Man. Your ambient playing is stunning. Combined with your seemingly effortless progressive metal playing and it is one of my favorite sounds in all of music.
This kind of instruction is refreshing and helpful. For many of us due to our professional lives, we don’t have the time to learn or focus on how to use the gear we already have. Thank you for seeing the need for this.
First time listener, i'm sitting outside a coffee shop having a drink, I've just sold all my guitar effects pedals and amp as the economy has me by the throat, I'm also in a early onset arthritis situation with my hands so I cannot play like I used to. At around 10:30 you started those Arabic diminished sounding scales leaving loads of space before hitting the last notes in the runs, in that space my body was screaming "hit that note! hit that note! anticipating some obscure note and dude my body was glowing with warmth every time you matched the note I was expecting. Really made my day, thank you.
Not jaded in his sharing, no matter how he is feeling in the present moment. That’s class and mastery in an instructor and musician. Cool man right here. I hope to hear you for many years to come. Cheers all! I’ll take a quenching water!
Bea has such great tonal experience and tastes. This is just the video I needed! I did a ton of research in different delays and verbs and did a bunch of blindfold testing to land on Strymon. It's not surprising that Bea tends to prefer their sound, as it is immersive and generally easy to dial in.
Bea, it’s always a masterclass watching you play man. I don’t play worship music but I’ve been watching their tone tutorials because I like the “worship” cleans for some things.
Like the cleanliness of the tone, notes ringing through giving air. The Middle Eastern feel especially around 11 minutes would sit lovely in a film score……sand moving over the dunes….yea. I remember Dave Gilmour saying ‘it’s more about the notes you don’t play’
Very nice! Was delighted to see my settings on my Flint and El Cap were similar to your dialed settings. Adjusted mine to exactly like yours and added the deepsix comp and it made a good difference! Thank you!
So on a lot of studio reverb units there is a control labeled 'Density'. I think this is what you're talking about when you say the digital reverbs sound like an infinite amount of echoes and not very realistic. Density controls the total number of echoes present in the reverb tail. Turning it down will generally make a space more believable if thats what you want to call it. A lot of the 80's style digital reverbs were very dense by default (Lexicon 480, PCM81, Bricasti). That dense sound is generally nice on drums and percussion, but I dial that way back for guitars and vocals. I'm sure you know this already, just figured I'd call out the control value for that. Most guitar pedals aren't gonna have that control but a software reverb or studio classic probably will.
I just want to know how you became a god with chords >.> because every time you play some ambient stuff your chord work just shines so damn hard >.> you're a beast my friend!
very useful tips ! Your playing is great as always. Also, some other things to consider : - if you have a low cut on the reverb, it's very useful to cut the low end and have a clearer tone - increase pre-delay to have your dry sound stand out from the reverb - stereo is even better!
Great tips, and so obvious in retrospect - but I have never been able to get this kind of lovely ethereal sound, and now I know why. Can't wait to try some of your advice, thanks!
This video just happened to show up in my feed. By sheer coincidence I received my new JHS 3 Series Hall Reverb pedal in the mail today. I bought it with the sole purpose of creating ambient tones. I figured out a few thing about making ambient tones years ago, but, this video helped a lot. Thank you!
In my specific setup, my amp has reverb before the fx loop, so I can engage a reverb before the delay. I also have a reverb pedal at the end of the chain, so it is easy to flip the chain around or even stack it R/D/R! NOS RCA black plate tube in the fx loop made the detail insane.
You sir are just unbelievable. I'd give all the money I have and my house to be able to play the guitar like you. Don't think my wife and daughter would approve though. LOL. The swells at the end were magical. I'm going to buy those 2 pedals and try and recreate the sounds you did. Thanks for the video.
Idea for a potential series. How you mix your wet effects during lead and rhythm. How you overall mix for band setting and solo setting. Thing of that nature? Your ear for tones is always on point! Cheers!
Fanbloodytastic, more of these pls ! really helpful advice to use the root & 3rd, it’s little tips like this that makes it, I’ll definitely give this a go !
Really really enjoyed the mix of you being your own style and being educational to us about what you love to do! Very inspiring, makes me instantly want to mix up my signal chain and get ambient! Thank you for this!
