AX8: what is "must have" IR ?

I pretty much just use my own that I have made and for me they get me the best sounds I can get. I have found a few free one's online that are really good as well.
 
metallica86 said:
Hello guys,

Love this forum so far, a lot of in depth info about tweaking and presets etc...

I have my Ax8 for a month now, love it so far.

I read a lot of thread in this forum regarding "IR", some people even mention they spent more time in Cab IR than amp selection.

So what is the best and must have IR in your opinion, ? and where to buy it ?

I'd love to try and don't mind spare few extra bucks to experiment. I already tried every single cab in factory and its sound great to me, wonder how it will improve my sound with good IR.

So far I used these amp the most: Hiwatt for Floydish, Fender Deluxe Verb, HBE, Marshall JS410

I'm not into high gain territory but more in Satriani lead tone, Gilmourish, sometime slash and ACDC crunch tone :)
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It's a rabbit hole for sure with IR's the stock cabs do me just fine, 108 Petrucci V30 cab is the one i keep coming back to
 
metallica86 said:
which amp you using with ? thanks
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Different ones, I always try it first and then try others if I dont like it.
So far recorded/performed with CAE Clean, Badger 30, ODS100, Euro Red, Fox and TX Clean with that IR.
I started to love it with the stock presets Badger 30 and ODS100, and tweaked it to my liking :)
 
Thanks guys for all your help, didn't expect receive a lot of input !! amazing community here.

So last night I took some of your recommendation and tweak here and there, I'm surprise that with Stereo Cab, it sound stellar with the JVM JS410 !!, I can dial Satrianish lead tone in less than 5 minutes, and I didn't even go to "Advance" parameters... Noodling some songs like "Crying", "ten words" with backing track, sound so well and my lead tone really standout.. thanks to all of you..

Now my another band is playing a lot of Pink floyd cover, any idea which amp and cabs I could use with ? I did download some Brit Floyd presets but it's a bit harsh to my ear.. Again any recommendation is very welcome as I'm still in learning curve..

Oh almost forget, is there anywhere I can check all the distortion and modulation effect "real" name ? I know it's copyright issue so they have to change the name in Axe
 
This post is coming from a Fractal Audio Systems IR producer so bare in mind that there's bias in my comment for sure.

Lately I've been sensing a weird attitude towards IR's on this forum. The reason IR's are important is because it's easily the most powerful tool in our unit. Comments like "don't go there it's a rabbit hole" are IMO very counter-productive especially to someone who just got their first Fractal unit and is trying to explore the range of what Fractal units are capable of. It's like someone asking tips on how to swim and your answer being "don't go into the water it's not safe". In reality it would be best to learn how to swim. In reality it would be best for you to learn how to use IR's rather than being too lazy to learn how to swim... and poetically drown in your lazyness.

We can debate opinions but facts are facts. You will get way more tonal variety with 1 amp sim and 20 IR's than 20 amp sims and 1 IR.

There are plenty of good stock IR's that you can start out with. There are seven that I've shot that have the "ML" tag in their names. That being said all of those IR's from me are none of the IR's I use myself out of those packs as those are mostly Cliff's favorites and we play different genres. Anyways they are meant to be samples on what kind of tones you can expect to get and if you like a certain stock IR you probably want to explore that particular Cab Pack by buying it so that is what I recommend you to do. And don't go for mixed IR's straight away. The majority of tones you hear on the radio etc. are mostly just one SM57 so start there.

Sure I get that finding the right IR will take time but I've spend way more time trying to tweak a good sound from the amp block and not getting anywhere because of an IR that was lacking. I do realize that people are searching for a "quick fix" like there's a single IR that will solve all problems and after that you never have to think about it again. That being said the closest thing to this quick fix IMO is ML Brit PR75 Aces from Cab Pack 20 for Marshally tones and ML USA Bulb Cab Pack 13 for modern tones as I demonstrate in this video where I randomly create tones with random IR's:



Seriously think about the evolution here. In the Fractal Audio world we are modeling professional recorded tones. Do you guys remember how we had to do things before there was an Axe-Fx? You either used a crappy POD sound or had to rent a studio or buy a studio and spend countless hours getting those mics placed and you would only have a good tone when you were recording but outside that studio you would only worry that you're louder than the other guitar player in your band practice. You had no idea what a good or bad tone was in a mix context. Nowadays everyone has a strong opinion on how a guitar tone should sit in a mix. That's a huge evolution. So sorry if I strongly disagree with some guys in here but refusing to spend the time to find the right IR for you tells me that you don't really care about your tone as much as you think and you're not the right person to give advice on the subject.
 
