Toneclips- what is helpful/unhelpful

[bender]

I've recorded toneclips of some of my gear over the last few months but each time I've been utterly at a loss as to what to play. Recording is easy- I work in a studio and my rig is permanently set up. What I've been doing to keep it from getting boring is playing the same riff or lick through the variations of what I'm demoing- eg 3x through to show the different pickup tones on my guitar or once clean and then once dirty etc.

What's useful though? Chords? A lead line? Doublestops? Riffage? Short? Long?

[Bg]

yeah I never have any idea what to play, so usually I do a song just finished one actually - my new partscaster and bellbird

[ash]

Playing the same line through each setting/pickup/whatever is the most useful way. But you probably need a few lines to choose from to suit the type of guitar/amp/whatever. There's no point playing a delicate finger-picked number to demo a triple rectifier at full noise, is there

Not that you're likely to be doing that, I wouldn't think...

Something that shows all the strings, several positions along the fretboard, key tricks like vibrato, bends, etc. I have heard people talk about showing how complex chords come through, 7ths, 9ths, 11ths etc. to demonstrate clarity and inter-whatzit distortion.

[TmcB]

Bash out some chords, let them ring out. Do a low single note line, a high single note line, roll voll off. That's what I think would hit the mark

[bender]

Thanks guys- that's exactly the kind of answer I was hoping for. I might have to work out a few more demo riffs for the purpose.

[Hot_Grits]

Just suit the style of music you're using the gear for. It's ideal if people don't wank too much in most cases, but wankiness would be the perfect thing if you were demoing the articulation and speed of response of a high gain rig, or if your intended audience is of the 'physical therapist player' variety.

Mostly what I want to hear is chords and notes ringing out, especially for overdrive clips. When I hear an overdrive tone I basically ask myself 'is playing 40 minutes of mostly power chords with this rig going to annoy and fatigue me?'.

[GrantB]

What is unhelpful I find is when some adds lots of reverb etc when testing out a guitar or pedal. All it does is just colour the tone. So many youtube gear clips are useless because the sound is not dry and of high quality.

In terms of noodling; reptitive riffs, strummed chords, high notes, low notes all need to be heard. I don't have time for tone clips of my own but it really annoys when some people get it so wrong...rant over.

[Gelato]

- First, throw away the expensive recording equipment. Replace with a webcam mic.
- Play "Canon Rock", badly, out of time, mostly bum notes, into a high gain patch on your POD.
- Compress the shit out of the resulting audio files.
- Upload to YouTube for further compression.
- Wait mearly seconds for people to post comments on YouTube and forums all over the world how your tone is both the best and worst in the history of tone.
- Shake head, place face in palm, take up the drums.

[GrantB]

- First, throw away the expensive recording equipment. Replace with a webcam mic.
- Play "Canon Rock", badly, out of time, mostly bum notes, into a high gain patch on your POD.
- Compress the shit out of the resulting audio files.
- Upload to YouTube for further compression.
- Wait mearly seconds for people to post comments on YouTube and forums all over the world how your tone is both the best and worst in the history of tone.
- Shake head, place face in palm, take up the drums.

...so true...you missed the "get defensive about shit tone comments and threaten everyone"