I really dig this. Your comments about rolling back the tone in some of your other vids really helped me find the ambient tones I was looking for, but this deeper dive has some great info, especially about the way in which you're using the compressor to allow you to pick/pluck very lightly. Thanks, dude!
Superb info. beautiful playing and this video could double as a post rock Audition tape! I just had to sell my big sky reverb due to life etc. Hopefullly one day I can get back to the blue sky, but you're making the flint very tempting
The pointers on dialing in the delay and reverb are very helpful. I can play those voicings and get the vibe but dialing in the pedals is part of it. I'm glad you explained how you get your tone because now everything makes sense. And I like how you said the voice and you use a third that makes sense I use that at a fourth as well for ambient tones and yes do a high note and a low note works great. Maybe you can show how you can flow from that into a high gain sort of chug thing, that would be cool! Sometimes transitioning from one aspect to another is hard. I really liked how you showed you can turn the drive up and go into that what I call razor King kind of pickin... Thanks again can't wait for the next one 🎵
Awesome video Rabea!!! A lot of great tips here that are super useful!!! You've been around a long time so thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us!!!
Check out his anderton’s shootout videos to get a feel for what he likes for reverb/delay and you could combine an inexpensive pair. I like my Seymour Duncan vapor trail for delay - you can run it 9-18v and it gets clearer with more volts - nice flexibility. Killer modulation. It’s not expensive. Rabea liked the Walrus fundamental delay for $99 and the TC bucket brigade. JHS reverbs get big and sound good for $99. Hall/just Reverb would do you right. Bea dug the Behringer too! Super cheap. I see Boss get used a lot but in the anderton’s vid he didn’t like the digital zing on the RV-6 at all
Bea! Can I ask you what scale or mode are you playing at 13:43? At a certain point you play 3 semitone,one after the other,I was wondering what mode is it,or is a combination of diffent mode?very very beautifull by the way :) Thank you a lot for all the wisdom and teaching that you are sharing with us.Much Love!
Thanks Rabea for sharing your insights on dialing in Ambient tones. I particularly like listening to the advice of someone who is skilled at dialing in tones from both extremes of the sound spectrum of Colossal Tones to Airy Ambient, and who has a good ear for it. Looking forward to the Colossal Tones video as well. 😎
Excellent, I just love these type of tones, I'm away from my rig right now, but I'll definitely try some of these concepts once I get my situation sorted out. Thanks Bea!
What a beautiful mood you set! Great discussion and demonstration. Lovely playing! You are an artist!! I subscribed. It took me years, sorry. I dont know why. I think i associated you too much with andertons videos. Im now a fan of yours. Ill search your channel for some of your music!! Thank you!
That reverb sounds so similar to a real one. There this abandoned empty building I would go to and my wife would sing just to enjoy that super long natural delay with a human voice is a dream.
Hey rabea jeff here ithink were both born in may of 1988 year of the dragon how cool i love both your cleaner/edge of breakup erie beautiful ambient tones and heavy in your face maxed out aggressive fuzzy tones i use the keeley andy timmons halo with tc electronic hof2 reverb with super at mod and woodshed comp for ambient single coil neck pup tones with the mid boost at 3 oclock more or less on my mesa mark v 35 combo and fore hevier tones i use a wampler dracarys and just the halo in the fx loop.
Could watch/listen to you play for weeks on end, man! Video idea - “ear training”, but instead of for notes, for tone. When you hear a song or guitar tone you really like, how do you know what effects to use to recreate it? Basically, it’s the missing link between the original artists and your “sounds like” videos (which are the stuff of legends!!!).
Man. Your ambient playing is stunning. Combined with your seemingly effortless progressive metal playing and it is one of my favorite sounds in all of music.
Agree
Ambient playing like this has got to be *the best* way to enjoy guitar alone in the bedroom with the lights off.
And some weed 😂😂😂
try putting butter on the head stock
This kind of instruction is refreshing and helpful. For many of us due to our professional lives, we don’t have the time to learn or focus on how to use the gear we already have. Thank you for seeing the need for this.
