Hi,
first I'd like to say hello to you all. I've been visiting here for years, but never registered, until now.
I've had my share of tube amps, both boutique and non-boutique. I've also tried to play FRFR since the early POD days, but was never quite satisfied, until now. For the last year, I have been playing with just Axe II and active CLR. I always thought that IR's were the weak link of the Axe FX, as I always wanted to get the "amp in the room" sound (remember, I've played with real amps for 25 years, and I'm just used to the sound, whether I'm playing live, at rehearsal or at home). The addition of the new "mix" IR's in the Axe FX was a turning point to me. After that I could sell my Matrix and leave my Bogner OS 2x12" open back at home and play through CLR (or P.A.).
However, I am not completely satisfied with my "speaker" sound. I mainly use the Factory 95 (2x12 Supremo mix) IR, of which I don't even know what cab it is in real life. It just reminds me of my Bogner with Celestion G12-65's. It seems to work well with clean and distorted sounds. But it is not 100% there.
What I've been thinking is this: in order to make a decent approximation of a guitar speaker is to catch multiple IR's with the same (neutral) mic, at the same distance from the center to the cone, and mix them together (without normalizing them to be of the same volume). The Red Wires IR's could be a starting point, but I'm not sure if they've been compensated for the volume. Furthermore, I don't think 4 positions are enough to really capture the inconstancies of a guitar speaker's resonance. My idea is that if a mix IR of this kind was made, the FRFR speaker would sound just like the speaker. Then of course, you could add the back of the cab etc. in the mix. What do you think?
It would be great if Cab Lab could somehow magically allow you to hear your IR mixes in real time as the faders change the levels.
I think that there are convolution plugins for DAWs that allow you do load and mix several IRs at once and immediately hear the results.
But I don't think they allow you to bounce those IRs down to a single file. Would be nice if I'm wrong about that.
Then you could convert that bounced .wav to .syx for the Axe using Cab Lab or Axe-FX IR Converter.
mixIR2 from Redwirez is a DAW convolution plug-in that allows you to mix wave IR's in serial or parallel. It mixes by percentage. You can bounce down to a single Axe-FX Standard / Ultra file but the Axe-FX2 is not supported. You can also bounce down to a wave file. Then you can use Cab-Lab to convert that to an Axe-FX2 format.
This enables a really nice work flow. Bypass the cab in your patch and record a clip in your DAW. Experiment with various IR combinations using mixIR2 and bounce the result to a wave file. Convert in Cab-Lab and upload the mix to one of your user slots.
Terry.
And buying an IR collection is a gamble too.
What *I'd* like to see is for the pro engineers at OH, RW and Fractal to start making multi-mic IRs themselves with the cab-in-the-room aesthetic in mind.
I.e. I want THEM to do all the work.
I dont have cab lab yet, but I tht it just mixes cabs, how would you bake in a low pass?Not that I endorse this approach, but just an FYI that Cab-Lab would let you mix your lowpass low-end right into an IR ;-)
now when you say this which parameter are you referring to?
Low res Freq or Low reasonance?
I dont have cab lab yet, but I tht it just mixes cabs, how would you bake in a low pass?
I do think there is merit in what Great Green is saying here. The low freqs he talks about will sort of "envelope" you in this "bigness" which otherwise doesn't usually exist in many (most) FR cabinets (PA cabinets). It is implied that if you want strong reproduction of 60-100hz, you will add a subwoofer. Now, for live performance on a stage with a big PA system and powerful subwoofers, adding all of that low end may not be necessary or desirable, but this is a set of technical considerations different from the sonic "emotional needs" of the performer on stage. If a 4x12 cabinet's low end drives a sound tech crazy, then reproducing the same type of low end volume from a CLR will just be more of the same...however, you can always aim your CLR's at yourself in wedge position, which you normally couldn't do with a 4x12 cabinet.
It's added gear, but unless there is a steep high pass somewhere in the signal chain, adding a powered compact subwoofer would boost the frequencies you're describing under 110hz. Though I'm a bassist, not a guitarist, I know that this addition made all the world of difference when combined with the CLR. My pair of CLRs in conjunction with a 12" powered sub (Sub ON mode engaged in the CLRs) was absolutely scary loud and clear and full of power in the low end. It would give my 8x10 SVT cab a run for its money, and makes the experience of FRFR much more palatable IMHO.
what brand/model sub?