Blind tests and the "golden ears" myth

I haven't watched the video yet, I'll do it when I'm by my computer.
But it's hard to tell much from YouTube videos. Even putting the modeling thing aside, I've heard amps or guitars the sounded great on YT but I ended up not liking when I played them or heard them in person.
YT is useful as a very general reference so you're not buying something completely blinded but the real test is the gear in my hands, preferably with the band. Same as it's always been.
 
FuzzyAce said:
Whatever he used, the tones were not good imo. A lot of noise in the signal and it felt weak overall.
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Frankly, the noise threw me off - a lot of modern modelers demos rely excessively on noise gates, where real world high gain amps are noisy AF.

The Unchained tone nailed in these videos sounded great to my ears.
 
I have 100% noticed that if someone is doing a comparison where they show what they're playing through, my ears start to look for things that I already believe about the device, like maybe the Helix is missing low end or Fractal has extended high end or whatever. But when someone does a blind test, I'm completely lost.

It would be really fun to have a blind LIVE test between a tube amp and a modeler, running through the same speaker cab on a switch. I'm curious if I would be able to tell a difference in feel or dynamics. I bet I couldn't.
 
mercifulfuzziness said:
What happened to to the "if it sounds good to you, it's good" mantra?
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And on a more serious note: When you're on your own, it's the only thing that matters. When you're in a band, there's some more persons who should rather think it sounds good involved. And once you have an audience, while you could still ignore people's opinions, it's absolutely valid for the audience to have an opinion. And in this case, that happened to be my opinion.
 
Ryan's done a few EP's where he's done everything that are pretty cool. I dig the HevyDevy vibes on this



More of a 'shuggah vibe on this



His tests are always thorough and he's always coming from a place of genuine interest and passion. Good dude.
 
Jarick said:
t would be really fun to have a blind LIVE test between a tube amp and a modeler, running through the same speaker cab on a switch. I'm curious if I would be able to tell a difference in feel or dynamics. I bet I couldn't.
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I sort of did that quite a while ago (some mates and me were arguing about real amps vs. a Kemper). We even had an Ampete switch /w connected loads at our disposal, so switching amps and cabs was instant. Out of the 5 of us (all more or less into all this since quite a while) we all had our moments when we could detect the differences and other moments when we couldn't. Hasn't been any scientific test, one of the guys simply happens to also do KPA profiles in his studio and we were originally just meant to be meeting for some beers.

The most interesting takeaway was another thing, though (and it was basically how it all started anyway). The guy owning the studio had us play through some profiles (which he had labeled 1, 2, 3) and which we all thought were sufficiently different to come up with a clear distinction. Which absolutely worked when A/B/C-ing them directly. But after just 2 minutes (or so) of a break, we all have been fooled. The guy had taken notes of the last profile each of us had played before a break and then asked us whether the one we would now play would be the same or not. All of us lost it hard, no better than what random statistics would result in, too.
 
2112 said:
His tests are always thorough and he's always coming from a place of genuine interest and passion. Good dude.
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I have absolutely no doubt about that. I still don't like much of the sounds I heard so far, though.
 
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Ryan is a good dude from all I have seen of his videos. The "all sounds the same" stuff falls into the trap of requiring absolutely ridiculous settings in a lot of cases to sound "right" and "accurate" to something else. Ridiculous to the point of if it was analog gear; it wouldn't work with those settings in a live scenario because, you know; Master on .175 isn't exactly going to work with a drummer and full band. Marked for later \m/
 
He does seem like a cool dude, nothing against him or his playing -- I like his music that @2112 posted. Just thought the tones in this particular OP vid weren't dialed in well.

Jarick said:
I have 100% noticed that if someone is doing a comparison where they show what they're playing through, my ears start to look for things that I already believe about the device, like maybe the Helix is missing low end or Fractal has extended high end or whatever. But when someone does a blind test, I'm completely lost.
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Blind comparison tests from a listener's stand point don't mean too much to me. If it sounds good it is good no matter what device is used. A lot of times they all sound good even. But something that gets glazed over a lot is the player's perspective on how the sound reacts in their hands on a guitar. The may all sound very similar -- but they also can feel and respond differently. Sound and feel are 2 separate things but unfortunately get lumped together in these discussions.
 
I’m not going to watch, I learned long ago there’s no point in questioning what other people say they hear.

And I find no value in listening to blind clips on YT, I only care what it sounds and feels like when I’m actually playing it myself
 
Hmmmm..... Guy makes video to try and cure us from videos and visuals getting in the way of making music.

Jason Bateman No GIF by Emmys
 
metropolis_4 said:
I’m not going to watch, I learned long ago there’s no point in questioning what other people say they hear.

And I find no value in listening to blind clips on YT, I only care what it sounds and feels like when I’m actually playing it myself
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Time is precious. My time even more so! :LOL:


:beer

I am so over the comparisons and A/B'ing and other vomit-inducing tendencies of the Geartubers.

What's the point other than driving views/clicks/likes to their bottom line??

I have my 1 or 2 trusted sources of good Intel and that's plenty enough for meager ol' me.
 
la szum said:
Time is precious. My time even more so! :LOL:


:beer

I am so over the comparisons and A/B'ing and other vomit-inducing tendencies of the Geartubers.

What's the point other than driving views/clicks/likes to their bottom line??

I have my 1 or 2 trusted sources of good Intel and that's plenty enough for meager ol' me.
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You mean you don't have an hour to dedicate across two videos of a fairly mediocre sounding POD clip? nonsense!


:LOL:
 
FuzzyAce said:
My main gripe with vids like this -- the guy seems cool, but there is excessive talking and hyping up of things. But then when the meat of the vid happens the tones are lacking whether digital or amp mic'd up. I don't claim to be a recording engineer expert or anything, I know enough to get by ok, but if you're going down this comparison or guessing what amp format at least make the tones pleasing. :grin
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“So just to make sure we are clear - this could be ANY amp system? And by ‘any’ you mean…ANY amp system?” Ugh. That was a lot to sit through for some truly shit tones.
 
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