First time listener, i'm sitting outside a coffee shop having a drink, I've just sold all my guitar effects pedals and amp as the economy has me by the throat, I'm also in a early onset arthritis situation with my hands so I cannot play like I used to. At around 10:30 you started those Arabic diminished sounding scales leaving loads of space before hitting the last notes in the runs, in that space my body was screaming "hit that note! hit that note! anticipating some obscure note and dude my body was glowing with warmth every time you matched the note I was expecting. Really made my day, thank you.
Not jaded in his sharing, no matter how he is feeling in the present moment. That’s class and mastery in an instructor and musician. Cool man right here. I hope to hear you for many years to come. Cheers all! I’ll take a quenching water!
This suits all levels of playing, great details.
I think you could run a whole series of 'Dialing In' videos
I play guitar in a worship team and this was very helpful. Thank you for this instructional video.
I swear he’s one of my favorite players of all time. There’s just so much feel and emotion in his playing. Shits intoxicating
Bea has such great tonal experience and tastes. This is just the video I needed! I did a ton of research in different delays and verbs and did a bunch of blindfold testing to land on Strymon. It's not surprising that Bea tends to prefer their sound, as it is immersive and generally easy to dial in.
Bea, it’s always a masterclass watching you play man. I don’t play worship music but I’ve been watching their tone tutorials because I like the “worship” cleans for some things.
Thanks Rabea. I was completely the wrong direction with my delay and always struggled. Informative as always. Cheers.
Like the cleanliness of the tone, notes ringing through giving air. The Middle Eastern feel especially around 11 minutes would sit lovely in a film score……sand moving over the dunes….yea. I remember Dave Gilmour saying ‘it’s more about the notes you don’t play’
Very nice! Was delighted to see my settings on my Flint and El Cap were similar to your dialed settings. Adjusted mine to exactly like yours and added the deepsix comp and it made a good difference! Thank you!
So on a lot of studio reverb units there is a control labeled 'Density'. I think this is what you're talking about when you say the digital reverbs sound like an infinite amount of echoes and not very realistic. Density controls the total number of echoes present in the reverb tail. Turning it down will generally make a space more believable if thats what you want to call it. A lot of the 80's style digital reverbs were very dense by default (Lexicon 480, PCM81, Bricasti). That dense sound is generally nice on drums and percussion, but I dial that way back for guitars and vocals. I'm sure you know this already, just figured I'd call out the control value for that. Most guitar pedals aren't gonna have that control but a software reverb or studio classic probably will.
Ambient music through guitar always sound really good.
YES! Always looking to get more inspiration from your tone and the playing tips are gold. Maybe similar video for heavy riffs too?
Man, your taste for tones, any tones, is awesome!
I just want to know how you became a god with chords >.> because every time you play some ambient stuff your chord work just shines so damn hard >.>
you're a beast my friend!
Oh hi! I'm so glad you're here. Blue and I are dialing in some juicy tones 😁.
very useful tips ! Your playing is great as always. Also, some other things to consider :
- if you have a low cut on the reverb, it's very useful to cut the low end and have a clearer tone
- increase pre-delay to have your dry sound stand out from the reverb
- stereo is even better!
Had a distinctly Indian sound (sitar-ish) to your riffs once you turned the compressor on at 11:00. Interesting examples of what to play. Thanks.
Great touch. That low C tuning is a great idea!
Great tips, and so obvious in retrospect - but I have never been able to get this kind of lovely ethereal sound, and now I know why. Can't wait to try some of your advice, thanks!
This video just happened to show up in my feed. By sheer coincidence I received my new JHS 3 Series Hall Reverb pedal in the mail today. I bought it with the sole purpose of creating ambient tones. I figured out a few thing about making ambient tones years ago, but, this video helped a lot. Thank you!
el capistan is really the special sauce. nice one Rabea
This is useful thanks! Seem to have a fan running in the studio? background noise
My all-time favorite artist 🖤
LESSSS GOOOOOOOOOOO - buying both pedals! Great video broooo keep em coming!
18:41 Get a definite Adam Jones Tool vibe here. Love it!
