Clark Kent's OwnHammer Secret Sauce Recipes!!

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I might be hyping a bit now but I think I just made "THE BEST IR MIXES I'VE EVER DONE". They are OwnHammer IRs so I can only give them to you in text format. I actually had never realized Kevin had a Mills V31 collection in there since I just mixed it up with the other Mills cab. This one is one of the best sounding packs I've heard. Sadly I don't think you can purchase it anymore. (Another summoning ;) ) Anyways here they are:

MILLS:

MD421 #1
Fathead #5

MESA:

E906 BV5
Fathead UM2
MD421 BV1
R121 BV1
SM57 BV6

They are all mixed with an even percentage. BV = Brit Vintage and UM = US Modern. What can I say? I went extremely scientific with the spectrum curves to create these so they should be pretty perfect spectrum-wise.

Ahh... a clip is obviously needed:



My Strat on the left side with the Mesa recipe and my Les Paul on the right side with the Mills recipe. All going through the same 1987X Treble patch. Kerrang!!! :D

EDIT: For those who are tuning in, this thread has gone a bit further and here's an essential post from the second page:

Okay here's the scoop! Here's a clip with some of my best recipes:



They are being played in this order: 1960A Redwirez, G12H30 Redwirez, Scumback H75 OwnHammer, Mesa OwnHammer, Mills V30 OwnHammer and Mesa Redwirez.

Here are the curves so you guys see what I was going for:

Clark%20Kent%20Mixes.jpg


And here are some examples on how you can mix them left and right to give each other space in the mix and still sound balanced and cool:



Those mixes are: "1960A + G12H30", "G12H30 + H75", "1960A + MILLS" and "G12H30 + MILLS". Oddly enough I didn't think the Mesas blended very well with anything although they are usually my go-to IRs.

So what do you guys think? After I started doing this I started having so much more respect for speakers besides V30s. And some kind of dislike for the UK made V30s.
 
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Clark Kent said:
Sadly I don't think you can purchase it anymore. (Another summoning ;) )
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Just a quick note regarding the V1 libraries (glad you brought this up, actually):

I'm currently waiting for the upcoming conversion utility from FAS to be available to re-release them, presuming it will be out in the next quarter and have batch capabilities to the level of aomDSP. My primary focus right now is on the next batch of MIX libraries, but I will definitely be getting the V1's back online at some point in the hopefully not so distant future. :)
 
Sounds nice Clark. Thanks for sharing your findings.

Pardon my ignorance.. You have mentioned on a few occasions now that you analyse the frequency spectrum to produce some of your IRs. Can you elaborate at all on what you are looking for, or what science you are employing. I do remember you once describing that when you audition captured IRs, you prefer the ones with minimal high-end spikes, but is there also some 'ideal' IR envelope to be aware of? Cheers.
 
JJunkie said:
Sounds nice Clark. Thanks for sharing your findings.

Pardon my ignorance.. You have mentioned on a few occasions now that you analyse the frequency spectrum to produce some of your IRs. Can you elaborate at all on what you are looking for, or what science you are employing. I do remember you once describing that when you audition captured IRs, you prefer the ones with minimal high-end spikes, but is there also some 'ideal' IR envelope to be aware of? Cheers.
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This is ESSENTIAL!! I plan to make a YouTube tutorial on this because it's a bit hard to explain simply by words. I use words like "scientific" simply because I have studied professional recordings through spectrum curves and "analyzed" why they sound so pleasing and why they don't. F.ex. John Petrucci is a great example of this "minimal high-end spikes". IMO I have a great rule for making guitar tones that will sound pleasing through a variety of speakers and different venues etc. So how does it work?

Different mics have different sweet spots in front of different guitar cabs. Combining multiple sweetspot IRs together will give you the most amazingly pleasing sounds that are almost too perfect at times. The spikes are the character. So if you have no spikes at all you will get something similar to cab sim products like the Hughes and Kettner RedBox or Palmer PDIs.

So what is a sweet spot? Everyone can have their own sweet spot but for me it's something like this:

IR%20examples.jpg


Okay so what are we looking at? :D

Let's just say that the essential stuff that everyone will hear happens before 4k. If an IR isn't somewhat flat up until then then I would never use it. F.ex. 2x12 Gold and what happens at 1k. That IR is sadly unusable for me at least.

