Fear of plugins?

[Gabriel 1313]

I thought I would explain. When I hear people using plugins I think they sound Awesome. My fear is that I will not become a better player if zi use them. To put this into context, when I had my first distortion, Olive it. Because I was covering up my mistake it sounded way better. I am afraid that will happen again.

 

[CanserDYI]

This is insane...why would you not become a better player if you enjoy the sound coming out of the speakers? If anything you'll become a better player over time because you'll tweak less and practice more...

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

Am I in a parallel universe? Usually when talking about plugins it's the other way around 🤣🤣 Now the plugins sound better than the real thing?

 

[John]

Now that's just crazy. Like Mel Gibson. If anything, you're only holding yourself down if you don't keep an open mind on what to try out and use.

Ultimately they're simply tools, nothing more and nothing less. As for your apprehension about using distortion, keep in mind that's a different animal than playing clean. So you'll have other things to be mindful of, if you still want it to sound good (ie- proper muting, getting the superfluous noise under control and out of the way).

 

[nickgray]

Fear of the plug
Fear of the plug
I have a constant fear that something's always near
Fear of the plug
Fear of the plug
I have a phobia that something's always there

Have you run your fingers down the...

 

[profwoot]

Yeah when you're trying to clean up your technique it's better to find a nice crunchy tone that isn't going to hide your errors but is still hot enough that unmuted strings will announce their presence.

I have 3 different gear setups in my house: 1 plugins, 1 modeler/power amp, 1 amps/pedals. They each have their pros and cons but none is going to affect your ability to get better.

 

[Isolationist]

I got into plugins because I had to go on a different work schedule and my practice time had shifted; I already had headphones, I just needed an interface and a plugin and I could play for as long as I wanted without disturbing anyone in my house.

So, in that sense, I did get better because I simply kept practicing. You can tweak that sound anyway you need to, just don't think that you're going to handicap yourself because of one aspect of the sound that is entirely within your control.

Also, if you want to play more cleanly, slow down and really think about what you're trying to do.

 

[Stuck_in_a_dream]

LOL, OP brings some childhood memories. Back in the day, no internet, and finding a good guitar teacher means u had to travel to nearest city. In those days there were stupid sh*t like that, like to be a good guitar player, u have to train on nylon/acoustic guitars first, or u HAVE to learn to read music, etc. All that feeds into fears of incompetence, or an imposter syndrome if u took any "shortcuts", goodness forbid.

I'm glad we don't have this stuff anymore, and that crap is just that....crap. @OP: use plugins/modelers or whatever u deem fit to express yourself musically. Focus on dedicating the time & effort to reach your musical goals w/ minimum BS/waste, life is too short.

 

[Lorcan Ward]

Nearly 20 years of playing electric guitar and I still don’t understand where “distortion hides mistakes” comes from.

I was recording a guitar solo last night and was thinking how much distortion emphasises your mistakes, especially with lead guitar:
Pick wrong and you get a clicky sound
Pick over a node and you can trigger a harmonic
Move your finger when changing string a microsecond too late and you get that horrible aliasing sound
Have to mute with your picking hand and fretting hand while play otherwise you will get hiss and strings you’re not even playing will ring out
You need to use a noise gate to stop hiss but also they will cut off your notes, especially when you bend

The list goes on an on. F distortion >: |

 

[ikarus]

Is Gabriel 1313 and Vejichan the same person?

 

[TheRobotCow]

The biggest thing that I have learned is that if it inspires you to just pick up the guitar and play then its a good thing. Who cares what other people say, stop thinking you have to be "good enough" to aquire a certain piece of gear. Who cares if you suck but you have a $8000+ custom guitar and a sweet amp and pedalboard rig. Life is too short not to enjoy it.

 

[nickgray]

Nearly 20 years of playing electric guitar and I still don’t understand where “distortion hides mistakes” comes from.