In my specific setup, my amp has reverb before the fx loop, so I can engage a reverb before the delay. I also have a reverb pedal at the end of the chain, so it is easy to flip the chain around or even stack it R/D/R! NOS RCA black plate tube in the fx loop made the detail insane.
Just got myself a JHS 3 Series Hall Reverb! Going to have some with this and my Boss DD3-T. Thank you for this video Bea!
Master class in ambient guitar tones. Thanks, man!
You sir are just unbelievable. I'd give all the money I have and my house to be able to play the guitar like you. Don't think my wife and daughter would approve though. LOL. The swells at the end were magical. I'm going to buy those 2 pedals and try and recreate the sounds you did. Thanks for the video.
Idea for a potential series. How you mix your wet effects during lead and rhythm. How you overall mix for band setting and solo setting. Thing of that nature? Your ear for tones is always on point! Cheers!
Incredible tone and talent. The swells with the higher gain are synth like and just magical. As always, well done!
Stunningly dynamic
Always ringing out the root low note every so often and just pausing then doing some playing is fantastic.
Great taste for setting up those fx tones, for sure.
Amazing tips. Nothing obvious here. Really appreciate everything you covered, from settings to note choice. Great stuff. Cheers from Florida.
I love Rabea's ability to teleport my mind somewhere else after just playing two bars with the delay
Great lesson. Thank you. I have the flint and Volante and your tips helped me to dial in a better sound.
Fantastic Video Rabea! Love the vibe you've captured
What scale or mode is that when he plays and it sounds Egyptian/Sitar, like at 10:50 min in the vid?
The wow and flutter give the magic... so beautiful!! 🎸🛸🛸🎶🎈🎈🔊🔥😘😘😘
Studio vibes are insane... Loving your new setup... A long way from the old desk/office setup
Fantastic video Rabea. I find myself playing this style more and more after the heavy riffing stuff. Beautiful tone and great playing as always
That background shot looks AWESOME
Could listen to this for hours!
A WHOLE lot of this is in the “ hands”…. Of tha Master. Beautiful sir
Having both of these pedals, greatly appreciate the thought process in building these sounds.
Fanbloodytastic, more of these pls !
really helpful advice to use the root & 3rd, it’s little tips like this that makes it, I’ll definitely give this a go !
Great inspiration since I already have the El Cap and the Flint. That guitar though ... wow, Musicmans sound epic. Cheers Rabea
Really really enjoyed the mix of you being your own style and being educational to us about what you love to do! Very inspiring, makes me instantly want to mix up my signal chain and get ambient! Thank you for this!
I really dig this. Your comments about rolling back the tone in some of your other vids really helped me find the ambient tones I was looking for, but this deeper dive has some great info, especially about the way in which you're using the compressor to allow you to pick/pluck very lightly. Thanks, dude!
Love you man! Always a joy to see you work. Hope to jam with you some day
I know why I've subbed. Balls to the wall inspiring!
Been loving using your Neural dsp with the Whale tones patch. Ambient goodness 🙌🏽👌🏽
Love the video Rabea, finally we get your settings on the ambient reverb sounds, always loved your ambient pad sounds as my favourite
Superb info. beautiful playing and this video could double as a post rock Audition tape! I just had to sell my big sky reverb due to life etc. Hopefullly one day I can get back to the blue sky, but you're making the flint very tempting
The pointers on dialing in the delay and reverb are very helpful. I can play those voicings and get the vibe but dialing in the pedals is part of it. I'm glad you explained how you get your tone because now everything makes sense. And I like how you said the voice and you use a third that makes sense I use that at a fourth as well for ambient tones and yes do a high note and a low note works great. Maybe you can show how you can flow from that into a high gain sort of chug thing, that would be cool! Sometimes transitioning from one aspect to another is hard. I really liked how you showed you can turn the drive up and go into that what I call razor King kind of pickin...
Thanks again can't wait for the next one 🎵
I was just thinking how I’d love this video from you. Need to setup my timeline and blue sky 🤘
Great video. Ive been playing with some ambient stuff on my helix recently but been finding settings tricky.
Awesome video Rabea!!! A lot of great tips here that are super useful!!! You've been around a long time so thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us!!!
