EVM-12L Unidyne SM57 IRs

J

joegold

Fractal Fanatic
So I just shot some IRs of my favourite EVM-12L loaded cab and thought I'd post them here.

It's a Coyote Alpha cab in open back configuration.
These are 1 X 12, front-loading, slightly oversized, slant cabs capable of open-back or closed back operation.
I had it up on an amp stand to isolate it from any coupling with the floor.

It's mic'd with an old Sure/Unidyne SM57, cap-edge, off-axis, close.
Mic pre DA/AD was an RME Babyface.
Power amp is a Matrix GT1000FX.

I used the same mic'ing/routing for an UltraRes IR and a standard res IR.

When I A/B back and forth between the actual mic and the IR of the mic through my HS80Ms the sound is about 99% identical.
If I'm really nitpicking, both the IRs sound just a shade brighter than the real mic and the UltraRes IR sounds just a hair bassier too.
But I'm really splitting hairs.
These are the best IRs I've managed to do on my own thus far.
Of course I may not feel that way tomorrow, or even in an hour from now. :lol

Please try them out and let me know what you think.

View attachment StandardRes1.syx
View attachment UltraRes3.syx
 
Meanwhile, Axe Change doesn't seem to want to let me ul the UltraRes IR but it will allow the standard res IR.
Is this because the Axe Change site needs to be retooled to support UltraRes or could there be something wrong with my file?
 
Still need to try these. How did you position it off-axis: hanging from the top?
 
FWIW
The bloom is already off of this IR for me and I'm back to trying to use the stock #119 EV IR.
But this time I'm using a mic sim too (the 57) with 2.50 proximity and the hi-cut at 5500hz.
I'd never really used the mic sims before because doing so kind of went against my goal of trying to reproduce the frequency response and feeling of my own 12L cabs "in-the-room".
[And I'd never really tinkered with the Proximity setting either.
And IMO the default Proximity value of 5.0 is almost always too high for my tastes.]

But I've finally given up trying to get the cab-in-the-room feel partly because I've realized that the IRs that currently exist out there aren't really up to the task (even when mixing close, room and back-of-cab IRs) and partly because I think I've come to realize that even if I could get that sound and feel it probably wouldn't be ideal to use it on a real gig where I was using FRFR speakers anyway.

I don't really believe that the in-the-room sound/feel (especially the sound/feel of a closed-back guitar cab) can't be accomplished with IRs and FRFR speakers.
I think that an IR maker would just has to be real crafty and dedicated to pull it off convincingly and I don't think most folks are up to the task.

And the reason I don't think that having a convincing cab-in-the-room sound/feel from an FRFR monitor would be all that practical in a live playing situation is because that's not what audience members tend to hear anyway.
At best, if I'm playing real cabs in a room with no P.A., they'll hear some weird amalgam of a way off-axis tone from me that's way different than what I hear.
And if there is a P.A. they're going to hear a close mic'd and EQ'd version of what I'm hearing.
If an FRFR monitor could reproduce what I like to hear from my fav listening position off my real cabs, I just don't think it would mix in very well with the rest of the band.
And if I have to send that sound to a soundman he'd probably be hard pressed to know what to do with it.
Etc.
I.e. Being able to get that cab-in-the-room sound/feel from an FRFR system would probably create more problems than it would solve even if it helps me to be more comfortable on stage.
Of course, this all remains to be seen and I'd much rather be wrong about it.

But in the meantime I've just been trying to get a decent mic'd up 12L tone from my FRFR systems, and the stock #119 IR with the 57 mic sim, 2.50 proximity and hi-cut @5500hz sounds about as good, or better, than I've ever been able to achieve with a real 57 mic'ing my own cabs.
[BTW I used that same IR back when it was #8 in V9 on my 2013 CD release but I wasn't using the 57 sim.]

The main thing I haven't been able to coax out of any of the 12L IRs I've tried, and I've tried a LOT of them, is the top end response.
Some 12L IRs have too much top end so that hi-gain tones have too much sizzle and EQ'ing it out after the fact makes it too dull for clean bright tones especially with sc pups.
But most 12L IRs have the top end EQ'd right out of them.
Sure I could use one EQ scheme for my gainy presets and another EQ for my clean and bright presets. Etc., etc.

But I'm still trying to get a single pair (for stereo) of Global Hi or Ultra Res Cab Blocks that work on ALL my presets just like my real 12s work on all my presets.
That may be another goal that I have to abandon eventually but so far that's still what I'm trying to do.
And that #119 with the 57 sim and 2.50 proximity appears to be filling the bill right now.
Time will tell though.

But I'm glad if you folks also like the IRs I posted in the OP.
 
It's interesting to me that as I've been honing up on mic'ing techniques etc. that the old Unidyne Shure SM57s are prized over newer Shure (non-Unidyne I guess) SM57s.
When I bought mine back in the early 80s I guess they were all Unidyne models.
One of the best gear purchases I ever made.
I've never been happy with my tone in a studio when the engineer has brought out anything other than a 57 to mic my cabs.
I haven't heard an IR yet done with anything other than a 57 that comes close to what I like to hear either.

Of course the exception to that is that #119 which is supposed to be one of the RW KM84 3" 12L IRs.
But I think that Cliff has done some post processing to it to make it more suitable for use with the Axe's mic sims as well because none of my RW KM84 IRs sound anything like it and I think I own them all.
I'd love it if Cliff chimed in here and told us what he did or didn't do to this IR.
 
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