I think it's a solid advice for beginners mainly. You know how occasionally you stumble upon a rate my tone video or my first cover, and it's a total disaster. Hilarious amounts of gain, horribly out of tune guitar, extremely poor playing all around, non existent muting skills. That's when dial down the gain advice is really useful.

But as a whole - yes, playing with distortion is harder, your muting skills have to be extremely on point. But guitarists who complain about it would also complain that you're playing with no soul and their idea of metal tones is Pantera tone with 2x as much gain, you know how that one goes

 

[wheresthefbomb]

I use plug ins whenever I plug my amp in... to the wall. Sounds rad.

Is Gabriel 1313 and Vejichan the same person?

I almost asked this on another thread, then didn't, but now I'm starting to get real suspicious

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

Nearly 20 years of playing electric guitar and I still don’t understand where “distortion hides mistakes” comes from.

I was recording a guitar solo last night and was thinking how much distortion emphasises your mistakes, especially with lead guitar:
Pick wrong and you get a clicky sound
Pick over a node and you can trigger a harmonic
Move your finger when changing string a microsecond too late and you get that horrible aliasing sound
Have to mute with your picking hand and fretting hand while play otherwise you will get hiss and strings you’re not even playing will ring out
You need to use a noise gate to stop hiss but also they will cut off your notes, especially when you bend

The list goes on an on. F distortion >: |

Doesn't hide mistakes but makes it easier to have note definition. Like with a compressor. Especially for someone new to the guitar stuff like legato or sweep picking is easier with distorsion. Which is I guess why it's not recommended to practice exercises.

 

[CanserDYI]

Nearly 20 years of playing electric guitar and I still don’t understand where “distortion hides mistakes” comes from.

I was recording a guitar solo last night and was thinking how much distortion emphasises your mistakes, especially with lead guitar:
Pick wrong and you get a clicky sound
Pick over a node and you can trigger a harmonic
Move your finger when changing string a microsecond too late and you get that horrible aliasing sound
Have to mute with your picking hand and fretting hand while play otherwise you will get hiss and strings you’re not even playing will ring out
You need to use a noise gate to stop hiss but also they will cut off your notes, especially when you bend

The list goes on an on. F distortion >: |

QFT

I think distortion can hide bad rhythm playing, garage punk bands come to mind, just distort until it sounds like a wall of sound no matter what rhythm you're picking at, but yeah, for lead work or anything precise it's just much more difficult.

 

[olejason]

LOL, OP brings some childhood memories. Back in the day, no internet, and finding a good guitar teacher means u had to travel to nearest city. In those days there were stupid sh*t like that, like to be a good guitar player, u have to train on nylon/acoustic guitars first, or u HAVE to learn to read music, etc. All that feeds into fears of incompetence, or an imposter syndrome if u took any "shortcuts", goodness forbid.

I'm glad we don't have this stuff anymore, and that crap is just that....crap. @OP: use plugins/modelers or whatever u deem fit to express yourself musically. Focus on dedicating the time & effort to reach your musical goals w/ minimum BS/waste, life is too short.

The big one when I was a kid was you'll never be able to play well if you use tabs to learn songs

 

[TedEH]

Olive it

For when your tone just needs a little more tangy flavour.

I used to be told that learning "bar chords" was going to stunt my musical growth and that to "do it properly" I had to learn "real chords" first. Don't get me wrong, I learned all kinds of stuff, but it took me a while to figure out that the people telling me this were saying it because they themselves didn't know how to use bar chords - rather than admit that I knew how to do something they didn't, they came up with an excuse to try to prevent me from deviating from how they would play. I don't know whether they did so intentionally or not, but they later admitted that it bothered them that they couldn't keep up.

 

[CanserDYI]

Anyone telling you "doing X will stunt your growth as a guitarist" is just scared you'll out play them .

 

[Lorcan Ward]

The big one when I was a kid was you'll never be able to play well if you use tabs to learn songs

"Learning other people's songs will stop you creating your own"

 

[NoodleFace]

Was this a drunk post? You can admit it, this is a safe place