I think the problem isn't so much the forum, but people's expectations of it. The way it functions now is fairly normal - when I joined a few years ago, it was pretty atypical of most places.
A forum is a place for discussion - a chance to talk about things you know and exchange ideas etc. Yet a lot of the people act like there are only certain ways of doing specific things, and it was worse for that when I first found the forum a few years ago. People would come on, ask a question, get one answer and take that as fact; the cab micing, C4 settings, POD settings, drum samples, etc. Now, new people come on and try to discuss things, and they get shot down if they don't agree with the forum's standards - you have to use a SM57 on a cab, you can't get good results with impulses, you have to replace the kick.
When I first came on here I posted some of my recordings and I got some really useful tips, specifically about my recordings. I don't bother now because I know all I'd get is people saying it doesn't sound like 'Clayman'/'Stabbing The Drama'/whatever - I wouldn't get opinions on my work, or suggestions to improve the sound I've created; I'd get completely irrelevant comparisons to other people's work.
The whole Adam D Micing thing is a great example. When I first started recording stuff, I took a microphone and stuck it in front of an amp. Then I moved it about lots until it sounded best for what I was trying to do. Then I read up about placement in engineering books to learn about it in more depth and understand why positions sound like they do. One of the first things I read was a PDF on Shure's website (ya know, thems people what makes the microphones) - and the first things it says about micing a cab was to put the mic 6" from the grille for the most natural sound. That was pretty much what I'd found from doing it myself too. And yet when it comes up here, it was like someone had suggested the best tone would come from sticking the microphone up your own arse whilst doing a handstand. Even people that have been here a long time and produce great sounding tones reacted like they'd never bothered to try anything other than mic-on-the-grille (a-la Sneap).
Basically, if someone asks "How do you mic a cab?", the answer here is always the same - either a single SM57 on axis moved until it sounds good an or angled pair blah blah blah - whereas the actual answer should be "if you put it here, you'll get this type of sound; moving it here will add A but mean less B" and so on.
A lot of this forum is now just vicarious elitism - people stating one technique as fact because that's how someone they like does it. Yet bizarrely, when people arrive asking for GuitarHack's impulses/Solo C settings/etc., they get moaned at for looking for an instant fix rather than learning the trade. The hypocrisy of it is maddening. Most of the people that join up now do so because they think they'll get told exactly how to sound like Andy Sneap - and they think that because that's the impression casual visitors get when they see a forum that only has one way of doing everything.
If you want it to be a more productive (and I guarantee friendly) place, everyone needs to be more open-minded to techniques, and more experimental with their own work. The problems you're all talking about have been created because the forum has got more and more narrowly focused and less and less open to alternatives methods.
Steve
A forum is a place for discussion - a chance to talk about things you know and exchange ideas etc. Yet a lot of the people act like there are only certain ways of doing specific things, and it was worse for that when I first found the forum a few years ago. People would come on, ask a question, get one answer and take that as fact; the cab micing, C4 settings, POD settings, drum samples, etc. Now, new people come on and try to discuss things, and they get shot down if they don't agree with the forum's standards - you have to use a SM57 on a cab, you can't get good results with impulses, you have to replace the kick.
When I first came on here I posted some of my recordings and I got some really useful tips, specifically about my recordings. I don't bother now because I know all I'd get is people saying it doesn't sound like 'Clayman'/'Stabbing The Drama'/whatever - I wouldn't get opinions on my work, or suggestions to improve the sound I've created; I'd get completely irrelevant comparisons to other people's work.
The whole Adam D Micing thing is a great example. When I first started recording stuff, I took a microphone and stuck it in front of an amp. Then I moved it about lots until it sounded best for what I was trying to do. Then I read up about placement in engineering books to learn about it in more depth and understand why positions sound like they do. One of the first things I read was a PDF on Shure's website (ya know, thems people what makes the microphones) - and the first things it says about micing a cab was to put the mic 6" from the grille for the most natural sound. That was pretty much what I'd found from doing it myself too. And yet when it comes up here, it was like someone had suggested the best tone would come from sticking the microphone up your own arse whilst doing a handstand. Even people that have been here a long time and produce great sounding tones reacted like they'd never bothered to try anything other than mic-on-the-grille (a-la Sneap).
Basically, if someone asks "How do you mic a cab?", the answer here is always the same - either a single SM57 on axis moved until it sounds good an or angled pair blah blah blah - whereas the actual answer should be "if you put it here, you'll get this type of sound; moving it here will add A but mean less B" and so on.
A lot of this forum is now just vicarious elitism - people stating one technique as fact because that's how someone they like does it. Yet bizarrely, when people arrive asking for GuitarHack's impulses/Solo C settings/etc., they get moaned at for looking for an instant fix rather than learning the trade. The hypocrisy of it is maddening. Most of the people that join up now do so because they think they'll get told exactly how to sound like Andy Sneap - and they think that because that's the impression casual visitors get when they see a forum that only has one way of doing everything.
If you want it to be a more productive (and I guarantee friendly) place, everyone needs to be more open-minded to techniques, and more experimental with their own work. The problems you're all talking about have been created because the forum has got more and more narrowly focused and less and less open to alternatives methods.
Steve