I’ve definitely gotten a lot of great info from this video. Enjoyed this video thoroughly.
Absolutely perfect sound and playing. Just stunning!
Dream setup.. victory's in stereo 🔥🔥
Sounds great.
Really nice tone 👌
Fairly simple and easy to comprehend video. It would be nice to have an alternative more budget-friendly pedal combination. Thx!
Check out his anderton’s shootout videos to get a feel for what he likes for reverb/delay and you could combine an inexpensive pair.
I like my Seymour Duncan vapor trail for delay - you can run it 9-18v and it gets clearer with more volts - nice flexibility. Killer modulation. It’s not expensive. Rabea liked the Walrus fundamental delay for $99 and the TC bucket brigade.
JHS reverbs get big and sound good for $99. Hall/just Reverb would do you right. Bea dug the Behringer too! Super cheap. I see Boss get used a lot but in the anderton’s vid he didn’t like the digital zing on the RV-6 at all
Man, I enjoyed that a lot! Absolutely stunning. Thanks, Rabea!
Great video ! Love the ambient
Simple setup, tastefull usage.
This was super useful Rabea. Thanks.
Bea! Can I ask you what scale or mode are you playing at 13:43? At a certain point you play 3 semitone,one after the other,I was wondering what mode is it,or is a combination of diffent mode?very very beautifull by the way :) Thank you a lot for all the wisdom and teaching that you are sharing with us.Much Love!
This is absolute gold thank you so much Bea.
Man this kind of tone is so fiiiiireeeee, remind me of Robin Trower, really cool !
Thanks Rabea for sharing your insights on dialing in Ambient tones. I particularly like listening to the advice of someone who is skilled at dialing in tones from both extremes of the sound spectrum of Colossal Tones to Airy Ambient, and who has a good ear for it. Looking forward to the Colossal Tones video as well. 😎
Excellent, I just love these type of tones, I'm away from my rig right now, but I'll definitely try some of these concepts once I get my situation sorted out. Thanks Bea!
Love this video! Very informative, and easy to follow to grasp the concepts. I’d love to see more in this format
love the way you utilize effects! pro-tones!
Beautiful sounds!!
Good Sir! Very insightful
Brilliant lesson. Thank you Rabea.
Thank you for a great informative video. Beautifully presented and inspirational.
Amazing tones, amazing playing and precious advice. Thanks Rabea!
Thanks for this Rabea! You are a inspiration to us all!
Awesome! These are some of my favourite tones of yours.
What a beautiful mood you set! Great discussion and demonstration. Lovely playing! You are an artist!! I subscribed. It took me years, sorry. I dont know why. I think i associated you too much with andertons videos. Im now a fan of yours. Ill search your channel for some of your music!! Thank you!
Loving this Bea!!! Cheers!
🖤
Lovely video Rabea, thank you
That reverb sounds so similar to a real one. There this abandoned empty building I would go to and my wife would sing just to enjoy that super long natural delay with a human voice is a dream.
Great video. Very helpful.
this was great! hope ya do more videos like this
Good solid advice in here mate. Great video. Great fro. Subbed.
Hey rabea jeff here ithink were both born in may of 1988 year of the dragon how cool i love both your cleaner/edge of breakup erie beautiful ambient tones and heavy in your face maxed out aggressive fuzzy tones i use the keeley andy timmons halo with tc electronic hof2 reverb with super at mod and woodshed comp for ambient single coil neck pup tones with the mid boost at 3 oclock more or less on my mesa mark v 35 combo and fore hevier tones i use a wampler dracarys and just the halo in the fx loop.
Thanks for this. Very Floydesque 😊.
It all starts with the hands, but I’ll say the whole stack of equipment is amazing. Makes me want to spend $
Thanks for the video. I have changed my pedal order delay into reverb sounds so much better.
Lovely video, thank you for demonstrating how you do this
Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge! So inspiring…
Great tone!!!
Could watch/listen to you play for weeks on end, man! Video idea - “ear training”, but instead of for notes, for tone. When you hear a song or guitar tone you really like, how do you know what effects to use to recreate it? Basically, it’s the missing link between the original artists and your “sounds like” videos (which are the stuff of legends!!!).