ML SOUND LAB said:
This post is coming from a Fractal Audio Systems IR producer so bare in mind that there's bias in my comment for sure.

Lately I've been sensing a weird attitude towards IR's on this forum. The reason IR's are important is because it's easily the most powerful tool in our unit. Comments like "don't go there it's a rabbit hole" are IMO very counter-productive especially to someone who just got their first Fractal unit and is trying to explore the range of what Fractal units are capable of. It's like someone asking tips on how to swim and your answer being "don't go into the water it's not safe". In reality it would be best to learn how to swim. In reality it would be best for you to learn how to use IR's rather than being too lazy to learn how to swim... and poetically drown in your lazyness.

We can debate opinions but facts are facts. You will get way more tonal variety with 1 amp sim and 20 IR's than 20 amp sims and 1 IR.

There are plenty of good stock IR's that you can start out with. There are seven that I've shot that have the "ML" tag in their names. That being said all of those IR's from me are none of the IR's I use myself out of those packs as those are mostly Cliff's favorites and we play different genres. Anyways they are meant to be samples on what kind of tones you can expect to get and if you like a certain stock IR you probably want to explore that particular Cab Pack by buying it so that is what I recommend you to do. And don't go for mixed IR's straight away. The majority of tones you hear on the radio etc. are mostly just one SM57 so start there.

Sure I get that finding the right IR will take time but I've spend way more time trying to tweak a good sound from the amp block and not getting anywhere because of an IR that was lacking. I do realize that people are searching for a "quick fix" like there's a single IR that will solve all problems and after that you never have to think about it again. That being said the closest thing to this quick fix IMO is ML Brit PR75 Aces from Cab Pack 20 for Marshally tones and ML USA Bulb Cab Pack 13 for modern tones as I demonstrate in this video where I randomly create tones with random IR's:



Seriously think about the evolution here. In the Fractal Audio world we are modeling professional recorded tones. Do you guys remember how we had to do things before there was an Axe-Fx? You either used a crappy POD sound or had to rent a studio or buy a studio and spend countless hours getting those mics placed and you would only have a good tone when you were recording but outside that studio you would only worry that you're louder than the other guitar player in your band practice. You had no idea what a good or bad tone was in a mix context. Nowadays everyone has a strong opinion on how a guitar tone should sit in a mix. That's a huge evolution. So sorry if I strongly disagree with some guys in here but refusing to spend the time to find the right IR for you tells me that you don't really care about your tone as much as you think and you're not the right person to give advice on the subject.
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Hey ML, it's really good post you have,I do agree with most of the things you said.

As a new Fractal product owner, and I'm sure there are plenty of new owner like me, we want to get in depth and trying to find every solution possible to get or improve the tone we have. I think most of us always have some kind of tone in their head, and want to tweak from there.

There are so so many IR from factory and also much more in Cab Pack or any 3rd party source out there. I have a full time day job, a band to play and 5 months baby, no way I can have time to tweak and tried to mix match IR and amp together, that's why I asked what is "must have" so I can save a bit time and learn more.

I will look into cab pack 20 and 13, that video sound sick, I thought it's a real amp if don't watch the screen..

Wait cab pack 20 is more than 1000s IR? omg...
 
metallica86 said:
Hey ML, it's really good post you have,I do agree with most of the things you said.

As a new Fractal product owner, and I'm sure there are plenty of new owner like me, we want to get in depth and trying to find every solution possible to get or improve the tone we have. I think most of us always have some kind of tone in their head, and want to tweak from there.

There are so so many IR from factory and also much more in Cab Pack or any 3rd party source out there. I have a full time day job, a band to play and 5 months baby, no way I can have time to tweak and tried to mix match IR and amp together, that's why I asked what is "must have" so I can save a bit time and learn more.

I will look into cab pack 20 and 13, that video sound sick, I thought it's a real amp if don't watch the screen..

Wait cab pack 20 is more than 1000s IR? omg...
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Yeah Cab Pack 20 is 1775 IR's. :) You know originally I thought that would make people want it more but I understand that people see that number and think they need to try every IR in that pack.

