of your older content or do I have to pay for every video seperatly?
Georg Georg if you sign up for the $10/month tier you get access to all the previous content (4 videos right now) and then 2 more videos every month
What about your videos? I really love that nice, warm tone of your videos with the blurry backgrounds. Do you do any special editing or lighting setups in your room/studio to achieve this look?
Ah this will be the subject of a future video :)
For now I'll say there's nothing special about the editing. Mostly I rely on using natural light and I supplement it with a small LED light panel. I shoot with a Sony A7s and usually pair it with a Rokinon 85mm lens. The blurry background comes from using the lens at a very low f-stop value.
Sean Angus Watson Thank you so much for sharing :) Have been learning so much from you!
Hey quick question - does it take a lot of mixing to get the right sound? I'm relatively new to looping and I'm finding that sometimes the extra layers don't mix well - are too overpowering or not enough, etc. Do you do a lot of engineering to make it all sound perfect?
It does but not in the way that most people would think. The mixing occurs when you're laying down each loop and is controlled by how loud you play and how you play it, so it's all in the hands and arrangement. Lots of care needs to be placed on crafting each individual part in order for the whole thing to come together nicely. Because it's so easy for loops to get muddy or overpowered, I generally focus on specific areas while writing/looping. I'll start with a bass part, then a mid part, then a high part and I'll be careful to make sure that none of them step on the other parts.
Great answer - makes sense. Good to know it's mostly in the hands!
Pretty cool I think Premier Guitar had some stuff on you.
Tone is in the fingers!!
Stop perpetuating this myth. Articulation is in the fingers.Tone is partially in how you pick/finger the strings and in the gear.
@@AndreaAustoni Im acoustic guitarist and the tone is 90% with your finger. Same thing with an electric. Dynamics is the secret.
I am wondering how many gain did you set in the audio instrument
bro please tell me if you use a cab-sim or not
good stuff.. found your channel from someone who subscribed to me.. cheers.. subscribed
I love the sound of single coils but the hum really bugs me. Is there anything you do about it?
You can get noiseless ones but apparently the tone suffers somewhat, although for the low and mellow finger style he uses I doubt you'd hear much difference so some people can justify them.
what is the software u use for the pc? guitar rig?
No amp sim software or anything, just Live and the stock effects that come with it.
How do you avoid hum with so much compression?
you just gave away your secrets! I mean how could one ever do that? if I were you, I would play the silent game of not letting anyone know about it. Don't you think it gets you out of competition? I wanna know the psychology behind letting everyone know this! good job anyways, I love your work. love,
Arvind.
Hey Arvind! I choose not to look at it that way. I’m much more interested in helping people learn than I am in withholding any tips/tricks and ultimately gatekeeping. I would be very happy to help anyone achieve a tone similar to mine :) cheers!
Mate with all due respect, your approach is a little outdated. TH-cam is about sharing valuable knowledge for free. I learnt a lot of things here. Nowadays the secret is not in accessing info but learning with patience and focus. This guy will remain to be unique and the competition is less about talent but more about mental strength.
is the order of ur effects rack, compression then saturation then reverb?
Yep!
Thanks homie
I was trying to figure out your percussion technique that you do on your guitar. Any tips?
Palm mute
Dude I've a audio interface and I plug directly my guitar with a jack cable but I can't understand why I've so much white noise in my sound :( I'm not sure if it comes from the guitar, cable or the software (guitar rig). Cheers :)
What guitar do you have? and interface?
Which saturation plugin you use? Tnx ☺
Yo! No plugin :) I use the saturation effect that came stock with the DAW
Top! Faltava este vídeo! I have a SG and I really interested for a P90 to put in the neck position.
I would recommend it :) I think SG's and p90's make a great combination.
Sean Angus Watson I don't use compressor pedals, but after this video I go to the shopping kkkkkkk
Great stuff👍🏻👍🏻
What is the advantage of the amp?
I’m dumb. I assume this is all coming out of your computer speakers? I assume people who do this have a nice setup as well
What do you mean by "from the back of the amp?" does it have an cab sim di output or do you plug it from the cab's output straight into your AI ?
Yes and yes
That was the expensive secret...thanks a lot..wow...not everybody wanna share they secret with every single detail...