However you will find that most IRs will fit the above mentioned criteria but still in some situations they sound fizzy or don't have enough clarity etc. So what I've noticed by watching professional spectrum curves is that high end studio guitar tracks descend evenly without spikes. A perfect example would be "MY IR" that's the first IR in this picture.

Now... Red Box sounds great and works great live for this reason. However it does have that weird stuff between 8k and 16k which I believe comes from the fact that it's actually just an EQ curve and not an IR of a real cab. Also it might be there to add some clarity and make it sound more like a real cab.

I remember how everyone was using the German cab during GEN1 times and unsurprisingly it fits my criteria pretty well. It doesn't have spikes after 4k but it isn't an even descend. So it sounds pretty good/good enough but can be defeated with something superior if you ask me. :)

Well everyone's hyping the TV mix now and once again it fits my criteria pretty well. It's not a completely even descend but remember that if you have something that's too even then it doesn't have much character either so you'll end up with something generic like the Red Box. So having those spikes and "inperfections" is the beauty of it. Just like if someone has a face that is scientifically perfectly beautiful you'd soon realize that you can't remember that face because it has nothing original. A perfect face with an original nose for example might look more beautiful because it has a character of it's own. (I feel like writing a book :D )

So I hope this answers most of the questions. What you will learn is that finding these sweet spot IRs is hard as hell and you will have to learn to see quickly which IRs work and which don't simply by looking at the spectrum curve.

The quickest and best IR I can give you right now is the OwnHammer Mills V30 IR mix:
MD421 #1
Fathead #5

That is the "MY IR" impulse response in the picture I posted... looks pretty perfect wouldn't you agree? :)
 
THAT was impressive. It sounds like there was a lot of work involved in making those correlations to the spectrum, and then finding IRs to verify it. Good on you.
 
JJunkie said:
THAT was impressive. It sounds like there was a lot of work involved in making those correlations to the spectrum, and then finding IRs to verify it. Good on you.
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Well it's all due to years and years of trying to understand what makes certain guitar tones good. Those spikes after 4k are slight phasy overtones which can also sound good and some might like them and some won't. The problem is when you've spent hours dialing in a tone and the very next day it seems somehow harsh an unpleasant and you can't explain it. That's when your ears have been fatigued by some of the overtones the last time and usually you end up compensating for that by lowering the presence and what I've noticed is that you end with a muffled sound that has been at times called "Axe-Fx sound" which ofcourse isn't due to the Axe-Fx but people having the tools to sculpt the tone to please them every time. If people had the right IRs then I think people would have to much better tones all the time.

A thing I didn't remember to mention was that you usually run into these "IR problems" on high gain. Clean and slightly driven tones don't require a balanced IR to please an ear. F.ex. Paramore - Brand New Eyes surely has been a mark of modern rock music for many people but their guitar tone all whacky "scientifically" but since they're not using that much gain it's not a big problem. Sadly not everyone gets their records mixed by Chris Lord-Alge. You at least have to win the American Idol or something. :D Truth be told they have amazing bass tone and guitars are pretty low in the mix but mainly it's because less gain uses less of those frequencies after 4k because of less harmonics.

But this is science jibber jabber. :D
 
ownhammer said:
My primary focus right now is on the next batch of MIX libraries, but I will definitely be getting the V1's back online at some point in the hopefully not so distant future. :)
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Kevin - are you working on the 2x12 IR's at this time? They will meet my needs more than the 4x12 series. I'm going for "small combo, low wattage" sounds.

Please advise. Thanks

Rod
 
Oh and in case you have other OwnHammer IR collections then here are other sweet spot recipes:

MESA V31:
MD421 #5
E906 #1
Fathead #1

SLM H75:
TC30 #3
PR30 #5
 
Thanks guys! I do it all in the DAW. So when I'm choosing IRs I'm just disabling the cab sims in my Axe-Fx and recording a clip playing a riff or some chords or whatever. Then I'm using Voxengo Boogex which is free: Guitar amplifier audio plugin (VST) - Voxengo Boogex - Voxengo to load the IRs. Make sure the Boogex EQ isn't effecting the IRs so set everything to neutral. The meters I use don't really matter that much since you can use what ever you want. I'm using IXL as in the pictures above but right now I'm using the meters in iZotope Ozone 5. That's a really good and LARGE spectrum analyzer which you can zoom and stretch to how you want it. You can easily tell when the mic was placed exactly where you want it.
 