All my Cab Packs have a folder called "Ace" that only include about 20 IR's that are IMO the best IR's of the pack. Most people that use my IR's only go there and find what they're looking for in there. That's the way I use the Cab Packs as well. The variety is there just so no one would ever feel like they're limited by my tastes. You can always go in there and find something else. :) Cab Pack 20 also has the Ace folders which is all I personally use out of that pack.

Let me know what kind of guitar tones you like so I can help you out. I'd love to! :)
 
ML SOUND LAB said:
Yeah Cab Pack 20 is 1775 IR's. :) You know originally I thought that would make people want it more but I understand that people see that number and think they need to try every IR in that pack.

All my Cab Packs have a folder called "Ace" that only include about 20 IR's that are IMO the best IR's of the pack. Most people that use my IR's only go there and find what they're looking for in there. That's the way I use the Cab Packs as well. The variety is there just so no one would ever feel like they're limited by my tastes. You can always go in there and find something else. :) Cab Pack 20 also has the Ace folders which is all I personally use out of that pack.

Let me know what kind of guitar tones you like so I can help you out. I'd love to! :)
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Man, your post make me want to call in sick and run home to try these Packs... I stuck at work but will post some sample sound I like as soon as i get home !!

I saw your stream with Chris @axetutorial, great video and I did learn about EQ tweaking from that video, make more stream man

Hopefully baby sleep early tonight so I can sneak out to tweak ... sound like a kid with the new toy ...
 
ML SOUND LAB said:
This post is coming from a Fractal Audio Systems IR producer so bare in mind that there's bias in my comment for sure.

Lately I've been sensing a weird attitude towards IR's on this forum. The reason IR's are important is because it's easily the most powerful tool in our unit. Comments like "don't go there it's a rabbit hole" are IMO very counter-productive especially to someone who just got their first Fractal unit and is trying to explore the range of what Fractal units are capable of. It's like someone asking tips on how to swim and your answer being "don't go into the water it's not safe". In reality it would be best to learn how to swim. In reality it would be best for you to learn how to use IR's rather than being too lazy to learn how to swim... and poetically drown in your lazyness.

We can debate opinions but facts are facts. You will get way more tonal variety with 1 amp sim and 20 IR's than 20 amp sims and 1 IR.

There are plenty of good stock IR's that you can start out with. There are seven that I've shot that have the "ML" tag in their names. That being said all of those IR's from me are none of the IR's I use myself out of those packs as those are mostly Cliff's favorites and we play different genres. Anyways they are meant to be samples on what kind of tones you can expect to get and if you like a certain stock IR you probably want to explore that particular Cab Pack by buying it so that is what I recommend you to do. And don't go for mixed IR's straight away. The majority of tones you hear on the radio etc. are mostly just one SM57 so start there.

Sure I get that finding the right IR will take time but I've spend way more time trying to tweak a good sound from the amp block and not getting anywhere because of an IR that was lacking. I do realize that people are searching for a "quick fix" like there's a single IR that will solve all problems and after that you never have to think about it again. That being said the closest thing to this quick fix IMO is ML Brit PR75 Aces from Cab Pack 20 for Marshally tones and ML USA Bulb Cab Pack 13 for modern tones as I demonstrate in this video where I randomly create tones with random IR's:

snip

Seriously think about the evolution here. In the Fractal Audio world we are modeling professional recorded tones. Do you guys remember how we had to do things before there was an Axe-Fx? You either used a crappy POD sound or had to rent a studio or buy a studio and spend countless hours getting those mics placed and you would only have a good tone when you were recording but outside that studio you would only worry that you're louder than the other guitar player in your band practice. You had no idea what a good or bad tone was in a mix context. Nowadays everyone has a strong opinion on how a guitar tone should sit in a mix. That's a huge evolution. So sorry if I strongly disagree with some guys in here but refusing to spend the time to find the right IR for you tells me that you don't really care about your tone as much as you think and you're not the right person to give advice on the subject.
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While you make some good points (it's beneficial to learn how to deal with IR's and the clear benefits that they hold), characterizing others opinions as 'lazy', and 'don't care about tone' are probably not the way to go.

I'm not sure people are looking for a quick fix all in one IR, but I would say the majority want a simplified solution. For my part, I use only 10-ish IR's for a variety of tones.

