W
e here at Tone
Report and Pro
Guitar Shop have
been in the video
demo game for quite some time
(since 2007 to be exact), and I think
it’s fair to say that, in that time, we
have contributed significantly to the
effort to make guitar gear demos
better sounding, better looking,
more useful, and more entertaining
for the average viewer. Most of the
credit for these improvements
should rightfully go to our chief
video guy, the illustrious Andy
Martin, whose playing, personality,
and production skills have long been
our greatest asset. In recent years,
we have noticed that many other
professional gear demonstrators
have followed our lead, and many of
them are also making video demos
of excellent quality. However,
despite the overall higher standards
that have been set in the current
gear demo scene, we still see an
awful lot of terrible demo videos out
there in YouTube land, and not just
from enthusiastic amateurs. There
are a number of paid professionals
producing gear videos that sound
atrocious, look a fright, and contain
more tongue wagging and aimless
noodling than useful, appropriate
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TONE TALK //
product demonstration. Thus, as a community
service, we would like to impart to everyone—paid
professional and bedroom amateur alike—a few
friendly pieces of advice for making better video
demos. These tips are based on years of our own
accumulated production experiences, feedback
from our millions of channel viewers, and countless
hours watching and listening to the videos of others.
MAKE IT SOUND GOOD
It should be obvious that the sound of the video is,
by a large margin, the most important aspect of it.
Players primarily watch gear demo videos to hear
how the gear sounds, either to educate themselves
before making a purchase, or to satisfy some
curiosity about a product they cannot try out for
Demo Video Do’s and Don’ts