I believe that we are in agreement here, at least on what generally sounds good in an IR. We use different terms, but the result is the same.

These "high end spikes" you talk about are what I refer to as "comb filtering" in another thread. Most IRs exhibit far too much of this for my taste, and sound as if they were run through a comb filter (even though it simply results from micing the speaker). Other posters countered that there is no comb filtering in IRs. Well, yes there is. In many instances, lots of it. Look at the 4x12 German V30 and the 2x12 Gold 30. I've always disliked those IRs. They sound heavily comb filtered. The graphs you presented are exactly what I'd expect to see.

I also mentioned that the "spikes" are what give the signal life and character. A proper balance is the most important thing to me. Unfortunately, most IRs are extreme in their comb filtered character. I don't need to see a graph to know that an IR contain a series of deep nulls, although seeing the graph provides a pleasant confirmation.

The Palmer and Red Box have none of this, but lack character. They are the opposite extreme. This is why I sometimes get good results mixing the Palmer with speaker IRs. Mixing IRs in general helps reduce the nulls. It all boils down to personal taste. Some people love these comby IRs, and rave about them. I can't enjoy them. I might use them for a cover tune that calls for it, but never for an original song.
 
This is really interesting. I especially identify with the quest for the most pleasant sounding tone and the frustration of 'you've spent hours dialing in a tone and the very next day it seems somehow harsh an unpleasant' .

I'd like to try my hand at this. Can I ask what tool/utility you are using to mix IRs?
 
Clark Kent said:
This is ESSENTIAL!! I plan to make a YouTube tutorial on this because it's a bit hard to explain simply by words. ...

That is the "MY IR" impulse response in the picture I posted... looks pretty perfect wouldn't you agree? :)
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Looks pretty perfect and sounds great. Did you use Cab-Lab beta to do the mixes? :)
 
rodzimguitar68 said:
Kevin - are you working on the 2x12 IR's at this time?
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Yes, as well as a narrow panel Deluxe 1x12. :D

OwnHammer.com - News

Due to picking up new speakers for the Modern Collection that I need to spend time beating up and breaking in, I'm going to be doing the Vintage Collection for these 2 cabs, then the Modern Collections for them, then onto bigger and badder 4x12's.
 
ownhammer said:
Yes, as well as a narrow panel Deluxe 1x12. :D

OwnHammer.com - News

Due to picking up new speakers for the Modern Collection that I need to spend time beating up and breaking in, I'm going to be doing the Vintage Collection for these 2 cabs, then the Modern Collections for them, then onto bigger and badder 4x12's.
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Happy days ahead :))
What I need most for my tone is 212 and a deluxe cab in OwnHammer quality
 
Thank you Clark Kent. AOMDSP was the route I chose. I installed it and bought the Mesa V32 OH pack this afternoon. I used your Mesa recipe and it is killer. Sounds very pure and cuts through the mix much better than my previous cab choices. I'm now a believer in your method.....big time. You have any more 'pleasant sounding' recipes using the available OH or FA IR packs?
 
I really enjoyed this thread. The 'use your ears' line that is typically thrown around in the forum is of course vital, but in terms of finding a way forward in a tone search, my ears are only going to tell me either "sounds good", or "keep searching". It doesn't provide much of a game plan.
 
RossE said:
Thank you Clark Kent. AOMDSP was the route I chose. I installed it and bought the Mesa V32 OH pack this afternoon. I used your Mesa recipe and it is killer. Sounds very pure and cuts through the mix much better than my previous cab choices. I'm now a believer in your method.....big time. You have any more 'pleasant sounding' recipes using the available OH or FA IR packs?
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Nice! Glad to hear that it works for you. :) Well I probably already shared most of my OH mixes already. I had quite many IRs being blended in the Mesa V32 recipe so I've been thinking of using fewer IRs for some different flavors. The more IRs you end up blending will give you more middle and less presence. Right now I feel like I should make a few variations of those different mic positions. :)
 
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