And for the OP, there is no 'best IR' for everyone. It might be painful, but do the effort in finding those that just 'work' for you. Stick with one amp, and stay there until you're satisfied (IMO the factory cabs are very good...move to the cab packs if you don't find what you like.)

Good luck.

R
 
I don't think I called anyone that. The lazy part was just about the swimming reference. But sure IMO it's better to take the time to learn what you can do with something rather than just go: "I probably won't need that." especially in this case. It took me a year or two to realize that pretty much all of the problems I was having with my Axe-Fx Standard and Ultra were because I had no idea what I was doing IR-wise. Back then I easily spent days tweaking a preset trying to make it sound good. These days it's just like I showed in that video. Good IR and one minute of tweaking and I'm good to go and I can do that with any of the Cab Packs I've created. I wish there was a solution like this back when I started but there wasn't. Now there is. That's all I'm saying. :)

It's easy to forget what you're really hearing when you're switching IR's since you just see that file name like f.ex. "ML USA Bulb SM57-MD421 02". You might have a quick listen and go "neeext" but think about what you're really hearing: a nice room, a nice studio, a nice cabinet (based on Mesa 4x12 Oversize), with two microphones that have been fine tuned for days and phase aligned correctly and all the techniques behind making a clean capture. Think about how no one would ever give you a chance to spend days on microphone placement fine-tuning it just right to begin with. :)
 
metallica86 said:
So far I used these amp the most: Hiwatt for Floydish, Fender Deluxe Verb, HBE, Marshall JS410

I'm not into high gain territory but more in Satriani lead tone, Gilmourish, sometime slash and ACDC crunch tone
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I'd look into IRs of G12Ms, G12Hs and V30s (made in England). Ownhammer and FAS have some great offerings. Check into them and listen to some clips on the forum or their sites.
 
Personally I love what IR's have done for modeling. From the perspective of a novice user I would consider it to be one, if not the, most important developments in recent times in the evolution of how good these devices have become.

If I could have one thing it would be a better (or maybe better to say, a more efficient) way of interacting with large libraries of IR's that are on the market. If the IR's had imbedded meta data in the file that a modeler could read and sort then possibly the device could be made to provide the user with a very intuitive way of calling up a particular IR, based on cab selection, mic type, and placement.

I think that would at least make the "rabbit hole" a little less daunting. Who knows in the end it may generate more interest in purchasing cab packs. I'm just thinking out loud here, I hope this approach wouldn't seem like the easy way out of putting in the time and effort at getting a better understanding of how to best utilize IR's.
 
Dan Hill said:
Personally I love what IR's have done for modeling. From the perspective of a novice user I would consider it to be one, if not the, most important developments in recent times in the evolution of how good these devices have become.

If I could have one thing it would be a better (or maybe better to say, a more efficient) way of interacting with large libraries of IR's that are on the market. If the IR's had imbedded meta data in the file that a modeler could read and sort then possibly the device could be made to provide the user with a very intuitive way of calling up a particular IR, based on cab selection, mic type, and placement.

I think that would at least make the "rabbit hole" a little less daunting. Who knows in the end it may generate more interest in purchasing cab packs. I'm just thinking out loud here, I hope this approach wouldn't seem like the easy way out of putting in the time and effort at getting a better understanding of how to best utilize IR's.
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This is exactly what I'm dealing with most of the time. There are so many different use cases for these packs so I try to take care of A) people who want good results fast B) people who want as much versatility as possible and C) the inbetweeners. That's where this whole "Ace" folder thing originally came from. That being said there's no easy way for you to find a certain IR without going through the IR's but on the other hand that's the magic of it. Once you close your eyes and select an IR based on how it sounds rather than knowing what it is by reading that it's an SM57 mixed with an R121. That's the magic. You may end up using something you would've never even tried like a single E906 mic which is most cases works great in a mix. :)

Also I have to add that the magic of having the Cab-Lab 3 plugin allows you to blend IR's, play with the phase, cut the lows on one mic and really fine-tune things at the stage where you can already hear it in a mix context. That's where the IR thing really shines. :)
 
metallica86 said:
So after messing with these amps yesterday, I still can't come close to this sound



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You said in an earlier post that you "dialed in" the Satriani tones in 5 minutes and your tones were standout, now you say you can't come close to the tone in Cryin'. I'm just confused if you have the tone or not.
 
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