Are Videoclips Useless?

I like samples but I prefer them to be audio not video cause 99% of the videos including the ones you show sound horrible.

In a sample its just a idea. Trust me in those videos they sound to bright and modern and I would be turned off immediately since I hate modern tone and modern sounding basses. I prefer a old school tone.

Samples are good but not perfect since I can take say Wootens Fodera and make it sound nothing like his samples would sound.

The more I play, build, and analyze basses ive come to the conclusion there just a tool,

So to me soundclips are nice to hear said bass, but sorta useless since tone and what you personally can ease out of it are totally different then someone else.

Hey Dr Cheese, I wondered when someone would ask that question.

Some folks value them I guess, which is fine. There's nothing I'm going to hear thru my 1" PC speakers that will tell me how a bass will sound thru my amps and my signal chain, with my choice of strings, and me playing it.

I'd rather read an intelligent description with comparisons to gear I'm familiar with.

I guess I vote "zero value" for sound clips in my case.

the sound clips I find useful are the ones from the Lakland page (perhaps because I love me a good lakland).
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they have a sample for a good amount of basses using the same bass lines for each different pickup combo. It really has given me a good feel as to the differences in their line. Are audio clips a perfect way of knowing a bass is for you... no no no. But, in this case, I find they do a good job of showing a decent range of how each bass can sound.
Their lh3 demo is also very useful if considering one of their 4 or 55 series
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Video clips start out with a major deficit: the sound is recorded through the camera's onboard mike. These mikes are not designed to capture the full frequencies and nuance of musical instruments. they are mostly designed for voice. Yop that off with the fact that most demo video clips are shot with low end camera's (meaning low end mikes) and IMO they are useless except to get an idea of the players skills or lack thereof. As far as demoing bass tone i think they are mostly fluff.

But that's just the begging because you have the compression that the video need to go through to convert to mpg format and the second compression applied when Youtube converts the video to flv. You loose a fair amount in the conversions although it's comparable to converting to mp3. Some can clearly hear the difference between uncompressed audio and some can't YMMV.

Now the last part of the chain, the speakers on the end users computer. these are often not the best audio quality.

Add this all together and the first video tells me very little, the second does give me a sense of some of the different tones available, but it doesn't sound very good to me (which I'm sure is not the case in the room there) and the third is all bottom thumb and top end clank.

As far as the Lakland sound-clips mentioned, I've listened to a lot of those and maybe it's just me ears, but I hear very little difference between a lot of them within each model. I do hear difference from model to model though. However sound-clips do have a chance of being more representative if they are studio recorded.

All a along way of saying that for me playing the instrument is all that gives me the information I need.

agreed 100%

Are video clips useless for giving you an idea what a bass will sound like in-person in your hands going through your rig in your room with your strings? Arguably, yes. Same with audio clips.

But are they just plain useless? No way.

As a contrast clips are also useful. Someone may see that NAMM LEJ clip and think the brand is all bright modern trebly slappy vibe, then when I post a clip of me doing Queen and Ray Charles people can hear that if I can make it easily sound reasonably old-school then anyone can.

Clips are also useful in what they don't show. When some big-name players on big stages and TV shows are playing a brand, it gives it credo. "Good enough for them, good enough for you" is the message, even if you can't hear or see that message on the clips.

Witness this very website - visuals sell more gear than anything else. People demand pics primarily, and maybe clips as a very distant 2nd at best. Video clips are visual of course, and above all visuals *to a very large degree* sell "boutiques".

Clips simply help keep GASsers clicking. With each pic, video, and thread bump the chronic GAS sufferer is worn down until they buy. Have you read the A-C threads? Imagine how many fewer would have been sold if there were no TB thread(s) about the brand - perhaps 40 fewer in the past year alone? That's what ... almost $150000 in sales? What if that first post were the posting of a relatively "uesless" video clip - how useless would it really be if it's the one that got the GAS-du-jour going?

That goes far beyond clips as useful audio info of course, but that's not really all clips are for is it?

Really great points have been made here, so I won't repeat them.

My beef is the seemingly obligatory [non-grooving] fast slap triplet stuff so many guys do these days. I mean a cat will have a perfectly fine groove going down, but then he just has to mess it up with the "dig-id-da dig-id-da" just to show he can do it. STOP!!!!

Despite all the factors mentioned about sound quality, etc. - which I agree with - I'm wondering how many people will still say that these clips are "useless"?

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"Amazing", perhaps. But "useless"? I'd say at the very least "informative". How many believed an electric bass could sound like that? I know they're audio clips, but the discussion has gone beyond "video" and even regarding video the primary points of discussion is the usefulness of the *sound*.

Not trying to prove anyone wrong or change any minds, but the fact is - as always - that there are no simple absolutes as "useless".

As for the fast slappers, I'm guessing they're just trying to put the basses through their paces. The fast slap clip posted above wasn't of a guy trying to demo the bass for viewers, as far as I can tell, and possibly he wasn't even aware he was being filmed. I personally always find it a bit awkward demoing a bass without a drummer and my preferred rig and setup. Add people standing around and video cameras and ... well ... the results would probably be quite "useless" so I can't cast any stones.

Why is Keifer Sutherland demoing LEJ basses?

Dr. Cheese said:

This clip is priceless, IMO. He clearly shows why this bass is worth considering. I think every boutique builder should have a few clips like this on Youtube.

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That's TB's own "triplelutz"...

Barker Vertical Bass has some very clever YouTube videos that address a lot of the questions players always have about the basses. Just search out Barker Bass on YouTube and you'll find 'em .....

Here's one about slapping on a Barker

Some are useful, some are not.
IMO

Dr. Cheese said:

You sound like you are setting up a straw man. I differentiated between what I felt were useful videoclips and useless videoclips in my first three posts.

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Then since by your own admission you weren't saying all clips are useless, and since I didn't reply directly to your initial post, it's possible I wasn't addressing you?

My posts have been directed towards addressing the general topic, and that post your quoted was directed at some peoples' contention that clips are useless just because the sound won't be the sound they'd get on their rigs.

However as I said in an earlier post, even the type of clip you cited as a useless has it's uses.

You wrote "My point is that someone just jamming on a nice bass does not really transmit that much information about the qualities of that bass. A good demo really needs to show what the basses features are and how it can produce it tones or explain what makes it playable."

If we presume the intent is to transmit information about the qualities of the bass via a demo, then all replies would consist of "well, duh!"

If you think of clips as advertising, at least in part, then any builder/retailer will tell you "it'$ all good" so long as there's discussion and the threads get bumped. Bottom line, you'll sell primarily via visuals and probably not at all if you have no pics/vids.

I listened, and I found them informative, but I have enough sense not to base a purchase decision on you tube clips... so, no I think you tube clips are useful...

I think that the guy was sensible enough to preface his jamming with their associated settings. He took his time, dialed in a tone and riffed for a few seconds, then stopped. on to the next... great way to communicate the range of the instrument. he wasn't just wailing away for an hour on the same groove...

I think that was Dr Cheese's point... and I got the point... and GAS for a LEJ... thanks Dr Cheese