Jim Lill: "In-the-room tone doesn't matter" and he's absolutely right

[GreatGreen]

This just came across my feed, thought you guys might find it interesting.
Here's everybody's favorite controversial youtube guitar player with yet another banger of a claim.



In this case, I 100% agree with him.

 

[James Freeman]

He's right.

This is a good reason for every guitarist to learn to create IRs with their own specific gear including microphone and placement.

I also said in the past that a tone is not really unique unless you mic your own specific cab.
That's why I love 80s and early 90s guitar sounds, every album has a unique, recognizable, and interesting guitar tone.

I've always known that electric guitar tone is all about the cab, mic, and mic placement.
In the room sound doesn't exist beyond a small instance in space+time only a few individuals experiencED (note past tense), if you werent there, well too bad.

 

[NKP]

He is right.
But the pleasure to play in front of an amp exists too.
Depends what is the musician goal. If it is to create his own tone or copy the artist he likes … if the guy play just at home or can play loud …
My best feeling and memories as a guitar player is when I tried the real amps in front of me, or when I was giging with huge stack behind my ass live.
Also a good guitar take sound a lot like what you hear when you are in front of an amp.
For example when I play through my real JP2c behind some dream theater records, the sound fits perfectly and it is not mic in the room

 

[Cirrus]

I feel like a lot of his videos go down a philosophical "ship of Theseus/ shadows on the cave wall" line of thinking which is quite convincing, but... it kind of misses what, to me, is a fairly fundamental point. Music is art, art is about emotions and perception and subjectives, and as an artist those things, even if they are not real, all feed into the final product: a performance, and a set of choices about how it's going to sound.

 

[spawnofthesith]

 

[JiveTurkey]

Seems like a really nice kid. Other than that;

 

[TubeStack]

We need an eye roll reaction...

 

[spawnofthesith]

Seems like a really nice kid. Other than that;

Someone's gotta continue feeding the guitar communities nihilism kink

 

[TubeStack]

We need an eye roll reaction...

(Seems more polite/civil than pooping on something...)

 

[GuitarBilly]

This guy's science level:

It's said that we live in the information era, but I've never seen so much misinformation spread so fast.

 

[Fireproof]

JT’s next pedalboard iteration may have a tobbagan. LOL.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Meh, I like this guy. He gets some things a little off, sometimes, but I'duch rather somebody put in some work and do something interesting, like his cab video, even if he doesn't get it 100% right from a causality perspective everytime...I find it way more interesting to see a dude make a guitar cab out of polystyrene and show that it actually works pretty well than a ateady-stream of gear demos interspersed with nonsense commentary on "the next big thing", "the death of y" or whatever other filler moat tubers feel the need to produce.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Better Than FrickerTM

 

[sleewell]

tube amps making lots of speakers move air at high volume is still fucking awesome and thats a hill i would gladly die on. love my helix too, i forever won't understand why it has to be one or the other.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Better Than FrickerTM

I kick my kid out of the house every morning to walk to school and tell him "have fun, learn lots, and be Better than Fricker!"

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

tube amps making lots of speakers move air is still f*****g awesome and thats a hill i would gladly die on. love my helix too, i forever dont get why it has to be one or the other.

This dude is a session guy and hired-gun guitarist for singers - it doesn't have to be one or the other, but one pays his bills and the other does not.

 

[GuitarBilly]

Long story short, when we're in a room playing the guitar, getting the rig to sound good in the room is important and inspiring. End of story.

All the other stuff he added on is irrelevant to the fact that everyone likes their rig to sound good when they're in their room playing it.

 

[sleewell]

This dude is a session guy and hired-gun guitarist for singers - it doesn't have to be one or the other, but one pays his bills and the other does not.

fair enough. gotta use the right tool for the right job.

 

[paisleywookiee]

I think it's something most of us (here, anyway) I already know and understand, but he puts it into a concise video, explaining it........for people to argue about.

 

[laxu]

Meh, I like this guy. He gets some things a little off, sometimes, but I'duch rather somebody put in some work and do something interesting, like his cab video, even if he doesn't get it 100% right from a causality perspective everytime...I find it way more interesting to see a dude make a guitar cab out of polystyrene and show that it actually works pretty well than a ateady-stream of gear demos interspersed with nonsense commentary on "the next big thing", "the death of y" or whatever other filler moat tubers feel the need to produce.

I find he seems like a "let's take a premise, do very little to find any previous research on the subject and then make an entertaining video about it" type of guy.

But what he says in the video is probably what a lot of people need to hear. On e.g Reddit where there's a lot more beginner players than on many other forums, there's plenty of "how do I get this tone from this song/video" or "what is he using to get this tone" type questions and I think we've all been there. Back in the day nobody was telling people "what you hear is the effect of the recorded signal chain and studio magic by a talented engineer to fit it in a mix".